“You okay?” Nessa asked.

“Yeah. I just understand something now.” Sophie flipped around to speak to Eve. “Eve, he asked you to the Halloween dance, yes?”

“Um, yeah,” Eve admitted.

Nessa turned to her. “Really? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Before Eve could answer, Sophie continued. She spoke like a lawyer, question after question. “What was he acting like when he asked you?”

“Um … nice?” Eve looked to Nessa for help, but Nessa said nothing. “I mean, I don’t know, no one has ever asked me anything like that before.”

“Come on, did it seem like he liked you?”

Eve thought of Brody Dixon’s face that day as he’d invited her to go to the Halloween dance with him. The whole time she’d wanted to open the locker behind her and cram herself into it as the most awkward moment of her life unfolded. But when she did meet his eye, he looked … normal? Honest? Kind of sweet?

“Well, I don’t know…,” Eve began.

“Come on,” Sophie repeated. “What did he say? Tell me.”

Eve told her how Brody had said they’d have a lot of fun at the dance, how it didn’t have to be a big deal, how it was a shame they never talked, and how people didn’t talk to one another because of these stupid separate groups everybody was stuck in. Then he told her it was no pressure and she could just think about it.

What Eve didn’t say was that she’d never wanted to go out with anyone in her life—that was for girls like, well, Sophie Kane—but the only somewhat-okay part of that horrible day had been when Brody Dixon had looked her in the eye and said, “No pressure.” Even now, thinking of those words let her exhale.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Sophie nearly sprinted back to where Nessa stood. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah.” Nessa nodded. “‘Stupid separate groups.’”

“Explain?” Eve moved to sit on the piano bench.

Nessa sat beside her. “Brody probably actually likes you.”

Sophie sighed a loud, long sigh.

“And he put you as number one,” Nessa went on, “because otherwise—”

“He couldn’t ask you to the dance if you were a nobody.” Sophie surprised Eve by sliding in on her other side.

Were they not enemies now?

“And,” Sophie added, “I think he wanted a replacement. For me.”

All Eve could say was “Oh.”

They sat so close that Eve could smell the school shampoo on Sophie Kane’s hair.

“It all checks out now.” Sophie spoke in a low whisper. “That’s why you’re number one, and I’m number two…” She looked as if she were attempting to work out a math problem in her head. “He’s auditioning his next girl. And trying to hurt me while he does it.”

“But why would he want to hurt you?” Nessa asked, leaning over Eve toward Sophie.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sophie muttered.

For a moment, the three of them sat quietly. A loud truck went by outside.

And then Sophie slammed a fist on the piano keys and Eve and Nessa jumped.