“Hey, Aud.”
“Hi, Audrey.”
“Audrey, wait!”
Victoria glanced at her watch. “Wow, ninety seconds before the first ‘Audrey, wait!’ I was way off.”
I shoved my geometry book and copy of The Awakening into my locker and pulled out my American history text. “On a scale of one to ten, how hard do you think today’s gonna be?”
Victoria bit her lip and leaned against the wall. “Honestly?”
“Like you’ve ever been anything but. C’mon, pretend you’re the Russian judge.”
“Pretty fucking hard.”
“I don’t think the Russian judge would say that.”
“I believe the correct term is ‘Soviet Republic’. And I’ll say 9.8.”
I sighed. “And tomorrow?”
“Worse.”
I looked into her round eyes and I could tell that she knew something I didn’t. “What, exactly, did Chris Collins tell you?”
She lit up like a Christmas tree. “Damnit, you and your frolicking got me all distracted! So his brother’s in Jersey, right?”
“And not frolicking in New York.”
“Right-o. But Chris did say that his brother emailed him yesterday to tell him ‘Audrey, Wait!’ is playing on the Rutgers radio station, too. I guess it’s really popular because people keep requesting it and Chris said that his brother said you can hear it in all the dorm rooms when they party.”
Now, I know that, physiologically speaking, my heart didn’t stop when Victoria said that. I know that’s impossible, because I’m still standing here today. But it did some flippy thing it’s never done before, that’s for sure.
Victoria mistook my silence as permission for her to continue. “And there was a picture and an article about the Do-Gooders in the local paper. That’s how his brother recognized them, because he had gym one year with Evan. Was it gym? I can’t remember. Maybe it was geology. Or geography. It wasn’t geometry because—”
“Victoria!” I screeched. “Did you hear what you just said?”
“I know!” Her eyes were radiating a weird energy, like she had been initiated into a cult and wanted me read a pamphlet. “Isn’t this amazing? I mean, they play local shows, whatever. But now they’re nationally known! And so are you!”
“How old do you think you have to be to have a heart attack?” I asked her.
“At least thirty-five.”
“I’m about to break the record.”
“That’s really not gonna help your anonymity.”
“Did they talk about me in that article?” I squeaked. I suddenly wanted to be back in my bedroom with the door shut tight and my “Suck it Up!” mix playing on ten.
“I don’t know. Good Lord, Aud, that vein in your forehead is about to burst.”
I took a deep breath. (I happen to be very self-conscious about that vein. It’s not exactly my best physical feature.) “Victoria, this is insane.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Do you think they’ll have that paper at the bookstore?”
“I dunno. Don’t they have to, like, ship them here?”
“We have to get to the bookstore!” My skin was suddenly freezing while every muscle underneath it was on fire. “We can take my car.”
“Okay, all right. At least wait until after third period. I heard a rumor about a pop quiz in bio and if I miss it, I’m screwed.”
“You’re in a three-way tie for the highest GPA in the school,” I pointed out. “One quiz will not kill you.”
“Yeah, but I’ll be goddamned if Sharon Eggleston steals my best friend and my rightful spot as valedictorian.”
“Okay, fine, but after third?”
“I promise.”
I was going to add something about how Sharon Eggleston would never steal me away when I saw James walk past me, alone as usual. He had headphones on and was carrying the same black-washed-to-gray hoodie he always wears, and I moved to wave or say hi or something. I kinda felt like I should, since Mr. Scoop-Now-Think-Later had sort of saved my ass on Saturday. But he just kept going straight, cutting a clean line through the crowd. I wondered what he was listening to, why he always wore the same hoodie day after day, and I wondered why, when dozens of people I never talked to kept saying hello to me, why didn’t he?
6 “The beat is complete with the sound of your world going up in the fire.…”
—The Cure, “Doing the Unstuck”
UNTIL THIS WHOLE BUSINESS with Evan and The Song and my nationwide fame started, Victoria held the record for Most Strife Ever at Jackson High. She came in one day with her hair royal blue (assisted by me, of course) and by the end of first period, she was in the principal’s office and they were calling her mom. Here’s the thing, though: Victoria’s mom is even more kick-ass than Victoria. After her husband left her, she had this rebirth or something and went back to school and ended up becoming a lawyer, so when the school called, she swooped in like a hawk. I was in the nurse’s office getting aspirin for a “headache” (i.e., eavesdropping), so I heard the whole thing. They were even threatening to suspend Victoria, but her mom was all like, “Yeah, nice try, bucko,” and then threatened to sue them and call the ACLU if Victoria “is forced to miss one minute of one day of school because of something as inane as hair color!”