Maria had a thing about holding hands. She could do it for hours and never get tired. Sometimes she even liked it better than kissing. When you were holding hands, she said, you knew it wasn’t about sex. It was about liking somebody and wanting them to know it.

Last year Maria had been in charge of a fund-raising drive for the student council. They were supposed to raise $5,000 for a women’s shelter in Lennox. Maria started calling Acheron alumni and made their goal with her very first call, to a lawyer in New York who said she was delighted to hear Acheron was finally trying to do some good in the community. The lawyer wrote a $5,000 check then and there, and everyone celebrated the end of the fund raiser.

But then Maria raised their goal to $10,000. She made more phone calls. She organized parent receptions and car washes. The council members grumbled about how much work they had to do, but no one worked harder than Maria, even though it was the middle of soccer season. They raised $12,000 for the shelter in the end—and the girls’ soccer team lost the league championship qualifier to Birnam. Maria said the fund raiser didn’t have anything to do with it, but Lily suspected that if the team had won that game, Maria would’ve looked a lot better to the Kingsley committee.

Maria was sweet, no question. Sometimes, though, that sweetness got in the way of her getting what she deserved.

“I looked up the Spanish,” Lily told her. “It said you were going to get whatever you wished for most.”

Maria shook her head.

“It did,” Lily said. “Didn’t it?”

“Something like that.”

“Then come on, Ree!” Lily squeezed her hand. “You should be happy! Whoever it was—Jesus or Satan or my great-grandpa James—it said you’re winning. We’ll get to be together next year!”

Maria shook her head again. “You know how much I want that, but none of this means anything. It’s done.”

“It’s not done until they announce the actual winners. That won’t be until after Christmas break. It’s barely even November. We’ve got time to change things.”

“But it’s too late to—”

“Don’t you want to come to the same school as me?” Lily shook her head. She loved Maria, but she could be so frustrating sometimes. So willing to accept things the way they were. When Lily always saw the way things could be. “Don’t you want to win, Ree? Isn’t that what you’ve wanted your whole life?”

That wasn’t fair to say, and Lily knew it. Of course Maria wanted to win.