From the book

seat belt

('set belt) n.1. a trick in which a snowboarder reaches across the body and grabs the board while getting air 2. what Hayden needs to fasten, because Nick is about to take her for a ride

At the groan of a door opening, I looked up from my chemistry notebook. I'd been diagramming molecules so I wouldn't have any homework to actually take home. But as I'd stared at the white paper, it had dissolved into a snowy slalom course. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms had transformed into gates for me to snowboard between. My red pen had traced my path, curving back and forth, swish, swish, swish, down the page. I could almost feel the icy wind on my cheeks and smell the pine trees. I couldn't wait to get out of school and head for the mountain.

Until I saw it was Nick coming out the door of Ms. Abernathy's room and into the hall. At six feet tall, he filled the doorway with his model-perfect looks and cocky attitude. He flicked his dark hair out of his eyes with his pinkie, looked down at me, and grinned brilliantly.

My first thought was, Oh no: fuel for the fire. About a month ago, one of my best friends had hooked up with one of Nick's best friends. Then, a few weeks ago, my other best friend and Nick's other best friend had gotten together. It was fate. Nick and I were next, right?

Wrong. Everybody in our class remembered that Nick and I had been a couple four years ago, in seventh grade. They gleefully recalled our breakup and the resulting brouhaha. They watched us now for our entertainment value, dying to know whether we'd go out again. Unfortunately for them, they needed to stick to DVDs and Wii to fill up their spare time. Nick and I weren't going to happen.

My second thought was, Ah, those deep brown eyes.

Maybe snowboarding could wait a little longer, after all.

"Fancy meeting you here, Hoyden." He closed the door behind him, too hard. He must have gotten in trouble for talking again, and Ms. Abernathy had sent him out in the hall.

Join the club. From my seat against the cement block wall of our high school's science wing, I gazed up at him--way, way up, because I was on the floor--and tried my best to glare. The first time he'd called me Hoyden, years ago, I'd sneaked a peek in the dictionary to look up what it meant: a noisy girl. Not exactly flattering. Not exactly a lie, either. But I couldn't let him know I felt flattered that he'd taken the time to look up a word in the dictionary to insult me with. Because that would make me insane, desperate, and in unrequited love.

He slapped his forehead. "Oh, I'm sorry, I meant Hayden. I get confused." He had a way of saying oh so innocently, like he had no idea he'd insulted me. Sometimes new girls bought his act, at least for their first few weeks at our school. They were taken by the idea of hooking up with Nick Krieger, who occasionally was featured in teen heartthrob magazines as the heir to the Krieger Meats and Meat Products fortune. And Nick obliged these girls--for a few dates, until he dumped them.

I knew his pattern all too well. When I'd first moved to Snowfall, Colorado, I had been one of those girls. He'd made me feel like a princess for a whole month. No, better--like a cool, hip teenage girl who dated! The fantasy culminated with one deep kiss...

Author: Catherine Hapka
Bio:   Jennifer Echols is the author of several romantic comedies, and her other young adult novels include Forget You and Going Too Far. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Visit her at Jennifer-Echols.com.

Catherine Hapka is also the author of Something Borrowed and has written more than one hundred books for children and adults, sometimes as a ghostwriter. She lives in Pennsylvania. Author: Jennifer Echols
Bio:   Jennifer Echols is the author of several romantic comedies, and her other young adult novels include Forget You and Going Too Far. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Visit her at Jennifer-Echols.com.

Catherine Hapka is also the author of Something Borrowed and has written more than one hundred books for children and adults, sometimes as a ghostwriter. She lives in Pennsylvania.