Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn 1)

“Okay?” he asks, standing close to me. So close we’re almost touching. “I can’t handle it, you and me not being friends.” Quietly he adds, “You mean a lot to me. Always have. Always will.”

I open my mouth to speak, but before I can say anything, he starts to back away, back toward the field. Jogging, he calls, “Don’t think I’m letting you out of running those laps, Cho!”

I run them. Every last lap. Because if I stop, I’ll have to start thinking about what he said, and how I felt when he said it.

*    *    *

On Thursday, game day, PJ surprises me with a Tupperware full of snickerdoodles. I’m pretty sure his mom made them, because they are wrapped up in wax paper, and they are so perfectly chewy and soft, but I’m fine with that. All Ashlin gets from Derek is a sleeve of Chips Ahoy!, not even the whole box. Still, she is excited because she likes him and she’ll take anything he gives her. Reeve made Rennie some kind of protein cookie. They are as hard as bricks and they look like manure, but Rennie makes a big show of eating them at lunch.

A ton of people show up to watch us play. Not as many as an actual football game, but still. The boys from the team dress up in cheerleading uniforms and wigs and cheer along the side. It’s pretty funny. PJ wears a long black wig, and he keeps trying to do toe-touches, my signature move.

Just like I predicted, Rennie and Reeve’s team wins. Rennie scores the only touchdown, and she just about clotheslines Teresa to make it to the end zone. After the game is over, Reeve throws her over his shoulder and carries her off the field, screaming himself hoarse. As if they won the gold medal at the Olympics or something.

They better enjoy it while they can. Because they’re about to lose, big-time.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

MARY

ACCORDING TO LILLIA, COACH CHRISTY KEEPS HER office locked at all times. Ten minutes and thirty-three seconds ago, she entered her office with the box of homecoming ballots. Her door is open a crack. She’s been typing on her computer for the past seven minutes and ten seconds. I know because I’ve been watching the clock at the end of the hallway the whole time. I’m leaned up against some lockers, and Kat is pretending to text on her phone by the water fountain.

At exactly four o’clock Lillia comes flying past Kat and me, her ponytail swishing from side to side. “Coach Christy!” she calls out frantically. “You have to come right now! There’s a cheer-mergency in the girls’ locker room!”

“What’s going on, Lillia?” Coach Christy asks, stepping out of her office.

“Please just hurry!” she says, tugging on Coach Christy’s arm. “I think one of the freshman girls is having a breakdown or something. She’s totally freaking out!”

The two of them disappear down the hallway.

Kat and I grin at each other, and after a quick glance around to make sure no one’s watching us, we slip inside. I stay crouched by the door while Kat makes a beeline for the ballot box. She said Pat taught her how to pick locks when she was a kid. All you needed was a piece of a soda can. It seemed crazy to me, but she opens it in almost five seconds. She dumps the contents out on Coach Christy’s desk.

“Looks like Reeve won without our help,” Kat grunts as she sifts through the piles.

“I’m not surprised,” I say. “He’s definitely the best-looking guy in the senior class.” Kat gives me a weird look, but it’s true. She stuffs some slips of paper into her messenger bag. Votes for Rennie, I assume. Rennie won’t get to stand up there on that stage with him now. Too bad for her. Maybe she shouldn’t be such a bully.

I train my eyes back on the hallway. Lillia and the coach could be back any minute. “Are you almost done?” I whisper.

“I’m just counting to make sure Ashlin has enough votes,” she says, her head down.

That’s when I hear Lillia’s voice coming down the hallway, high and hyper. “Oh, my gosh. I thought she was crying, but I guess she was just laughing!”

“Kat!”

Kat’s head snaps up. “I’m not done counting!”

I shake my head. “We have to hide!”

Kat stuffs the ballots back into the box and then looks around the room frantically before she sees the supply cubby. She gestures at me to follow, but when she opens the door, we see that it’s way too small for both of us.

Lillia is babbling, and now they’re right outside the door. “It’s so weird! I mean, I think I even heard rumors she was a cutter or something, but I guess not! Maybe it’s just multiple personality disorder.” She giggles nervously. “We’ve all been kind of crazed, with all the stress of homecoming.”

I dart behind the office door, and peek out to the hallway through a tiny sliver between the door hinges.

“Well, I appreciate you keeping me in the loop, Lillia. It’s important that I know what’s going on with my squad.”

“Oh, totally.”

“Is there anything else?”

Through the crack Lillia’s and my eyes meet. Hers go huge. And then the phone sitting on Coach Christy’s desk rings.

“I’ve got to get that,” she says. Coach Christy grabs a hold of the door. I see her fingers curl around it. She’s going to close it, take the phone call in private. If she does, I’m done for. I am trying so hard not to breathe. I curl my feet in as tightly as I can and close my eyes. We’re going to get caught, and it will be my fault.

“Wait!” Lillia cries out.

“Just a minute, Lillia,” Coach Christy says. “I’ll be right with you.”

Coach Christy stops talking suddenly, and my heart almost stops. I open my eyes. But Coach Christy hasn’t seen me after all. She shouts, “Lillia!” and rushes out.

I peek through the crack again. Lillia has fainted. She is a small heap on the floor of the hallway. Coach Christy is shaking her, trying to wake her up. Lillia flutters her lids. “I don’t feel so good,” she whispers. “Can you take me to the nurse’s office?”

Coach Christy practically sweeps her off the floor, throwing one of Lillia’s arms around her shoulders. And then they’re gone.

“They’re gone!” I whisper loudly to Kat.

She crawls out of the cubby. “That was way too close.” I figure she’ll go back to the ballots, but instead she runs into the hallway. I follow her.

“Boo-yah!” Kat yells when we get outside.