The Hot List

by Hillary Homzie

  My insides froze. I couldn’t believe Nia would say anything, especially since she was stowing her cell in her lap too. I raised my hand. “Mrs. Tate, Nia has her phone out too.”

  Mrs. Tate drummed her manicured nails on her desk. “What am I going to do with y’all?” She flicked her eyes from me to Nia, and then from Nia to me. “Y’all are both hopeless.” My heart whammed against my rib cage, and I silently pleaded, Don’t take away my cell on List Day.

  Nia must have been thinking the same thing because she clasped her hands into the begging poise. “Don’t take it away. I’ll do extra problem sets. Anything.” She gave her best smile, the one that usually worked with teachers, and especially teachers that happened to be her mother. “Give me one more chance. Pleeeaaase?”

  Mrs. Tate shook her head. “Sorry.”

  “Oh, please,” I called out. “Give us a little break.”

  For a moment Mrs. Tate paused, and I saw a slight smile flicker. “I like to see y’all working together for a change. That’s real nice. But the answer’s still no.” She approached my desk and set her lips into a line. “I have to take your phone. Hand it over.”

  Sighing, I gave Mrs. Tate my cell. She immediately imprisoned it in a drawer in her desk, then she took away Nia’s phone and wrote our names up together on the whiteboard. “Y’all can pick them up after school.”

  Wonderful. I stared outside the window, where I could catch a glimpse of the mountains to cheer me up. After school I’d get my phone back. A lot of good that would do me.

  Squid pointed to the whiteboard with his ink-doodled hand. “Ewww, Sophie and Nia both got warnings. They’re like twins.”

  “Be quiet, Squid,” snapped Mrs. Tate. “Or else you’ll go up there too and then y’all will be triplets.”

  Nia shook her head at me like Squid was hopeless, and Maddie gave me another sympathetic look, which surprised me.

  I dug out my binder, slammed it into onto my desk, and opened it to the pre-algebra section, marked by the blue index tab.

  While Mrs. Tate watered her fica, the other kids were all whispering about the Hot List as they wrote down the assignment, which was in the right corner of the whiteboard. Mrs. Tate kicked some of the fallen leaves into a pile with the heel of her three-inch peep-toe heels. The kids around me were starting to pass the quizzes down the row. I stared longingly at the drawer where my cell was being held hostage.

  Mrs. Tate clapped her freckled hands together. “Look up at me, y’all. Remember this is a place of learning.” A few kids snickered.

  Not today, it wasn’t about learning. Today was all about Squid and all about the List. And I wondered who was going to fall hard today. Me or Nia?

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Small guy with big hair: Dude, Hayden’s staying on as number one. And I heard Squid was going on.

  Medium-size guy with a big backpack: Nahuh, dude. You better pay up on your bet. I heard Hayden’s falling to two and no way is Squid going on the List.

  —Overheard in hallway between first and second period.

  As Brianna came down out of the bleachers in gym, she whispered in my ear. “This will perk you up. The List has been posted up by the lockers in the west wing.”

  I felt a little chill of anticipation. Travis, which is ginormous, is split into four wings: the east, the west, the south, and the north. The west is close to the cafeteria, which meant most likely there would be crowds the minute the bell rang.

  My stomach lifted. I couldn’t wait. I was praying hard that Squid was on the List. That would definitely mess with Nia. I wanted it to work out. It just had to.

  As Mr. Pan spoke about the value of teamwork, I thought about how Nia getting off the List or being lowered, and Squid going on, would wipe the smirk right off her face.

  I noticed Nia, who was sitting with Maddie, glancing down into her lap and smirking in a disturbing way. That was when Nia raised her hand. “Mr. Pan, I need the bathroom pass.” Then she smiled extra big.

  Oh. I. Couldn’t. Believe it! She, Nia Tate, was using the bathroom as an excuse to be the first one to see the List.

  Mr. Pan shook his hand. “Sorry, but Ruby has the pass.” Mr. Pan limited bathroom usage to one at a time, which in the past seemed really harsh to me. For the first time ever though, I was enjoying his twisted bathroom pass policy.

  “But it’s been fifteen minutes,” whined Nia.

  Mr. Pan shook his baseball-capped head. “Sorry, kiddo. You’ll just have to wait.”

  “But it’s an emergency,” she pleaded.

  “When the going gets tough, the tough hold it in.” Mr. Pan tossed up his baseball cap as he laughed at his lame joke.

  Nia glowered at me as if Mr. Pan not giving her a bathroom pass was somehow my fault. As if his poor sense of humor was my fault too. That was when I raised my hand and told the biggest lie I’ve ever told during school hours. “Mr. Pan, I completely forgot to tell you. But I have to go down to the office.” I looked at my watch. “In five minutes.”

  Mr. Pan’s forehead wrinkled. “Your dad wants to speak with you?”

  “Yes,” I said, biting my bottom my bottom lip so I didn’t laugh out of the sheer craziness of what I was doing.

  “All righty, then. I can’t doubt you”—he pointed at me with his megaphone—“of all people.” He laughed nervously.

  A-mazing! Mr. Pan was falling for it! I thought he might question me a little, but … nooo!

  Oh, yeah, I was loving life right about now. But I knew better than that. I set my lips in a tight line and stared down at the bleachers. As I gathered up my backpack and stuff, some of the boys went “uh-oh,” including Hayden.

  But nobody made more noise than Squid, as he wailed like a police car in hot pursuit. Mr. Pan narrowed his eyes and vacantly gazed around the room, as if for a moment he was trying to remember how he ended up as a middle school gym teacher. “Um, Sophie,” he called out, smiling like he needed a special favor. “Would you mind running up my homeroom attendance sheets? Darn forgot about ’em.”

  “No problem.”

  “Thank you so much.” Nia furrowed her brow and shook her colored hair band wrist.

  Mr. Pan was thanking me? And Nia was schooled? I loved it! I LOVED LIFE!

  The perks of being the principal’s kid. P.K. all the way!

  Everyone was staring at me in an I-wouldn’t-want-to-be-you way. But they didn’t see my plan underway. Right now they were thinking that my dad wanting to speak to me meant I’d be the last person to see the List. They didn’t get that I was the lucky one. It would be me, Sophie Fanuchi, who would be the first person to see the List!

  Mr. Pan handed me an office pass and the attendance sheet. “Good luck, Miss Fanuchi,” he said, bowing low. “And give your dad a big hello for me.” And then he dove right back into his typical gym-type talk on cooperation and building trust.

  I managed to keep my cool and breeze past everyone to the door. As the gym door clicked shut behind me, I faced the welcome silence of the empty hallway.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  I was strolling with my office pass when, suddenly, the silent, empty hallway wasn’t so silent anymore. And it wasn’t so empty as Nia pulled up right behind me. “Ruby came back!” she hooted, as she moved ahead. “So look who has the bathroom pass! Hee hee!”

  Oh, snap.

  Suddenly we were racing through the hallway.

  I had the advantage in that I have superlong legs, but Nia had a head start. I moved ahead but I could feel Nia at my heels, which made me only run faster. That was when Mr. Roma, humming some heavy metal song, pulled up with his cleaning cart.

  “Hold up there, girls!” He sternly looked from me to Nia. From Nia to me. “There is no running in my hallways. Both of you girls know better than that.”

  “Bathroom emergency,” I said.

  “Ditto,” said Nia.

  “Okay, but if you trip and fall, then you’ll have a real emergency. Do you see the wet floor sign?” He po
inted to a yellow plastic easel thingie.

  “Got it, Mr. Roma,” said Nia, giving her sweetest, peace-loving smile.

  “See,” I said, slowing down.

  Nia and I gave each other a look, waited until Mr. Roma had turned the corner, and then resumed racing through the hall.

  We passed rows and rows of pumpkin-colored lockers in the west wing. How were we going to find the right one? They all pretty much looked the same. We craned our necks this way and that, looking for an abandoned locker. At one point we heard footsteps but saw no one and both of us startled.

  “The Listmaker?” I said out loud.

  Nia shook her head so her spring curls bounced.

  Then I spotted a locker that was slightly ajar and without a lock. It was next to a talent show poster that Maddie and Nia had painted together. A single tiny gold star sticker decorated the top of the open locker. Oh, yeah, this had to be it. Unfortunately, Nia saw the locker too at the same moment.

  This time I had a head start, but Nia pushed me so I stumbled. We were sprinting neck and neck. If Mr. Pan had been around he would have been impressed and probably would have signed both of us up for the track team.

  We slapped our hands against the locker at the same time, only Nia elbowed me and swung the door open, so I pushed myself forward. Together, in silence, we stared at the new List.

  In that moment, I could hear my heart tick-tocking, Nia hoarse-breathing, the heater cycling on again and off again. On again and off again. It looked like Hayden had fallen to third place, which still didn’t suck.

  AUGGIE MARTIN

  TEDDY STELLA

  HAYDEN CARUS

  BEAR ARVANITES

  TYLER FINKEL

  ANSON BLOVACK

  MATT JAMES

  NICK HYDE

  ARI SILVERS

  TYSON BLANDERS

  GEORGE MCGOWAN

  FRANK PARSONS

  KIRK DAVIES

  SEAN MCCARTHY

  RANDALL TANNER

  JONAH BARKER

  BEAR ARVANITES

  VINDAY PATEL

  SERGIO RALETA

  MICAH WONG

  No Squid. Squid wasn’t on. And I had lost. Lost! Lost!

  “I’m so sorry,” said Nia.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Keep on reading, though. You’ll find the girls’ list verrrrry interesting.”

  What did she mean interesting? I didn’t like Nia’s idea of interesting. My eyes slipped to the names on the girls’ list.

  NIA TATE

  AVA ALLEN

  SIERRA BLACKSTONE

  MCKENZIE DARLINGTON

  ADIA STILLER

  AMBER SMITH

  MEI WONG

  ALYSON HERNANDEZ

  SOPHIE FANUCHI

  Whoa!!! Did I read that correctly? Somehow, I had made it up to number nine on the Hot List. How did that happen? I wasn’t in Nia’s glamour group. I didn’t play girl drama games to get onto it.

  “Congratulations,” said Nia. “You’re officially hot.”

  “But it’s not like I was campaigning or something.”

  “Definitely not,” said Nia, smirking, as I read the rest of the List.

  MADDIE NARITA

  SIERRA STEVENS

  LESLIE GOTTFRIED

  SARAH RUINSKY

  JANE COCKRELL

  LIESA SALEEM

  CLARA PESSEREAU

  SHERRY WARE

  RUBY KUMAR

  JENNY GOLD

  LEAH PFEIFFER

  I was trying to process that I got onto the List, when Nia broke out laughing again. “Guess you better prepare to wear that fuzzy boa, sparkly shoes, and tiara to school tomorrow,” she said, “and look like an idiot in front of your crush. Hayden—I mean Blue, right?”

  “Maddie told you that?”

  “Don’t be mad. It slipped. Should be an interesting lunch tomorrow.”

  I slammed the locker shut on a piece of my finger. “Ouch!”

  But Nia didn’t look back.

  I barreled down the hallway and turned the corner. My finger throbbed, I had lost, and I was on the List.

  I stood in terror as the bell to end second period rang, and, within minutes, hordes of students stampeded toward the lockers in the west wing.

  Maddie headed the pack of mostly girls. They were moving at a fast clip down the hallway. As she approached, she called out, “Hey! I’m sorry you didn’t win.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “Apparently, news travels fast.”

  “Yeah,” said Maddie, waving her cell phone. She probably got a text from Nia. I noticed she was wearing her lavender Barcelona scarf, which surprised me because I thought she was so done with lavender. And our twin scarves.

  “I’m sorry about Squid not getting on,” she said.

  I turned to her. “Okay. Sure.”

  “Seriously.” She needled me with her elbow. I couldn’t help it, but I started to cry. Not in an obvious way or anything. But I could feel my eyes getting all teary.

  Suddenly, Maddie was hugging me. “You did a really good job, Soph. Seriously. With Squid.” She was calling me Soph. Like old times. She whispered, “I know what you did. And it worked for a little. Squid, like, totally changed. But then he went back to himself,” she said, shrugging. “Just with a better haircut.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Nia must be soooo happy about it.”

  “When I was heading here, I saw her skipping and singing down the hall. She did look pretty happy. I figured good news for her meant bad news for you.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s about it.”

  After a few of the domino girls left the hallway where the List was posted, they passed by Maddie and me. One of them with short hair smiled at Maddie. I think her name was Crysta or maybe Chrisa. “I heard Nia’s going to have a Hot List party?” Crysta/Chrisa said.

  “Probably,” Maddie said. “Maybe this weekend.”

  “Cool,” said Crysta/Chrisa, who then left with her posse. And that made me remember who Maddie’s best friend was and it wasn’t me, even if for a second, we had a close moment. So I quietly scooted away down the hall.

  I felt like everyone in the hallway was staring at me. A black cloud of awfulness had descended. And it had settled on me. My breath felt shallow.

  Maybe I should go home and crawl under the rock of shame, I thought.

  When the bell rang, I heard a cart clattering down the hall. It was the hall monitor Mrs. Heidegger with her walkie-talkie crackling.

  The crowd immediately scattered. All except for me. I stood there dumbfounded. And dumb.

  All of that work on Squid for nothing. Nothing! Maddie was still Nia’s best friend. And it hit me. The reason I had done the whole thing, in a weird way, was to show Maddie that I knew more about something than Nia. Maybe I’d make up a new list for myself—a list of people with no best friend.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Nicole and Heather called me twice, and texted five hundred times, to see how I was doing. The answer? Not great. For tomorrow, I had put a pink fuzzy boa into a bag, along with sparkly sandals, and a tiara that I had saved from a princess birthday when I was eight. It was too small and made my head look ginormous. On five separate little notes I had just written up the five things that I liked about Hayden. And each note, I had cut into the shape of a heart.

  My embarrassing little heart-shaped notes:

  I like how you don’t carry around a backpack.

  I like how you carry around your lacrosse stick because

  it means you’re really dedicated and that’s cool.

  I like how your favorite candy is Jolly Ranchers

  because that’s one of my faves too.

  I like how you showed Squid how to skateboard, even

  if he’s a goof.

  I like how you asked if I was okay when I almost

  stapled myself to Mrs. McGibbon’s desk.

  I was pacing in the living room, with Rusty at my heels, when the door opened and Dad ca
sually strolled through the door like it was just another day in the Fanuchi household.

  “You’re finally home,” I said, sounding snappier than I intended.

  “Sorry,” said Dad. “Lots and lots of meetings.” He looked at me. “So what’s going on?”

  “Do I have to go to school tomorrow?”

  “Are you sick?” Dad put his hand on my forehead. “You don’t feel warm.”

  “I’m feeling bad, trust me.”

  Dad put his hand on my shoulder. “Did something happen? Today at school?”

  “No,” I said. And that part was kind of true. “See, this thing that was supposed to happen didn’t happen, and the thing that wasn’t supposed to happen, did.”

  “Not sure I’m following you here. But you want to not go to school. I need details and facts.”

  “Those are the facts.”

  “Okay, when you’re ready to talk, I’m here.” He looked at me carefully. “Does it have anything to do with me dating Mynah?”

  “Not really.”

  “That sounds vague-ish.”

  “It’s not that. Mynah’s all right.”

  We both sat there for a moment, not saying anything. All I could hear was the knocking of the heater and Rusty drinking his water downstairs. “But you’re going to need to face up to whatever you’re avoiding, okay, Sunflower?”

  Sunflower was the name Dad called me when I was little. He always said I was as tall and beautiful as a flower that reached for the sun, and in that moment, I really wanted to roll back time and be that little girl again.

  But I was a seventh grader, who had made a huge mess out of things and was going to have to face the cafeteria tomorrow in a tiara, sparkly shoes, and pink fuzzy boa. Hayden would think I was such a dork. And Maddie, of course. I already knew what Nia thought. And I thought I was a dork. By tomorrow even Squid, the king of dorks, would think I was such a dork. Wonderful.

  The next morning Dad set a stack of pancakes in front of me. I gazed at them and my stomach twisted. “Sorry, Dad. Can you, like, save these? I’m just not hungry right now.”

  “Eat, Sophie,” Dad said, putting on a silly Swedish accent and pointing to the stack of pancakes. “I reheated them in the microwave from a genuine box.”