Chapter 6

The next day, Sam stopped in front of Dana on her way to chemistry again. Yet again.

“I’d really like to talk,” Dana told her, “but Rodriguez will have my hide if I’m late again.”

Sam walked beside her. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out Saturday night.”

Okay, that one surprised Dana. “I thought you were steady with Al.”

Sam waved a hand. “I have a steady boyfriend. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Dana didn’t care what Tina thought—this school was just plain weird. People believed lines like that? “He doesn’t mind?”

Sam smiled, the sort of smile that could make small children cry. “He doesn’t have a choice.”

That, Dana thought, was probably true. Dana still hesitated. And yet, Sam was hot—she made tall look good, with poise, unlike Dana’s space-filling bulk. She took cheering seriously, and training had given her a buff body. When she smiled for real, Sam was possibly the most beautiful of the cheerleaders.

Dana paused at the branch in the hallway. “So does this mean I passed your test?”

“Well enough that we have a proposition for you.”

Dana wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. “What?”

“We had trouble deciding who’d get to go out with you, so we decided we all would—or none of us.”

Dana blinked. “You mean... ?”

Sam smiled wickedly. “You go out with every cheerleader in turn, giving each one a good time—going as far as she wants. If you don’t, none of us will give you the time of day. Think you can handle that?”

“Starting with you,” Dana said.

Sam nodded fractionally. “We have a deal?”

A chance with every girl on the squad? That was a field she could play for the rest of the year. Dana was all over it. “Deal. I’ll make sure every cheerleader has a girl to date. My word on it.”

Sam smiled, pleased. “I’ll text ya.” Then she twirled and headed down the other hallway.

Dana made it into class just as the bell rang. Mr. Rodriguez glowered, but said nothing.

At lunch, Dana sat down opposite Josh. Because he made no sign there was anything between them, such as going out tomorrow, neither did she. He and Tina were still not not-together, judging by the tensions between them. Dana found it better not to look at him at all. Dana and Tina talked some about the upcoming Spanish test, though Dana couldn’t focus on it, while Mike complained about his algebra homework. Then Lillian arrived, and flounced into a chair.

“How’d it go?” Tina asked. As if Lillian’s body language wasn’t screaming, “Badly.”

“He’s still doing it,” Lillian said. She sighed, then ran a hand through her hair. “He says he doesn’t have a choice, with his mother still sick.”

Off Dana’s look, Tina explained, “Josè’s dropping out to work for his cousin.”

Lillian’s boyfriend. Dana’d only met him twice—he spent lunches working as an A/V aide. He seemed a nice enough guy, for a skinny boy with a weedy little mustache.

“And just a couple months from graduating,” Lillian said. “It’s just not fair.” She looked like she wanted to kick someone responsible, hard.

“What’s his cousin do?” Mike asked.

“General contractor.”

“What happened to the electrician apprenticeship?” Josh asked quietly.

“That requires a diploma,” Lillian said. “Josè says he’ll take the GED in a little bit, but his family needs the money now.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how he’ll get out of Riverton now.”

Tina shook her head in commiseration. Dana grimaced; not getting out of this rinky-dink town was, well, nightmarish. She thought of Heather’s parents and shuddered.

“Speaking of getting out,” Josh said, “have you heard from State yet?”

“Nobody‘s sent out acceptances yet,” Tina said.

Josh spread his hands. “Just asking.”

But it still started the three seniors discussing college acceptance hopes. They’d all applied to the in-state schools—though Lillian only to State, and even that against the expressed advice of her guidance counselor. He’d advised her and Tina to stick to the local community college—Josh, as an honors student, hadn’t gotten that. Or maybe as a boy. This made Dana’s already low opinion of the school administrators even worse. Did he really believe community college was the best they could do?

The juniors, Mike and Sandy, were just as full of plans to escape Riverton. Mike was looking to leave for Salt Lake or Denver with his bass guitar the day he turned 18. Sandy planned to apply to state schools elsewhere in the West. Dana admitted she was hoping for an athletic scholarship, possibly someplace out East—though she didn’t admit to her dream of U. Conn. Mike shook his head at this, and muttered, “Lucky.”

Either way, all six of them planned to work hard over the summer, once tourist season started up, to save up for school.

The conversation opened Dana’s eyes—coming from a city, the confinement of small-town life oppressed her, but she’d no idea the others felt it as strongly. Yeah, there’d been comments like Heather’s, but she’d heard nothing with this intensity—possibly because the athletes she hung with assumed sports would get them out. The eagerness of the seniors was almost palpable, while you could cut the envy of the juniors with a plastic cafeteria knife. Which made sense, when Dana thought about it—if she’d known she’d be free in a couple months, she might not have tried coming out, even only to cheerleaders. Being stuck here for a year and a half had forced her to look for something more stable than searching for girls in the closet like needles in a haystack.

When the bell rang, as they stood up, Josh caught Dana’s eye and gave her a brief nod, barely moving his head. None of the others caught it, but Dana was still uncomfortable. If someone had, how would she explain it? If Tina had?

Dana and Tina walked silently to their lockers, Dana thought about her friend. Tina probably didn’t know about Josh and her. Josh wasn’t her boyfriend—as she roundly claimed—but still. Should she—

Inside Dana’s locker was a note, torn from a spiral notebook. One glance was enough to recognize hate mail. Oh joy. Dana wadded it up without reading, and stuffed it in her pack for later disposal. She didn’t let her hand tremble—if the bastard or bitch was watching, she wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of reacting.

With just a little more encouragement, Dana could really come to hate Riverton.

Josh was right—she needed to be seen, going out with a boy.

Tina caught Dana’s grimace as she pulled out her history textbook. “What?”

Dana hefted the tome. “Just that, if I don’t pass this, I’ll be stuck here that much longer.”

Tina sighed. “I know what you mean.”

Between history and math, Dana ran into Nikki in the hallway. Dana was still feeling pissy, and seeing a friendly face—one that smiled to see her—made her feel good. Good enough, that without thinking she asked Nikki out Sunday.

“Um,” the smaller girl said.

Dana realized what she’d said in a crowded hallway—not to mention, she wasn’t even sure the cheerleaders would let her go out with Nikki a second time till she’d gone through the rest of the squad. Girl, she told herself, we need to work on your impulse control. “I can call you,” Dana said, belatedly.

“I’d love to,” Nikki said. “Call me tonight.”

And then they parted for class.