The Hot List

by Hillary Homzie

  “Text Hayden,” commanded Nicole.

  “Sure, if I had his cell phone number, which I don’t.”

  Nicole tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Then write on his Facebook page.”

  “I’ll sound like a lunatic. It’s too late.”

  “Sophie, you’re being a drama queen.” Weird. That wasn’t like me. My stomach bunched up and I felt jittery, like I’d had coffee before bedtime. Not that my dad let me drink coffee, except on special occasions. “Now everyone probably knows.”

  “Nobody knows anything. Hayden wouldn’t say anything. He’s much too cool. Plus, it’s not like he exactly talks a lot anyway.”

  But still, I was convinced the world knew about the mall incident. The idea of this bet was to show Nia what I could do. I was now mud at Travis Middle School. This was not what I had in mind when I took on this little—excuse me—I mean ginormous Squid challenge.

  Heather and Nicole tried to cheer me up, but even after eating almost an entire bag of red Twizzlers, I didn’t feel any better. And then I really didn’t feel better when Dad came into the room and announced that he wanted to take me to dinner tomorrow night.

  That, in and of itself, wasn’t so bad. The going-out-to-dinner part. It was who he wanted to take me out to dinner with that was the problem—Nia and her mom. And he wanted to take them to my favorite restaurant, Bar-B-Q. It had an open kitchen, stone walls, and smelled like mesquite wood. They had these ribs and roasted chicken that was so moist you needed, like, ten napkins, and the portions were so big that we always end up taking home leftovers. The place was perfect, and I didn’t want to spoil it with some bad memories. But Dad didn’t give me a choice.

  Dad and I got there ten minutes early so we could sit in his favorite booth, inside by the fireplace.

  “You okay facing away from the kitchen?” Dad asked, sliding next to me. He knew that I liked to watch the chefs working, and I guess he wanted to sit across from Mynah, so he could gaze into her eyes.

  “Sure.” What was I going to do? Tell him the truth? That I didn’t want to be there, that I didn’t want him anywhere in the vicinity of Nia Tate, now or in the future.

  The waiter refilled our glasses twice, and Dad ordered us both iced teas, as we waited for them, and Dad talked about the chances of the Rockies next season. I pretended to be interested in baseball stats when Nia and Mynah strolled into view. They were both wearing layers of shirts, vests, and scarves over skinny jeans with heels—only, Nia had her usual stack of beads and peace-sign earrings, and her Mom had on a simple gold chain.

  Mynah took off her long wool scarf. “So sorry we’re late. The traffic on the interstate was awful. Wasn’t it, Nia? It was because of the sleet. Yuck.” She pulled off her lambskin gloves.

  “Yeah. It was kinda bad.” Nia tossed her corkscrew curls. “But it didn’t help that we left ten minutes late, either.”

  Wow. Mynah busted by her own daughter.

  Dad swatted his hand in front of his face. “Ahh, no biggie. We’ve only been waiting here five minutes, anyway.” He smiled and glanced at me. “And we got some good chatting time in.” I noticed that Dad was wearing his nicest wool sweater, and had put on a musky-type cologne. Normally, he NEVER wore scents.

  “Actually, we’ve been here fifteen minutes,” I said. “If you don’t count looking for parking along Main.” Wow, this honesty thing could be fun.

  Dad stood up, took Mynah’s coat, and patted the banquette next to him. “Sit down. You and Nia look nice.”

  “Thanks,” murmured Mynah.

  Mynah glanced over at me. “You look nice, too, Sophie.”

  “You do,” said Nia, which surprised me. She was obviously trying to kiss up.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, although it wasn’t true. My face was blotchy from post-traumatic Hot List/Squid stress.

  We ordered calamari and fried onion rings as appetizers and made small talk, or, rather, Dad and Mynah actually talked, and Nia and I both pretended to love looking at the menu. When Dad saw a principal from another Boulder middle school across the room, he hopped over and brought Mynah with him.

  “Okay,” I said to Nia, who was dipping her bread into flavored olive oil. “Guess it’s just you and me.”

  “Uh-huh.” She popped the soaked piece of bread into her mouth. Then she ate an olive that sat on the table as a pre-appetizer. “Oh, yum. This is good.” Her eyes glanced at her phone, which made me want to get her attention.

  I couldn’t help but stretch the truth a little. Okay, a lot. “So, I’m making really good progress with Squid.”

  “Really?” Nia scooped up another olive. “I’m like, um, surprised, since his, like, essence is all wacky and weird.”

  “Yeah, he’s pretty wacky. But I’m working on it. Soon he won’t be recognizable.”

  Nia shook her head. “That would be so sad, in a way.”

  “Sad?”

  “I dunno. Then he wouldn’t be Squid.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” I was starting to feel angry.

  “Definitely, which is why I think it’ll actually be impossible for you to win. You’ve got to be true to your essence.” Nia fingered her crystal necklace.

  “Oh, c’mon. Is Maddie”—I made little quotes in the air—“‘true to her essence’ now that she’s all flowy and hippie-chic?”

  “Yeah. Why do you think we’re friends?” Nia sat up really straight, as if she were trying to will herself to be as tall as me. It made me sit up straight too, so I’d be taller and intimidating. I was surprised she didn’t say “best friends.” “It’s the law of attraction. Like attracts like.”

  “So, are you saying that you picked Squid because I’m just like him?”

  “Or maybe you want to be like him.” For the first time all night, she didn’t look bored. “You know, I want to be a therapist someday, but, like, the holistic kind.”

  “Holistic?”

  “You know, someone who helps people feel better by treating their mind, body, and spirit. My ultimate dream is to work in a little town higher up in the Rockies and to run groups under the stars, where people could find their authentic, real selves and touch their, you know, ‘inner magic’ and let the universe do its thing.” Then she laughed at herself. “Goofy, right?”

  “Kind of.” Whoa. I didn’t really have any idea of what she was talking about. Okay, maybe I did. But I was much too practical to buy any of it.

  Nia dipped another piece of bread into the olive oil. “That could be good for you, Sophie. My mom did it, and she figured out who she really is. That’s when she left my dad.” As Nia chewed, I couldn’t help but think she was talking about Maddie and me. That Maddie stopped being friends with me in order to find her real self. I clenched my toes as I thought about it. It made me so mad.

  But Nia didn’t seem to be aware of how upset I was getting. She kept going on about her parents. “They weren’t meant to be. My mom wants the white picket fence, the house. The whole suburban thing.”

  Did that mean my dad was the suburban thing?

  “My dad’s a ski instructor up at Telluride,” she continued. “And does ski patrol up there, too. In the summer, he’s a white-water rafting guide.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  “Yeah,” said Nia. “It’s pretty cool, if there’s any water left in the Colorado River.”

  It’s weird. Part of me wanted to stay mad, and part of me was fascinated learning more about Nia’s life. Her dad, who spent his summer days on a rubber raft and winters on the slopes, sounded so different from my dad, who always stayed in one place. He was even born in Denver, so he didn’t ever move too far. I decided to tell Nia thanks for sharing when her cell phone rang, and she picked it up.

  “Hey, Maddy Mads. It’s you!”

  I slumped in my seat and shredded my napkin as I tried to figure out their conversation. It was hard. Nia kept on going. “Yeah. Bigger. Bigger. Much bigger.” I had no idea what they were talking about and it was driving me crazy. And it was ru
de.

  Suddenly, it all became so clear that I had to help Squid. There was no other choice. The boy was getting onto the Hot List and that was all there was to it.

  “I know it,” said Nia in a louder voice. “I’m so bored too.”

  That did it. I grabbed Nia’s phone away. Of course, it was the exact minute that Dad and Mynah happening to be walking back to join us. “I can’t believe you just did that,” snapped Dad.

  “But she”—I flicked my chin at Nia—“was being rude.”

  “It would be nice if you said something first,” said Nia.

  Mynah sighed deeply. “I don’t get it. We were just saying, a second ago, how nice it was to see y’all chatting together and bonding.” Mynah/Mrs. Tate looked at me. “Sophie,” she said. “Why don’t you give me the phone, and I’ll put it in here for safekeeping.” She tapped her pocketbook and glanced at her daughter. “Nia, you know better than to have a conversation in the middle of a meal.”

  “I know. But it was an emergency.” She smiled at her mother and then at my dad.

  Yeah, right. The only emergency she had was rubbing her friendship with Maddie in my face. That was it.

  After the dinner finally ended, and I was done with the torture of eating with Nia Tate, I decided I needed a little vitamin Nicole and Heather.

  At first we were all texting, but then I decided to call because I wanted to tell them everything in detail. So I told Nicole and Heather about how my dad had been dating Mrs. Tate for a couple of months. After I told them about my dad’s dating life, I wondered why I had held back from telling Maddie. I guess a part of me thought by speaking about it, I’d be admitting that it was really happening. Neither Nicole or Heather seemed too surprised about my dad and Nia’s mom being a couple, since, as Heather put it, my dad’s pretty cute for a middle-aged dude with big ears, and Mrs. Tate was the prettiest single teacher. Heather also thought them going out together was cute, and Nicole wondered if Mrs. Tate was going to get a raise.

  Of course, I also told Heather and Nicole about Nia dissing me in the restaurant and the holistic therapy stuff.

  “She wants to do therapy,” said Nicole, “because, I can guarantee you, she’s been in therapy for years, so she thinks she’s an expert. Most therapists were messed-up when they were younger. So you have messed-up people helping other messed up people further spreading messed-up-ness.” Nicole knew about that stuff since her dad was a psychiatrist.

  “Do you really think so?” asked Heather. “About Nia seeing a therapist? She seems too happy and flowy, right?”

  “Oh, she’s a huge fake,” said Nicole. “I bet when she gets home, she flings off her love beads, chows down on bloody sirloin steaks and screams for hours.”

  “Stop it. That’s so mean,” said Heather. “Don’t you think that’s mean?”

  “No,” I said. “I agree with Nicole. I think it’s all an act. I saw her eating calamari and she admitted to me that she likes to win. That doesn’t sound very peace-loving to me. She’s competitive. I remembered when she first came to Travis, she glommed onto Ava because she could tell she was, like, the queen bee at the time. And when you start hanging around with the queen, her reputation rubs off, and then when you start acting like you belong … well, you do.”

  “I think you’ve just discovered the answer to the universe,” said Nicole.

  “Thank you. I try. But I’ve got to get someone cool to rub off on Squid.”

  “He’s been hanging with you,” said Heather. “That counts, right?”

  “Not quite the same,” I said, as I could feel the necessity to go to steps five and six of the get-Squid-hot plan. Not only did I need to get Squid to hang with the cool crowd but also he had to let everyone know about it. So I said good-bye to Nicole and Heather and texted Squid about the plan. Well, first I ate humble pie and apologized again.

  Texts sent and received on Sophie Fanuchi’s phone:

  After Dinner

  Fanuchi House

  Boulder, Colorado

  USA

  Thursday, October 5

  Between 8:01 p.m. and 8:06 p.m.

  Central Time

  Sophiegrl 8:01 PM October 5

  Sorry

  Squidster 8:01 PM October 5

  Say it agn

  Sophiegrl 8:02 PM October 5

  Sorry

  Squidster 8:03 PM October 5

  Louder

  Sophiegrl 8:04 PM October 5

  SORRY!

  Squidster 8:04 PM October 5

  ☺

  Sophiegrl 8:05 PM October 5

  so we ron?

  Squidster 8:05 PM October 5

  Y

  Sophiegrl 8:06 PM October 5

  Good. Cuz we’re going 4 step 5 and 6 on my

  get you Hot List.

  Chapter Seventeen

  During gym, I sat in the bleachers next to Brianna Evans, who was still moping about how Bear had cut back on flirting with her in homeroom. I tried my best to listen to her complaints, but it was hard to focus. The place was hot, stuffy, and smelled like sweat socks. And anyway, I was focusing on step five of the get-Squid-hot plan. I desperately needed to find some Hot Lister to rub off on Squid, who earlier in the day was actually looking semidecent in one of the shirts that I had picked out for him at the mall. And he was wearing regular-looking un-neon, un-glow-in-the-dark basketball shoes. Guess he had kept on doing some shopping in the mall. But unfortunately, Squid was also busy discussing the new superhero that his friend Elio had just drawn on a piece of notebook paper. The boy definitely needed some new friends if he was going to hotify.

  My P.E. teacher, Mr. Panigopolous, otherwise known as Mr. Pan, was busy setting up orange cones for relay races. He waved a cone at me. “Hey, Sophie. We’re doing three-legged relay races for the next week. Tell your dad it’d be a great photo op for the yearbook.”

  Mr. Pan went into the teacher-who-was-very-impressed-I-was-the-principal’s-daughter category. Plus, I’m pretty much the best female athlete in the class, which didn’t hurt either. Normally, all of his enthusiasm embarrassed me, even if I felt proud at the same time.

  He would say stuff like, “Sophie, why don’t you demonstrate a layup for the other girls?”

  Or “I wish that the rest of you people would put as much energy into your run around the track as Sophie.”

  Or “See how Sophie is touching her toes during warm-ups? Fingers to toes, people!”

  But today, a plan was sharply coming into focus. I was now going to use my status as gym teacher’s pet to my advantage. “Mr. Pan, let me help you set up.” I raced down the bleachers.

  “Thanks, Sophie.” He handed me a stack of cones. “Just space them about six feet apart by”—he squinted his eyes—“the free throw line.” He grabbed a pile of bungee cord kind of rope. “I’ll take care of these.”

  “Mr. Pan, I have a suggestion,” I said, as quietly as I could. Not that I needed to be quiet. The rest of students were all gabbing in the bleachers, and some of the boys, including Hayden, were fooling around with a basketball by the hoop nearest the door. “I think Squid and Nia should be partners. It’d be great to see those two cooperate, since they’ve been having”—I lowered my voice even more—“issues.”

  That wasn’t exactly a lie. It was more like Nia just thought Squid was beyond hope. But I figured, if Squid were seen tied up with the number-one girl from the Hot List, it could improve his status at school, especially if they won the race together. They’d be seen as a couple, at least for five minutes.

  Mr. Pan scratched his love patch. “Hmm, I’m all for getting kids to work things out. I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks,” I whispered and walked to the other side of the gym to do my job. As I put down the cones, I listened as Mr. Pan explained the rules. “There’ll be eight teams with two pairs each. Each pair has to get to the other side of the gym and back, all while being tied together. Fun, huh? This is an exercise in teamwork and cooperation.” Then Mr. Pan bega
n to put us into the eight different groups for the relay race. It looked very promising because Nia, Squid, Ruby, and Trent were all in group four. Then when Mr. Pan said, “Ruby, you’re with Trent, and Nia, you’re with Squid,” I almost shouted wahoo! at full amplification, as I strolled back to join the students, who were all still sitting in the bleachers.

  It looked like it was time to hype Squid. And I knew just the person to help me—Brianna, the gossip and former flirt. I sat down next to her. “They’re so going to win,” I said, nodding at team number four. “It’s got Ruby and Trent, Nia and Squid. And Squid’s, like, so limber,” I loudly whispered to Brianna.

  Brianna nodded in agreement. “So unfair, that team’s got everyone.”

  “I know it,” said Alba, a shy girl with white-blond hair who sat in the row in front of us.

  Oh, yeah! I wanted everyone to see Squid as an everyone, not as a weird one. Maybe I was becoming a List-making genius.

  “Sophie, you’re an eight, along with Maddie, Hayden, and Auggie,” called out Mr. Pan through his megaphone thingie. Immediately, Nia gave Maddie an I-feel-sorry-for-you look, but I didn’t feel that way at all because I was with Blue.

  “C’mon, people, hustle up,” called out Mr. Pan. “Get with your group.”

  I moved down the bleachers and stood next to Hayden. Normally, I would never ever stand next to Hayden, but I had no desire to be anywhere near Maddie Narita, traitor and ex-friend. And if I were standing next to Hayden, maybe we would get paired together.

  Unfortunately, that thought made my face go red. I could feel my cheeks flaming. Oh, why did I have to think embarrassing things? Why did I have to have such pale-colored skin that strawberried all of the time? Maybe Hayden would just think I was hot, I told myself, as in hot warm, not hot sexy. Although it wouldn’t be a bad thing for him to think I was hot-hot.

  As if he could tell that all of my thoughts were about him, Hayden said to me. “Hey, are you ready to win?”

  “Oh, yeah, definitely.” Whoops. Should I have said “definitely”? That might have sounded too eager or something. Nia was definitely not eager to be literally hooked up with Squid. For a moment, I thought I saw a dot of sweat dripping down her forehead. But it might just have been the lights. Travis was famous for its bad fluorescent lighting.