Read Jack & Louisa: Act 1 for Free Online Page A

sipped my lemonade, trying to appear nonchalant. For someone who planned on living her life in the spotlight, I must have been a pretty crummy actress at the dining-room table, because both of my parents looked at me with skepticism.
    “You
guess
?” my dad asked, his tone thick with sarcasm. He turned to Mom. “Is this the same girl who has a poster of the Manhattan skyline taped to her ceiling?”
    Oh yeah, there was that.
    Mom shook her head in response.
    “Seventh grade hasn’t even started, and she’s already too cool for school.”
    She grinned at me, knowing how much I cringed when she used outdated phrases.
    “Well, I bet they’re feeling some serious culture shock in
this
neighborhood,” Dad said, refusing to let go of my least favorite subject.
    “I’m going to give them a welcome gift tomorrow,” said Mom, “a potted plant or something. You wanna come with me, Lou?”
    No!
Lock me in a dungeon filled with volleyballs and math quizzes for the next fifty years, but don’t make me see Jack again!
    “Uh, I can’t. I’m going over to Jenny’s.”
    Note to self
, I thought,
call Jenny and invite yourself over tomorrow.
    “Well, you should really introduce yourself at some point. Looks like their son is about your age.”
    “Maybe you guys will be in some of the same classes,” Dad ventured.
    Unaccustomed to keeping secrets, I almost blurted out, “
Hopefully not
,” but my brain sent a warning signal just in time. “Who knows?” I said, and got up from the table.
    • • •
    The next day, lying on Jenny’s bed as she modeled different outfits for our first day of school, I told her about Jack.
    “He sounds like a show-off,” Jenny said, holding up two skirts at her waist. “What do you think, ladybug print or bold floral?”
    “Ladybug print,” I answered, envying her five-three frame, which allowed her access to the clothing racks at Forever 21. “Except Jack wasn’t showing off,” I continued. “He was defending himself! Because I was being a
jerk
!” I buried my face in my hands and groaned. Jenny put the bold floral skirt back in her closet and reemerged with different belt options.
    “I dunno, Lou, if I told you I did ballet—”
    “You
do
do ballet—”
    “No, I mean if you didn’t know me, and I told you I did ballet, and then you were like, ‘I don’t believe you’? I’d be like, ‘Whatever, what do I care whether you believe me or not?’—I wouldn’t do a pirouette in front of you!”
    “But would you think I was a jerk?”
    Jenny thought for a moment.
    “Yeah, I guess I probably would.”
    “
See?
” I felt miserable all over again. Jenny laughed.
    “Loulou, it’s not that big a deal. You can’t be friends with everybody. Forget about it.” I sighed as she fastened a white patent-leather belt around her waist and looked in the mirror to confirm that it worked perfectly with the skirt. Almost as an afterthought, she said, “I mean, what—is he cute or something?”
    I must have hesitated a second too long, because Jenny pounced on me like a Jellicle cat.
    “Ohhhh, okay, I see what’s going on now!” she squealed, pinning me to the bed.
    “No, no, no!” I howled, though it was muffled by her comforter and sounded more like, “Mnwh, mnwh, mnwh!”
    Jenny hooted with delight. I reached behind me and pinched her leg, which sent her hopping off the bed into a little jig.
    “You think he’s
cu-ute
!” she sang, irritatingly pleased with herself.
    “I do
not
!”
I declared. “I mean, he
is
cute, but that is completely different from me
thinking
he’s cute.”
    Jenny rolled her eyes and went rummaging through her closet for shoes.
    “Sure it is,” she said dryly.
    I realized she must be in heaven right now, since her two favorite things in life were fashion and teasing people. Ballet, while important to her, was still a distant third.
    What I’d said was true, though. The fact that Jack was cute just made our interaction that much more