Chaz doesn’t even blink. “Laney left her keys in the car.” God, he’s fast, and his story is better than mine. I hold them up as proof as he continues. “She sent us to get them.” He doesn’t even let Buckman respond. “Have you been to the cafeteria? We’re almost done, and it’s amazing. Best prom ever.”

Chaz chatters so constantly, striding on long legs back down the hill, that Buckman has no choice to follow us partway. “You guys don’t have a free pass to just roam the campus. Stay where you’re supposed to be.”

I try on my best sycophant voice. “Thanks, Mr. Buckman. We will.”

He sees right through my faux sincerity and curls his lip, ready to snarl something, but Chaz starts praising the star swing he made and talks so much that Buckman raises his hands to stop him before retreating back the way he came. I’m so impressed with Chaz’s diversion skills. I could kiss him. I really could. Why does he make it so hard?

I see Chaz with new appreciation. “You shut him down!”

“I wasn’t about to let him ruin things.” He tenders a sly smile. “I’ve never been asked out before. I want to remember tonight just this way—the stars, the Cars, and you.” And then he’s through the cafeteria door, leaving me beneath the night sky, totally confused.

This boy. This boy.

Second Best

Second Best

A bagel bar is set up in the dorm lobby, and there’s a lot of grumbling about a cold breakfast. Chaz is nowhere in sight, and Ernie is, per usual, a log fallen in a forest where it made no sound. My choices are a cinnamon crunch bagel the size of a hub cap, strawberries, which look a little too pale for consumption, and melon that I swear is perspiring. Honestly, is poor quality fruit even healthy? I take the bagel.

My internal debate over food has me so preoccupied, I don’t even see Vin Weasel behind me in line until I turn and crush my cinnamon crunch bagel into his Styx T-shirt. (I can still eat it because it didn’t touch the floor!) I apologize, but the bagel isn’t his focus. “You like making trouble, dontcha?”

This is how I learn that Ma Elena has broken up with Gordo. “And he knows you put her up to it.”

“I did no such thing!’

“Sure, you didn’t.”

“What is your problem? Why are you guys so obsessed with me?”

His face is red. “Gordo knew there was something up with you from the moment you arrived.”

“I was barely on campus before he was threatening bodily harm!”

“Coulda been worse. Still could be.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?” If so, it’s working.

“You think you just can show up and ruin people’s senior year—”

“I have that power?”