I sat on the wide front steps of Donghan Central High School and watched Jiro pass by the fence at the far end of the parking lot. Hundreds of kids streamed toward the school, but Jiro stood out in the crowd.

He stood out in a big way.

"Hey, Rainie. Where's Genie?" GuiGui Wu asked me, breaking into my intense zone-in. GuiGui was one of my closest friends, but I didn't answer her. Not yet, Jiro was coming toward us. I turned my head a little so I wouldn't look as if I was staring.

"Hello?" GuiGui persisted. "Rainie, what are you staring at?"

"Don't advertise it, okay?" I whispered to her. Sometimes GuiGui was kind of clueless when it came to scoping guys. It's probably because she's a year younger than the rest of our group. But I love her anyway.

GuiGui clamped her mouth shut as Jiro approached.

He's tall and solid, a football player. That day he was wearing denim shorts and a worn green Panthers jersey. He pushed his soft fringe off to the side and glanced at me. My heart gave a funny little jump as I saw his spectacular brown eyes.

"Hey, Jiro," I said, with a slight smile.

"Hey, how are ya?" He nodded as he passed, then climbed the stone steps of the school two at a time.

And that was that. No "how was your summer?" or "you look great with that tan." Most guys would stop to talk to me even if I didn't talk to them first. But not Jiro.

Jiro knew me because he was a football player and I was a cheerleader for the Donghan Central Lions. I wanted him to know me better, though. Too bad he'd been going out with Han Cai since the end of the junior year.

"Oh, that's what you were staring at." GuiGui tucked her skirt around her legs and sat on the low wall that edged the stairs. The sun warmed our shoulders as we waited for our friends Genie Zhuo and Ella Chen.

Teachers and students filed past us, plodding up the steps on the first day of school. Some kids hung out on the lawns and benches, playing catch, laughing, mostly talking in clusters. Nearly 1,500 students attend Donghan Central, so we kind of take over the neighborhood when school is in session.

"Am I a step behind, or what?" GuiGui asked. "I feel like I spent the whole summer in solitary confinement. A prisoner, shuttled between the country club and Wu Castle."

That was our name for the big house near Lake Mono where GuiGui lived with her father.

"I am so glad to be back in school," GuiGui went on. "At least when I'm with you guys, Dad backs off with the psycho security. But over the summer, I barely got the chance to go out for pizza."

"No sympathy. You got to go to Argentina!" I pointed out.

"Which might have been fun, if any of my mom's relatives were under the age of ninety. Picture a bunch of old ladies sitting in a circle trying to teach me how to crochet a mantilla. As if that string thing is going to keep me warm through the winter. As if I'd even wear a mantilla."

I laughed. Only GuiGui could make a trip to South America sound like a corny quilting bee. "Just remember that Genie and I were stuck here while you were globe-trotting with your dad. I worked at summer buttering bagels at Bernie's, and Genie was stranded up at Camp Mosquito."

"I'm just glad to be back," GuiGui told me. "I mean, it's senior year! Can you believe it?"

"Yeah," I said. "This year is going to be the best. The ultimate, X-treme finale."

GuiGui narrowed her big dark eyes, then shielded them from the sun with one hand. "You think so?" she asked, pushing her brown hair behind an ear.

I smiled. "I know so."

"What do you know?" a snappy voice asked. "You still think you know it all, Rainie?"

I turned to see Ella striding past some boys in baggy pants. She's Japanese-Taiwanese, with a slender build and a killer smile. She was wearing a denim hat and bubbled-shaped sunglasses, sort of like the goggles race car drivers use. A batik print skirt swirled around her Converse sneakers.

"Ella!" GuiGui and I ran down the steps, dodging a group of tenth-grade girls. With a squeal, I jumped into Ella's arms. "You're finally back!" Ella spent the whole summer vacation with her aunt on a houseboat in Kenting. I gave her a huge hug, knocking off her denim hat. "Purple hair?" I shrieked, staring at the three lopsided ponytails emerging from her shoulder-length haircut. "Your parents must have freaked."

"Mom and Dad were not enthralled by Raspberry Limelight, but what could they say? It was Aunt Joyce's idea." Ella shook her head and the ponytails bobbed. "You like?"

"We love," Genie said from the top of the school stairs.

"Hey! What were you doing in school so early?" I called up to her.

"Yearbook. Calvin and I were going through the files from last year. Big mess." Genie and her boyfriend, Calvin, were the editors of the yearbook.

Genie is what you'd call an overachiever. This year, she was going to have to squeeze into half a day what the rest of us had all day to do. She'd spend mornings at Donghan Central and afternoons taking classes in a special program at the University of Taipei, rushing back to high school for yearbook and all the other things she was involved in, like student government and the honor society.

Genie tossed her dark, superlong hair over one shoulder and came down the stairs. "Boy, did I miss you guys!" She reached over to give Ella a squeeze, forming this sort of group hug thing.

"Someone is going to see us and think we're weird," GuiGui said, easing back.

"Everyone sees us, and we are weird," Ella laughed.

"Weirdos with weird nails," Genie said, clasping one of Ella's hands. Ella's short nails were painted dark red with sparkly rhinestones glued to the center of each one. "And that makeup. Black lipstick?"

"Scary, right?" Ella said. "When I woke up this morning I was not in the mood for pretty. You know what I mean?"

"Oh, right," I said with a dramatic sigh. "We hate having to beat back the boys."

"You do have to beat back the boys," Genie messsed up my hair.

"Now, girlfriends." Ella held up her two hands. "Rainie can't help it if she's a guy magnet." She glanced at me and smiled. "Can you, Rainie?"

"Hello?" I said, pretending to knock on Ella's head. "Then why I am the guyless one?"

"Wait a minute, rewind this video; I missed a scene," Ella said. "What happened to Mike?"

"Here we go. The whole sordid story." Genie groaned.

"Didn't I write you about it?" I asked Ella. "I broke up with Mike when I met Show. Show Luo."

"Show Luo?" Ella blinked. "He's so cute."

"But she dumped him too," Genie added. "This was the summer of Rainie's discontent."

"Oh, stop," I said, pretending to shove Genie. Then I motioned Ella closer. "The thing is, when I broke up with Mike, he didn't exactly realize it was over. He sent me a very sappy email, and like an idiot I forwarded it to Show. Big mistake. Show forwarded Mike's letter to dozens of people, totally humiliating him. Now Mike thinks that's how I broke up with him--- by embarassing him over the internet. I felt so awful about the whole thing. Of course, I dumped Show," I added. "What a creep he turned out to be." I hunched my shoulders, feeling a residual cringe. "Ugh. I wish I could take it all back. Mike totally hates me now."

"Rainie Yang," Ella said, shaking her head, "you're the star of your own soap opera."

"I didn't mean for it to get so out of hand. I don't want to be a soap star. And I don't want to hurt anybody. I want to be in love. Not just any kind of love--- head-over-heals, knock-my-socks-off love." The image of Jiro Wang boundling up the school steps popped into my head.

The first bell rang. As we trooped into the school building, GuiGui tilted her head at me. "But Rainie, you can have any guy you want," she said. "You've been in love before, right?"

"Ive been in like," I replied. "I want something more."