Crushing On The Wrong Joshua (Crushing on You 3)

Amber spent Sunday afternoon checking Joshua Nelson's social network pages again and again, searching for the smallest indication that he was thinking about her. He had to be thinking about her! The spell was going to work! It had to, because without it she would never gain Joshua's attention.

Amber stared at her feet as she waited for the school bus. She kicked a rock and watched it skip across the street. Amber felt just like that rock. She was pushed around and kicked around by everyone, and no one noticed. It didn't matter on which side of the street she landed. The bus pulled up and opened its doors. The entrance looked like a hungry mouth waiting to devour her. Amber took a deep breath and hefted herself onto the bus.

“What a great way to begin a week,” she thought to herself and rolled her eyes.

“Good morning,” the bus driver grinned at her.

“Don't be such a morning person, Larry,” Amber groaned as she made her way to the back of the bus.

Her stop was the third one of the morning, so only three other students were on the bus. Greg sat by himself in a middle seat, reading a paperback thriller. Allison and Julia sat with their heads together a few seats in front of Amber gossiping. Amber wished that Tamara would ride the school bus with her. With someone there to moan and groan to, she wouldn't feel so alone.

Amber stared at the window and tried not to imagine what it would be like to attend another school dance without a date. It wasn't that other guys hadn't noticed her. Greg had flirted with her every single day on the bus last year, but she just couldn't bring herself to be interested in him. When she finally told him, he had quit talking to her and returned to his normal routine of ignoring the world for his love of fiction.

Amber zoned out through most of her history class. Although she did manage to obtain the notes she had missed from Friday. She turned in her report and left without engaging in her usual after-class discussion with Ms. Frary.

She arrived to Math class two minutes early and placed her makeup homework on Mr. O'Bannon's desk.

“Very good, Miss Atkins,” he said.

“Sure, Mr. O'Bannon,” she sighed and slid into her desk.

“Is everything okay at home?” he asked.

Amber glanced around the room trying to figure out who he was talking about. When she found the room empty, she knew he was talking to her.

“Of course, everything's fine at home,” she sighed.

“Hi,' the guy who winked at her on Friday said as he walked by on the way to his desk.

Amber nodded on at him unable to muster the energy involved in producing a verbal response.

At lunch Amber sat with Tamara at their usual table and kept her eyes locked to the back of Joshua's Nelson's head.

“Notice me!” she silently willed him, “Notice me!”

“He's checking you out,” Tamara said, taking a long drink of her chocolate milk.

“Maybe if he has eyes on the back of his head under that thick luscious hair of his,” Amber sighed, picking up a fry and dropping it again.

“Not him,” Tamara sighed, “That guy over there.”

“What guy?” Amber asked, still frowning.

“The one at the table by the wall and he's cute too,” Tamara said.

Amber waited a few seconds after Tamara finished speaking before she turned her head to look. It was the guy from Math. Great, what does he want? Most likely help with his homework. Amber laughed quietly as she turned back to Tamara.

“What's so funny?” Tamara asked.

“Nothing, really. It's nothing. He's just in my math class,” Amber said.

“What's his name and stats?” Tamara asked.

“DKDC,” Amber said.

“Huh?” Tamara asked.

“It's short for 'don't know, don't care,” Amber said.