Read Online The Mosts by Melissa Senate - Free Book Online Page A

Thom.
    Hey, thinking about you. Wish you were here. I keep saying that. XXT . I grinned. His e-mails and texts and calls were getting fewer, but quick kisses were still kisses. I texted back a Ditto and some kisses of my own.
    Soon I would be there. And maybe forever.
    “Hey,” Sam called after me. “You forgot your textbook.” He handed it to me. “Lost in thought?” His gaze lingered on my face.
    Again a funny feeling—but in a good weird way—attacked my stomach. I nodded. “Seems to be all the time lately.”
    “Thom, right?” he asked as we headed down the hall.
    “Thom and a lot of stuff, actually.” Like my father, who was getting married to a woman I’d never met. The weird vibe from Caro. And the bizarre way I was going to earn the money to fix the first two things.
    “Well, you know, Madeline, if you ever need to talk … ”
    He really was good-looking. No wonder so many girls were crazy in lust with him. I’d always known he was amazingly cute, but just then, the way he was focused on me, those warm brown eyes on me … for just a moment, I found myself unable to look away.
    No. Look away, Madeline. And focus .
    “Um, Sam, actually, I could use your advice about something. If you were going to help someone change his image, how would you do it? I mean, how would you go about it? Where would you start?”
    “I guess I’d start with asking what he wanted to change.”
    Good idea. I could ask the interns what they wanted to change most, what they really wanted to accomplish. Maybe I could create a little questionnaire.
    Then I remembered I’d have to leave a lot of space for answers. “What if he wanted to change everything about himself?”
    He glanced at me. “Everything? Then I’d probably work on helping him like himself as he was.”
    “But … what if he was, say, super-nerdy and couldn’t talk to a girl without stammering and turning bright red?”
    He laughed. “I don’t know. Maybe changing how he looks would help build his confidence. Make him feel better about himself so that he can feel okay going up to a girl and asking her out.” He stopped at my locker. It took me a minute to realize he knew exactly where my locker was. Considering that every gray locker at Freeport Academy looked the same, this was significant.
    “You two are deep in conversation,” Caro said, coming up behind us. The glint in her eyes was back. “Walk me to French, will you, Sam? I’m going to bomb the test. I’m completely lost when it comes to the past-tense conjugations. You can whisper them in my ear on the way.”
    Caro had removed the ballet-style wrap cardigan she’d been wearing that morning. She had on a tiny tight microfiber tank top. And Sam clearly liked it. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
    “Bye, Madeline,” she called over her shoulder.
    As I watched them walk away, she turned back and shot me a famous Caro look, which said, Don’t even think about it .
    During study hall, I created my questionnaire on one of the computers and printed three copies.
    Name:

    What do you most want to change about yourself?
    Why do you want to change?
    What do you think will be the hardest thing about transforming yourself into the you-est you that you can be?
    Note: Forms will be kept strictly confidential.
    I stole that “you-est you” part from my aunt Darcy and my mom. I didn’t really understand it, actually. If you wanted to change, totally change, transform from a nobody into a somebody, from most Not to Most, why would you want to be even more you? I put in the fine print about confidentiality because I wanted the interns to be really honest.
    Elinor and I exchanged papers before gym class: I gave her the questionnaires to hand out, and she gave me a proposed schedule. The interns wanted to meet twice a week for four weeks, starting the next day. We’d meet for one hour at the farm after their shift on Wednesdays, and on Saturday mornings at one of their houses. A quick calculation