Page 6

Chapter 6

Grace

I was calm while I backed the stealthily silent red Tesla out of Isa’s zigzagged maze of a driveway, and I was cool driving to school (even though I’d gotten a lot of looks at red lights), but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot…

Well, let’s just say I wasn’t very collected.

“Are you all right?” Isa asked. She was hidden under a blanket in the backseat. “I swear I heard you gulp.”

“No, that was you,” I joked anxiously, my face burning bright. Because how could I not be nervous? I was the student council president, who had not only skipped school but also roped my best friend into my plans. And here I was, about to walk into the lion’s den to lasso one more person into my day of debauchery.

Oh, and I looked absurd!

But then I saw it: the Subaru, sitting in my reserved presidential parking spot.

Surprisingly, my first thought wasn’t a good old sisterly Fuck you, James; instead, it was a bolstering I can do this. I’m freaking out, but I can do this.

“Does he have any idea this is happening?” Isa asked once I’d pulled up to the front entrance’s curb. I didn’t want to waste time roving the huge parking lot for a spot and then have all the Tesla’s weird sensors go off while I tried to park.

Also, curbside meant a quick getaway.

“Sort of,” I said, but didn’t explain. Just go with it , I’d texted Everett earlier, and when he replied with a question mark: You’ll see.

“Good luck, G,” Isa whispered.

“Thank you,” I whispered back, then unbuckled my seat belt, cracked open the door, and stepped out into the sunshine. You’ll be out in no time, I told myself as I adjusted my elaborate mascot head—the plastic eyes kept fogging up from my uneven exhales—before climbing the concrete steps. You’ll be right back out, and you won’t be alone.

Isa and I had timed it so that we’d arrive when class was in session, wanting the hallways to be empty. But still, my pulse was pounding so furiously that I could hear the blood pumping through my ears when I walked into the front office. It was quiet; Principal Unger and her inner circle must’ve been in their morning meeting in the back conference room. Lucky me. I counted to three before skipping up to the head secretary’s desk. Mrs.Flamporis, to put it mildly, shrieked when she glanced up from her computer.

Now, you may wonder why she shrieked.

She shrieked because I was disguised as the “Phillie Phanatic,” the official mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies, and I supposed when the Phanatic was in your workplace rather than on your TV screen, the goofy oversized costume could be a little jarring. The Phanatic is a furry green hybrid of a weird bird and friendly monster with a gargantuan gut, googly eyes, and a prominent snout. He wears a red-and-white pinstriped Phillies jersey, a red cap, and white sneakers. My costume was authentic; my Phillies-obsessed uncle volunteered to be the Phanatic during the MLB season (for six hundred dollars an hour!) but had recently retired from the gig. The team had astonishingly let him keep his costume, and my aunt was quick to gift it to James when he asked.

I greeted Mrs.Flamporis with some jazz hands and showed off the Phanatic’s extendable tongue. “Hello…,” she said, sounding bemused. “How can I help you, Mr.Phanatic?”

Even though the mascot head shielded my face and would muffle my voice, I panicked and fell into an impression of Karen from my mom’s favorite ’90s sitcom, Will during each month of baseball season, a student from a local school district was chosen to spend the day at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies home field. It included a behind-the-scenes tour, lunch with the team, and prime seating at the afternoon game. Today, the Phillies were playing the Mets.

After hanging up with Mr.Murphy, Mrs.Flamporis looked up the Adlers’ phone number to clear today’s “field trip” with Everett’s mom. I resisted the urge to shift from one foot to the other, but relaxed when Mrs.Adler’s warm, gentle voice came over the speakerphone. “Hello?”

“Mara, hello!” Mrs.Flamporis said. “This is Sophia Flamporis….”

I listened as she gushed the good news to Everett’s mom, who was quiet for a moment before she laughed. It sounded bittersweet, almost. “This is wonderful,” she said as Mr.Murphy entered the office, grinning. “Really, really wonderful. He has my full permission.” She released a motherly sigh. “Today is a tough one for our family, so a Mets game will brighten his spirits.”

A sudden sharpness shot through my chest.

Today is a tough one for our family.

It must’ve been one of those cloudy days for the Adlers. They tended to strike out of nowhere, hitting Everett especiallyhard. We would never be used to his dad being gone, but after two years, we were…well, getting used to him being gone. And I hated that I felt that way; I hated that I could breathe while Everett was still engulfed in a thick haze. I fell asleep easily every night after making s’mores in the microwave with my dad, while Everett tossed and turned, wishing he could get his father’s input on his fantasy football team’s lineup. Scott Barbour was the best dad in the universe, but Jesse Adler had been a close second. He’d given the greatest bear hugs.

You need to get Everett out, I told myself. No matter what. He needs this day just as much as we do.

Maybe more.

“Everett Adler, please report to the main office.” Mrs.Flamporis smiled and spoke coolly into the intercom. “Everett Adler, please report to the main office….”

“Would it be okay if we got a couple pictures?” Mr.Murphy asked as we waited for Everett. “We’d love to post them on the school’s website.”

“And Instagram,” Mrs.Flamporis added. “I’m working on rebranding our page.”

“Of course!” I chirped in my high-pitched voice, but my pulse wavered. Hopefully a photo op wasn’t important enough to disturb Principal Unger from her meeting. She’d probably ask to see my nonexistent Philadelphia Phillies ID before strongly requesting I take off the mascot head to check that my photo matched my face in the flesh.

Part of me couldn’t believe I was getting away with not doing so now. Mrs.Flamporis and Mr.Murphy apparently were too starstruck.

“Excellent,” Mrs.Flamporis said, then rose from her swivel chair. She pointed to the closed conference room door. “Our principal would never forgive me if…”

She trailed off at the sound of footsteps in the hall.

I spun on my heel.

And there was Everett, walking through the office door.

My heart did a handspring. Every time I saw Everett Adler, it was as if I hadn’t seen him in a decade. I just felt this magnetic pull toward him. He was intriguingly handsome, lean with broad shoulders, hair as dark as midnight, and amber eyes that glowed like dusk. His eyelashes were almost black, yet light freckles had been sprinkled across the bridge of his nose. And if you were clever enough to make him laugh, wicked dimples appeared in his cheeks.

Ev, I thought. There’s Ev.

He looked absolutely baffled.

“Everett, congratulations!” I clapped my mittened Phanatic hands. “You’ve been chosen to live the Phillie life today! Are you ready?”

He blinked knowingly, recognizing my hysterical Will his blue, white, and orange Mets hat said the complete and utter opposite.

Because as much as he loved baseball, Ev would’ve never entered the Phillies contest. His mom had grown up on Long Island, so the Adlers were die-hard New York Mets fans.

Ev’s face reddened, like he knew I was beating back laughter. “Photos!” Mrs.Flamporis reminded us. “Everett, if you and Mr.Murphy could get on either side of the Phanatic…” She looked at me. “You probably want to stay in character, but what’s your name?”

My Phanatic mask hid my evil grin. “Jean,” I said as I enthusiastically grabbed Mr.Murphy in a prom pose. “I’m Jean.”

“Oh, how funny,” the secretary laughed. “That’s our principal’s name!”

“I have so many questions,” Ev said as we calmly (but also not-so-calmly) left the building. Mrs.Flamporis had snapped a million photos. Overheating in my costume, I’d kept waiting for Principal Unger to emerge from the conference room. “The first being: Why? ”

“Well, I had limited options,” I told him, now flat-out bounding down the steps. “Being sick would’ve required an unpredictable nurse’s office visit, Isa took ‘family emergency,’ and a surprise trip to Disney World seemed a tad immature….” I opened the Tesla’s passenger door and gestured inside the car. “Your chariot awaits!”

Ev evaluated the electric car. “A gift from Elon himself?”

Isa flung off her blanket. “Try a gift to Elon,” she said. “Back when my parents wanted to clean up their environmental footprint.” She waved him into the Tesla. “Hurry!”

“Hey, Isa,” Ev said once he’d climbed in and buckled his seat belt. I noticed there were grayish-green bags under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept. “Where are we going?”

“Hello, Everett,” she replied in her cordial Dinner Party Pleasant tone. “I don’t know.”

They both looked to me.

“The question is not ‘where are we going?’?” I said, grinning and pulling away from the curb. It didn’t matter that I was drenched with sweat in the Phanatic costume. I pulled off the bird’s head to inhale some sweet, pine-fresh air, courtesy of the tree-shaped ornament that dangled from the rearview mirror. “It’s ‘where aren’t we going?’?”

Then I pressed down on the gas. Isa squealed, while Ev leaned back against the headrest and laughed. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught his dimples come out to play. My fingers twitched on the steering wheel, wanting to take a hand off so I could teasingly poke one. Like I’d done so many times at his house.

Because yes, I hung out at his house—dare I say— regularly. Whenever Isa had been busy with one of her SAT prep classes, her ACT tutor, or just in overdrive with an assignment. I felt awful for not telling her, guilt gnawing away at my bones. Isa and I were always honest with each other, but it was difficult to be honest about the fact that Ev and I were secretly still friends. She was the smartest person I knew; she would latch on to the secrecy and interpret it as Ev and me actually being more than friends.

We were just friends, okay?

We really were.

Today is for old times’ sake, I reminded myself, because back then, I didn’t touch Ev and he didn’t touch me. At least, not in ways that ended with us laughing and wrestling on the couch with him tickling me. Ways that left me breathless and wondering if he felt what I felt.

I never asked Ev for fear of complicating everything; he and I couldn’t feel those things. I couldn’t, he couldn’t, and even if both of us did, we wouldn’t.

Isa, Everett, and Grace, I thought, picturing us launching ourselves off the elementary school swings with James and biking to town for water ice in middle school. We were once so close, so tightly tied together.

We would be that way again.

After today, we would.