The Clique (7 page)

              “But you’ve been dating Devon.” Kate frowns. “For like, a month.”

              “Yeah, well—“ Hannah shrugs “—he’s kind of a creep. Nate’s, uh, nicer.”

              Yeah, much nicer. Nate’s shirt clings tightly to a refined chest, and his bright blue eyes lend his features the sort of classical handsomeness Kate always pictures when she writes love poems. “Well, uh, nice to meet you Nate.”

              “Nice to meet you!” Aude echoes.

              Nate smiles. “Nice to meet you, too. Well, I’ll see you around, Hannah.”

              Hannah shares a giddy smile with her friends once he’s disappeared around a corner. “Isn’t he sooo dreamy?”

              “Yeah,” Kate says.

              “Oh my gosh, tell us all about him!” Audrey coos. “Like, how did you two meet?”

              “Cross Country. We’ve known each other for a while. But yesterday, after practice, he came up and asked if I wanted to grab dinner. And of course I said yes, I mean just look at him!”

              Kate looks at her friend, confused. “But then, what happened to Devon?”

              Hannah shrugs. “I dumped him. He was fine with it. He got that we were only together as a temporary thing.”

              So she just needed someone to fill the gap between real boyfriends.
Hannah is very proud of the fact that, since freshman year, she has never been single. Despite about seven break-ups. “Well, I’m happy for you.”

              “Me too!” Aude agrees. “Nate looks like a real catch!”

              Maddie joins the group, and judging by the bags under her eyes that her concealer doesn’t quite hide, she didn’t get much sleep. “You okay?” Kate asks.

              “Yeah. We’re supposed to find out who made the Patriots today.”

              Oh, right. That. “It’s gonna be you. I know it.”

              “I hope so. I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept wondering what would happen if I didn’t make it. This entire summer will have been for nothing.”

              “Well, not nothing.” Aude giggles. “At least you’ll still have Dom.”

              “Yippee. Why isn’t anyone decent interested in me? Like Gabe, or Sean.”

             
I’m not sure Sean is so great.
Kate keeps the thought to herself.

              “Aw, cheer up, Maddie.” Hannah puts a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You’ll find someone. I did.”

              Maddie snorts. “Yeah, I said someone decent.”

              “Not Devon. Nate.”

              Maddie looks confusedly to Kate and Audrey.

              “She’s dating someone new,” Kate explains.

              “Of course.” Maddie rolls her eyes. The start-of-school bell rings.

              Kate hangs behind to console Maddie. “I’m sure you’ll find someone.”

              “Yeah. All I have to do is act like Hannah or Aude.”

              “No. I mean, yeah, it takes longer if you wait for someone good. But the only way to find someone good is to act like
us,
not Hannah.”

              “Is that why Aude ended up with Gabe?” Maddie sighs. “You have to admit, acting easy is a good way to get attention, and maybe that means you have better options. I kinda wish I was like them, sometimes.” Kate turns, but Maddie’s already gone.

             
Maddie’s last words toss around in Kate’s mind throughout English.
Aude doesn’t act easy, exactly. I guess she just gives off, like, a vibe or something. Hannah, though, that has to be precisely what she’s going for. I wonder how long the thing with Nate will last. Hell, maybe when Hannah moves on, Maddie can date
him.

              The day drags on, leading up to lunch; despite the first couple of days, Mr. Silveris is proving just as difficult a teacher as the rest. Maybe even more so, with his daily essays and insistence on thirty pages of reading every night. Swimming is predictably easy, and Greek Myth as well. Fourth period, Kate asks Maddie if she knows whether she made the Patriots yet—but no, no news on that front.

              Kate waits for Maddie to show up fifth hour, even though it would mean her friend’s second unexcused absence in one week. She doesn’t show, but Sean does. He approaches Kate the way he might a rabid dog.

              “Uh, hey—what’s fun, honeybuns?” he winces. “I’m sorry. For everything that I did wrong.”

              “It’s alright.” Kate replies, wanting to say more but not sure how.

              “So…“ Sean kicks a rock on the ground. “Do you wanna go to lunch?”

              “Yeah.” They head for Sean’s car.

              “Hey, wait for me!” Kate looks for the voice. It’s Devon’s brother. “Hey, Sean, is it cool if I tag along with you?”

              “Of course, man.” Sean glances at Kate. “If, uh, that’s alright with you.”

              “Fine.”

              “Thanks.” Dom falls in step with the pair. “Devon’s going to Dad’s, probably gonna come back drunk. He’s a dumbass sometimes.”

              All the time... Still, Kate feels a pang of sympathy. Maybe he hasn’t taken the break-up as well as Hannah thought.

             
Sean pulls onto Larkspur. “So, uh, Kate—“ he glances in the rearview “—I think we need to talk.”

              “Now?” She looks pointedly at Dom.

              “Don’t worry, Dom’s cool. And this will be quick. I just wanna know why you’re mad at me.”

              Kate takes a deep breath. If he was going to ask, why couldn’t he wait until a better time? “I, uh… Do you remember last Friday night?”

              Sean shakes his head. “Why? Did I do something dumb?”

              Oh yeah.
“You, uh, you came over to my house and you told me you were high on ecstasy and drunk and…“ she pretends to be interested in the air conditioning. “And you told me you’d had a crush on me since elementary school.”

              Sean’s brow knits. “So? That’s sweet, right?”

              “Yeah, well, it would be if we had gone to elementary school together.”

              Sean laughs. “Oops, sorry. So you’re mad because I said some stupid line?”

              “No. I—“ Kate fiddles with her air vent “—I guess I was mad ‘cause, like, Aude went to elementary school with you. So I thought you maybe thought you were talking to her.”

              Sean laughs again—too loudly to be believable. “No, of course not. Have you ever seen what Audrey looked like in elementary school? She had these long skirts, and button-up shirts, and knee-high socks. Like she was always headed for church.”

              “Well, how come you remember it?”

              “’Cause it was funny. I mean, there’s a reason we called her Odd. By the way, I was thinking Panda Express. Is that cool?”

              “Yeah, it’s fine.”

              “Panda sounds good,” Dom says.

              Sean flicks the radio on. They get through half of a weird techno song Kate’s never heard before. Sean pulls up to the closest spot and pulls the parking brake.

              Kate steps out of the car, and pushes the seat forward for Dom. As he crouches through the small exit, his foot kicks a bottle of brown liquid; it rolls just enough that Kate can read the label: Maker’s Mark Whiskey.

              “Is that what you were drinking last week?” she asks, pointing to the bottle.

              “What? Oh, yeah.” Sean shrugs, looking a little sheepish. “You wanna try some?”

              “No! Why did you bring it to school?”

              “I don’t know. I guess I forgot about it. Oh, don’t look so worried.”

              “But you could get in trouble. Whatever, never mind.” Kate sighs and rubs her eyes. “Let’s just get lunch.”

              Kate gets her food first, a helping of white rice with some grilled chicken, and sits down at a small table in the middle of the restaurant. Even though Dom orders after Sean, he sits down first, since Sean is busy filling a fountain drink.

              “So, I know it isn’t any of my business,” he says. “But I just wanted to say, if Sean really had a crush on your friend, I think it would be more obvious.”

              “Obvious how?” Kate asks.

              “Obvious like—okay, don’t tell Devon I told you this, but for the past week and a half he’s been pretty much infatuated with this girl. He even got one of the old yearbooks and blew up a photo of her, that he taped to his wall.”

              Kate’s eyes widen. “Wait, who is it?”

              “I shouldn’t say. Devon would kill me if he knew I told you. Besides, my point is—a real crush makes people act crazy. They say things they normally wouldn’t, they do things they really shouldn’t. If Sean had a crush on your friend, you’d be able to see it.”

              “But…“ Kate frowns, her attention on the revelation about Devon “What if your brother does something bad to the person he’s ‘crushing’ on?”

              “Pfft. He wouldn’t.”

              “But that sounds really dangerous! Like stalker-ish!”

              “Calm down. I’m sorry I told you.”

              Sean sits down, a full cup of coke in his hands. “What are you so worked up about, Kate? Our thing, still?”

              “No, I wanna know who Devon has a ‘crush’ on.”

              “Well, I’m not gonna tell you,” Dom says. “Just forget I said anything.”

              “What if it’s Hannah though! She just broke up with him. What if he goes crazy and like shoots up the school or something?”

              Dom gives Kate an are-you-serious look. “It’s just a picture. Look, he’s not some psycho. But, just for your information, it isn’t Hannah.”

              Kate grits her teeth. “Okay, I’ll just try to forget you said it.”

“Hey, Maddie!” Aude holds out a stapled packet. “Here’s our speech. I spent like two hours typing it up. I added a few things too, but you can skip them if you don’t like them.”

              Maddie thumbs through the pages. “This sounds a lot like my speech from last year.”

              “Yeah, it’s supposed to. I only borrowed a few sentences from last year.” And a few from Jenna’s old speeches. And even one from Jules. Only a third of the speech is truly original, but the students who would notice have already graduated.

              “This is pretty good. Thanks.” She frowns, looking a little sad.

“Did you find out about the Patriots?”

              Maddie nods. Aude doesn’t even have to ask the result; if Maddie had made the squad, she’d be ecstatic. “I should’ve let you talk to Mrs. Davis for me,” Maddie says. “She pulled me out of class seventh period, and told me that I just wasn’t ‘quite good enough.’”

              “Aw, I’m so sorry to hear that.” Audrey pulls her friend into a tight hug. “You’ll win class president, though. This year’s yours.”

              “You think so?”

              Aude giggles. “With the best speech-writer slash campaign manager in the world? Of course you’ll win!”

              “I wish I could believe you.”

              “So
do
.”

              “Huh?”

              “Believe me. Choose to believe.” Aude releases the hug.

              “It isn’t that easy.”

              “Sure it is. And, if somehow the world ends and you don’t win—“ Aude’s lips curve in a conspiratorial smile “—we can always get completely wasted. Now that you don’t have the dance team to hold you back.”

              Maddie manages a small smile. “Deal.”

             
I really hope she wins,
Aude thinks
. For her sake.
Elections are on Monday, but the speeches are prerecorded the Friday before that—today—and then played in Advisory. Aude packed Maddie’s speech full of every single promise that a student council candidate was supposed to make. But it’s hard to know whether that will be enough. Part of why Amanda wins every year is because of her unconventional take on the speeches, and her ability to impart a touch of humor even through a projector screen.

              “Wish me luck.” Maddie says.

              Kate and Hannah both say, “Good luck.” Aude shakes her head. “You don’t need it.”

              After a few minutes reading through the speech and repeating a few sentences out loud, Maddie heads toward the room set aside for recording.

             
“Who’s gonna be the one to comfort her this time?” Hannah asks. “When she loses, I mean.”

              “Don’t!” Aude holds up a warning finger. “Don’t jinx it. She’s going to win.”

              Hannah snorts. “So I guess it’s you, then.”