“Everett, congratulations!” I clapped my mittened Phanatichands. “You’ve been chosen to live the Phillie life today! Are you ready?”
He blinked knowingly, recognizing my hystericalWill & Gracevoice, then pumped a fist in the air. “Go, Phils!”
I smirked; his blue, white, and orange Mets hat said the complete and utter opposite.
Because as much as he loved baseball, Ev would’veneverentered the Phillies contest. His mom had grown up on Long Island, so the Adlers were die-hard New York Mets fans.
Ev’s face reddened, like he knew I was beating back laughter. “Photos!” Mrs.Flamporis reminded us. “Everett, if you and Mr.Murphy could get on either side of the Phanatic…” She looked at me. “You probably want to stay in character, but what’s your name?”
My Phanatic mask hid my evil grin. “Jean,” I said as I enthusiastically grabbed Mr.Murphy in a prom pose. “I’m Jean.”
“Oh, how funny,” the secretary laughed. “That’s our principal’s name!”
“I have so many questions,” Ev said as we calmly (but also not-so-calmly) left the building. Mrs.Flamporis had snapped a million photos. Overheating in my costume, I’d kept waiting for Principal Unger to emerge from the conference room. “The first being:Why?”
“Well, I had limited options,” I told him, now flat-out bounding down the steps. “Being sick would’ve requiredan unpredictable nurse’s office visit, Isa took ‘family emergency,’ and a surprise trip to Disney World seemed atadimmature….” I opened the Tesla’s passenger door and gestured inside the car. “Your chariot awaits!”
Ev evaluated the electric car. “A gift from Elon himself?”
Isa flung off her blanket. “Try a gifttoElon,” she said. “Back when my parents wanted to clean up their environmental footprint.” She waved him into the Tesla. “Hurry!”
“Hey, Isa,” Ev said once he’d climbed in and buckled his seat belt. I noticed there were grayish-green bags under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept. “Where are we going?”
“Hello, Everett,” she replied in her cordial Dinner Party Pleasant tone. “I don’t know.”
They both looked to me.
“The question is not ‘where are we going?’ ” I said, grinning and pulling away from the curb. It didn’t matter that I was drenched with sweat in the Phanatic costume. I pulled off the bird’s head to inhale some sweet, pine-fresh air, courtesy of the tree-shaped ornament that dangled from the rearview mirror. “It’s ‘wherearen’twe going?’ ”
Then I pressed down on the gas. Isa squealed, while Ev leaned back against the headrest and laughed. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught his dimples come out to play. My fingers twitched on the steering wheel, wanting to take a hand off so I could teasingly poke one. Like I’d done so many times at his house.
Because yes, I hung out at his house—dare I say—regularly.Whenever Isa had been busy with one of her SAT prep classes,her ACT tutor, or just in overdrive with an assignment. I felt awful for not telling her, guilt gnawing away at my bones. Isa and I were always honest with each other, but it was difficult to be honest about the fact that Ev and I were secretly still friends. She was the smartest person I knew; she would latch on to the secrecy and interpret it as Ev and me actually beingmorethan friends.
We werejustfriends, okay?
We really were.
Today is for old times’ sake,I reminded myself, because back then, I didn’t touch Ev and he didn’t touch me. At least, not in ways that ended with us laughing and wrestling on the couch with him tickling me. Ways that left me breathless and wondering if he felt what I felt.
I never asked Ev for fear of complicating everything; he and I couldn’t feel those things. I couldn’t, he couldn’t, and even if both of us did, wewouldn’t.
Isa, Everett, and Grace,I thought, picturing us launching ourselves off the elementary school swings with James and biking to town for water ice in middle school.We were once so close, so tightly tied together.
We would be that way again.
After today, we would.
Chapter 7
James
It wasn’t until I’d burned the cookies and the bell rang that the new level ofstrangestruck me.I’m the only one,I realized as I dumped the blackened cookies in the hallway’s trash can.Iam the only one here.
Grace was sick.
Isa was MIA.
Everett had never returned to FCS.
