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“Katherine Beale Gordon, I said no.”
“—to play tennis, because how can anybody possibly get arrested playing tennis?”
“That boy would find a way.”
Angry all over again, I tromped upstairs and texted Sawyer the sad news. He sent me a hilarious answer. My mother would have been horrified to know that we texted back and forth for the rest of the day, into the night. I wasted hours with him and lost some sleep despite her, and fell for him that much harder.
* * *
On Monday the school elected Sawyer and me homecoming king and queen. Since cheerleading practice was on the football field with the band, DeMarcus held his phone and read the announcements Ms. Chen had e-mailed to him. As soon as he made this pronouncement, all the cheerleaders mobbed me, squealing and hugging, along with all the majorettes (except Angelica), and Tia, who’d abandoned her snare drum halfway across the field—despite Ms. Nakamoto calling through her megaphone, “Ms. Cruz? Let’s keep it together until the end of practice, shall we?”
Sawyer had heard the announcement too, in football practice. A couple of guys who came to help with the homecoming float build after school told me the entire football team had ribbed Sawyer about what he and I were going to do to each other on homecoming night, which was kind of touching and kind of gross.
He called me from work. “What does this vote even mean?” he asked me. “We just sit on the float together?”
“And get crowned during halftime, yeah.”
“Do we get a special prize at the dance?”
“Like my parents have a change of heart and let me go out with you? I seriously doubt it.” I hated the way this sounded. I’d treasured every moment I’d stolen talking with him at school that day, but all I’d done while I was with him was complain bitterly about not being with him. If I kept this up, he wouldn’t even want to date me for long, and my mother would have won.
“I’m wearing the costume, you know,” he said. “Not at the dance, but of course at the game, and also on the float. The pelican has to make an appearance of some kind in the homecoming parade. Little kids might actually cry if he doesn’t.”
I planned to cheer during the game too. I wouldn’t miss that to stand and grin at the crowd in a tiara for five minutes. During the parade, though, the cheerleaders just waved from the back of Grace’s dad’s farm truck. I might as well play queen in formal wear.
And I didn’t need my mother to help me with that. I had last year’s prom gown. So I didn’t even tell my parents about my achievement, which they wouldn’t see as an achievement anyway. I just kept going to the homecoming float builds after school as if we weren’t building it for me.
On Thursday night, Sawyer showed up at eight o’clock at the school’s shop class, where we’d constructed the float. He said he’d gotten off work an hour early so he could help with last-minute preparations. By that time, though, the float was finished. Will’s design of a blue crepe-paper wave rising behind the homecoming court had worked beautifully. I was one of the few students left in the shop, cleaning up stray scraps of paper on the floor. There was nothing for Sawyer to do.
“So let’s go get a vegan dinner,” he said, “on me. It has to be in downtown Tampa, though, where the vegans are.”
I did a quick calculation in my head. The student council had spent some late nights on the float. My parents wouldn’t expect me home until ten. I had time for sneaky vegan. “We need to go in separate cars, so they don’t see mine abandoned here or catch me getting out of your truck.”
“Okay.”
“And I never want you to pay for mine. I get an allowance. You need your money.”
“Don’t worry about it.” He grinned. “That night your family came to the Crab Lab, your dad tipped me a hundred bucks.”
“You deserved every penny,” I grumbled.
The restaurant he picked out had an Indian feel but an international menu. “I’m surprised at all the choices,” I admitted. “I wanted to come with you, but I’d pictured eating carrots dipped in ketchup.”
“I’m surprised too,” he said, turning the page. “I’m glad we came. I never even thought about eating half this stuff.”
“It would be great if you could shift your attention to what you can eat,” I said. “Until now, it seems like you’ve been totally focused on what you can’t have.”
He reached across the table for my hand. “Yeah, I have been.”
I tilted my head and frowned at him. “Is this worth it if it makes us both miserable?”
He didn’t answer. He slowly rubbed each of my fingers with his, then circled his fingertips in my palm, shooting delicious fiery sensations up my arm.
That was my answer. As long as he made me feel so good, this was worth it.
And I remembered what Tia had told me at the movie Saturday night, which had made it sound like Sawyer had a deep vested interest in me. “Tia said you left your dad’s house because of something he said about me.”
Sawyer’s eyes widened. He let go of my hand and put his own in his lap. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sawyer,” I scolded him. “You think you’re being chivalrous, but my mother doesn’t like you, either. She dislikes you for a totally different reason, but still. And I’m not moving out.”
Sawyer took a deep breath and sighed. “I could almost forgive him for what he said. Prison’s supposed to rehabilitate people. Of course it only turns them into monsters if they weren’t already. And the races don’t mix there.”
