Judging from the look on Chase’s face when I answer the door, I look just fine. Better than. Or, if I wasn’t sure, his “Wow, you look gorgeous” helps.

“Thanks,” I say, accepting a kiss on the cheek. I call back to my mom that I’m heading out and wait until I hear her “Have fun!” before following him out to his car.

There’s no movie theater in Stratford, but the multiplex with the awesome seats is only a fifteen-minute drive, so we buckle in and make small talk about school and the movie’s reviews and work and the football team. More than once, I catch him checking me out at a red light, and by the time we get to the theater, I’m bursting to ask him the thing that’s been bothering me since the first day of school.

“Hey, can I ask you a weird question?”

He shuts off the engine. “How weird are we talking?”

“It’s … you’ve known for a while that I like you, right?” I can’t believe the words coming out of my mouth. “Like, it hasn’t exactly been the best-kept secret at Stratford.”

He grins, and I wish the overhead light hadn’t gone off so I could see him in better light. “A little while, maybe. But I like you too.”

“Yeah, I got that,” I say, and we both laugh. “I guess I’m just wondering … why now? Is it really the haircut? The blond? I hope it’s not the tan, because that’s already on its way out.”

“Those things don’t hurt,” he says, reaching out to lightly yank a golden curl, “but no, it isn’t that you’re prettier than before. You just seem different. You kinda … glow. I mean, you walked into school that first day straight-up strutting.” He laughs, more sheepishly this time. “God, that sounds dumb. But do you know what I mean? You seem happier, a little more fearless, a little less like…”

“Like…?”

“I’m trying to figure out how to say this in a way that doesn’t sound awful.”

My stomach tightens. “Well, it can’t sound worse than this.”

“Fair enough.” He meets my gaze full-on, his eyes glowing with the reflection of the neon lights. “You seem less like you’re in Shannon Salter’s shadow. Like you somehow came into your own this summer. If that’s not a really stupid and terrible thing to say.”

I shake my head slowly. “It isn’t either of those things.” I hadn’t really put it into those words, but I think I felt some of that too.

The only problem was that sure, I hadn’t spent the summer in Shannon’s shadow, but maybe I’m in Jasmine’s shadow. Only no one knows it.