“No friggin’ way!” Jasper slurps down the pudding.
My cheeks grow as hot as the cafeteria’s plate warmers.
“Conrad, you gotta sing it for us!” Even though Jasper’s words are garbled by pudding, people at other tables have turned to see what the commotion’s about.
I sink low in my chair because one of those people is Ten.
The cheerleading twins, who were walking toward the jock section, pause by our table in perfect synchronicity. “Are you guys talkin’ about Mona Stone’s contest?” one of them asks real shrilly.
The other adds, “Our brother and his band are signing up for it.”
“Angie, we’ve been friends for how long now?” Jasper asks. “Ten years? Eleven?”
Mel sits up a little straighter.
“That should earn us first dibs on hearing your tune,” he says.
“Uh.” I bite my lower lip. “I’m not allowed to let people hear it until after the contest.”
“Are you sure? Our brother’s band has been performin’ their song all over the state,” Samantha says. Or maybe it’s Valentina. They don’t only look the same, they also sound the same.
I long to drag over one of the potted palms and hide behind it for the rest of the day.
One of the twins has pulled out her cell phone. She hitsPLAY, and a melody heavy with electric guitar blasts from the speaker. “They’re good, aren’t they?”
Ten has just slotted his tray on the metal shelves a couple of feet fromwhere I sit. For the briefest of seconds, our eyes connect, and I can swear I see his glimmer with hurt.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
“So? What do you think, Angie?” Sam or Val asks me.
My pulse is strumming too hard inside my ears for me to hear much more than the instrumental twang. The song could be good, like it could be awful. I have no clue.
A hand squeezes my knee. Rae’s.You okay?she mouths.
I gulp.
Laney’s brow furrows as she looks between me and the cafeteria entrance. After a couple of seconds, her forehead smooths as though she’s figured it out.
I touch the little arrow speared through the cartilage of my ear. Twist it. Twist it.
“So? What do you think?” the twin asks me again.
“It’s good.” I press my palm against my stomach, suddenly feeling queasy.
I inhale calming breaths. I’m having a panic attack from the overload of attention. Or am I having a panic attack from Ten’s reaction to the news of me entering his mother’s contest? Whatever the reason, I’m definitely panicking, and the fact that everyone in a one-mile radius is gaping at me isnothelping.
Rae pulls me up so suddenly she almost dislocates my shoulder. “Angie, we totally forgot to finish that project for Mrs. Rainlin!”
I blink at her.
“I need to get my notes from my locker,” she says.
It takes my frazzled mind a second to comprehend she’s giving me an exit. I want to hug her, but instead I breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Once we’re in the hallway, I run to the bathroom and reach a toilet just in time to throw up.
Rae holds my hair back, strokes my neck, says soothing things I can’t hear over the anxiety whooshing around my skull.
I finally sit back on my heels, and tears leak out of my eyes. I want to tell her about Ten and Mona, but instead I whisper, “How am I supposed to do this, Rae?”
