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me.
    Jared: What a liar. Let’s tell everyone in school and ruin her life.
    “Because she’s totally hot,” Jared says now, smiling. He must mistake my shock and silence for agreement, because he pats me on the shoulder and says, “Thanks, Devi. You rock.”
    He heads back to where everyone else is standing, and it takes all my strength not to collapse onto the pavement. Things just got three hundred times more complicated.

chapter four

    Okay. This is not that big of a deal. I’m standing by my locker at school the next morning, thinking about how people have figured out problems way worse than this one. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example. The country was on the brink of nuclear disaster, and it all worked out. So there is definitely a solution to the ridiculousness that is now known as my life. I just have to figure out what it is.
    “Ooh-la-la,” Mel says when she sees me. I’m wearing a pair of cute jeans and a tank top with a beaded sweater over it. My hair has been blown straight, and I am wearing pink lip gloss. This is my new look. I havedecided that I can take my old, cute summer wardrobe and update it a little to make it warmer. “Dressing up for the boyfriend, are we?”
    “Not funny,” I say. I grab my math book out of my locker, slam it shut, and look around nervously. If I’m going to pull this off, I’m going to have to stay on top of every situation. Which means knowing where Lexi and Jared are at all times. I have no idea where they are right now. I’m obviously off to a very bad start.
    “Here,” Mel says, handing me our BFF notebook. Our BFF notebook is a blank, pink-and-purple-bound book that we use to write notes to each other. We keep passing it back and forth. We’ve done this since the fifth grade, and we’ve gone through at least eight or nine notebooks. Mel must have written in it last night.
    “Thanks,” I say, sliding it into my bag. I feel like a fraud. How can I deserve to be part of our BFF notebook when I told Lexi that Mel likes Jared? I slide my finger along the top of the notebook, wondering how I’m going to tell Mel about her crush on Jared. Maybe I’ll just die from guilt and no one will ever find out what a huge liar I am.
    “So how did it go last night?” Mel asks. “You had your away message up all night, and I tried to call, but no one answered.” A second wave of guilt startsto slide up inside me. Last night when I got home, I ended up on the phone with Lexi until ten o’clock, when my mom finally caught me and made me get off. I noticed Mel beeping in on the caller ID, but I didn’t answer it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to talk to her. It was just that I needed to do damage control. Well, as much as I could, anyway, given that the situation is a total disaster.
    “It went … okay,” I say slowly. “Except for the fact that Jared told me he has a crush on Lexi.”
    Mel gasps. “No!”
    “Yes,” I say.
    “After one day?” She frowns.
    “Yes, after one day,” I say.
    “So, wait.” Mel’s confused. As she should be. I mean, I was there and I don’t even really know how this all happened. “How did you pull off making her think the two of you were a couple?”
    “I have to find him,” I say, ignoring her. Eventually I am going to have to tell Mel that she supposedly has a crush on Jared, but I can’t right now. If she’s going to get mad at me, I need to have a clear head to deal with it. Besides, I read this thing somewhere about how if you want to be an effective person, you have to do the thing that’s the most important first thing in the morning.And right now, the most important thing is finding Jared and Lexi and keeping them away from each other. Far, far away. In another state would be okay, even.
    “Where is he?” she asks. She squints at herself in the mirror that’s stuck to the inside of her locker door and smoothes her hair.
    “I have no idea,” I say. “But I have to find him.” Suddenly I feel sick.