Honestly, Lex is always better than me at terraball. And any other athletic activity she convinces me to do. She’s the kind of person who kills it in sports based on her sheer athleticism. Terraball, soccer, cross-country, flame archery—she’s good at everything.

I snag a mangled piece of foam and lie down with it propped under my head as a pillow. We both rest there in silence for a minute, taking a moment to catch our breath.

“Do you have MAT prep this week?” I ask.

“No, I convinced the magimeds that I can prep on my own for the last week before the test,” Lex says, her expression clouding.

Lex’s parents are both magimeds. Seriously. I think they met in medical school. Her mom helps older people whose magical abilities have started to degenerate, and her dad is a heart surgeon.

“My tutor was seriously stressing me out,” Lexi says after a pause.

My heart clenches when she talks about her private MAT tutor. I shouldn’t still feel this way, because Lex isn’t ever trying to throw it in my face that her family can afford stuff that mine can’t, but it doesn’t make me want that stuff any less.

“She acted like I was stupid every time we met,” Lex continues.

“You’re not stupid,” I say immediately. Lex is self-conscious about that. As far as schoolwork goes, Lex is incredible at things she’s passionate about and mediocre at doing work she’s not interested in, so her high school GPA wasn’t high enough for her parents’ standards.

“Thanks.”

“Do you want to do practice tests with me this week?”

She pulls a face. “No, thanks. I think I’ll be fine.”

“Come on,” I say, grinning at her. “You can come over to my place. My mom will feed you.”

“It’s fine, Shay. Don’t worry about it,” she snaps.

I stare at her, wondering what made her mad. Did she think I was being condescending?

She sits up and rubs a hand over her face, then pushes it back through her black hair. “Sorry. I’m just stressed.”

“About what?” I say, sitting up as well.

“My parents are on my back to do all this stuff so I can get into college. I’m already taking that online class, and working at Pilar’s, and doing extra volunteering, and studying to take the MATs and the SATs again.” She frowns. “It’s too late for this year anyway. I’ve already submitted most of my applications. It just feels like they’re planning for me to fail at this point.”