Greer suddenly turned around and looked straight at her. Harley ducked her head and pretended to be digging through her backpack. She had a crush on him, too . . . she’d even said as much to her mom, which was hard to believe now. That had been a really low point. The truth was, she liked him, even more than Tyler, but he seemed like he was serious trouble.
“Did you hear me?” Marissa asked a bit impatiently.
“Yeah. I don’t know. My mom’s a little weird about me babysitting.”
“Seriously?”
“But I need the money. I need a phone.” Harley looked up again. Tyler and Greer were moving down the hall together away from them.
“I’ll split it with you. C’mon. I hate babysitting alone.”
“I’ll ask,” Harley said in a tone that said, Don’t get your hopes up.
She went to Language Arts and dropped her backpack on the floor beside her desk. She wasn’t sure what to think of Greer. He’d been okay at the mixer, at first. But then he and Troy had realized that Emma was her aunt and Troy had asked, “That Down syndrome woman at the Thrift Shop? God, my mom goes there all the time. It’s just a bunch of leftover junk, but she thinks it’s great.”
“She doesn’t have Down syndrome,” Harley had shot back, her blood boiling at his dismissive tone.
Greer had murmured something, trying to change the subject maybe, but Troy was oblivious. “You ever been there?” he asked her.
“Theo’s Thrift Shop . . . ? Yeah, I’ve been there with my mom to drop my aunt off,” Harley said tersely.
Troy had caught her tone and really looked at her. “Your aunt . . . oh, wait . . . she’s the one that got”—he circled his finger by his ear—“when she got attacked, or something.”
“Hey,” Greer protested, seeing something in Harley’s face.
But then they were staging their stunt on the stage and she and Marissa were grabbed to be part of it. Greer’s hands were on her arms, placing her forward, and he was whispering in her ear, instructing her, and so she let it go and went along with the prank, but the whole thing had left a bad taste in her mouth. She should’ve stuck up for Aunt Emma more. Said something. Greer should’ve stopped Troy sooner. It was all wrong. But she hadn’t wanted to blow everything up on her first day of school, and she hadn’t wanted to lose her connection to Greer by making a scene.
Now, she listened vaguely to the teacher’s instruction over their reading list for the year. She was already behind two books, but one of them had been part of her last curriculum, so she should be able to catch up, no problem. Reading was easy. She wasn’t bad at math either, as a rule, but again, she was behind in this particular section of algebra.
Still, her mind wandered and she struggled to look attentive when all she could think about was Greer Douglas and what Troy had said and how Tyler was really good-looking, but maybe kind of full of himself. Also, Marissa had told her mom about why she’d come over to their house and the shit had truly hit the fan. Her stepdad was cool, she said, but Harley was worried that her mom would try to end the friendship. Parents were tricky. They could just sooooo get in the way.
She made it through class and then was in the hall, aware that half the kids were on their phones. It made her mad. She was going to have to get a phone. Have to. They couldn’t be that broke, could they?
She needed a job.
She caught up with Marissa after school. “I’ll do the babysitting. I’ll just do it. Mom’ll have to let me.”
Marissa gave her a look, like she knew Harley had no power, because, well, who really did? Adults had all the power.
A couple of other friends of Marissa came over, and they chattered about the upcoming game on Friday night.
“Will Tyler even get to play?” Lena, the short-haired Asian girl asked.
“They’ll wipe the field with us if he doesn’t,” Katie said.
“They better let him play,” Marissa said. “It’s just not fair if they don’t.”
There followed a discussion about what to do on Friday night. The game was at River Glen’s home field. Harley tuned out. Katie and Lena were Marissa’s friends, but they’d only warmed slightly to her. It was always a bitch to move schools and try to make new friends. Some of the sophomore boys had been nice to Harley, but nobody but Marissa was stepping up to be a real friend.
She looked around for her mom, who’d said she would pick her up in the side parking lot.
“Oh! There’s Tyler,” said Lena.
They all looked. He was standing near Dara Volker. She had a hand on one hip and looked pretty pissed. Greer purposely grabbed Tyler and dragged him away, but Tyler shook him off and went back to Dara, to finish their conversation, it appeared.
“Wonder what that’s about?” asked Marissa.
Katie half-laughed. “You, probably. And you.” She slid a glance toward Harley. “The senior girls were pissed that the boys pushed you guys off the stage.”
“We didn’t ask for it!” Marissa declared.
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Katie. “They always do weird stuff when a new girl’s around.”
“Me?” Harley asked, surprised.
Katie shrugged. Harley worried she may have stepped over an invisible line, but Marissa ignored it all and went back to her own defense. “I just really want Tyler to be able to lead the team,” she said. “These fucking rules.”
“Whoa,” said Lena.
“Is Greer on the team?” asked Harley.
“Yeah. But
