WHEN I WALKED INTO MY ROOM, PAIGE jumped up and hurried to shove a bunch of papers into a yellow folder. She turned, grinned at me, and held the folder behind her back.
“Sasha!” she said. “Hi!”
I folded my arms, pretend-staring her down. “What’s in the folder, Parker?”
Paige shrugged. “Oh, you know. Like, homework. Boring stuff you wouldn’t want to see.”
“Really? ’Cause I love boring stuff of the homework variety.”
Paige and I held each other’s gaze for a second, then started laughing. “You’re not getting one peek at your birthday party plans. Not one.”
I walked over to sit at the edge of my bed and pull off my riding boots. “Nothing?” I clapped a hand to my chest. “It’s only Tuesday. Give me something to survive till Friday.”
Holding the folder away from me, Paige opened it and thumbed through the papers. “Okay, okay,” she said. “I’ll be supergenerous and tell you the guest list.”
“Oooh, yay!”
Paige pulled out a light pink sheet of paper. “All right. We’ve got … Callie, Eric, Jacob, Heather, Julia, Alison, Nicole, Troy, Ben, Andy, Annabella, Suichin, and Ryan. They’ve all RSVP’d yes. Pretty awesome, huh?”
“Very!” I said, smiling. I didn’t want Paige to see how I really felt. “It’s going to be great ’cause you’re planning it.”
Paige grinned. “Duh.” Then she stared at me for a second. “Hey. You okay?”
“Totally,” I said. “Just thinking about one person not on that list.”
Good cover, I thought to myself. I’d never tell Paige that her guest list was probably going to give me hives before the end of the week.
Paige scrunched up her face. “I know—Jasmine. I wanted to talk to you about that. She lives on this floor, and since we’re holding the party in the common room, she’s going to show up.”
“I know. So do we just invite her instead of letting her crash?”
Nodding, Paige put down the folder. “That’s what I’d do. Fingers crossed that she’ll just think it’s going to be an uberlame party and not even show up.”
“True,” I said. “Really, why would she want to come to my party anyway? But go ahead and invite her.”
“Speaking of Jas … how was riding with her?” Paige asked. “Was she awful?”
“No, I was,” I mumbled.
“What? No, you weren’t.” Paige made a don’t-talk-like-that-about-yourself face.
“It’s true. I messed up during cross-country and, ugh, so mortifying, Mr. Conner asked me to his office to talk.”
Paige sat on her bed, looking at me. “What did he say?”
“That he knows I’m trying and if I needed to talk him about anything, I could.”
“That was nice of him,” Paige said. “He wasn’t saying your riding wasn’t up to YENT level or anything.”
“No, but he got that I was too focused on Heather and Jas. I mean, he didn’t come right out and say it, but he knew.”
“He is Mr. Conner.” Paige smiled.
I smiled back. “I know. I messed up today, but I’ve got it now. I don’t care about Heather or Jas!”
“Good!” Paige nodded and went back to work at her desk and I headed for the shower.
Leaning my back against the closed bathroom door, I rubbed my eyes with my fingers. I’d covered my nerves about the party with the story about riding, which had been true. Paige was planning a blowout party that would be amazing. But I felt so guilty that everyone was coming for me and I was such a liar. Plus, what if Eric and Jacob got into it again and Jacob told him the truth?
The whole party—no, my life—would be ruined. I’d just have to make sure I didn’t make one mistake.