Games of Fire by Airicka Phoenix Page A

falling over his brow. He was handsome, Sophie mused, but in a younger brother by three months kind of way. There had never been any sparks there, but she knew some lucky girl would get him one day and he’d make her so happy.
    “What did he do this time anyway?” Joe asked, tearing the wrapper off his sandwich.
    Sophie shook her head, picking at a blade of lettuce poking out of her sandwich. “ He hasn’t done anything. I’m the one with issues. I mean, so what if he doesn’t like me? It’s not like I care. He’s probably all moody and sullen with everyone.”
    “He has no reason to hate you,” Jessie said. “He doesn’t know you. I’m sure it’s just the stress of the move. He’ll come around.”
    “He better not,” Joe muttered around a large chomp. “I’ll break his kneecaps.” Then, before anyone could ask if he was joking, he said, “Did your mom make this?”
    For as far back as Sophie could remember, she’d brought Joe a lunch. It started off because Joe never had one and she split hers with him, but as they got older, she just brought him one of his own. It never bothered her and she tried to make it for him, because her mother didn’t like Joe overly much and normally refused.
    “Yeah. How did you know?”
    He shrugged. “I know when you make me food. It tastes different.”
    Sophie laughed. “Good different , or I shouldn’t give up my day job different?”
    His eyes met hers. “I just know.”
    A tense moment of silence swallowed all conversation at the table as Sophie tried to decode the odd look behind Joe’s eyes.
    “ Ooookay! We’re moving past the creepy awkward, because lover boy just walked in.” At Lauren’s slow drawl, all eyes swiveled to the other end of the cafeteria where a small crowd of jocks and cheerleaders swarmed like flies to a picnic. They were shouting and laughing and making more noise than a stadium full of people. In the center of it all, laughing right along with them was Spencer. It apparently hadn’t taken him long to fit in with the right crowd.
    Gone was the scowl, the wave of anger and resentment that wafted off him whenever Sophie was around. His gray eyes were bright pools of liquid silver shimmering with light. He had dimples, something she had never noticed until that moment, maybe because he never smiled at her. They were etched perfectly on either side of his beaming mouth like twin stars. He looked so absolutely beautiful that it hurt.
    Then, as if needing to add salt to Sophie’s open wound, Maggie Chow appeared out of the crowd and linked her thin arm through Spencer’s. Sophie waited, expecting him to shove her away, or scowl, or glare, or something … anything. But he just continued with his conversation as if he had not a care in the world.
    Maybe it was her. Maybe there was something about her that he didn’t like. He clearly had no problems with anyone else.
    “Hey, you okay?” Joe touched her arm lightly.
    Scooping herself together, Sophie forced a smile as she turned back to her friends. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just realized I forgot something in the library that I need for next class.” She pushed her lunch quickly in Joe’s direction. “I’ll see you guys at Bill’s?” Barely waiting for nods of confirmation, she made a hasty escape, hurrying right past Spencer and crew with her head ducked, hair forming a solid curtain between her and him.
    The rest of the school day went by in a slow blur. For the most part, she managed to keep Spencer out of her mind, refusing to be one of those girls who spent a majority of her time thinking about a boy and wallowing. By the time she’d left the cafeteria and her friends, she had kicked herself repeatedly for being so stupid and letting him affect her at all. Whatever the reason, his dislike of her was his problem, not hers. She just needed to remember that and not act like a total moron every time Spencer Rowth was around.

    Bill’s Grease Pit was a hole in the wall between the