Willowdean begins to pluck trash off the ground and put it into the trash bag Amanda is holding out for her. “He’s so hot and cold. One minute, he’s ghosting me, and the next, he’s doing these huge grand gestures like asking me to prom in front of a restaurant full of people. We would be at work and he would just run off after our shift when we would normally hang out, or he would be busy texting other people when he’d invited me over, and when I asked if it was another girl, he was, like, offended that I’d even think that. What else was I supposed to think? And now prom is coming up and I don’t have a date and I never thought I’d ever care about that, but I guess I do.” Her nostrils flare as she lets out a loud huff.

“If it makes you feel less alone, I am very, very much dateless and I’d love to hang with you at prom,” I tell her.

“Me too!” says Amanda. “It’ll be great. We’ll all be together. Why is it that we work so hard to get through twelve years of school and somehow the pinnacle of it all depends on whether or not you have a date for one random night?”

“She’s not wrong,” I say.

Amanda tips her invisible cap to me.

Willowdean musters a smile and nods. “Thanks, y’all.”

“Cherry Bomb” comes on through the speaker, letting me know this is definitely Clem’s playlist, and Hannah cranks the volume up. “Less talk. More work!”

After a few songs, Tucker jogs into the room, sweat beading down his jaw. “Sorry I’m late,” he says, trying to catch his breath.

I hand him my dustpan. “Did you run here?”

“Uh, yeah, actually, I did,” he says, slumping against a collapsing desk.

“In jeans?” It’s hot enough today that you could break a sweat sitting perfectly still. Running in jeans? That’s asking for swamp ass.

“I think the people of Clover City would prefer I keep my pants on.”

“Speak for yourself,” says Willowdean from across the room with a laugh.

The blush in Tucker’s cheeks spreads up his ears, or maybe he’s just flushed from his two-mile run. “I was having car trouble, so I left the truck at school and hoofed it.”

“You could’ve called me,” I tell him, even though I’m even more pissed now that he’s late, and having to give him a ride after that incident in the parking lot would have made my day even worse.