What flowers?
LOL V funny.
I have no idea what ur talking about.
I froze. It wasn’t possible, was it? It had to have been him who sent the
secret admirer flowers. He drew the shield and sword. No one else would
have—
Gotcha!
I bit my tongue to ke ep from laughing. We texted for the rest of the class
period. I found out his birthday was coming up in March. I told him that
mine was in May. He confessed that his favorite snack dip was hummus. I
told him mine was pineapple salsa. I asked if he really liked Hammond or
was just taking pity. He said Hammond was cool when he wasn’t licking his
own reflection in the mirror. That earned him another laugh and me another
lip-purse from Chloe. T oward the end of the period, Jake sent another text.
Ready 4 big game 2 nite?
Valley High is going down! U coming?
Will b there cheering 4 u.
I blushed so hard I thought I might pop.
Cool.
When the bell rang, I tucked my phone away and closed my laptop. My
pulse raced as I wondered what to do next. Clearly Jake and I had just taken
our relationship, whatever it was, to some new level. Should I go talk to
him? Was he going to come talk to me? Maybe just a smile over my
shoulder and—
But then Jake walked right by me and over to Chloe and Faith, without so
much as a nod. My heart fell. Apparently , the text fest hadn’t changed a
thing. But then why had he started it? What was the point? Was he really
just that bored? Maybe he spent every class period texting someone, and
he’d simply run through his entire address book.
As I lifted my bag onto my shoulder and started for the door, I loathed
myself for getting so excited. Just before I got to the hallway , my phone lit
up again. It was from him.
Same time tomorrow?
My heart, all of a sudden, was back from its trip to my toes. I texted
back.
I’m in.
The gym was packed. I’d been to a lot of Shannen’ s games last year, but I’d
never seen it like this. One side was all yellow and purple, the other all
maroon and gold. And everyone was screaming. Including me.
“Let’s go, Shannen! Get the ball!” I wanted to yell for Ally, too, but I was
surrounded by my friends. Still. I couldn’ t take my eyes of f her.
The girl was effing good. Even better than I’d thought. All night she’d
been hustling—taking shots when they were good, passing off when she
was double-teamed, stealing the ball, getting in her player’s face when she
was on D. She didn’ t stop. I’d never seen anyone play so fierce in my life.
It was beyond hot.
“Come on!” Hammond shouted, leaning forward. “Don’ t let them hog the
ball!”
“Let’s go, Hill! Let’s go, Hill!” the Idiot Twins shouted. They were
shirtless behind us, their chests painted with tiger stripes, each wearing a
huge bur gundy frizz wig. Every time they cheered, the crowd cracked up.
The fans around us joined in the chant. “Let’ s go, Hill! Let’ s go, Hill!”
Time was ticking down. Only fifteen seconds left on the clock, and we
were down by one.
“Come on, Shannen!” Chloe cheered politely .
“Yea, go,” Faith said as she texted on her phone. She lifted a fist at
shoulder level. “Whoo.”
Hammond and I rolled our eyes at them.
“Ohmigod yes!” T revor shouted suddenly .
“Go, Ally!” T odd added.
Suddenly the entire Orchard Hill side of the bleachers was on their feet.
In the two seconds Hammond and I had taken our eyes off the court, Ally
had somehow stolen the ball and was now sprinting toward the basket. I
jumped up. One of the Valley players chased after her, probably intent on
fouling her, but Ally was too fast. She made a perfect layup. The crowd
went nuts. The scoreboard clicked. We were up by one with four seconds