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because of me?"
    " Not at all."
    " All right, good." She wiped a bit of tart crust off her lip, which reminded me to do the same. "I just worry, that's all."
    " I'm so stealthy, they don't even know you know anything."
    " I'm sure you'll find a way to charm them -- in a subtle way."
    Never in my life had I been called charming, subtle or not. I knew it wasn 't me, but the goddess thing -- I couldn't even take credit for it.
    Kathy cleared her throat. "Because I do want the answer, don't get me wrong. I just hope it doesn't ruin anything."
    Fear. Not the for-her-life kind, but strangely close, and it was making my own heart pound just from being near it. She was doing the thing we teenagers do, trying to act as if this kind of thing didn't bother us in the slightest.
    Trying. Because, come on. This was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her. I had her heart in my hands. Her hopes for a memorable first relationship were all on me. Did I even know what I was doing?
    Not going to tell her that.
    So instead I told her I was proceeding with loads of caution, loads. "Don't worry. The bright side is that someone cares enough about you to do this. Your only problem, really, is if you like him back. That's not even a problem ."
    Some girls were just lucky.

Chapter 7

 
    Of course I knew who Vida Castillo was.
    That w as probably the one sign of truly belonging to the Ford River student body. The people who honestly did not recognize Vida when she passed them in the hallway were the freshmen on their first day. When I came into this school she was a junior, and editor-in-chief of the student news website. Now that she was a senior, she was president of the student council. What she had been before that, I didn't know, but it was probably awesome. People who were introduced to her didn't even bother with pretending they didn't know her name. They were all like, "So I finally get to meet you."
    Even I got tongue-tied over how beautiful she was. And yet she wasn't like a commercial model showing off superpale skin, nor was she the polar opposite. I once described her to my mother (because Vida was the kind of girl you talked to friends and family about) as a hybrid of cultures, like someone had taken what was considered beautiful in about thirty countries, mixed it, baked it, and out came Vida.
    My mom said that was impossible.
    My moment with Vida happened in the school library. I was trying to find the single volume of a Philippine Myths and Legends book that was supposedly there, but wasn't really on its proper shelf. This had actually happened to me before. Some of the students in this school could be so inconsiderate.
    The library took up the entire third floor of the West building, although that wasn't large enough compared to the older schools. (Eventually I should stop comparing Ford River to the older schools.) The stacks and selection I found impressive, mainly because I often found what I needed for my classes. But I was surprised to find so little about other things, and in that regard the library felt more like a rather large chain bookstore.
    Just in case it was just in the wrong place , I scanned the stacks. When I took a U-turn into another shelf, I nearly bumped into Vida herself.
    " I'm sorry," I said automatically, even if I hadn't done anything wrong.
    She was like a source of light between the bookshelves. Not that she was glowing (or maybe there was some of that), but she just couldn 't be ignored. It was Monday, uniform day, and in theory she and I were wearing the exact same plaid skirt and white top, but on her it looked tailored and perfect. Then I noticed that she was looking straight at me.
    " Hannah, right?" she said.
    " Yes… yes?" I stammered.
    " This library is so inadequate. People in this school have no respect for books."
    " I was… there's this book I'm trying to find. It's not here."
    She shrugged. "The shelving in this section is horrible. What were you looking for?"
    " Philippine myths