CHAPTER FIVE

Full disrespect to Maya, her ideas are terrible. Notoriously terrible. The last time she forced me into one, we were permanently banned from our high school’s costume contest for bringing a live snake to class and causing “mass hysteria.” In our defense, though, her Britney Spears costume would’ve easily taken first place if we hadn’t been disqualified for breaking the “no live animals on school premises” rule in the Code of Conduct packet no one reads.

Before I can ask Maya what she means, she takes off toward the cabin, calling out for me to follow. I’m already winded from the lap, so I don’t run after her like she wants me to. Still, I’m flushed and panting for breath once I catch up to her. Andy, finished with his second lap and downing a Gatorade, doesn’t pay attention to me or my wheezing as I trudge past him.

Maya pulls me into her bedroom, making sure to lock the door. “So…” She raises one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. “Julian needs a fake boyfriend?”

“You were there for that whole conversation and didn’t bother to rescue me earlier?” I rub a hand over my wrist, still warm from the sting of Julian’s touch.

She rolls her eyes, brushing off my concern to sit down at her desk. “Because I was intrigued. Duh.”

“What was intriguing about an obvious trap?”

“I don’t think it was a trap.” Maya opens the notebook on her desk, flipping past her training notes and potential insults for Henry’s new haircut and turning to a fresh page. “But I do think he’s desperate.”

Maya may be more emotionally intelligent than I am, but I don’t think a Seo-Cooke would ever be desperate enough to do what Julian’s proposing. Just because he isn’t a mastermind doesn’t mean we can trust him.

“Which means you have leverage,” Maya explains, holding up her notebook. Written at the top of the page in hot-pink gel pen is DEVIN & JULIAN.

“I do?” Being someone’s unfortunate choice for a fake boyfriend doesn’t sound like leverage to me.

“We do,” she clarifies. “If Julian’s as desperate as he sounds, he’ll give you whatever you want.”

“So we ask for money?”

She whacks me over the head with the notebook. “No, you idiot. You ask to hang out at his house.”

“I what?!” I choke on my own spit as I struggle to get the words out.

“Keep it down,” she hisses, staying quiet for a second to confirm Andy didn’t overhear. The only sound besides the buzzing of mosquitoes is the creak of the shower coming to life. “Getting inside the Seo-Cookes’ house is like getting into a gold mine. Do you know what kind of dirt you could find in there?”

“What? Like that their dad is embezzling money? That seems sorta out of our league.”

Maya looks like she’s seconds away from strangling me. “You could find proof that they’re going to cheat at the games. Or how they’ve gotten away with it before.” Her voice is calm and composed, the tone she puts on for job interviews.

Proving that the Seo-Cookes are cheating is easier said than done. The games weren’t supposed to be as high stakes as what we turned them into. There was never a rule book or a guide, just Old Bob’s judgment and an element of good faith. We’d need something tangible, concrete. Blueprints on how to rig an egg toss, or the answer sheet to one of the logic puzzles.

“Is that the kind of thing they’d have lying around?” I’m not in the business of cheating, but I know you’d want to cover your tracks. Especially with an enemy in your midst.

“Probably not. Which is why you’d have to go looking for it. If we can’t prove that they’re cheating, then we can at least figure out what they’re planning. Keep an eye on them.”

I’m flattered that she thinks I’m stealthy enough to pull off a mission like that. But for once she thinks too highly of me. “Shouldn’t we just try to win the games fair and square?”

“Why? They never have.”

Now shouldn’t be the time for me to have a moral superiority complex, I know. Not when our cabin is on the line. But there’s a reason we never stooped to their level. We always wanted to win on our own, to show them that we don’t need lies and tricks to come in first.

We always played it safe and paid the price.

“Let’s say I did find proof that they’re cheating—what next? We send it to Old Bob and have them disqualified?”

“That’s exactly what we do,” Maya replies. “They’re out, we win by default, and the cabin is ours. End of story.”

“Technically, the bet didn’t say anything about being disqualified. Mr. Cooke could bring in an army of lawyers if he wanted to prove us wrong.”

She rolls her eyes, flopping back down onto her desk chair. “Then we find out what they’re planning and try to stop them. Make it an even fight for once.”

“And if we get caught?”

She shrugs and blows a raspberry. “Then nothing. Going through someone’s stuff doesn’t count as cheating. Neither does eavesdropping. Worst-case scenario, they throw rotten eggs at you or something.”

That sounds like a very unpleasant worst-case scenario for me, but I brush past it and focus on my other concerns. “And you expect Dad to be okay with all of this?”

“We wouldn’t tell Dad,” she replies casually. “He can’t tell a lie to save his life, and Andy, God bless him, has the IQ of a walnut. We’re better off leaving them and Isabel in the dark for now.”

Letting them believe that I might actually be dating someone like Julian Seo-Cooke feels worse than lying straight to their faces.

“I don’t know…” Thinking about the amount of lies I’d have to keep up with makes me break into a sweat. “I’m supposed to be working on my mentorship application, and—” I wince before I can finish that thought, gearing up to apologize for bringing up a sore subject, when she cuts me off instead.

“I’ll do your chores for you,” she says, any annoyance over me bringing up one of the forbidden Cs gone. “You can work on your piece for your application, and I’ll fight the bats in the attic, or whatever other torture Dad has planned for us.”

That stops my protests right in their tracks.

“Except don’t use that sketch of me,” she adds, her nose wrinkled in disapproval. Her eyes shift to the floor, avoiding mine. “You can do better.”

Maya always stays true to her word. Across all the deals we’ve made, she’s never double-crossed me. I’d thought that sketch could be a new beginning for us, but maybe this could be one too. A chance to be a team again.

“And all I have to do is convince Julian to let me go over to his house a few times?” I ask, checking for any fine print.

She nods, holding out her hand for me to shake. “Promise.”

I still hesitate. Shifting down to the edge of the bed, I walk myself through the reasons I shouldn’t do this.

1. I’d have to pretend to like Julian.

2. I’m a shit liar.

3. Spending that much time with the Seo-Cookes will probably spike my blood pressure.

When I open my mouth, Maya leans forward, cutting me off as she rests her hands on my knees, her face inches from mine. “Don’t you want to win?”

Of course I want to win. All we’ve ever wanted is to win, to show them up and rub it in their faces the way they have for years.

“You know I do.”

“Devin.” Her hands slip into mine, the edges of her nails digging into my skin, but I don’t flinch. “This is how we win.”

The thrill of getting even lights something in me as wicked as Maya’s smile. It silences the nerves nestled in the pit of my stomach, all the what-ifs and but hows giving way to the what could bes. Me and Maya side by side, plotting and talking and laughing like we used to. Us with Dad and Isabel and Andy, smiling as we accept our gold medals and gift cards. Our portrait in the visitors center for everyone to see. Our cabin, still so alive with memories of Mami, staying with us. With our family.

There are a thousand ways this could go wrong. Our plans are never foolproof and this one’s no exception. But in that moment, holding my sister’s hands and dreaming of a future where we finally come first, it’s impossible not to feel invincible.

I squeeze her hands back and swallow every rational thought that screams at me to focus on the safe route that we know.

“Okay,” I reply.

Because maybe a little bit of risk is all we need to win.