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Shelley glanced at me and said, “See you later, Xi.”
I lifted my fingers in a wave and went down the hallway that had my locker. It was at the end of the sophomore hall, which luckily gave me plenty of room to begin clearing it out, starting with pulling down photos of my friends and a mini poster of the Indigo Girls.
I carefully slid them into a folder and then got to work taking out my books. I always kept my favorites on hand because I never knew when there would be free time to read. The problem with having so many books? Having to carry them home. (Or at least to my mom’s car, where she’d be waiting in the parking lot.)
I filled my backpack to the point of bursting and still had several left. So I stacked them carefully, holding them in my arms and using my chin to hold them in place.
Using my hip, I bumped my locker door, but the janky thing never closed unless you lifted up on the lock and slid it shut.
“Crap,” I muttered, not wanting to set my books on the floor and start all over.
“Here, I’ll help you,” a beautiful, clear voice said.
My eyes widened and I nearly dropped all my books when I realized who had spoken. Kiyana was standing in front of me, offering to help.
She pushed on the door, but just like always, it caught. “Is it broken?” she asked.
Finding my voice, I said, “You have to lift up on the hinges.”
She wrapped her fingertips around the underside of the lock and pushed, using her hip to secure it. “They should really fix that,” she said.
“Tell me about it. I told them about it at the beginning of the year.”
She laughed. “Figures.”
I glanced around, wondering where her boyfriend was, where her usual posse of cheerleaders had gone. But instead of answering my silent question, she said, “Do you need help carrying those outside?”
I hesitated. This had been the extent of our conversation for my two years in high school with her... despite how often I’d looked her way when she wouldn’t notice. It felt too good to be true. “Are you sure?”
“Anything to keep from turning in my pom poms.” She grabbed half the stack from me. Now that I looked away from her beautiful dark eyes, I realized she was wearing leggings and a long T-shirt.
“They make you turn them in right away?”
She nodded, walking beside me toward the exit. “I would steal mine if I could.” She laughed. “I’m going to miss cheering here.”
“But you’re cheering in college, right?” I asked and instantly blushed. I shouldn’t have known that. Shouldn’t have cared enough to remember.
If it bothered her, she didn’t let on. “Yeah. I actually leave in a few weeks to start training.”
“Three weeks?” I did the math in my head. The inclusive prom was three weeks from now. If time was on my side, we could go togeth—
I quickly shut down that thought. It didn’t do me any good to fantasize about girls I could never have. Girls who would never be interested in me in a million and one years.
“We have cheer camp for a week so the squad can get to know each other, and then we start practicing for the football season. It’ll be so much fun. And so different.”
We reached the front doors of the school, and someone held the door open for us. Or, let’s be real, for Kiyana. She was Emerson Academy royalty. Literally. She’d been homecoming queen, and I’d voted for her.
We slowly went down the steps, and she asked, “Where are you parked?”
My cheeks felt hot in a way that had nothing to do with the early summer sun. “My mom’s waiting for me over there.” I nodded toward her maroon sedan that Ihopedwould be mine someday.
“Great,” she replied. We got closer to the car and stopped. “You know,” she said, “I never told you how much I admired you. For coming out this year. It was really brave of you.” There was something behind her smile. Something I didn’t understand, but it didn’t feel malicious.
“Thanks?” I said awkwardly because... well... that’s who I am.
She nodded, and I heard the car door open as Mom got out. Mom took the books from Kiyana, and we filled the trunk. When I looked up to thank her, Kiyana was already walking away.
“That was nice of her,” Mom said.
