She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott

girls actually bailed from the line. Chloe, Shannen, and Faith looked as if they were about to shove me over the railing and onto the track. I took a seat a few rows behind them, slumped down, and looked out at the field, where the guys were lining up for a penalty-kick drill. Jake’s perfect calf muscles flexed as he moved his weight from foot to foot. I wondered what he would think about having me as his backslapper.
    “Okay, ladies! Everyone has their man,” Trista said happily, once the line had dwindled. “Our first big event will be next Friday, the day of the opening game. You’ll be decorating your player’s locker and baking him a little something to leave inside. Feel free to leave him an inspirational note as well, or a poem or whatever moves you. Be creative. I know last year one of our girls left a mix of heart-pumping songs to listen to pregame, and the player really loved that.”
    “That was me,” Chloe said, raising a hand to shoulder level and preening. A bunch of the girls looked at each other knowingly, like, Who else could it have been?
    “We’ll meet here briefly on Thursday, when I’ll hand out locker numbers and combinations, and then we’ll have the run of the halls until six o’clock, so you’ll have plenty of time to decorate,” Trista continued. “It’s your first chance to really show your player what kind of backslapper you’re going to be, so do it up!”
    A few of the girls clapped, and everyone started gabbing at once. Shannen and Faith got up to talk to Trista, and as Chloe was still gathering her things, I saw my chance. I clomped down the bleachers and dropped in front of her.
    “Can I talk to you?”
    Chloe glanced over her shoulder at Shannen and Faith. “About what?” she asked quietly.
    I blinked. Did she really have to ask?
    “About . . . you know,” I said, finding it hard to form the actual words. “The thing Faith mentioned at Connor’s that night?”
    Chloe’s cheeks turned pink and she looked at her shoes. “Oh, that. She was just being melodramatic. You know Faith.”
    Okay. Now I was totally confused.
    “Well, it was kind of a big deal,” I said, tucking my hands into the front pocket of my sweatshirt.
    “Please. It was almost a year ago. And it was just a party,” Chloe said. Then she rolled her eyes. “I mean, I know I always made a huge deal about how important my sweet sixteen was, but I get why you didn’t come. Really. It’s all good.”
    My mouth sort of hung open. What the hell was she talking about?
    “Wait. You invited me to your sweet sixteen?” I asked.
    Now it was her turn to be confused. Her brow knitted and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah. Isn’t that what . . . I mean, that’s what Faith was talking about. How you never RSVP’ed? I was upset at the time, but—”
    “Hey, girls!” Faith interrupted brightly. My brain was still struggling to catch up as she and Shannen joined us. “My mom’s waiting in the parking lot. We’re all going to Riverside to get dresses for the Harvest Ball. Wanna come, Ally?”
    My eyes darted to her face. I knew she was messing with me, but somehow my heart still flipped in hope.
    “Oh, wait! The shoestring that is your budget couldn’t even lace up one of my Gucci boots,” she added, tilting her head so that her blond hair tumbled over her shoulder.
    Shannen laughed, but Chloe simply looked pained. There was only one explanation for all the confusion of the past two minutes: Chloe didn’t know. That night at Connor’s, when Faith had mentioned what I “did to Chloe,” she’d been talking about this infraction against manners I’d apparently committed by not RSVP-ing to Chloe’s sweet sixteen—a party to which I’d never received an invitation. That was confusing enough, but I could deal with that later. The more important point was that Chloe didn’t know. And also, from the looks she kept shooting me, she wasn’t one hundred percent down with the evil ostracizing