It Had to Be You Read online

  Oh, the unfairness of it all! This child was no angel!

  Kyle explained everything to me again and then told me to try it on my own. Keeping his instructions in mind, I focused on the arrows, concentrating on the one in the middle, and held my arm straight as I released my ball.

  It went exactly where I wanted it to.

  And I got a strike!

  “Yay!” Megan shouted, jumping up and down. “Emma got a strike! Emma got a strike!”

  “Big deal,” Tommy snorted, still looking for a ball and sticking his fingers into holes. “Kyle got a better strike.”

  “Your tips really worked!” I exclaimed, giving Kyle a hug, which was the last thing I expected to do.

  But once I was into the hug, I went with it.

  Other than hugging my dad and my brothers, I’d never really held a guy so close. This was different. I was aware of the hard muscles under his T-shirt as I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close. And I liked how soft his skin felt as I pulled away after the hug ended, trailing my fingers down his arms.

  I liked it a lot.

  And I especially liked the fact that while I hugged Kyle, he hugged me back!

  But I couldn’t really enjoy the moment because just then the Gruesome Twosome arrived, otherwise known as my brothers Aaron and Michael.

  “Who’s the boy, Em?” Michael asked.

  “That’s the new guy, Kyle, from next door,” Aaron explained. “Hey, Emma, why are you letting him give you bowling tips? I offered to help her before but she didn’t want my help. Do you like Kyle or something?” Aaron began batting his eyelashes and making kissing noises, trying to imitate my voice. “Kiss me, Kyle! Kiss me!”

  Foolishly, I thought Michael was going to come to my rescue since he’s older and is supposed to be the smarter of the two. Instead, he began singing (with Aaron quickly joining in), “Emma and Kyle sitting in a tree. K-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

  “KYLE DOESN’T WANT TO KISS EMMA!” Tommy shouted. “SHE’S ICKY!” I. Was. Going. To. Kill. My. Brothers.

  A quick glimpse at Kyle showed that he was blushing red. From embarrassment, I was sure. And I couldn’t blame him!

  I raced over to Aaron and Michael. “Get. Out. Of. Here. Now!” I growled between gritted teeth.

  “What’s that, Em?” Aaron asked, cupping a hand around his ear, pretending to be deaf. “Can’t hear you.”

  “If you value your fingers and ever want to bowl or play a video game again, you will leave now!” I repeated.

  “Okay! Okay! We get the message!” Michael said. “Sheesh, can’t you take a joke?”

  “NO!” I hissed.

  “She must really like this guy,” Aaron said.

  Michael grabbed Aaron by the arm. “Come on, let’s leave her with her boyfriend.”

  “Bye, Kyle!” Aaron called out in his girly voice, waving good-bye.

  Once I saw my brothers walk out of the bowling alley, I turned back to Kyle, who was no longer blushing. Had he heard what Aaron said? About me liking him? I hoped not. Because I did like him but not like him like him. The way you did a boyfriend. I liked him as a friend.

  Didn’t I?

  Or did I like him like a possible boyfriend?

  “Sorry about that,” I apologized, deciding I’d sort through my feelings later. “Sometimes older brothers can be jerks.”

  “Take that back!” Tommy demanded. “My older brother isn’t a jerk!”

  “Emma wasn’t talking about me, Squirt,” Kyle explained, running a hand over Tommy’s hair. “Go check out that blue ball. I think it might fit your fingers.” Kyle turned back to me as Tommy ran off. “Don’t worry about it. They were just playing around.”

  And spoiling what could have been a nice moment between us, I thought.

  We played one more game and Tommy even cheered for me when I got a spare. Of course, he forgot all about that when we were walking home and I offered him my hand to hold on to. Instead, he ran ahead with Megan.

  “Can I ask you something?” Kyle said.

  “You need me to babysit again?” I joked. “Tonight was a freebie, but the next time is going to cost you.”

  “Are you doing anything on Saturday?”

  Saturday? Why was Kyle asking me about Saturday?

  Saturday was usually date night.

  He wasn’t…

  Was he?!

  I tried to sound cool and collected as I pretended to think. “Saturday. Hmmm. No. I don’t have any plans on Saturday. Day or night. Why?”

  “On my way over to the bowling alley I saw a poster for the county fair. Would you like to go with me Saturday afternoon?”

  I started to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Kyle was asking me out!

  “As a way of thanking you for all your hard work today,” he quickly stated.

  Oh.

  I was no longer feeling warm and fuzzy.

  “Just you and me? Or will we be having company?” I asked, nodding at Megan and Tommy. “Just you and me.”

  Okay, so it wasn’t a date.

  But…

  It was an afternoon alone with Kyle. My mind was instantly made up. “I’d love to!”

  Chapter Seven

  The first thing I did when I got home was call Caitlyn. Or at least I tried to, but her line was busy, which meant she was online. So I sent her an instant message and told her to call me.

  My phone rang a minute later.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “Guess who I’m going to the county fair with on Saturday?”

  “I dunno. Who? Joey Harris? Matthew Chin? Lucas Fiori? If it’s any of them, you’ve hit the jackpot. They’re all cuties.”

  “Caitlyn!” I wailed. “Come on! Think!”

  “It’s not Joey, Matt, or Luke? Huh. You’ve got me stumped. Unless it’s someone new.” Caitlyn paused. “Someone new…you don’t mean?” She gasped. “The boy next door? What’s his name again? Kyle?”

  “Yes!” I squealed excitedly.

  “You go, girl!”

  “But it’s not a date,” I quickly clarified.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s just thanking me for the way I helped him out today.”

  “What’d you do?”

  I quickly filled Caitlyn in on Kyle’s kitchen disaster and my babysitting duties. “He asked me when we were walking home from the bowling alley.”

  “Was it a romantic walk? Were you holding hands? Did he try to kiss you? Details! I want details!”

  “It was not a romantic walk. How romantic could it be? We were chaperoning his seven-year-old sister and five-year-old brother.”

  “Bummer. But you’d like things to go in that direction, right? Come on, Emma. Don’t lie to me. I’m your best friend. I can always tell when you’re holding back.”

  That was true. Whenever I had a crush on someone, I kept it to myself. It was like I was afraid to tell anyone else because if I did, I would jinx myself and then that guy wouldn’t like me.

  “Remember in fifth grade when we had Secret Santas?” Caitlyn said. “I’d picked Andy Wallace’s name and you had Gus Winthrop and you begged me to give you Andy so you could be his Secret Santa. And I wouldn’t give you his name until you fessed up that you liked him.”

  “For two weeks I left Christmas cookies and candy canes in his desk,” I grumbled. “And when he found out I was his Secret Santa, he complained! He said he didn’t like sugar cookies and if I ever brought him cookies again, to make sure they were chocolate chip.”

  “Loser!” Caitlyn sang. “So, spill! Do you like this guy?”

  “Yes, I like him,” I confessed. “But I’m not sure if he likes me.”

  “That’s easy enough to fix.”

  “It is?”

  “Of course! We’ll make sure you look fabulous on Saturday. Like that scene in Grease when Sandy has her makeover, and Danny turns into a drooling slob when he sees her for the first time. Do you know what you’re going to wear?”

  “No!” I admitte
d, suddenly panicked. I hadn’t even thought of my clothes. What was I going to wear?!

  “Calm down! You’ve got a closet full of great things. We’ll come up with something cute. You’ve got that adorable peach top with the puffy sleeves. Oooh, and then there’s that violet sundress with the halter neck. The outfit will be easy, but what about your hair? Are you going to wear it loose? French braid? Ponytail? Curled?”

  My head was spinning as Caitlyn kept talking nonstop. “I can’t do this all myself. You’re going to have to sleep over on Friday night.”

  I expected her to instantly say yes, the way she always did. Instead, Caitlyn slowly said, “I can’t sleep over.”

  “How come? Are you going out of town with your family?”

  “No-o-o-o.”

  I was confused. “Then why can’t you sleep over?”

  “I just can’t.”

  “Caitlyn!”

  “Emma!”

  “Tell me!” I insisted.

  “It’s Aaron!” she whispered, as if she was afraid my brother might overhear her. “He’ll see me in the morning.”

  “So?” I didn’t get what the problem was. “He’s seen you in the morning hundreds of times.”

  “You know how bad I look in the morning. My hair is always a frizzy mess. And what if he talks to me before I’ve brushed my teeth? Ick!”

  Aaron? Talk to Caitlyn in the morning? I’m lucky if he even talks to me! And I’m his sister!

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I am.”

  “Caitlyn, I need you! You can’t abandon me!” It was time for the guilt. “Who watched your cat in January when you had to go on that ski trip with your father’s company? And who babysat your cousin Ira in April when you had that family wedding and your aunt couldn’t get her regular babysitter?”

  “You were paid!” Caitlyn reminded.

  “But I had to change his diaper three times and every time he’d done number two!”

  “Okay, okay, fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll sleep over. But I’m not leaving your bedroom on Saturday morning until I look decent. Deal?”

  “Deal!”

  After getting off the phone with Caitlyn, I spent some time online, popping onto some of my favorite websites. Then I decided to check my email account at school. There had been that one email from Romeo. Maybe someone else had decided to turn to Daisy for advice.

  My in-box had another email in it.

  And it was from Romeo again!

  What could he be writing to me about this time?

  I quickly opened his email and started reading.

  Dear Daisy: Remember that girl I wrote to you about? She’s still around. I decided to give her a second chance.

  That was it? He didn’t have anything else to tell me? How could he leave me hanging this way? I checked the time he’d sent the email. Only ten minutes earlier. Hmmm. Maybe he was still online. I had to know what was going on with him and this girl. I quickly sent off a reply.

  And?

  A while passed and then there was a ding. I had mail!

  And I can’t figure her out. It’s like she’s got two sides to her personality. Some days she’s really sweet and other days she’s really crazy. I never know what to expect when I’m around her. What’s your advice?

  This was a no-brainer!

  Dear Romeo: Some girls can be like the weather. Totally unpredictable. Calm and sunny one day. Then dark and stormy the next. We’re not all this way—I’m certainly not, just fyi—but trust me, a lot of us are. And she sounds like one of them. My advice to you? Steer clear! This girl sounds like one twisted sister! xoxox, Daisy

  I waited for Romeo to write back, but he didn’t. Maybe he didn’t like what I had to say. I’d certainly given him something to think about.

  After I logged off, I couldn’t stop thinking about Romeo. Obviously he liked this girl he was writing about. So much so that he wasn’t willing to give up on her. I didn’t know him, but I felt that he deserved better. Who wanted an unpredictable girlfriend? Hopefully he’d follow my advice.

  Otherwise, chances were the next time he wrote in, he’d be telling me about his broken heart.

  I wondered why I was worrying about Romeo’s love life. I had my own to worry about!

  And the only way I was going to figure out if I did have a love life was this Saturday at the county fair.

  With that thought in mind, I headed straight for my closet and started going through my outfits.

  Chapter Eight

  “How about this?” Caitlyn asked.

  I looked up from my bed, where I was flipping through the newest issue of People. Lindsay Lohan was on the cover with the headline: HE BROKE MY HEART! It looked like Lindsay’s latest romance was over. What was this for her? Boyfriend Number Five so far this year? I hadn’t even had Boyfriend Number One yet!

  Caitlyn was holding up a white pleated miniskirt and a short-sleeved aquamarine top. I made a face. “I wore that to the class picnic, remember?”

  “Yes, I remember. And everyone said you looked great! So why not stick with something that’s worked?”

  “I want to wear something different.”

  Caitlyn pulled out a pink baby tee that said 100% NATURAL and a pair of white shorts. “How about this?”

  “Too casual,” I said, barely looking up from the magazine.

  She pulled out a lime-green sundress decorated with daisies. “This?”

  “Too dressy.”

  Caitlyn threw up her hands. “I give up!” She sighed in exasperation and flopped down next to me on my bed, yanking my copy of People out of my hands and tossing it to the floor. “Why aren’t you putting any effort into this? You always love deciding what you’re going to wear.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Caitlyn looked directly into my eyes. “What’s wrong? You seem down.”

  She was right. That’s why she was my best friend. She always knew when something was wrong. Like in fifth grade, when I had the lead in the school play. The night before my first performance, I was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t remember half of my lines. But Caitlyn, who had called me on the phone to wish me luck, could hear something in my voice. And when I finally told her I was scared, she told me I was going to be great and that she would be sitting right in the first row, rooting for me.

  She was.

  And I didn’t forget a single line.

  Maybe it would be good to talk about what was bothering me. Maybe it could help me figure things out.

  “I haven’t seen Kyle at all this week,” I said.

  Caitlyn looked perplexed. “And that’s a problem because…?”

  “Because I’ve been hoping our going out together would turn into a date. I was hoping he liked me,” I admitted, wondering if I was jinxing myself, saying out loud that I liked Kyle. “If you like someone, you want to be around them as much as possible, right? You want them to know that you like them, right? Even if they’re maybe too shy to say it. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.”

  Caitlyn nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “But I haven’t seen him at all this week! It’s like he’s the Invisible Man! And if he hasn’t been hanging around me, well, I guess that means he doesn’t like me the way I like him.”

  “Not necessarily,” Caitlyn said. “He’s probably been busy. Remember, he and his family just moved in. I’m sure they’re still unpacking. And he does have a little brother and sister. I’ll bet he’s busy with them, too. You know, babysitting them during the day while his parents are at work.”

  “So what about at night when his parents are home and he has free time?” I countered.

  Caitlyn shrugged. “He’s probably out exploring. Hanging out at the mall. Going to the arcade. Maybe tossing a few hoops at the basketball court. You’re overreacting, Em. You know how guys are. He asked you to the fair and he’s not even going to think about it until Saturday.”

  “I suppose you could be right,” I grudgingly admit
ted, starting to feel a spark of hope. Maybe I was jumping to conclusions. Maybe Kyle did like me. Maybe…

  “Or maybe you’re right,” Caitlyn said, breaking into my thoughts.

  “What?!” I exclaimed in shock.

  “Just hear me out,” she said gently, placing a hand on my arm. “Maybe he does just want to thank you. But you can change his mind after the two of you spend the day together. I mean, so far, you haven’t really spent a lot of time with him.”

  “No, but he’s always seen me at my worst!” I wailed, burying my face in my pillow.

  “That’s why we have to make sure you look your best!” Caitlyn exclaimed, jumping off my bed, grabbing me by the hand, and dragging me to my closet.

  “Why can’t I be a mind reader so I can see what he’s thinking?”

  “Just be yourself,” Caitlyn said. “That’s the best advice I can give.”

  I nodded. “You’re right. But I’m going to be so nervous!”

  “Would it help if you had some support?” Caitlyn asked as she began searching through my hangers.

  I gave Caitlyn a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

  “Why don’t we double-date?”

  “Someone asked you out and you didn’t tell me until now?!” I shrieked. “Who is it? Who? Who? Who? Tell me who it is!”

  “He hasn’t asked me out. Yet,” Caitlyn admitted. “But maybe if we said something to Aaron…”

  Aaron?! I should have known!

  “No, no, no!” I groaned.

  “Yes, yes, yes! Come on, Em. Pleeease! I’ll be your best friend.”

  “You already are my best friend,” I reminded her.

  “I’ll be your best friend forever,” she said.

  “Why do you want to go out with Aaron?” I asked. “I don’t get it!”

  “He’s cute,” Caitlyn said, blushing.

  As much as I hate to admit it, Aaron is cute. I mean, for a jerky brother. And he does have a certain puppy-dog charm. Big brown eyes. A mop of messy brown hair. Dimples that pop out whenever he smiles. But those looks were deceptive. They masked his inner evil!

  “He used to torture us when we were little,” I reminded Caitlyn. “He still tortures me! I told you what he and Michael did to me at the bowling alley.” I gasped. “That’s it!”