Yesenia was sitting in the Manchester South High School library, reading a book, when Taisha walked up. “Just to let you know, Yesenia, this afternoon’s meeting of the Virgin’s Club has been postponed. It will be a week from today.”

“I can’t go.” Yesenia said.

“You have something else planned?” Taisha asked.

“No, but I mean, I can’t go.” Yesenia said.

“You mean…?” Taisha asked.

Yesenia nodded and smiled. “Yup. New Year’s Day. I can’t go.”

Claudia smiled and leaned over. “How was it?”

Yesenia grinned and started whispering to Claudia. She wasn’t whispering softly enough, though. A boy two tables away spoke up. “Excuse me, but, um, if you don’t mind, um, please don’t describe it to me if you’re not going to give it to me.” Two other boys at his table started laughing at the comment.

Yesenia’s face turned bright red. Then she called the boy over to her table. “I’m not going to describe it to you, and I’m not going to give it to you, either. I have a boyfriend now. He’s in my biology class. But I might be able to help you. Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No, I don’t.” the boy said.

Yesenia said, “I can let you call me on the phone, and we can chat. If I hear a girl griping about how difficult it is to find a guy, then I can try to fix her up with you. I know how important this is. What you do then is, you take her to the movies, go see a comedy movie, and you laugh your butts off, and then you have something to talk about, to get the conversation started.”

“Cool. My name is Kevin.” Kevin wrote down his telephone number and gave it to Yesenia, and she gave him hers.

“Give me a call.” Yesenia said. “Remember, I’m not going to go out with you. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Hey, thanks.” Kevin said.