The love game...play with caution {shelved}

chapter 4

Cassie's POV:

The first thing Jackson did when I walked out was wolf-whistle. Then when he noticed how wobbly I was on my stilettos, he laughed. After which he had to nurse his foot back to health when I dug my heels in. Would you look at that, these heels are good for something after all.

Now we were sitting in his car while he drove us to school and Nikki was educating me about the effects of my new look.

"The boys are probably going to stare and you'll definitely get asked out a lot." She explained. "But the real way you'll know that your makeover is having an effect is if Jackson's fan girls get jealous."

"Isn't that bad for me? They seem borderline crazy." I said. Anyone that waited for a boy to arrive then followed him around the school was probably gong to take extreme measures to get rid of a threat. "Won't they beat me up later or something?"

"Cassie, don't be silly, they're girls. Girls don't resort to violence." Nikki said. "We give snide remarks and plan painful public humiliation."

"Thanks, that makes me feel a whole lot better." I said, the sarcasm dripping from my voice.

Nikki just smiled sweetly. "Glad I could help. Anyway, if I know them like I think I do, they’ll try to act like your makeover’s nothing much, force smiles then invite you to a party.”

"Should I say yes?" I asked, unsure.

"Of course! We need to establish a frenemy status with them.This way, they'll definitely talk about you behind your back."

And that was a good thing? "Uh..."

Nikki sensed my confusion and explained. "Nothing makes the love game more interesting than a rumor mill. Their jealous gossip about you will get back to Marco and get him more interested. When you're actually playing the game, the girls will try to make you mad by telling you everything Marco does behind your back. The rumor mill is like your own personal spy cam on Marco and, if we want to feed him information without him suspecting anything, it's the easiest route."

I didn't really get it, but I said I did, just so she would move on from this weird topic. As we drove into the school parking lot, Nikki gave me one final bit of advice.

"Be confident. They can smell fear on you." She said as we pulled over. 

As usual, Jackson got out of the car first and was swamped by the girls. Nikki got out next. They barely gave her a side glance. I took a deep breath and stepped out. The girls’ eyes almost popped out of their heads. Nikki gave me a small nudge forward. I swallowed hard and, as gracefully as I could, walked over to them.

“Jackson, who’s she?” One of the girls whined. Jackson smirked and wrapped his arm around my waist. I gave him a look, questioning his sanity. He motioned subtly to the girls whose eyes were fixed on his arm. Then I understood. He was feeding their jealousy.

“Girls, you remember Cassie right? The new kid that rode to school with me on Thursday?” He asked.

“That’s her?” Another girl said and got a dig in the ribs from someone. “I mean of course that’s her. She doesn’t look that different.”

“So, Cassie how do you feel about parties? Pool parties.” Someone asked. Wow, that was fast.

“Yeah because we’d love to see you there next Saturday. You can swim, can’t you?” The first girl said.

“Psh. Yeah." I said as if it was no big deal. "Of course I can." I couldn't. "Who can’t?” Me.

“Great. See you there. Jackson knows the address. Later.” Another girl said and strangely enough, they walked off instead of hanging around Jackson like they usually did.