“What is wrong with you people? I’m probably younger than you.”

She definitely wasn’t.

“It’s just that,” Cal pressed on, “if we all look both ways, we can’t split up.”

She had a point. KQ flashed red and rolled her eyes. “Must I do everything for you plebs? Fine, count to three, like infants. Go on, Trey—start us off.”

“One,” Trey said, as if it weren’t an insult at all.

“Two,” I said, half-relieved I wouldn’t be in the same group as Trey and half-disappointed I couldn’t hang out with Cal during work.

The rest of the table finished, counting the way children do with sheep at bedtime.

“Great. So, now, the first three: you’re a group. The next three: you’re a group, and so on. If you can’t figure that out, you can go down a floor.” KQ stood up and shoved her feet into her heels. “Now, go on and make Hell proud.”

Trey spun around in his chair to face us.

“So, brainstorming dinner tonight?”

I couldn’t think of an excuse fast enough, so I nodded. Cal nodded right after me, almost like she was waiting to see what I said.

“I know a great place,” Trey said, writing down an address, followed by his beeper number. If you were wondering where beepers went, Hell is the answer. They all went to Hell, and now we have to use them. “It’s on Fourth. Beep me if you have any problems getting in; the line can be long. But don’t worry, the bouncers know me.” Trey winked and pushed out of his seat.

“This is going to be horrible, isn’t it?” Cal asked as soon as he was gone.

“Nothing short of horrible,” I answered. Cal shoved her pens into their case, which wouldn’t close all the way. She tugged on the zipper. I reached into my pouch for a rubber band.

“It will never close,” I said, handing it over.

MICKEY

“SO, WHAT’S THE VERDICT?” Eliot asked the following day, when Mickey reached the bench and grabbed her water bottle. The other girls were ready, all giddy stares. They must have talked about it. What they didn’t know was that Mickey was ready too. She wouldn’t get stuck this time.

“Are you switching to our team? Or are you going to grow some tits?”

Water caught in her throat.

No boy had commented on her body before. Her voice, the way she ate, the way she scrunched her eyebrows when she read, the way she breathed at night—all of that was fair game with her brother. But never her body. She turned red, which made her angry, which made her turn redder. She opened her mouth, but her mind drew a blank. All of her comebacks fled.