“You moved, dude,” Cade said to the freshman boy.
“Try it again,” someone in the watching crowd called.
Cade smiled his big, perfectly white–toothed smile. The one he used a lot, knowing its power. I frowned. I seemed to be the only one immune.
As much as I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, I knew I should probably help the cowering kid.
But I wasn’t sure what I could do. Being the center of unwanted attention thanks to Cade Jennings was something I was very familiar with …
I thought back to freshman year P.E. I wasn’t one of those girls who thought she was horrible at everything. But I did know my weaknesses, and P.E. was one of them. And co-ed basketball was the ultimate form of P.E., so I did my best to stay as far away from the ball as possible.
For reasons that I later realized were probably malicious, the ball was constantly thrown to me. By my team, by the opposing team. And I could never catch it. It was like being the only target in a game of dodgeball. I was hit in the shoulder, the back, the leg.
That’s when Cade, who had been sitting on the bleachers, shouted for everyone to hear, “It’s like she possesses a force of energy that sucks the ball straight into her. A black hole. A Magnet. Lily Abbott, the Magnet.”
He’d said that last part in a movie announcer voice. Like he had transformed me into some sort of clumsy superhero. Then all through the gym, everyone copied him. Using that same voice, and laughing.
They’d laughed and laughed, and the laughter had stuck in my ears just as the nickname “Magnet” had apparently stuck in everyone’s heads.
And now that kind of laughter was happening again, in the hall, and it was directed at Cade’s latest victim.
I cleared my throat and said, “Oh look, a game to see who is more thick-headed—Cade or his bat.” I nodded to the side, trying to tell the kid to leave now that I’d distracted Cade.
Cade’s smile doubled in width as he took me in, from the top of my hair—its waves feeling crazier under his scrutiny than normal—to my Docs with mismatched shoelaces. “Oh look, it’s the monitor of fun. Is there too much of it happening here, Lily?”
“I only see one person having fun.”
He glanced around at the hall crammed full of students. “Then you’re not looking hard enough.” He lowered his voice. “I get it. It’s hard to see anyone beyond me, right?”
If I showed how annoyed I was, he’d just be winning. “I’m just here to rescue another soul from your arrogance,” I said through gritted teeth.
Although maybe I wasn’t rescuing anyone at all. The kid hadn’t moved. I’d given him a wide opening to leave and he still stood there. In fact, he opened his mouth and said, “What if you put the ball on the bat first and then put the bat on my head.”
Cade patted him on the back. “Good call. Where’d the bat go?”
I sighed. There had been no need for an intervention. The kid liked abuse, apparently. I resumed my walk.
“Next time, come by earlier. We wouldn’t want things to get out of hand,” Cade called, to more laughter.
Anger surged up my chest and I whirled around. “Have you ever heard of alliteration? You should try it.” It was a lame comeback. An inside argument that he wouldn’t get, but it was the only thing that came out. The kids around him laughed harder. I turned and it took everything in me to walk away at a normal speed.
“I’m going to enter a songwriting competition,” I said.
Isabel’s hand paused while reaching for her pajamas.
It was Friday night and we were at her house about to watch a scary movie. I had held in this announcement since I’d read about the contest the day before, turning it over in my mind. Now I’d said it out loud. That meant I’d have to follow through. I would follow through.
“You are?” Her voice held more than a little skepticism.
I threw myself back onto her queen-size bed and stared at the poster of Einstein pinned to her ceiling. I wondered, like I always did, how she could sleep with him staring down at her like that. I always had a hard time.
But I still loved sleeping over at Isabel’s. She was an only child, so her house was like an oasis of calm for me. We would eat dinner with her parents—tonight it was delicious homemade tamales with rice and beans—and then we’d come upstairs to hang out in her giant room, with its own pullout sofa, TV, and tiny refrigerator for stashing Diet Cokes and ice cream.
“You don’t think I can?” I asked her now, frowning.
“It’s not that, Lil. I’m sure your songs are great,” Isabel replied, pulling her pajamas out of her dresser drawer. “I’d be able to tell you for sure if you would actually share one with me—you know, your best friend in the whole world.”
I groaned. “I know. I’m sorry. I don’t have one finished yet.”
“That’s what you always say. How are you going to enter a contest when you won’t even share a song with me?”
I covered my face with my hands. “I don’t know.”
She sat next to me on the bed. “I’m sorry. I know you can do it, Lil. You just need to believe in yourself.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Don’t be a brat. I’m trying to help.”
I took my hands off my face and looked at her. “I know.”
“Tell me about the competition.”
I propped myself up on my elbows. “It’s through the Herberger Institute,” I began.
Isabel gasped, her dark eyes widening. “Oh wow. That’s really prestigious, Lil!”
I nodded and tugged on a split end of my hair, feeling nervous. “I know. Anyway, there’s a five-thousand-dollar prize, which would be so amazing, of course. But even better, the winner gets a three-week course with one of the professors.”
Isabel smiled. “That’s huge. Knowing a professor could help with admissions, right?”
I nodded. I was trying not to think too much about this fact. Not only would winning the contest get me some money to help pay for college, something my parents couldn’t afford to do, but it might help me get into the college music program that I’d been dreaming about for years.
“So share something with me. One song idea, at least?” Isabel pointed to my green-and-purple notebook that sat on top of my overnight bag on the floor.
I felt a wave of shyness and shrugged. “I have a couple ideas. I need to make them better. I do want to share, just not right now.”
She rolled her eyes then stood up to change into her pajamas. “Chicken.”
I threw one of my socks at her then collapsed back on her bed again, the ceiling poster taking over my view. She was right. I was a total chicken. “I think Einstein is judging me.”
“He probably is. Maybe he read your notebook.”
I laughed and went to get my own pajamas from my bag.
Isabel changed the subject so I didn’t have to. “One movie tonight or two?” That was code for “how long should we stay up?”
I smiled. “Two. We have all night.”
My phone buzzed against my thigh and I sat up on Isabel’s pullout couch, disoriented for a moment. The television hummed blue in front of me. Pale morning light shone through the cracks of the blinds. My phone stopped buzzing, then ten seconds later began again.