Read The Dating Game for Free Online Page B

now.”
    To: john
    From: Mad4U
    Re: Dating Game
    John, you asked us to make a match for you, and we have! Your date will be a sophomore, 15 years old. If you’d like to meet her, name a time and place and we’ll set it up. Congratulations!
    Five minutes later, an answer appeared.
    To: mad4u
    From: John
    Re: oh yeah
    Set it up. How about vineland, after school on Wednesday. Cool?
    Mad4u: Cool. She’ll see you then. How will she know you?
    John: just tell her to find the Ashton Kutcher look-alike.“
    That was easy,” Holly said. “Too easy.”
    “Stop being so cynical,” Mads said. “Isn’t that one of the reasons we started this blog? To make getting dates easier? And it’s working, see?” She saved the e-mail in a special computer file marked “Sean.” “Now we’re all taken care of. Let the dating games begin!”

5
    Death to the Normals
    To:     linaonme
    From: Your daily horoscope
    HERE IS TODAY’s HOROSCOPE: CANCER: Grab your ray gun! An alien life form is about to land on your planet and destroy your life as you know it. This is not a joke.
    L
ina: You and Holly and Madison have done an excellent job devising a thesis and plan for your project. Go girl Just be sure to keep careful track of your statistics. I appreciate your offer to let me participate in the study, however, since I’m not a student, I’m afraid my answers would pollute the statistical pool and distort your results. I am looking forward to seeing your first progress report!
    Dan
    Lina lightly touched the smiley face Dan had made on her paper. Did he put smiley faces on everybody’s papers? Only on the good ones? Only on hers? He probably put them on the good ones. He’d left the papers in his outgoing mailbox for all the students to pick up, so anyone could read his comments. Under those circumstances he probably wouldn’t put anything personal on a paper. Still, she liked to think there might be a secret message for her hidden somewhere in his comments. “Go girl”? Could that mean something? Besides the fact that he used dated slang? After all, three girls were working on the project, not just one.
    She folded up the paper and put it away in her bag. She planned to save it in her keepsake box, along with her dad’s school ring, a valentine from a boy she’d liked in first grade, and her “Best Hustle” medal from field hockey, among other exotic memorabilia.
    Hockey and Dan were weirdly linked in Lina’s mind. She loved playing hockey, loved the way the wooden stick rang in her hand when she smacked the ball just right. She remembered a game near the end of last season, against Rosewood’s rival school, Draper. It was a beautiful day and the small bleachers were packed for once, rare for a JV match. Her father had promised to leave work early to catch the game, and she found herself glancing at the bleachers to see if he’d arrived. He hadn’t had a chance to see her play all season, but he was her biggest fan, and once in a while he even put on his old lacrosse pads and played goalie against her in the backyard.
    During the third quarter she spotted Dan loitering near the sidelines, tie loosened, hands in his pockets, dark sunglasses on, watching, and her heart jammed in her throat. Rebecca passed the ball to her. She gave it a mighty whack and it sailed into the goal. The bleachers went crazy. “Good shot, Lina, good shot,” the coach yelled. Lina scanned the crowd for her dad one more time. He wasn’t there, but Dan was, clapping and cheering, and it was almost as good.
    Two months had gone by, and Lina still thought about that hockey game at least once a day. Now she found herself drifting down the hall past the
Inchworm
office. Through the glass window on the door she could see Dan sitting at a desk, checking proofs.
    If she joined
Inchworm
, she’d get to see Dan more. She’d thought about it many times. She loved to write poetry, but she didn’t like the poetry
Inchworm
usually published. Most of it was