15

CAN’T LET THE NIGHT GO UP IN FLAMES

PAIGE AND I WALKED TO THE BACK OF THE campus, near the spot at the woods where I’d ridden the new cross-country course.

“You look nervous,” Paige said. “Don’t be. It’ll be okay. Really. The nominees have to be there, but at least you all don’t have to do anything together.”

“But the odds of us all running into each other are ridiculous,” I said. “You know I’ll see someone.”

Paige touched my arm. “Don’t worry. Even if you do, just walk away. It doesn’t have to turn into a thing.”

That made my head jerk back a little. Did Paige think I always turned social events into “things?”

“I don’t want it to turn into anything. I just want to be there until I can leave and then go.”

Paige pressed her lips together, not saying anything. We walked the final distance across campus where the glow of the bonfire reached into the sky and illuminated darkness. I loved the smell of burning wood. The sparks of the fire flew into the air and shattered into ash.

We reached the fire and it was so much warmer, even though the night air was cooling around us.

“Hey,” Ryan said, walking up to us. He grabbed Paige’s hand and smiled at her, then me.

“Hi,” Paige said. She touched his upper arm with her free hand.

“A bunch of people are roasting marshmallows over there,” Ryan said, looking at us. “Want to?”

Paige nodded. “Sure.” She looked over at me. “Sash?”

I looked around to the spot Ryan was talking about. Roasting marshmallows sounded like a popular spot.

“You go,” I said. “I’m going to go find a hot dog or something.”

“You sure?” Paige asked.

“Totally. Go and I’ll meet up with you later.”

“’Kay,” Paige said. “Sounds good.”

Hand in hand, Paige and Ryan walked away to the other side of the bonfire. I tried not to feel anxious about being on my own since I’d told them to go, but I couldn’t stop running through scenarios. What if I saw Jacob? Or Eric? Or Callie?

I was most worried about seeing Callie. I didn’t trust myself not to run up to her, hug her, and tell her that she was going to be okay. Panic was just starting to rise in my chest when I saw Heather, Alison, and Julia walk up to me.

“Is this not the lamest thing ever?” Heather asked. Lame as she claimed it to be, she’d dressed for it, too, in a black skirt, sandals, and V-neck T-shirt.

“So lame,” I said. “We’re forced to be here. How wrong is that?”

Alison rolled her eyes at us, grinning. “Stop it! It’s Homecoming week. It only happens once a year, so embrace it. Stop whining and just enjoy it. It’s a bonfire. Have fun!”

My eyes met Heather’s and we rolled our eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “Bonfire. Hot dogs. Yay.”

Alison grabbed my arm and steered me around to the other side of the fire. “You’re going to have fun,” she said. “So deal.”

I let her pull me over to where teachers had set up a food station. The Trio and I readied our hot dogs. We headed over to an empty spot near the fire and stuck our hot dogs near the flames.

“I’m eating two and saving room for s’mores,” Julia said. “Did you see how many bags of marshmallows there are?”

“I was too busy trying not to spear myself with the hot-dog roaster,” I said.

We twirled our hot dogs for a few more minutes, watching how the seventh graders had clumped together on one side of the fire and we and the rest of the eighth graders had staked out our own space on the other side.

“So glad we never looked like that,” Heather said, nodding her head in the seventh graders’ direction. “They look all scared and pathetic.”

“We never looked like that,” Julia said. She glanced at me. “But admit it, Sasha, you totally did.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, okay! That’s true. At least I’m not like that now.”

Heather stared at me as if she was going to argue, but smiled instead. “Yeah, you’ve gotten a little better.”

“Ha-ha,” I said. “Thanks a lot.”

We finished roasting our hot dogs and took them over to the table with plates and everything we needed to fix our hot dogs. We got plastic cups of soda and handfuls of chips while Alison looked around for a good spot to sit. I grabbed one of the blankets the school had stored in a bin for us to use.

“Over there?” she pointed. Julia, Heather, and I nodded. She’d picked a spot that was quiet and just far enough away from the bonfire that we wouldn’t feel like we were melting.

We put down our stuff and spread out the—what else— green blanket and started eating. Ketchup from Alison’s hot dog oozed out and plopped onto her plate.

“Oops,” she said, giggling.

“At least it landed on your plate and not your lap,” Julia said. “Remember when you spilled mustard down the front of your shirt just before that big show a couple of years ago?”

Alison tilted her head back, looking up at the black sky. “Omigod, that was so awful. I just had to have a hot dog and of course I didn’t bring another shirt.”

“Did you show with the stain?” I asked.

“Nope,” Heather said. She grinned. “In some mysterious, strange way, another girl’s shirt disappeared from her clothing bag.”

I munched on a barbecue-flavored chip. “You stole someone’s shirt? Did you give it back?”

“After Alison’s class, we did,” Heather said. “So yes, Jasmine got her shirt back.”

I burst into laughter. “Omigod!”

All of us started laughing. We glanced up when someone walked by the end of our blanket.

Callie. The fire light flickered on her face and I could see anger in her eyes, even in the semi-darkness.

My laughter stopped instantly.

She glared down at us and shook her head as she stomped by. The Trio exchanged glances. Without saying anything, we all went back to our food.