Read Online The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah Wilson - Free Book Online

class, while some girls started whispering and planning to be paired up together. That should be somewhat better. Maybe I'd get paired with someone exceptionally smart and hard-working and we could get the project done quickly.
    "I thought the easiest way to select partners was to simply have you turn around. The person behind you is your partner."
    I made a strangled noise. I was last in the row. No one sat behind me. Which meant…
    Jake turned around slowly and my heart actually stopped. Literally stopped. Like, I worried they'd have to take me to the emergency room to jump-start it back up again.
    "You have the next ten minutes to confer briefly with your partner."
    "What did we get?" Jake asked. I handed him the strip of paper. He looked at it and then back at me. "I don't really know this story, sorry."
    He gave me the movie star smile, and a marching band started a beat in my stomach. Right then I didn't know who I was more mad at—me for still responding like that to him, or Jake for being a total douchebag yesterday and pretending like we were best buddies today. Jerk.
    "I think that's sort of the point. That we read the book first and then decide how to retell it." To my disgust, my voice cracked while I was talking to him. I could feel my face starting to flush.
    The paper fell from between his long, lean fingers on to my desk. "I'm not sure I'll have time to read a book and do the project. Isn't there like a movie version or something?"
    "A couple," I nodded, looking down at the paper on my desk instead of his dark brown eyes. "I actually own the most recent one. We could watch it at my house."
    "So, you know the story."
    I nodded again.
    "That's good."
    Jake leaned toward me so that I could smell his yummy boy cologne smell. It was confusing my senses and scrambling my brain. "Any ideas?"
    He was all smiles, brown twinkling eyes and shiny dark hair. I had lots and lots of ideas when it came to Jake. Unfortunately, he was talking about the project.
    "I…I was thinking we could do a manga retelling. You know, like anime but in a graphic novel."
    He looked slightly insulted. "I know what manga is." Then he leaned in closer. What was that cologne? I didn't know what it was, but it made me feel like one of those girls in the Axe commercials who throw the guys on the floor and start kissing them. I had to lean back in order to control myself. I also tried to single-handedly suck all of the oxygen in the room into my lungs and hold it there. If I didn't breathe, I couldn't smell him.
    "And that sounds like a good idea," he said. Then he did something so unexpected I was amazed that I didn't spontaneously combust.
    He reached out and took my right hand in both of his. My first thought was that my hands which had always seemed too large actually looked small next to his. My second through fiftieth thought was
Jake Kingston is touching me! Jake Kingston is touching me!
Actual tingles started everywhere that he touched and raced up my arm. His hands felt warm and strong. I didn't need to worry about holding my breath, because I had forgotten how to breathe.
    Jake turned my hand this way and that way and smiled lazily as if he knew exactly the effect he had on me. "Since it sounds like you already know the story so well, maybe you could just draw everything up and put my name on it. No need for both of us to be tortured. Once you finish, we could grab some dinner and you could tell me what to say in our presentation. What do you think?"
    My mind seized on the "grab some dinner" line and realized that Jake had just asked me out! To dinner! I had imagined this moment so many times that it didn't feel real. But it was real! Jake had just asked me to "grab some dinner" with him! Everything inside me started to melt until I realized what he had actually said.
    Wait.
    My Jake blinders fell off and instead of everything being soft and hazy it was painfully sharp and bright.
    I realized he was messing with me, and I was gullible