Nobody Likes Megan McGowen

23. Almost Friends

Saturday morning, Megan got up, got dressed, and rooted around her room for that stupid English book. She looked on her dresser, under the bed, even in her closet under all sorts of junk. But she couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe it was still in her locker at school. She laid back down on her bed, trying to think. Maybe she could borrow Jake's book – he had to have one, right? She really didn't want to wait until next week to start on it, especially since she was supposed to be a little over halfway done with it by now.

"Jake?" she asked.

She hadn't seen him yet, and she kind of wondered why. She hadn't actually put the cork back in the bottle in weeks, so it wasn't like he couldn't come out whenever he wanted.

"Are you awake?" he asked, appearing in the middle of the room. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt – his new uniform since he started attending school. Megan had to admit, she liked it a lot better.

"Yeah." she told him. "Hey – do you have a copy of The Scarlet Letter?"

"I do. Why?"

"I can't find mine. Can I borrow yours?"

Jake shrugged and handed her a copy he seemed to pull from thin air.

"Thanks." Megan told him, stretching out on her bed to read.

"You're really doing homework on a Saturday?" Jake asked.

"Yeah. I really need to catch up. You?"

"I'm caught up." he told her.

"Yeah, I figured. Even with this weekend's stuff?"

Jake nodded.

"So not fair." Megan mumbled, turning back to the book. "You can do whatever you want." she told him, not even looking up.

"Computer?" he asked instantly. Megan actually looked at him.

"Sure." she said. She would have thought he'd want to do something more fun, but what did she know? She turned back to her book.

Forty-five minutes later, she was done. She'd read two chapters and she couldn't take any more.

"You wanna do something?" Megan asked Jake suddenly.

"Done already?" he asked, looking over.

"For now." she told him. "I can't read a story written like this."

"Written like what?" he asked.

"In Old English."

"It's not Old English." he told her. Megan just gave him a look and he stopped talking.

"Whatever it is – I can't do it right now. So you wanna go to the arcade?"

"You want to take me again?" he seemed hesitant.

"Sure, why not?" she asked. He was already here, and really, he wasn't so bad. A little annoying maybe, but not any worse than Drew.

"It's Saturday – you could probably find someone else if you wanted."

"You don't want to go?" Megan tried not to be disappointed. Even someone who never did anything would rather sit here than go somewhere with her.

"No, I do." he told her. "I just didn't think I'd be your first choice to take."

Megan stared at him for a minute, trying to decide what to say. Finally, she decided on the truth. She just hoped it didn't come back to bite her.

"You're growing on me." she shrugged.

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