“Sorry, too many music documentaries for me.” Her phone buzzed on the countertop. “Piper’s on her way over.” She said it in a pointed, take the hint kind of way.

“I need to head out.” I checked at my imaginary watch. “It’s already ten.”

Another well-earned chuckle. “Eleven actually. Thanks for shoveling.”

“I’ll bring the salt by later, so everything doesn’t freeze up overnight.” Sliding my boots on, I balanced against the wall. At least I’d have another excuse to stop by.

“You don’t have to. It says after tonight’s cold snap, tomorrow things will be in the 60s, so everything will melt. You probably didn’t even have to shovel today. We could’ve just waited it out.”

Here I was trying to find reasons to see her, and she was looking for reasons to shove me out the door. What was I doing, and why was I torturing myself?

12

Bay

The brass instruments blared in the enclosed gym. Deafening noise rumbled the wooden seat under my ass, inching me to the right. If they played for much longer, I might slide right off the edge onto the worn gym floor. The basketball court didn’t get the kind of love the football field got, but the rain had shunted our school-wide pep rally inside.

“There isn’t a game for another six months.”

Piper sat beside me, waving her cheerleader issued pom-pom with the energy of a tranquilized turtle. “You’re forgetting about the Bedlam Bowl. Four juniors signed their commitment letters after that game last year.”

I squinted peering over at her.

She shrugged. “What? I hear things. And you should know by now that introducing the starting line-up for the next season has taken on as much fanfare as homecoming or any other football-based activity.” The pep in her voice was as fake as half the tans in the overly-loud, echo-y gym.

“Stage crew tech was held together with literal electrical tape.” She tucked the pom-pom under her arm.

“No shit, I got zapped at least five times helping you guys set up, but there never seems to be a dip in funding for events like these.” I could barely keep my eyes open. I’d gotten less than three hours of sleep last night.

“At least we don’t have to change for gym today?”

“Always looking on the bright side.” I laughed and scribbled down one of the answers on the last row of my homework assignment. Yesterday might have left a little less time for finishing it than normal with the snowball fight and two cups of hot cocoa with Dare.

“I need you to play it cool.” Her fingers tightened on my forearm.

“Death grip much, Piper?” I stared at her.

“Be cool! Dare is looking at you.”

My fingers tightened on the highlighter, sending my line graph off the edge of my notebook. I flipped the page, not looking up. The last thing I needed was for Piper to sniff out that something was up even more than she already had. She was a bloodhound for any shifts in the high school hierarchy, and there had been a serious disturbance in the force.