We won in sudden death, making our claim of an undefeated season more legit, because we had two victories under our belts now. It wasn’t until I got to the locker room that things started to really go sideways. It began when I looked at my helmet. Yes, I had been seeing our helmet on other teammates continually for the last twenty minutes, but there are things you don’t notice until you really take the time to look at them. On my helmet—on all of the helmets—instead of a snarling blue wave, there was a grinning blue demon.

I swallowed. Hard. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t ask anyone about it. The locker room suddenly felt humid, and more sweaty than usual. I showered, dressed, and got out into the fresh air as quickly as I could. Well, I thought, at least it’s still blue.

I waited for the others in the parking lot. The plan was to go to the usual place, with the usual people, and eat the usual food. I had been hungry. I wasn’t anymore.

“I’ll ride with Layton,” Norris said when he saw me waiting. “Because I don’t feel like risking my life again.”

Layton laughed, and squeezed Katie a little closer. “Yeah, I heard about that. What a waste it would have been if you actually got hit,” he said. “Not you guys—I mean the car.”

I gave him the obligatory sneer. Katie, I noticed, was wearing her makeup a little heavy today. Actually, I had noticed it before. Some girls do that. Cupcake face. It’s like the way some guys wear too much cologne. Stenchies. Usually the Cupcakes and the Stenchies find each other and discover spackled, pungent bliss. But Katie had always been a less-is-more kind of girl. Not that she was fully slathered in the stuff now, but more and more often she looked like she had been professionally made up for a glamour shoot. A little much for football and the food court, even for a cheerleader.

I might have given it more thought, but at the moment, I was seeing blue demons everywhere—stickers on cars, T-shirts, the scoreboard in the field. I just wanted to get out of there. That’s when I clicked the button on my remote to find my car, because I couldn’t see it in the lot.

My car was an old Dodge that had seen better days. But that wasn’t the car that responded to my remote. I thought it was just coincidence, so I did it again, only to see the same car flash and beep.

“Ha!” I said. “That Beemer has the same frequency as my piece of crap. Maybe I oughta take it.”

“Dude,” said Norris, shaking his head. “That is your car.”