3. Trust people more. Especially ones with irresistibly spiky lashes.

4. Stop smoking. Not so hard …

5. Make it to Dick Click’s class on time. If I can only manage to pass by Anthony Beck’s locker without kissing him … Yeah, that’s never gonna happen.

I still didn’t believe I could control fate. Not really. Fate presents you with opportunities. That’s all. You control how you react to it.

To think just a month ago my biggest problem had been not telling Mom when I took the last of her tampons. Wait … a month?

Crap.

I rushed back to my room and grabbed up my cell phone. Anthony would already be in class and phones were supposed to be shut off. I took a chance he would check his messages before lunch and texted him.

Five minutes later my phone rang.

“Anthony?”

“Yeah? That you, Ser?”

“Hey. Sorry about yesterday, Mom had to pick me up.”

“I heard. Suspended. Ouch. Should I ditch class and come over? Rescue you from boredom?” Let’s get you out of here. Ah, best six words a guy could say to me.

Once upon a time.

“I’m in enough trouble already, thanks. Can you pick me up something while you’re at lunch?”

“Sure, french fries, a Frosty?”

God, could he be more wonderful?

“No, um … tampons.”

“What?”

“Tampons.”

“Is this like a test?”

“A test?” I asked, curling a strand of hair around my finger.

“I mean—only a guy who’s really into a girl will humiliate himself by going and buying feminine needs products.”

“Feminine needs?” I asked as I held back a chuckle. “Is that like some charitable cause?”

He groaned. “You know what I mean.”

“Seriously, it’s not a test. It’s a favor. And it will definitely earn you major bonus points.”

“Since we’re working on the point system, I want some credit for yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“Yeah, my friends have been calling me Swayze ever since.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Like from the movie Dirty Dancing.”

“Still drawing a blank.”

“God, I don’t want to say it—okay, they’re comparing my making Schmitty get in the backseat to the famous ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’ speech.”

“Okay, funny as that may be if I weren’t involved and weren’t ‘Baby’ in this little scenario, I think the bigger problem here is what it says about your friends. Now about those tampons.”

“I’ll do it. Just stop saying that word.”

“Tampons?” I managed, through a barrage of sound deflecting la-las.

“Right. Whatever. Just tell me exactly what kind so I won’t be standing there like an idiot longer than absolutely necessary.”

A goofy smile crept to my lips. It had every time I thought about him, which had been freakishly often for a girl who was suspended and in a world of trouble.