Текст книги "This Is So Not Happening"

Автор книги: Kieran Scott

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

“Hey, hey, hey! You ready for the big meet?” He lifted his hand to slap Jake’s, and Jake’s grin widened.

“You know it!”

The two of them clasped hands and bumped shoulders. Crazy. Guys in general were certifiably crazy. Two months ago these two wanted nothing more than to beat the crap out of each other. Now they were suddenly best friends again, united in their anti–Will and Chloe front. The weirdest thing about it was, when Hammond found out about Chloe’s fling with Jake, he’d entirely blamed Jake and forgiven Chloe. But now that he knew she’d also flung with Will, he was pissed at Chloe and Jake was somehow forgiven. It was almost as if the fact that both Jake and Hammond now thought Chloe was a slut had somehow brought them together.

Just trying to figure it out gave me a headache.

“You going?” Jake asked. “’Cause Ally needs a ride.”

My jaw dropped. Like I wanted to spend half an hour alone in a car with Hammond?

“Oh, yeah? I can drive you, Ryan. Let’s go.”

“Cool. I better go before I miss the bus.” Jake gave me a kiss and a wave and was gone. Just like that, the boy passed me off to his former number one enemy—the guy he used to be so jealous of he hated picturing the two of us together. I looked at Hammond and wondered what he was thinking. Was he remembering how he’d kissed me over the summer at the old condo? How he’d confessed that he liked me? How I’d completely refused him?

“So.” Hammond twirled his keys once and caught them, a big-ass grin on his face. “Ready to roll?”

Guys. I just could not figure them out.

february

Who do you think would win in a fight, Will Halloran or Jake Graydon?

           Oh, please. Jake, no contest.

I don’t know. Will’s on the football team.

He’s always slamming into people and getting back up again.

True, but Jake’s just bigger. Plus he’s Jake Graydon.

           So? What does that mean?

He’s, like, the golden boy around here. Can you even imagine him losing anything?

But Will’s a Norm. He’s probably been in a ton of fights. Jake’s never been in any.

True. Experience has gotta count for something.

jake

“I can’t believe we’re out of here in, like, four months,” Trevor said. He was bouncing up and down on his toes, trying to stay warm. Why we were not allowed inside in the morning until the bell rang was a mystery to me. Only special cases were allowed past security. Like if you had a meeting with a teacher or needed to see the nurse or had before-school detention. But if your nuts were freezing off in subzero weather? Sorry. Grin and bear it, my friend.

“Four months and then we’re basically adults,” Todd added, slurping on his hot chocolate. It dribbled down his chin and seeped into his light blue scarf, but he didn’t notice.

“Yeah. Adults,” Hammond said. “And then we won’t have to take shit from anyone.”

I rubbed my knees together, my hands shoved so far down in the pockets of my varsity jacket, I think I was shrinking. Four months and we would be graduates. And I had no idea if I had even the smallest shot at going to college. This was not the way it was supposed to be. By now I was supposed to have five offers for soccer scholarships and be making my own damn choices. Instead I was waiting to be approved by someone—anyone—like every other mediocre zero in my class.

God, I fucking hated Chloe.

“Dude. Check this out.” Connor lifted his chin toward the driveway. Speak of the she-devil. Chloe had just pushed her massive self out of the passenger seat of her mom’s car and was now waddling slowly up the stairs, holding on to the railing. A few girls giggled as she went past, and most people turned to stare. Without even looking over at us, Chloe headed straight for the front door. Guess she was one of those special cases.

She had just opened the door when someone on the other side of the steps let out a “Moooooo!” Chloe froze. Then Hammond made this elephant noise that was so on-the-money perfect, the rest of us cracked up laughing. Chloe ducked her head and rushed inside. Someone slammed me in the back of the shoulder and I whipped around. Weirdly, it was Ally.

“Hey,” I said, my breath making a steam cloud in her face. “What?”

“What the hell was that?” she demanded, backhanding Hammond in the chest.

He just laughed.

“What’s the matter with you guys?” she hissed. “Are you in kindergarten or something?”

“Actually, we’re almost adults,” Todd said proudly, grinning over the top of his chocolate-stained scarf.

“Then start freaking acting like it!”

“God. Calm down. It was just a joke,” I said, embarrassed. I didn’t like my girlfriend getting mom-ly in front of my friends. What was up her ass anyway? Since when had she named herself Chloe’s personal protector? “She brought it on herself anyway,” I said, rubbing my bare hands together. “You’re gonna sleep around, you gotta be ready to suffer the consequences.”

“Truth,” Connor said, slapping my hand.

“Oh my God! You’re such a hypocrite!” Ally said, almost laughing. “Are you forgetting that you slept around too? You could have just as easily been the father.”

“Yeah, but I’m not,” I snapped. “At least I’m smart enough to use protection, unlike that stupid Norm.”

“Good thing, too,” Connor said. “Girl like that? Who knows what kinds of diseases she could be passing around?”

“You guys make me sick,” Ally said. “That girl is your friend. She’s your ex-girlfriend!” she said to Hammond.

“Thank God for the ‘ex,’” Hammond said with a cackle.

Ally was so pissed, she looked about to cry. Suddenly I sobered up and started to feel just the tiniest bit guilty. But for what? Didn’t Chloe deserve to have people talking about her? Look at what she’d done to me. To Will, even. To her parents and Hammond and Ally. She’d spent half the last year lying and cheating and ruining lives.

“What?” Ally said to me. “What are you thinking right now?”

The guys stared at me. My face stung from the cold. I looked down at her and blew out a breath. “Nothing you want to hear.”

She groaned and stormed away as I turned my back on her. My insides felt twisted and torn, knowing she was mad at me again, but I tried to ignore it. I was mad at her, too. She was my girlfriend. She was supposed to be on my side. Why couldn’t she figure that out?

ally

This was déjà vu–ish. Walking into Chloe’s house with Shannen and Faith. Toting gifts and movies and snacks. Giggling as we tiptoed past the living room, where her dad was passed out and snoring in front of Fox News. I’d done this with the two of them a million times in my life, but not once in the past three years. As I stared down at my feet, making sure not to kick a table leg or trip on the edge of the antique rug, it was like I’d entered a time warp and landed right back in freshman year. Except now I had better shoes.

“I don’t know about this, you guys,” Faith whispered as we reached the bottom of the wide, carpeted staircase. Her hair was back in a ponytail and she wore a pink hoodie, gray fleece sweats, and Puma sneakers, like a comfy little fashion plate. “She’s been so depressed lately. What if she’s up there crying?”

The three of us looked up warily. Over our heads, the thousand-pound crystal chandelier tossed its light against the cream walls. When I was a kid, I’d always been terrified that thing was going to come crashing down and crush me, but Chloe had just laughed and said, “At least you’d have a sparkly death!” Girl had always been positive to a fault.

I pushed my hesitation aside. “That’s why we’re here, remember? To cheer her up.”

I’d come up with the idea after witnessing the guys’ immature antics before school earlier this week. It had been bad enough when random people were discreetly whispering about her, but now the people who were supposed to be her friends had gotten in on the action, and it was like they’d made it okay for the whole school to be as vocal as possible. Every day the teasing seemed to be getting worse, and I wasn’t proud of the fact that my boyfriend was one of the ringleaders. Organizing a night of pampering for the girl was the least I could do to make up for his ass-ish-ness.

“We can’t wuss out now,” Shannen said, adjusting the gift basket full of chocolate, chips, nuts, and candy in her arms. “And this thing’s getting heavy. Let’s just go.”

I followed Shannen’s lead, and after a moment, Faith steeled herself and trailed behind us. At the top of the steps we nearly slammed right into Mrs. Appleby. She brought her hand to her chest and closed her eyes like she was praying for patience. Her blond hair was back in a perfect chignon and she wore stiff gray slacks, a soft turtleneck sweater, and full makeup. Even though it was Saturday night and she was clearly not going out. Right now my mom was in sweats and a blue pore-cleansing mask, watching TV with Gray and chowing on Chinese food. Things were definitely done differently at the Appleby house.

“Girls! You must learn how to use the doorbell!” Mrs. Appleby whispered.

She’d been saying this pretty much every time we’d come over here since the age of seven. And as always I thought to myself, Why don’t you just start locking your door?

“Sorry,” Shannen said offhandedly.

Mrs. Appleby shook her head and stepped aside to let us pass. “She’s in her room.”

We thanked her and crept over to Chloe’s door. She still had the white placard with the painted ballet toe-shoe on it and the words “Chloe’s Room” written in pink script. Shannen quietly turned the knob and we peeked inside. Chloe wasn’t crying. She was sitting in her armchair with a blanket over her belly, reading aloud from Peter Rabbit.

For a second, we just froze. I looked at Faith. She looked at Shannen. None of us knew what to do. Chloe was reading to the baby. And suddenly I wanted to burst into tears. I knew we should back away. We should just go. We shouldn’t interrupt such a private moment. But then Chloe started to look up, and I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed Shannen and yanked her through the door with me.

“Surprise!”

Chloe dropped the book. “You guys! What are you doing here?”

“We brought snacks!” Faith announced with a big, forced grin. She held up her gift bags and nail kit. “And presents!”

“And movies!” Shannen added brightly, unbuttoning her varsity jacket. “And pedicure stuff!”

Chloe pushed herself up from her chair with both hands, the book forgotten. “I can’t believe this!” she said, eyeing the booty we’d splayed across her bed. When she looked at us, her eyes were shining. “It’s just like old times.”

“That’s kind of the point,” Faith told her, rolling her eyes in an amused way. She walked around to Chloe’s side of the four-poster bed. “Now get up there so I can start your toes. I bet your feet are gnarly.”

“I’m not sure, actually. I haven’t seen them in a while,” Chloe said, struggling her way onto her bed.

Shannen popped a movie into the DVD player. I opened a bag of Baked Lays and busted out the Snapple. The two of us crawled into bed next to Chloe and propped ourselves up against her many, many throw pillows just as the FBI warning glowed blue on the screen.

“Pink or red?” Faith asked, settling herself in at Chloe’s feet and opening her nail kit. Inside, a dozen shades of polish were lined up neatly on tiny shelves, while the bottom well was filled with cotton balls, swabs, tweezers, cuticle pushers, clippers, and files.

“Got anything with glitter?” Chloe asked, craning her neck to see. “This baby’s gonna pop out soon, and when it does I want to be glam.”

“Got it.” Faith lifted a bottle of hot pink polish with glitter. “But first, we work on these heels. Because ew.”

Chloe blushed and I tried to refrain from smacking Faith upside the head.

“Want a present?” Shannen asked.

“What do you think?” Chloe asked, reaching into the chip bag.

Shannen grabbed a small one from the pile and tossed it at Chloe, who deftly caught it. She tore it open and grinned. “Cashmere socks?”

“Perfect after a pedicure,” I said, handing her a lemonade.

“You got 17 Again?” Chloe asked, her mouth dropping as Zac Efron appeared on the menu screen.

“A classic,” I conceded.

“It’s my favorite,” Chloe said.

Shannen squirmed around, trying to find the perfect comfortable position against the pillows. “Again. Kind of the point. Is she not getting the theme here?” she said to me facetiously, making me laugh.

The movie started up and Chloe looked down at her belly, where she’d laid out her new socks, and at the bottle of lemonade in her hand, while Faith rubbed peppermint lotion on her feet.

“You guys?” Chloe said, her voice cracking.

My heart froze. Please don’t let her cry. The whole point of this night was to cheer her up, not to make her cry.

“Yeah?” Shannen said warily, holding her iced-tea bottle an inch from her lips.

“Is it lame that this is the best night I’ve had in months?” Chloe asked.

The rest of us laughed. “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I said. “We could still disappoint you.”

Chloe leaned back into her pillows and let out a contented sigh. “Yeah, I just don’t think that’s possible.”

ally

“I’m so bummed. This is the second year in a row I’m going to be dateless for Valentine’s Day,” Faith lamented, spearing a bright red tomato in the center of her salad, her head held up by her free hand.

“Remember when we used to do Guys Suck Day?” Annie asked, not looking up from her laptop, where she was typing away.

“Omigod, yeah. That was so much fun,” Faith said.

I looked back and forth between the two of them and held my breath. Annie had been psyched to sit at our table with us, the better to spy on the Cresties, but I hadn’t actually expected her to interact with anyone, and now this? Were Annie and Faith actually talking to each other and not sniping? Unprecedented. At least in the last two years.

“What’s Guys Suck Day?” Shannen asked.

Annie’s head suddenly shot up. Then Faith’s did the same. They looked at each other across the cafeteria table like they’d just realized where they were.

“Oh, nothing,” Faith said, grabbing for her soda.

“It was stupid,” Annie added. Both of them were blushing.

“Does it involve hating on guys on Valentine’s Day?” Shannen asked. She glanced toward the far end of the table where Hammond, the Idiot Twins, Connor, and Josh scarfed their double burgers. “Because I’m in.”

Faith cleared her throat and looked down, rubbing her hands together under the table as she glanced around for a change of topic. Her eyes finally fell on Jake, who sat at the end of the table, catty-corner from her and me, scarfing his own double burger.

“What about you, Jake? What are you guys doing for V-Day this weekend?” she asked.

Jake didn’t answer. He was too busy glaring toward the food line, his latest bite of burger bulging inside his right cheek. I tilted my head and leaned out into the aisle to see what he was looking at and spotted Chloe and Will. My heart sunk. Of course.

“I haven’t even thought about Valentine’s Day,” I said, filling the awkward silence. “I just want to get through the game tonight.”

“Nervous ’cause your new coach is coming?” Shannen said in an overly teasing voice. The Rutgers coach had sent me an e-mail letting me know she was going to be attending the game tonight with a couple of members of the team, kind of a cool way to support the new recruit. Of course the added pressure felt anything but supportive, but if I wanted to play at RU, I was going to have to get used to it. There were some pretty high expectations surrounding that team.

I glanced sideways at Jake. He was still glaring.

“Well, that and it is the Valley game,” I replied. “We must beat them down.”

“I heard that,” Shannen said, slapping my hand.

“Great. Basketball. Rah, rah, rah,” Faith said facetiously. “But no one has answered my question.” Everyone looked at Jake. There was no indication that he even knew any of us were there, let alone talking.

“Ja-ake!” Faith sang. She reached out and snapped her thin fingers in front of his face.

“What?” A couple of sesame seeds flew out of his mouth and she grimaced.

“I said, what are you guys doing for Valentine’s Day?” Faith asked again.

I held my breath, curious to hear his answer. Chloe and Will started to make their way down the aisle. He held their shared tray with one hand and clutched her fingers with the other.

“Oh, um—”

Just that one second of hesitation made my stomach flip.

“We don’t have a plan,” I interjected, feeling embarrassed.

“No. We do,” he said, putting his burger down on his tray. He dusted his fingers and reached for his soda cup. “We have plans, you just don’t know what they are.”

“Really?” I said, shocked. Jake hadn’t mentioned Valentine’s Day once, and I’d started to think that he was too wrapped up in his anti-Chloe obsession to plan anything. Plus things hadn’t been great between us lately, with his moodiness and my irritation over the way he’d been treating Chloe. I figured maybe he wasn’t interested. “You planned something?”

“Of course I did,” he said, leaning in to give me a kiss. “It’s Valentine’s Day.”

A smile twitched its way to my lips, and I reached for his hand. It was the first time since he’d found out about Chloe’s lie that I felt even remotely close to him. But just when my fingers were about to brush his under the table, Chloe and Will were passing by.

“Nice lunch, Chloe,” he said, his back to her. “I thought you were eating for two, not ten.”

The guys at the far end of the table cackled. Faith and Annie froze. My hand fell back into my lap.

“Jake …,” Shannen said in a disappointed, warning tone.

Will put the tray down on the end of the next table and turned toward Jake. “Do you have a problem, man?”

Jake wiped his fingertips on his napkin and shook his head, avoiding eye contact. “Not anymore, dude. It’s your problem now.”

Chloe shook her head. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“You don’t have to go,” I said. But it was too late. She was already waddling away. Faith got up to follow her, and Jake shot her this evil look, like he felt betrayed. In that moment his face looked entirely different. Sharper. Uglier, somehow. I barely even recognized him.

I was going to be sick. I really was.

“Why don’t you try saying that to my face?” Will said, taking a step closer to Jake.

Instantly, the guys at the far end of the table stood up, their chairs scraping against the linoleum. Will’s face got blotchy red, but he didn’t look away from Jake. In fact, I couldn’t understand why the heat of his glare wasn’t boring a hole in Jake’s skull.

“Okay.”

Jake got up as well. He was taller than Will, but only by a couple of inches. The two of them stared at each other, and I swear I could taste the flying testosterone.

“You guys, come on,” I said nervously. People were starting to take notice, getting up from their chairs, straining to see what was about to go down. “You don’t have to fight.”

“Oh, I actually think it’s long overdue,” Will said.

“Don’t talk to her,” Jake spat.

Will laughed under his breath. “Now you’re telling me who I can and can’t talk to? Who the hell do you think you are?”

From the corner of my eye I saw one of the history teachers, Mr. Bucolli, making his way toward us. He was short, neckless, and seriously stocky, and people had been calling him Mr. Troll-ie for years. The door to the teacher’s lounge opened and the vice principal, Dr. Giles, walked out as well. It was like he had a sixth sense for when a student was out for blood.

“I’m the guy who’s about to pummel your ass,” Jake said.

He grabbed the front of Will’s sweater and I yelped. At that moment, Mr. Bucolli’s beefy hands met Jake and Will’s chests and pried them apart. Man was definitely a wrestler in his earlier life.

“No one will be pummeling anyone’s anything,” he growled.

Jake and Will were both panting like bulls about to be released into a fighting ring. If Mr. Bucolli lowered his arms, they would have cracked skulls. Instead, the VP arrived and cleared his throat.

“Mr. Graydon, Mr. Halloran,” he said, tugging on the cuffs of his shirtsleeves beneath his jacket. “My office. Now.”

Neither one of them moved.

“Jake,” I pleaded.

He glanced at me then, but his eyes were blank. Then he reached down, grabbed his backpack, and stormed off, shoving open the cafeteria door with the heel of his hand.

“You too, Mr. Halloran,” Dr. Giles said.

Mr. Bucolli released him, and Will seemed to deflate. “Would you guys make sure Chloe eats something?” he said, glancing over at their forgotten tray.

“We’re on it,” Shannen said.

“Thanks.”

Then he turned around and trudged out with Dr. Giles at his heels. The guys slowly lowered themselves back into their chairs, and gradually the noise level in the cafeteria returned to normal, maybe even louder than normal, as everyone started blabbing about what had just happened. I stared down at my untouched pasta, feeling somehow hot and frigid at the same time.

“You okay?” Annie asked me.

“Sure.” I picked up my water bottle. My hand was shaking. I managed to take a sip, then cleared my throat. “Know how you guys were talking about Guys Suck Day?” I said weakly.

“Yeah,” Shannen and Annie said in unison.

“Well, I think I’m in for that,” I said grimly. “I think I’m most definitely in.”

jake

“It’s not like I don’t know what’s going on around this school,” Dr. Giles said.

The dude was seriously tall with dark skin and graying hair, but not intimidating. When he sat on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms over his thin chest I couldn’t help thinking I could take him. If they needed a disciplinarian around here, they should’ve given Mr. Troll-ie the job. His hand had felt like a brick against my chest. For a second there I thought he was going to snap me in half. Plus you don’t fuck with a guy who has that much hair growing out of his ears. There’s definitely something wrong there.

“I know what’s going on,” Dr. Giles continued. “The Internet age has been most enlightening.” He tugged a Droid phone out of his pocket and lit up the screen. “Thanks to this I can find out who’s doing what around here at any given moment of any day just by logging on to Twitter.”

I swallowed, but my throat was dry, which made me cough. Dr. Giles was reading our tweets? Okay. Maybe he was intimidating. My leg started to bounce up and down. At the far end of the couch, Will was frozen.

“I understand that the two of you are in a trying situation,” he continued, slipping the phone back into his pocket. “And I sympathize. I do.”

He got up and walked around his desk, then leaned both fists into it.

“But let’s get one thing clear right here and now,” he said, looking us each in the eye. “The animosity between you two will not manifest itself within these walls. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Will barked, like a soldier.

Kiss-ass. I couldn’t even remember what “animosity” meant. Let alone “manifest.”

“Good. Because if it does, you’ll both be suspended. This is your warning.” Dr. Giles stood up straight. “If I hear about one punch, one kick, one shove, you’re both out for a week. Understood?”

Right. That was clearer.

“Yes, sir,” Will said again.

“Yeah,” I muttered.

“Good. I’m glad we’re all on the same page.” He crossed over to the door, stepping over my backpack to get there, and yanked it open. “You can go now.”

I snatched my bag off the floor and walked out into the deserted hallway. Will was right behind me, but he speed-walked past me toward the caf, probably running back to Chloe.

“Watch your back, man,” I said under my breath.

He stopped in his tracks. I was surprised but kept walking. When I came up even with him, he turned to face me.

“What the hell is your problem?” he hissed.

“Seriously?” I blurted.

“Yes. Seriously. If anything I should hate you,” he shot back. My jaw dropped, but he kept right on talking. “I was going out with Chloe all summer and she cheated on me with you! Then you get to be there for her for months while she’s going through this stuff and I—”

“I get to be there with her?” I blurted, my face screwing up in disbelief. “Are you shitting me? You think that was fun?”

Will just stared at me. The silence, even five seconds of it, made me squirm.

“Because it wasn’t.”

My face was on fire. Because I was lying. I realized it just like that and it killed me. Dealing with Chloe and the baby, it hadn’t exactly been fun, but it had been kind of nice. Being there for her. Feeling like she needed me. Knowing there was going to be a kid who was a part of me. I’d felt … important. And now I was just the idiot who’d fallen for the biggest lie of all time. I was the jackass. I was the punch line.

And this guy, Will, was the father.

“Whatever, dude,” I said, shaking my head and turning away. “Like I said, she’s your problem now. Have fun.”

ally

“I can’t decide whether I want the centerpieces to be colorful and eclectic or sleek and sophisticated.”

My mom had been making figure eights around the four round tables of floral arrangements for at least half an hour. She paused in front of a spherical silver pot filled with white roses, and a tall, clear vase bursting with wildflowers. We’d left school together as soon as the last bell rang to squeeze in this shopping trip before my basketball game tonight. The biggest game of the year in more ways than one. I should have been hyped up and nervous. Instead I was tired and dreading it. In fact, I was dreading everything.

“Colorful and eclectic,” I replied, leaning my hip against the table.

“You think?” she asked.

“Mom, this is you we’re talking about. Look at you.”

She glanced down at her outfit—floral peasant top in deep purples, paired with jeans and mustard suede boots—and laughed. “You make an excellent point.”

“I know.”

I shrugged and glanced around the greenhouse. Up front, the florist was behind the counter, working the phones feverishly as he fielded his last-minute Valentine’s Day orders. He’d run off ten minutes ago to deal, promising to be right back, but we hadn’t seen him since. Now, just hearing him repeat people’s loving messages back to them made my heart hurt. After the way Jake had acted at school today, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be around him, let alone go out with him on the mushiest day of the year.

“Oh, and you can wear these gardenias in your hair!” my mother said, placing a pair of yellow flowers just behind my ear. “They’d be just the right pop of color with your black dress. And Jake could wear a matching tie!”

She shoved the gardenias into my hand, whipped out her notebook, and started making notes. I looked down at the blooms, twirling the stems between my thumb and forefinger until the color blurred. I wasn’t even sure that Jake was going to be coming to the wedding at this point. I mean, the thing was in May. Right now May seemed very far away.

“Ally?” my mom asked suddenly. “Are you okay?”

I blinked back my tears and tried to smile. “Yeah! I’m fine!”

“Sweetie, are you sure?” She put her hand on my shoulder. “You look like you’re about to cry.”

My heart welled up into my throat. I wanted to tell her what was going on. I so did. But she was so happy and excited. And this was the first time we’d gotten to do anything wedding related together without Quinn. I didn’t want to ruin it for her. If Jake and I broke up tomorrow … then I’d tell her about it tomorrow.

“I’m just happy for you,” I said, my voice thick.

You’d think I’d just told her I was going to be valedictorian, that’s how happy she looked. “Aw, Ally!”

She pulled me in for a hug, and I pressed my face into her shoulder, letting myself squeeze out a few tears. When she pulled back again, I was smiling. The remainder of my inevitable breakdown was going to have to wait for a better time.

“I love you, kiddo,” she said as the florist finally appeared at the open doorway.

I tossed the gardenias onto the table and stood motionless while one of them tumbled to the dirt-covered floor. “I love you, too.”

ally

Thirty seconds left in the first half. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck. My pulse pounded in my ears, muting the sounds of the crowd. The ball was in my hands. I looked left. I looked right. The Valley players were everywhere, blocking out my teammates, practically tackling them to the floor. I dribbled twice for good measure, stalling. What should I do? What the hell should I do? Take the shot from here? Take the ball to the net? Make the pass? What, what, what?

Twenty seconds left. My eyes darted around the gym. Coach screaming to make the play. The players from Rutgers on their feet. My mom, dad, and Gray, sitting together, cheering like crazy. Jake shouting his head off. It was too much. I had to focus. We needed a score to go into halftime up. We needed a score now.

Suddenly Shannen slipped away from her defender. I saw her long arm reach out toward the sideline. I looked away from her to the left, trying to fake out the girl guarding me, and tossed it to Shannen. The girl cursed under her breath as she lost her balance and her fingertips grazed the shiny wood floor. Shannen turned. Set up the shot. Let it fly.

“Go, Shannen!” I heard Chloe scream.

I hadn’t even realized she was here.

The buzzer sounded, and the ball swished through the net.

“Three points at the buzzer!” the announcer called out. “And the score at halftime: Orchard Hill, twenty-three; Valley, twenty-one.”

I ran over and gave Shannen a half hug as we joined the rest of the team by the bench. The Rutgers coach was on her feet along with my two soon-to-be-teammates, cheering for me. Our ball girl handed out Gatorade. I tried to catch my breath. Tried not to grin too hugely. The hordes emptied out down the bleachers and toward the door, going for the snack bar while the cheerleaders launched into their halftime routine. Chloe and Will were on the bottom bench. He whispered something to her and got up. Right then, just as Coach was saying something about stepping up the offense in the second half, Jake trudged down the bleachers and slammed Will’s shoulder from behind with the full force of his body.

No. No, no, no. Not now. Please not now.

And suddenly the entire world zipped into focus. Will whirled around and slammed his fist into Jake’s jaw. Chloe and I both screamed. Everyone scattered away from them like ripples from a tossed rock, moving up the bleachers, across, toward the door. Jake recovered and threw himself on top of Will, and then they were both on the floor, wailing on each other like rabid animals.