The Fruit of My Lipstick by Shelley Adina Page A

you can hike all around it. No cars. ”
    “The fog’s lifted,” Lissa said with a glance past the coveted window table, now empty, to the sky above the classroom wing opposite. “I don’t know about you guys, but I could really stand to get out of this place.”
    She wasn’t the only one. “Let’s do it,” I said. “It sounds like fun.”
    And maybe, while we were busy hiking around, I’d finally get some time alone with the guy who, while he might admire another girl’s cheekbones, thought I had a big smile and a big heart.

Chapter 9
    I F I HADN’T KNOWN it was February, I would have sworn we’d been fast-forwarded to May.
    I stood at the rail of the Blue and Gold ferry and let the ocean breeze blow my hair straight back. Fortunately, I’d thought to dig my sunglasses out of the bottom drawer of the dresser, so I wasn’t dazzled by the sun sparkling on the Bay as the little ferry churned its way toward the island.
    “What a great view.” Lissa, Carly, and Shani ranged along the rail on my right, while the boys from the Science Club (probably still congratulating themselves on their luck) tried to talk to them. Shani is the outgoing type, and Lissa will try to make anyone feel comfortable, even a science geek, but Carly didn’t know what to say.
    That poor girl. If she were going to get Brett Loyola’s attention, she’d have to learn to talk to boys in general. Though I suppose a fascinating conversation about knots versus miles per hour wouldn’t help much. Still, when you were just practicing, sometimes you had to take what you could get.
    Listen to me, running on like I knew it all when the truth was, after the comment about being a beauty, I’d once again lost the ability to say anything at all to Lucas. Either he was going to think I wasn’t having fun, or he’d think I was still mad about last night.
    Where was my magpie mouth when I needed it?
    Leaning on the rail to my left, Lucas pointed at the city skyline. “Nice, huh?”
    I nodded. “I’ve never seen it from here before. Only from the air, flying in.”
    “There’s the Golden Gate Bridge.” He pointed off the stern. “I wonder why they call it that when it’s painted orange?”
    “My Aunt Isabel says that the old folks call San Francisco ‘Old Gold Mountain,’” I offered. “Maybe it has something to do with finding your fortune.”
    “Maybe.” He pointed at the bridge ahead of us, the more ordinary one that stitched Oakland and San Francisco together. “It’s more interesting than ‘Bay Bridge,’ anyway.”
    So much for the history and geography lesson. What was the matter with me today? It wasn’t like this was a real Valentine’s date. It was more like a group adventure—something to get us all out of our rooms and blow the winter cobwebs away. No pressure, no need to impress, just a bunch of friends out for fun.
    So why had my brain locked up?
    “You’re awfully quiet,” Lucas said, and I felt like sliding under the rail and dribbling into the Bay, never to be seen again.
    “You just read my mind,” I said. “I guess I’m kind of nervous.”
    “What about?”
    You. Me. Whether you think I’m pretty. If we’re really going out. If you like me as more than a friend. If today’s the day I might actually get my first real kiss.
“I don’t know.”
    “I was hoping it would be just you and me out here,” he said in a tone so low that only I could hear it.
    Gulp
. “Sorry,” I murmured back. Lissa leaned on the rail about two feet away from me. “I didn’t know. I just sort of blurted it out and then everybody at the table invited themselves along.”
    “That’s okay.” He moved his elbow on the rail a little, so that his shoulder bumped against mine. “It’s a big island. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get lost.”
    I nearly pinched myself. Was this really me, dorky Gillian Chang, standing beside a gorgeous genius who wanted to be alone with me?
    “Maybe we will,” I agreed. I hardly dared to say