“So you’re grounded, huh?” Kori said as we left the town house. She put her arm over my shoulder and hugged me against her as we walked toward the park. “What else did she say?”

“She’s disappointed in me.” The feeling was mutual. “And this is my whisper.”

Eagle’s Nest Park felt more like a nightclub than the outdoors. Everyone from Kismet High jostled against one another, bumping up close even though the secluded park had acres to spare.

I hopped onto a cement picnic table, flinching at the cold sting biting the backs of my thighs. I had Baby Maru hidden away in my messenger bag behind me on the table. Lexi sat on the bench below me, crossing her legs, and put hers in her lap. It was decorated in pink poodle swirls. Cole’s flour baby was not attending the kegger. She’d paid her younger cousin, who was only six, to babysit. And when I’d last seen Baby Charms, she was in the crook of Kori’s arm as Kori was slipping into a van better known as “The Easy-Bake Oven” for a smoke with Parker Walsh.

I wondered what hope any of us had for Flour Baby Mother of the Year.

Cole stood in front of me with a devious look on her face. Her chin tucked like a cat focused on its prey as she watched Chelsea, Marci, and Brittney fawning over Adrian17. Another gaggle of groupies huddled just to his right, too shy to actually approach him.

“You know,” Cole started, a sly grin forming. “I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to date the star quarterback.”

Lexi’s legs unfolded quickly, like she was springing into action, and her eyes went round in that cute anime way. All lashes. “You wouldn’t!”

I smirked. It had been a while since she’d been up to her old tricks of pissing off the BBs and PPs.

“I’m just thinking that … well, he and I might have some things in common. You know, like we both have great hair, and I’d bet money we both lost our virginity to Nickelback.”

I grunted. “Yeah, you and every other BB and PP.”

“You have a boyfriend,” Lexi reminded her. Not that Cole was all that serious about him. It was more of a friend of the family kind of thing. And he did live in Denver, which was almost an hour away.

“I wouldn’t consider this cheating. No. This is more of a social experiment per se.”