The Secret Life of a Dream Girl (Creative HeArts) by Tracy Deebs

in L.A. will finally help put to rest all the crazy tabloid rumors about me being kidnapped in South America or abducted by aliens or a member of some love cult in Colorado. And yes, just to clarify, those are all real stories about my disappearance that have run in the last two months.
    “It’ll be fun. Let’s do it.”
    Finn grins as he pulls me in for a hug. “Cool. I’ll get the tickets tonight.”
    The bell rings as he’s letting me go, and we gather our stuff up quickly. As we do, Finn talks to me about the lyrics a little more, gets me thinking about what part of her story Lizzie Borden would want the world to know.
    As we leave, I look around for Keegan but realize he’s already gone. It seems strange that he wouldn’t even wave good-bye, but then again, maybe he struck up a conversation with Dream Girl. Or maybe he and Himesh were so into their website/social media discussion that he didn’t think about it. Either way, it’s no use getting upset about it. Hopefully tomorrow he’ll institute part two of the plan, and then we can get him moving on part three.
    Suddenly, I’m in a big hurry to get this plan going. The sooner he gets Dream Girl, the sooner I can stop thinking about him as anything more than a friend. Because while part of me talking to Keegan the other night was because Finn was right when he said that I need to experience real life with real people, the absolute last part of real life I want to experience is getting my heart broken because I fell for a boy I can’t have.
    A boy I don’t deserve.

Chapter Ten
    Shit. Shit, shit, shit . Finn was taking Dahlia to L.A. next weekend? Getting a suite at the Redbury? Taking her for cookies at the freaking Ivy?
    What the hell was going on here? And how the hell was Keegan supposed to compete with a romantic weekend among Hollywood’s elite when he couldn’t even get up the nerve to ask Dahlia on a date?
    How exactly was Finn’s whole whisking her away thing going to work anyway? He could see how Finn’s mom wouldn’t care if he jet-setted out to L.A. for a couple of days, but was Dahlia’s dad seriously not going to be concerned with his underage daughter hitting the West Coast with Mia McCain’s bad-boy son? In what world was that even a possibility?
    The whole thing made no sense at all. Especially considering she didn’t even bat an eye when Finn had asked her to go with him to Matt Bingham’s birthday party. Matt freaking Bingham, who was one of the most popular stars in Hollywood today. Every girl who had overheard the conversation—which was half the girls in class as they didn’t bother to keep their voices down—had been drooling at the mere mention of the guy’s name. And Dahlia was all, oh sure, that sounds fun . Let’s go . Like it was nothing. Like she and Finn had been dating for years, and she was used to him introducing her to famous people.
    And the weirdest thing was, who even knew they were dating? Sure, they’d hung out at the dance, but they’d gone and left separately. Plus, when he’d asked around yesterday, nobody seemed to think there was anything between them. And now Finn was all, let me sweep you off to L.A. where I can awe you with my amazing connections ?
    It made no freaking sense.
    Well, no sense beyond the whole two really attractive people going on a trip together and staying in the same hotel room together.
    It made him want to hit someone, and he never wanted to hit someone.
    He slammed into the Black Box for his extra period drama class with a scowl on his face. He hoped Mrs. Steele let them work on their scenes today. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the final class of the day taking notes when all he could think about was Dahlia and Finn on a plane together. In a hotel suite together.
    WTF? Seriously. What. The. Eff.
    Thankfully, Mrs. Steele was feeling merciful today—or lazy, depending on how you looked at it. Either way, she didn’t even bother standing up from her spot in the front