V is for Virgin (7 page)

Eventually I got to the problem Cara mentioned about people being too scared to be one of the first to start the trend. When I was all finished, Isaac nodded thoughtfully, playing with the V charm on a bracelet he now held. “So you think that it will help your cause if I start wearing bracelets?” he asked.

His tone was serious. I blushed so deep red that I was in danger of turning blue, but when I looked up he was smiling—totally just giving me a hard time.

“I’m going to be making key chains too, and those little charms that hang off the zipper of your backpack,” I explained, relieved that my face was starting to return to its natural color.

“And if I start carrying one around, then other people won’t be afraid to?”

I shrugged. “There are certain people out there that can make anything look cool. Even virginity.”

“You think I could be one of those people?”

“No. You
are
that person.”

Isaac didn’t say anything for a long minute after that. He just sat there staring into my eyes. I could see him contemplating the possible repercussions of what I was asking him to do. After what felt like forever, he leaned in close to me, completely intense, and asked, “What if I’m not a virgin?”

This caught me off guard. “You mean you’re not?”

The corners of Isaac’s mouth twitched like he was fighting back a smile, and he didn’t answer my question. Instead he said, “It’s a good idea, but it’s a little biased don’t you think? People can’t help it if they’ve already lost their virginity. What about all those girls you told me about who feel bad because they had sex but they weren’t ready? How does your campaign help them?”

So was that Isaac’s deal? Was he one of those who’d done it prematurely? Did he regret doing it? He had a point, though. What I was doing didn’t help those people.

There had to be a way. Even if I didn’t know what that way was yet, I’d figure it out because I wanted to help those people. I wanted to help them very, very badly. I thought for a minute, and then returned the challenging stare he was giving with every bit the confidence he had. “Just make sure to stop by my booth at the festival,” I said.

After another moment, Isaac’s intense stare turned into a small grin. “I’ll do that,” he said and then strolled out of the room.

It took me less than twenty-four hours to figure it out, and I owe it all to a girl who goes by the alias NYCgirl861. I’d gone home from school that day and went straight to the YouTube link just as I’d done ever since Robin showed me the comments. Every day there were a few more. Today it was this one that caught my attention:

NYCgirl861
: Sex is overrated anyway. Ever since my boyfriend and I decided to be sexually active it’s ALL he ever wants to do. Just sex, sex, sex. Maybe I should dump him and find someone who will actually take me out on a date once in a while.

It was because of that comment that I found myself in the computer lab after school the next day. “Hey!” Robin greeted me cheerfully when I walked in. “So did Isaac ever find you?”

“Yeah, he did. That’s kind of why I’m here.”

“Is he going to be your guinea pig?”

I thought about telling her that he couldn’t be because he wasn’t a virgin like she thought, but for some reason I felt like maybe I should keep his secret. “He didn’t say one way or the other,” I told her. “But he did bring up an interesting point.”

“Oh?”

“He asked me how my campaign helped people who already lost their virginity.”

“Good point,” Robin said, her face falling into a frown. “I guess it doesn’t.”

“Not yet.”

“You have an idea?”

I pulled out the matching necklace and earrings I’d brought with me. Robin frowned again when she saw them. This pair had little As on them. “I thought they were all supposed to have Vs on them.”

“The Vs are for virgins, but not everyone is a virgin, so I made these.” I looked down at the shiny little A and smiled. “A is for abstinence.”

“Abstinence?”

“Just because someone has had sex, doesn’t mean it’s too late to say no. If they weren’t ready for it, then they don’t have to keep doing it.”

“Cool. Problem solved. So what brings you to my neck of the woods?”

“Well.” I smiled, excited to reveal my plan. “How much do you know about making websites?”

“You thinking of taking V is for Virgin online?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “We’re going to need a place for people to report their progress.”

“Progress?”

“In the Abstinence Challenge,” I said handing Robin a mock up of a flyer I’d created the night before when I couldn’t sleep.

I felt the need to explain myself as Robin read over the details of the challenge. “There’s more to life then just having sex, and there should be more to a relationship than that too. Sex is just so stressful. Should you have it? Should you not have it? Are you going to get pregnant? Are you going to get a disease? Are people going to make fun of you if you don’t do it? Are they going to call you dirty names if you do? It’s never ending.

“We’re in high school! We have way too many other things to be worrying about, so I’m proposing that people try giving up sex. Just for now. Just to see what happens when they don’t have to stress about it all the time. We get people to sign up for the challenge on the website, all anonymous of course, and then we let them describe their experience online. It’s sort of like an experiment. People may last two days, or two years, and it could turn out to be the best thing they ever did, or the worst. Either way it will make them stop and think about sex, and whether or not they’re really ready to be having it.”

“You think people would go for it?”

“Honestly?” I shrugged. “I doubt it. But they’re definitely not going to if we don’t give them the option. Plus, the website can be a place for people to talk about everything like they’re doing on YouTube. Look at what a big response that one stupid video got. Maybe this could be more than just school wide. Maybe we could encourage other people in other schools to do what we’re doing with the jewelry.”

I didn’t mean to get carried away in my speech, but the more I thought about this, the more excited I got. Sure, I’d done some cool things with the student council, but I’d never tried to do something that I felt was so important. It was making me determined in a way I’d never been before.

“So, do you think you could help me make a website?” I asked, and then held my breath for the answer.

Robin looked at the unfinished layout of the school newspaper on the computer behind her and then back at the paper I’d given her. She cracked a smile and said, “We’ll be up and running before the end of the week.”

“Fantastic!”

“
Fantastic
is right!” Cara groaned as she waltzed into the computer lab. I don’t think she could have sounded more sarcastic. Actually, I don’t think
anyone
could have sounded more sarcastic.

“All right.” I sighed. “Dish the drama.”

Over the years “dish the drama” has become a catch phrase for Cara and me. That’s because everything in Cara’s world somehow always ends up being drama. Of course, she likes it that way because then she always has an excuse to act as if the world is coming to an end. She’ll either win an Oscar one day or end up on a soap opera. It could go either way.

“Okay, so Nate Cooper asked if his band could play the Fall Festival, right? So I told him I had to hear them play first. Well, then Dustin Marshall found out that I was letting Nate ‘audition’ so he wanted to audition too.”

“Dustin Marshall is in a band?” Both Robin and I asked at the same time.”

“Hardly.” Cara scoffed. “My dog could play instruments better than any of them. You know that sound your nails make when you scratch them down a chalkboard?”

I shuddered at just the thought. Cara nodded at my reaction. “Yeah.”

“Ok,” I said. “So what about Nate Cooper’s band?”

“Well they’re better than Dustin’s band
,
” she admitted reluctantly. “But they aren’t anywhere near good enough to play the Fall Festival.”

“Bummer.”

“That’s not even the worst part. Word got out that I was holding auditions.”

“That should be a good thing, right?” Robin asked and I nodded because I was thinking the same thing.

“Yeah,” I said. “I mean you still need a band.”

“I have listened to
fourteen
wannabe garage bands this week and all of them suck. I swear Kyle Hamilton must have been the only talent ever to come from our otherwise musically incompetent school. At this rate I’m going to have to book the freaking glee club. It’s hopeless!”

“It’s not hopeless.” I laughed. Laughing was not insensitive on my part either, because everything is hopeless to Cara at one point or another. “Who’s the biggest music freak in Southern California?”

Cara sniffed but said, “Me.”

“That’s right. You’ll find a great band. I know you will.”

A deep voice interrupted our conversation saying, “Are you guys still talking about that little charity gig thing?”

I turned around, and I could see him standing there, but it was just so mind-boggling that I didn’t believe it until Robin said, “Hey, I know you! You’re that guy in that band. You guys sang that song!”

“Ha!” Cara laughed. “That guy in that band who sang that song. Now that’s fame for you. Yeah, you guys are big-time.”

Kyle smirked Cara’s direction. “I seem to remember something about
you
being our biggest fan.”

Oh, no. Did he have to egg her on? Before Cara could get into an insult war—which she could do all day so long as Kyle kept giving her attention—I stepped in between them and asked Kyle, “What are you doing here?”

Kyle seemed more than happy to have earned my attention. He grinned a smirk the size of Texas and said, “You didn’t stick around for the show last week.”

“You don’t say?” I asked dryly.

“And you didn’t come back for this weekend’s show at the Key Club either. I know. I looked for those legs.”

“Your point?”

“You didn’t come to me, so I had to come to you.”

“Why? Did you and the guys have a change of heart?”

“Sort of.” Kyle laughed.

I was so not buying whatever it was he was trying to sell, but Cara, desperate to find a band, and in denial about being over her Shane obsession, gasped. “You mean you’ll do the show?”

“Sure.” Kyle sidled up next to me and threw his arm over my shoulder. “If Legs here goes out with me.”

I laughed such a boisterous, light-hearted laugh that I nearly reconsidered taking Mrs. Feeney up on her offer to join the drama club. “That’s great,” I said. “Very funny. But we’re looking for a
band
, not a comedian.”

Cara interrupted my good mood when she agreed to his terms. “She’ll do it.”

“Cara!” Once I picked my jaw up off the floor I shook my head. “No, I won’t.”

“Val,” Cara whined. “It’s one lousy date.”

“Who said anything about lousy?” Kyle asked, offended.

“The guy calls me Legs,” I said to Cara.

“That is totally a step up from Virgin Val and you know it.”

“You would sell me up the river like that? Me? You’re best friend?”

“Well, why not? It could be good for you. Zach is history. You need to rebound already.”

“And you suggest I do it with
him
?”

“Remember what we said about you guys having chemistry?”

Kyle gaped at me, pleasantly surprised. “You said we have chemistry?”

I pointed at Cara. “She said we have chemistry. I denied it. Emphatically.”

“So you’re saying you’re in denial about us?” Kyle asked.

“Yes, I—what? No! I’m not in denial about us!”

Kyle grinned. “Then you admit we have chemistry.”