I check my phone. “He’s coming in a half hour. There’s going to be food at the party, I think, so I don’t need dinner.”

“OK,” she says. “Be sure to offer to help clean up before you come home. And come find me when you get back so you can tell me all about it.”

“Mom,” I say. “You know Micah and I are just friends, right? That’s all we’ll ever be.”

She smiles, like she thinks I’m not being honest with her. “We’ll see,” she says playfully.

“No, Mom, really.” I want to tell her why I know this. That I’ve tried and tried to feel differently about him but I just can’t. But I don’t feel ready to talk about why with her. Not until I’m really sure.

Besides, my mom looks so happy for once, I don’t want to ruin the moment by getting all serious.

“Try not to be so definite about everything, Ray,” she says. “Go with the flow. You never know what might happen between the two of you.”

“Fine,” I say.

She smacks my butt playfully and leaves me alone.

Thirty more minutes until the party. I walk over to the mirror and look at myself again. I look like me, and not me. A little taller. A little older. I turn one way and then the other, then get a hand mirror so I can see my hair from behind. Pretty, I allow myself to think. But then I notice a little stain on the bottom hem of my T-shirt.

Of course.

Almost pretty, I think instead.

But it will have to do.

Chapter Ten

“Wow,” Micah says when he shows up on his bike. “How are you going to wear a bike helmet with that hairdo?”

“Really?” I ask. Sometimes Micah’s practicality ruins everything.

“Sorry. I mean, you look nice!”

“Too late. Can’t we just walk? It’s not that far.”

“I guess,” he says.

“I’ll give you a ride!” my dad says, giving away that he was spying on us through the screen door.

I want to scream, This is not a date! But I keep quiet.

“Shotgun!” Ivy calls from inside.

Were they all spying?

“Why are you coming?” I ask Ivy when she gets in the front seat.

“I want to see what Sierra’s house looks like. And the pool.”

“You’re not getting out of the car,” I say. “So unless the pool is in the front yard, forget seeing it.”

“Be nice, Rachel,” my dad says. “But yeah, Ivy, we’re just dropping them off. Let’s not embarrass Micah and Rachel in front of their new friend.”

“You wouldn’t embarrass me,” Micah says, the suck-up. He’s always trying to impress my parents. It drives me crazy.

“Can you just drop us off at the end of the street, Dad?” I ask.