Most Likely to Succeed

Now this was something I’d expected him to ask. In fact, it was the first thing he’d ever said to me when he moved to town two years ago. Back then I’d uttered an outraged “No!” He’d wanted to know why—he wasn’t good enough for me? Who did I think I was, a bank president’s daughter?

After a while, though, I’d gotten wise to Sawyer’s game. Every girl in school knew he wasn’t exclusive and meant nothing by his flirtations. That didn’t stop any of us from having a soft spot for this hard-living boy. And it didn’t stop me from feeling special every time he paid me attention.

Something had changed this school year when he started practicing with us cheerleaders in his pelican costume as school mascot. He stood right behind me on the football field, imitating my every step, even after I whirled around and slapped him on his foam beak. When we danced the Wobble, he moved the wrong way on purpose, running into me. With no warning he often rushed up, lifted me high, and gave me full-body, full-feathered hugs. Because he was in costume, everybody, including Aidan, knew it was a joke.

Only I took it seriously. I enjoyed it too much and wished he’d do the same things to me with the costume off.

My crush on him was hopeless. He was toying with me, like he toyed with everyone. Plus, I was committed to Aidan. Lately this was hard to remember.

“Yes, of course I’ll marry you,” I told Sawyer, making sure I sounded sarcastic.

The door opened, letting in the noise from the hall. “Hey,” Will said, lilting that one syllable in his Minnesota accent. Lucky for him, derision about the way he talked had waned over the first five weeks of school. He’d started dating my friend Tia, who gave people the stink eye when they bad-mouthed him. And he’d made friends with Sawyer—a smart move on Will’s part. Sawyer could be a strong ally or a powerful enemy.

Sawyer waited for a couple more classroom representatives to follow Will toward the back of the room. Then he turned to me again. “Would you go to the prom with me?”

“Yes.” This was the game. He asked me a series of questions, starting with the outlandish ones. I said yes to those. Eventually he asked me something that wasn’t as crazy, forcing me to give him the obvious answer: I had a boyfriend.

Here it came. “Will you sit with me in the van to the game tonight?”

A spark of excitement shot through me. A few weeks ago, Sawyer had passed out from the heat on the football field in his heavy mascot costume. Ever since, he’d ditched the suit during cheerleading practice and worked out with the football team instead, claiming he needed to get in better shape to withstand entire games dressed up as a pelican.

I missed him at cheerleading. I’d assumed he would ride with the football players to our first away game, but I wished he would ride in the cheerleader van. Now my wish was coming true.

Careful not to sound too eager, I said, “I didn’t know you were riding with us. You’ve been more football player than cheerleader lately.”

“I’m a pelican without a country,” he said. “Some unfortunate things may have gotten superglued to other things in the locker room after football practice yesterday. The guys went to the coach and said they don’t want me to ride on the bus with them because they’re scared of what I’ll do. The coach agreed. Can you believe that? I’m not even innocent until proven guilty.”

“Are you guilty?” Knowing Sawyer, I didn’t blame the team for accusing him.

“Yes,” he admitted, “but they didn’t know that for sure.” He settled his elbow on the desk and his chin in his hand, watching me. “You, on the other hand, understand I never mean any harm. You’ll sit with me in the van, right?”

I wanted to. My face burned with desire—desire for a seat, of all things. Next to a boy who was nothing but trouble.

And I knew my line. “We can’t sit together, Sawyer. Aidan wouldn’t like it.”

Sawyer’s usual response would be to imitate me in a sneering voice: Aidan wouldn’t like it!

Instead, he grabbed Ms. Yates’s chair and rolled me closer to him. Keeping his hands very near my bare knees, he looked straight into my eyes and asked softly, “Why do you stay with Aidan when he bosses you around? You don’t let anyone else do that.”

Tia and my friend Harper grilled me at every opportunity about why I stayed with Aidan, too, but they didn’t bring up the subject while representatives for the entire school could hear. My eyes flicked over to the student council members, who were filling the desks and noisily dragging extra chairs off the cart, and Ms. Yates, who was making her way toward the back of the room with her coffee. Aidan himself would be here any second.

I told Sawyer quietly but firmly, “You would boss me around just as much as Aidan does. What’s the difference?”

“That’s not true.” Sawyer moved even closer. I watched his lips as he said, “I wouldn’t ask for much. What I wanted, you would give me willingly.”

Time stopped. The bustle around us went silent. The classroom disappeared. All that was left was Sawyer’s mouth forming words that weren’t necessarily dirty, yet promised a dark night alone in the cab of his truck. My face flushed hot, my breasts tightened underneath my cute yellow bodice, and electricity shot straight to my crotch.

The many nights I’d pulled Tia away from Sawyer at parties over the past two years, she’d drunkenly explained that he had a way of talking her panties off. I’d heard this from other girls too. And he’d flirted with me millions of times, making me feel special, but never quite this special. Now I understood what Tia and those other girls had meant.