The sound of a door slamming makes us all look up. As if Jasmine knew I was gonna be wearing my blandest outfit, she’s wearing what must be one of her loudest—black-and-white-checkered hip huggers, a cropped hot-pink sweater that looks gorgeous with her deeply tanned skin, and big gold hoops that poke through her thick, silky curtain of hair. She’s usually a few inches taller than me, but today she’s wearing platforms that lift her a few extra.

She looks like she wants to be noticed.

I try not to think about whom she’d like to be noticed by.

It’s a few weeks into the school year and I haven’t heard any rumors of Jasmine getting with anyone or even flirting, though I’ve heard of plenty of guys expressing interest. She’s getting a reputation as mysterious and elusive—everything I thought she was before I got to know her. Everything she’s been to me again since she moved here.

This summer she felt like someone I’d been born to know, and now I feel like I can’t predict a damn thing.

Which I guess is back to being how she likes it.

“Good morning!” Shannon greets her sunnily as she slips in the backseat with Gia, and Jasmine grunts in the universal language of “I haven’t had my coffee yet.” Shannon laughs and says that clearly a stop at the Starbucks drive-thru will be required.

Jasmine mumbles her appreciation. Even fully decked out, she has never been a morning person, though she does warm up a bit when Gia declares her outfit cute.

We’re driving for about a minute when Jasmine speaks up. “What are you guys listening to? Is that Kiki?”

I cringe as Gia launches into an explanation of the episode, glad that Jasmine can’t see me from her seat behind me.

“Secret relationships. Interesting.” Jasmine sure sounds awake now. “So … fraught. I wonder what brought that on.”

I dig my nails into the seat, not caring if it chips the pink polish I applied last night.

“It must suck to have to keep a relationship secret,” Gia muses. “I mean, I guess it’s kind of romantic, having something just between the two of you, but if I couldn’t hold Tommy’s hand in the hallway or kiss him at the movies—”

“And in the lunch room, and in class, and at parties, and at—”

“Oh, shut up,” Gia says to Shannon as Jasmine snorts and I full-on laugh. Gia likes to think she’s restrained about PDA, but she’s delusional. She would be a terrible spy.

Definitely not a candidate for a secret relationship.