Most Likely to Succeed

The next second I grabbed her shoulder to keep her from tumbling into the aisle as the van hit the on-ramp for the interstate too fast and we lurched around the curve. My stomach spun with the van. I’d just realized Harper’s warning not to kick Sawyer when he was down had come too late.

As the van straightened and Harper was no longer in danger of sailing across it, I took my hands off her and slapped them over my mouth. I opened them to tell her, “Sawyer got mad at me and went to ride on the band bus because I told him he didn’t have any plans after graduation and he’d be living in a box under the interstate.”

Harper gaped at me. “Kaye!” When even she acted outraged, I knew I was in trouble. “Why did you say that?”

“I didn’t know he was actually homeless! It seemed like a clever reaction to . . . He was . . .” I tried to remember exactly what he’d been doing to me when I insulted him. My most distinct impression was of him running his fingers through my hair, whispering in my ear, and making chills rush down my arms. That’s what I’d pushed him away for.

“He teases you and bugs you,” Harper said gently. “But he’s a real person.”

“I know that,” I said, careful not to snap at Harper, who never deserved it.

It was a night of firsts. As soon as we arrived at school, I would have to tell Sawyer I was sorry.

* * *

The senior band bus beat us back. Watching out my window as we pulled to a stop, I saw Sawyer open the door of his truck and heft the bag with his costume into the passenger side. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to apologize at Harper’s house later with Harper and especially Tia there—at least, not the way I wanted.

“See ya soon.” I jumped over Harper into the aisle with my bag and pompons in tow, raced down the steps, and galloped over to Sawyer’s truck just as he was glancing over his shoulder to back out. When he saw me, he gave me that cold, emotionless look again, but he cranked down the window.

“Can I have a minute?” I asked.

He bit his lip and gazed at me like he wasn’t at all sure I deserved a whole minute. Finally he turned off the engine and raised his eyebrows at me.

“I had no idea you’d moved out until Harper told me in the van,” I said in a rush. “When I mentioned the box, I wasn’t trying to insult you.”

He watched me silently for a moment. “You were trying to insult me. Just not about that. You were insulting me for not being good enough to get into Columbia.”

“Saw-yer!” A shrill majorette, decked out in skimpy sequins, pushed past me to lean through his window. This was a freshman who didn’t view the head cheerleader and student council vice president with the proper awe. She was young enough to be rude. “I didn’t drop my baton even once during halftime. You can’t make fun of me anymore!”

“Oh, I can always make fun of you,” he assured her.

To put as much of herself as possible through his window, she stood on her tiptoes in her knee-high majorette boots, with her sequined ass in the air. I stood there staring at it, feeling like a bellboy lugging my bag and pompons around. Without ceremony I walked one parking place over, unlocked my trunk, and dumped my stuff inside. I didn’t want to interrupt Sawyer when he was busy coming on to his new girlfriend for this particular half hour.

“Kaye,” Aidan said beside me.

I whirled around. “Hey!” I was halfway between guilt that he’d almost caught me talking to Sawyer, and satisfaction that Sawyer could peek in his rearview mirror and see me talking to Aidan. Maybe Sawyer could find out what jealousy felt like, for once. I hadn’t been so glad to see Aidan in months.

“Do you want to follow me back to my house so I can drop off my car?” I asked. “Or we could go to the beach now. I brought my bag for Harper’s, and I’m sure my car would be safe here overnight.” As I heard my own words, I pictured making out at the beach with Aidan, as we’d planned.

And I didn’t want to.

He shocked me by saying, “I don’t think we should go.”

“Okay,” I said a little too cheerfully. “Why not?”

“I talked to Ms. Yates.”

I nodded. “Again? At the game?” Maybe they’d realized they’d been wrong to protest saving the homecoming dance.

No such luck. “I mean, I talked to her in the lunchroom today,” he said. “She told me about the screwup with the Superlatives elections.”

“Oh.” I felt fresh sweat break out along my hairline. Ms. Yates must have decided Aidan, as student council president, needed to know about the Superlatives problem after all. I wished I’d told him first. I should have told him, even if he’d had to keep it a secret from Ms. Yates that he knew.

And now that I’d spent the whole game cuddling with Sawyer, I felt like I’d been caught.

“Being elected Perfect Couple with Sawyer doesn’t mean anything,” I said quickly. “I’m sure it was just a joke. Sawyer probably organized people to vote for him and me, just to make me mad.” I did think this was possible—though if it was true, that was some joke, and Sawyer had done more than try to make me mad. He’d tried to get my attention.

“That doesn’t matter,” Aidan said. “The idea of him going after you is so ridiculous anyway. I mean, it’s Sawyer.” He wrinkled his nose as he said Sawyer’s name. “I’m more offended that you lied to me about being elected Most Likely to Succeed with me. But that doesn’t matter either. What matters is that you screwed up the election.”