I blink at her. Wait, I’m in the club?
And, hold on, did she say threejuniors?!
Oliver’s watching me, one eyebrow raised. He chews in silence, slow and deliberate, as if waiting for me to say something. Next to him, a shorter boy with round glasses and dark, neatly combed hair perks up, his lips splitting into an overeager grin. He’s sitting beside a girl with light-brown skin and rose-gold hair, two cute space buns on either side of her head. She swallows her bite of tofu, then smiles at me.
Oliver should really take notes.
“So you’re all”—I point to everyone across from me—“juniors?”
“Yeah, so?”
There’s a challenge in Oliver’s tone. I’m about to respond when Lulu chooses this very moment to interject.
“I’m not. I’m whatever I choose to be.” She keeps a completely straight face as she picks up her juice and takes a long, slow sip, not breaking eye contact with me—not even when she sets the can down. “I’m all the grades.”
Uh, okay, Lulu.
“Nice to meet you! I’m Mickey Dean.”
The overeager boy next to Oliver shoots his arm out, extending his hand toward me and, in the process, knocks over Oliver’s soda. Oliver steadies the can before it spills.
“Well, actually, my name is Michael. But everyone just calls me Mickey. You’re Sara Lin, right? I read your article!” He keeps shaking my hand, our arms moving up and down as his words run together. “It’s such an honor to be in a club with seniors! I promise we’ll work superhard, right, Oliver?”
Joe and I exchange a quick glance, and I can tell he’s trying to withhold a laugh. Rose just cups her chin in her hand, huffy and indignant.
Oliver’s focused on scooping more rice onto his spoon. “Sure.”
“And I’m Cordelia,” the girl beside Mickey Dean says, beaming brightly. She has a swipe of shimmery highlighter on her cheeks that looks dazzling when it catches the light. “It’s so great to meet you.”
Eager anticipation swirls within me. They’re sonice. I can’t believe I haven’t crossed paths with them before. But it’s fine, because now I get to work with them—which means I get to work with Joe.
Ah! More time with Joe!
I have to stop myself from swooning right here and now.
“Wow, it’s really great to meet you,” I say earnestly. “I’m excited to officially join.”
When lunch ends, Joe tells me where we’re meeting after school, and my stomach does a double backflip in anticipation. He walks with me to our next class, but I can hardly concentrate as we sit through our history lesson, followed by science and calculus. All I can think about is Newspaper Club.
That—and Oliver.
I mean, he’s a junior! I should have put it together this morning when Joe saidlittle brother. However, I was too stunned from A) realizing Joseph Yang lives right across the hall from me and B) processing that Joe and Oliver are actually related.
It gives me a confidence boost. Ha! To think I was intimidated by Oliver thisentire time. He’s just a kid. A silly little junior one grade below me. I have a whole entire year of education stored up in my brain that he doesn’t have yet. So take that, Subwayboy.
But, ugh. He’s probably going to yell at me again for not prioritizing my studies. I mean, Mr. Day’s walking us through an equation right now and I haven’t been paying him the teeniest bit of attention.
Oliver and I are supposed to meet in the library after school today, but I’ll see him in Newspaper Club instead. Is he going to be upset that I joined? Even Patrick thought it wasn’t a good idea.
Oh! Right. Patrick!
I twist in my seat right as the bell rings. Without so much as a single look in my direction, Patrick flies to his feet, grabs his backpack from the floor, and flees the classroom.
It’s okay. I can catch up.
“Hey, Patrick!”
He picks up his pace—even though Iknowhe heard me. The stinker.
