Tracy emerged from the pillow. "No," she said, "I'm groaning because I'm totally giving in. Happy? is your club ready for a third member?"

I hesitated. As much as I wanted her to be part of this, I wanted her to do it because she believed in it, not because she felt left out.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Yes. I mean, hey, it isn't really going to change anything for me, when you think about it."

Diane gave Tracy a hug . . and, surprisingly, Tracy didn't punch her in the face.

I guess this could've been considered a pretty good start.

"to the Lonely Hearts Club!" I stuck out my hand and Tracy and Diane followed.

"the Lonely Hearts Club!"

I ran over to my stereo and blasted the Beatles.

Tracy danced over to me. "So, if I have to pretend to be a Beatle, can I be Yoko?"

She knew how to egg me on so bad. I leaned over, grabbed a pillow from my bed, and threw it at her. it hit her perfectly in the face. "Hey.'"

Tracy chased after me as I dodged her pillows. it took Diane a few minutes to decide what to do, so Tracy took advantage of her indecisiveness and landed a pillow blow right to her abdomen. Diane looked at Tracy in complete shock.

"Your little pom-poms aren't gonna do you any good here, Monroe," Tracy taunted. With that, Diane jumped over my desk chair and bombarded Tracy with an assault of cushions until my bedroom was destroyed.

When Diane finally caught her breath, she said, "You have to admit -- this Club definitely isn't going to be boring."

Tracy rolled over on her stomach. "And we haven't even gotten to the sacrificing of live goats -- and guys -- yet!"

Chapter Thirteen

TRIED TO GET MY BOOKS for Spanish class as quickly as possible on Monday morning, wondering how I'd be able to avoid Todd, even though we were conversation partners.

"Chesney!" I heard Ryan call out.

Great.

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders. I looked up to see Todd, smiling. "Hey there, Margarita -- how killer was Saturday night?"

I smiled weakly at him.

"You totally should've stayed longer."

"Oh, yeah," Ryan replied with a smirk. "What did she miss}"

Todd, looked down at the floor as if he was genuinely trying to remember.

"that's what I thought." Ryan smiled and gave me a wink. "Good luck, Penny."

Ryan headed to class, shaking his head.

Todd, still had his arm around my shoulder, and I picked up my stride to step out of it,

"Whoa, slow down!" Todd, put his arm around my waist. "Your boy is still recovering from the weekend."

"Um, I actually have to talk to Senora Coles before class starts about., urn, something." I took his hand off my waist and practically ran to class.

I wondered if it would've been too subtle to wear a T-shirt that said thank you for your interest, but I am no longer dating.

I knew Todd, wasn't a huge fan of reading, but he did like to stare at my shirts.

"I have sort of a weird question to ask," Morgan said to me as we walked to Bio.

"Um, okay?"

"Have you ever asked a guy out?"

"No, why?"

She slowed down. "Well, I'm interested in somebody, but he's a little shy, so I don't think he'd ever make the first move."

"Oh." So much for asking Morgan to join the Club. "Im not really the best person to talk to about guys. I've sorta given them up after, well, you know . . ."

"Oh, right. Sorry." She bit her bottom lip.

"that's okay. Who's the guy?" I asked as we walked into class.

Morgan motioned to the boy sitting in the first row of the room.

I saw senior Tyson Bellamy hunched over his chair, his hair covering his face as he furiously wrote something in his notebook.

"Isn't he cute?" Morgan blushed. Tyson looked up toward the front of the room with an intense look on his face.

Even if I were interested in guys, Tyson really wasn't my type -- long black hair, super skinny, vintage rock T-shirts. Basically, he had the whole mysterious rocker thing down to a science. Besides the fact that he was a pawn for the devil (being a guy and all), he seemed right for Morgan, who was a total punk-rock fanatic. She was one of my few friends who understood the cultural importance of the Beatles.

"Would you go to one of his concerts with me on Friday?"

I wasn't in the mood to play matchmaker, but after all the drama with Tracy at last week's football game, I didn't mind having an excuse to not go to this week's away game,

"Sure -- but, Morgan, I'm not going to be a good wing girl."

She laughed. "But you're my concert buddy. You have to go with me. We don't even have to talk to any guys. Just listen to the music. then we can leave."

Sounded like the perfect night to me.

"So, are we going to have rules for the anti-guy Club?" Tracy asked at lunch.

"It's called the Lonely Hearts Club!' I reminded her.

"Uh-huh. And are we going to have to wear matching T-shirts or chastity belts or something? I can't watt to see that logo."

"Tracy --"

"I think having rules or guidelines or a mantra of some sort would be fun," Diane chimed in, interrupting what could've been the Club's first official fight.

Since the weather was still nice, we'd decided to eat outside. I leaned against a big oak tree as I ate my apple.