Chapter7

I giggled. That was so like Andrea - always oversimplifying the issues. "Yeah, that sounds like a perfect plan," I quipped. "That will definitely work. No doubt about it. Oh! Except for one minor detail that you overlooked."

I fought the tears that threatened to spill over and tried to keep my voice light. "I'm not like you, Andi!" I exclaimed. "I don't have a million guys lined up around the block waiting for a chance to date me. I don't even have one guy who is interested in dating me! And somehow, I don't think that it would make Shane crazy with jealousy if I tried to introduce him to my invisible boyfriend, Absolutely NoOne! Even back in 5th grade, when I made him up, I couldn't fool anyone into thinking that I had a boyfriend."

I shook my head and chuckled as I recalled my foolish attempt to make myself seem popular. Kendra and Rachel and Sharon all had boyfriends, and I felt left out, so I pretended that I had my own admirer, an older boy whom I had met at the mall. I covered my notebooks with hearts and doodles, writing A.A.+A.N. all over everything. It didn't fool my friends for long, because I couldn't introduce them to my mystery boyfriend. Kendra hadn't even been fooled for a minute. She had laughed for weeks at the idea that an older boy would be interested in me. But Andi was the only one who ever knew the whole truth. I could only admit to my little sister that I was certain it would be Alaina Andersen and Absolutely NoOne forever.

I sighed and dragged my thoughts back to the present. "Besides," I asked, "even if I could find someone to date me, wouldn't it be cruel to date someone just to make Shane jealous?"

Andi rolled her eyes and giggled. "No, silly. The trick is to get yourself a boyfriend that you like anyway. Then you win no matter what. If Shane wakes up and gets a clue, then you get Shane. If he doesn't, then you still have an amazing boyfriend, and eventually you completely forget about Shane Crawford. You can't lose!"

I laughed. "Andi, you make it sound so easy. It's not like I can decide to have an amazing boyfriend and then have one fall at my feet. Where am I supposed to find this terrific guy in the first place?"

"What about Jarod?" Andi asked. "He's really cute, and you wanted to date him before he introduced you to Shane. Besides, you guys are always together, and I know that he wants you. Make him be your boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes. How could Andrea not know that I wasn't the Andersen sister that Jarod was in love with? "Jarod and I are just friends," I reminded her. "That's it. He does not, will not and never has seen me as girlfriend material. Even if I wanted to, and I'm not saying that I do, how in the world would you expect me to make him my boyfriend? It's not like I can wave my magic wand and change his feelings or something!"

Andi picked up Mr. Cuddles. "Laina, I don't think you need a magic wand." She winked and handed me my teddy bear. "Jarod is completely obsessed with you. Why else would he come over here almost every single night to see you? And you guys talk on the phone for hours on the nights when he doesn't come over. He is completely in love with you, and you are the only person alive who doesn't see it."

She frowned. "But if you don't want Jarod to be your boyfriend, then what about Pete? He's cute too, and he likes you. You could throw yourself at him."

Andi listed each of my guy friends in turn as potential boyfriend candidates. Somehow, she has convinced herself that every guy I know is madly in love with me. She insists that they are all too shy to do anything about it. Rob, Josh, George, Nick, Roger, Jim... according to my little sister, the entire senior class at Southbrook high school is in love with me. When she got to Anthony Matthews, I threw up my hands in self-defense.

"Andi, if you're right," I argued, "then Southbrook must have the largest population of shy teenage boys known to man! Besides, I have noticed that not a single one of these 'shy' boys has any trouble when it comes to flirting with you or Kendra or any of the other girls at Southbrook!"

Andi grinned. "Laina, that's my point exactly. It's not that the guys are terribly shy or anything. The trouble is that you are too amazing! All of these guys are intimidated by you. They don't think that they stand a chance with someone as gorgeous and smart and good as you, so they don't even try. Instead, they settle for a second-best kind of option, like me."

I stood up and pulled Andi over to the full-length mirror on my closet door, and we stood side-by-side for a visual comparison. "Obviously, little sister, you have forgotten what you look like," I told her. "You are absolutely gorgeous! Compared to you, I'm pretty plain."

"You're wrong, Laina. And you are way too hard on yourself." Andi turned and grabbed my hands, her eyes twinkling. "Laina, you know what we need? We need a crazy girls' night out! We're going to have a whole night where we don't even think about boys." She grinned. "Remember when we were kids and we had so much fun with just the two of us because boys were yucky and we didn't even want to think about them? Let's have fun like that tonight. We'll go out, just the two of us, and forget about all of these guys."

Andi was so excited that she was actually jumping up and down. "Let's do something completely wild!" she exclaimed.

I laughed. It really did sound like fun, and I needed a distraction. "Okay, Andi. We'll do it. I'm ready to be crazy for a while. Only you have to promise me that we won't go too over-the-top, because I don't want to get grounded or anything!"

"Don't worry, big sister. I'm not going to drag you down the path to the dark side or anything. We'll just have fun." Andi laughed and pulled a sheet of paper out of my notebook.

"Let's make a plan!" She winked. "We have to prove Mom and Dad wrong, and show the whole world that Laina Andersen is just as much a troublemaker as her little sister, Andi!"

Andi's eyes sparkled mischievously, and I couldn't help laughing along with her. When my little sister goes into scheming mode, it's usually best to get out of the way or just go along with her plans and enjoy the ride.

After only five minutes of thought, Andi managed to draft a clever script for our girls' night out, full of puns and word play. "We're just going to have a bit of harmless fun," she assured me, "but it will definitely raise some eyebrows when we tell the story later!"

Kendra would have thought that we were being too silly. She really doesn't approve of Andi, and she always tells me that I don't take life seriously enough when I hang out with Andrea. The disapproval goes both ways. Andi can't understand how I can be best friends with Kendra Smith. They simply can't stand each other, and I realized long ago not to ever try to spend time with both of them at the same time. It always ends in disaster!

To be fair, I don't really like most of Andi's girl friends either. Stacy and Taunya are extremely shallow, stereotypical rich princesses, and Jocelyn is a total flake. I mean, they're nice enough, I guess, but I always feel like I'm losing brain cells when we hang out with them. I prefer not to include them whenever we can get away with it.

So last Friday night, it was just the Andersen sisters, off on a wild and crazy "crime spree" that took us all over town! It was tons of fun, completely harmless, and as insane as you might imagine with Andi calling the shots.