left. The whole team surrounded Ally, hugging her and slapping her hands.
She nodded but didn’t smile. The game wasn’t over yet. She was all
business.
Did I mention she was beyond hot?
Valley called a time-out and everyone relaxed into their seats. The
cheerleaders jogged onto the floor to start a chant.
Faith finally looked up from her phone. “What happened? Did we win?”
“Not yet,” Hammond said patiently . “They get one more shot.”
“God. This game takes forever ,” she complained.
Chloe gave her a sympathetic pat on the knee.
The whistle blew .
“This is it.” I had to stand up, because everyone in front of me did. The
whole crowd was on its feet as two Valley players lined up at the end of the
court. With only four seconds left they raced to the key. Coaches screamed,
parents wailed, cheerleaders shouted. The taller girl passed it off to the lead
scorer, and Shannen raced forward to get in the girl’ s face.
“Three! T wo!”
The girl lifted her arms to take her shot, her eyes focused on the basket as
if Shannen weren’ t even there.
“One!”
The shot went up. Shannen jumped. She reached. Time froze. And then,
her fingertips just grazed the bottom of the ball, sending it sailing off the
court.
“Yes!”
The timer buzzed, and the Orchard Hill bleachers emptied out onto the
court, surroundi ng the team. Everyone was jumping up and down, hugging,
screaming, crying. I was looking for Ally, hoping to congratula te her in the
mayhem, when suddenly Shannen was in my arms.
“Did you see that?” she yelled.
“That was awesome!” I r eplied.
“We’re going to Jump, right? Did Hammond drive?” She slung her arm
over my shoulders, tugging me through the crowd. Hammond had scored an
Explorer for his birthday , so he pretty much drove everywhere now. He’d
been worried he wasn’t going to get a car, but apparently his parents were
selling their shore house after this summer to pay for his college, so now
they felt like they had spending money again or something.
“Yeah. Let’ s find everyone.”
My eyes scanned the gym, still looking for a glimpse of Ally. Finally I
found her, standing over by the door, grinning at her mom. Dr. Nathanson
and Quinn were over there too, Quinn bouncing around in her cheerleading
uniform like a toddler on too much Kool-Aid. I guess the high of a big win
canceled out whatever negative feelings she had about Ally. Then a couple
of guys from the basketball team—Marshall Moss and Chad Lancaster—
went over and gave Ally these big bear hugs. Marshall practically
swallowed her into his varsity jacket even though she was covered in sweat.
A lump rose up in my throat. What was that all about?
“Jealous?”
I blinked. “What?”
Shannen stood in front of me, her arms crossed over her jersey. “Want me
to go invite her to Jump?” she asked sarcastically , nodding over her
shoulder at Ally and her growing entourage. Her friend Annie was over
there now too, plus Dorkus Drake, though he was hanging back looking
pouty
“What? No. What are you talking about?” I said.
She rolled her eyes at me. “You so like her. Why don’t you just admit it
already?”
“I was looking for Hammond and Chloe.” I spotted them standing next to
the bleachers. “There they are. Let’ s go.”
“Yeah. Sure you were. I have to hit the showers first,” Shannen said,
clearly irritated. “I’ll catch up with you guys.”
I watched her jog toward the door, which also gave me a chance to check
if Ally and Marshall were holding hands, or worse. But they weren’t.
Which was good, at least. Ally turned and followed Shannen toward the
locker room, and her family went out to the lobby to hover and wait—
Marshall and the rest of them included. A surge of envy nearly knocked the
wind out of me as Marshall yucked it up with Ally’s mom. Marshall and
those guys got to be close to Ally—to help her celebrate after one of the
biggest wins of the year. And I—just because of where I lived and who my
friends were—couldn’ t.
“Where the hell are we going?”
“Have you learned nothing yet?” Shannen asked, turning around to walk
backward so she could face me. “When I’m in charge, you don’t get to
know till you know!” A freezing cold wind whipped her hair in front of her
face. She and Faith giggled and walked ahead again, looping their arms
together . Hammond cursed under his breath. I kicked black snow from the
curb onto Fourteenth Street and got cursed at by some crazy dude on a bike.
It was fifteen below outside. No one should have been out in the city—on
foot, on a bike, or at all. But for some reason, we had let Shannen talk us all
into driving in and going to Paddy B’s, this one bar in the Village that
Cresties had been going to since the dawn of time because they didn’t card.
All of us exc ept Chloe, who had some big family event tonight. I didn’t get
what the big urge was to hit Paddy B’s all of a sudden. We’d been there
before Christma s, and we could have gone again when it wasn’t cold as a
witch’s butt cheek.
And now , after an hour of playing pool and drinking beer , we were out on
the street again, following Shannen to do who knew what who knew where.
Only the Idiot Twins had stayed behind at the bar, wanting to finish a game
of darts with a couple of NYU dudes who had challenged them. We were
supposed to swing back there and pick them up after we completed
Shannen’ s latest mission. Whatever it was.
Shannen and Faith suddenly stopped in front of a brightly lit window .
They peered inside, clutching each other , standing on their toes.
“Holy shit. It’ s him,” Shannen said.
Faith doubled over laughing. “Oh. My . God. Come on. Let’ s go in!”
Hammond looked up from the turned-up collar of his coat. He stared at
the sign, which read FIFTH A VENUE GOURMET .
“Oh, shit,” he said.
“What?”