"HEY," ELENA SAID WHEN SHE FOUND ME AT my locker after school the next afternoon. "We're all going to the Ice Cream Factory. Come on."
I looked over her shoulder and saw Mallory and Kelsey waiting nearby. "Me?" I asked. I had never been asked to go to the Ice Cream Factory with anyone.
"Yes, you," Elena said, laughing and tossing back her blond waves. "We're all going. Don't keep us waiting."
"Who's we?" I asked as I shut my locker and let Elena lead me down the hall toward Mallory and Kelsey.
"Come on, Cassie," Mallory said, sneering. "Don't be such a slowpoke."
The girls led me outside to the parking lot, past the losers' circle, where the geeks and loners watched us as we laughed and talked on our way outside. In the parking lot, three cars waited along the edge of the grass.
My brothers' Toyota sat at the front of the line, with Hunter in the driver's seat and Perry next to him. Behind them was a car filled with football players and another filled with cheerleaders.
"Come on!" Perry called, waving to us.
I hung back a bit, expecting my brothers to say something about my tagging along when they got sight of me. But Perry jumped out of the car and opened the back door, smiling.
Elena, Mallory, and I climbed into the backseat of my brothers' car while Kelsey got into the car with the cheerleaders. I sat in the middle, with Mallory on one side and Elena on the other. Perry turned the stereo up loud, so that the bass vibrated through the car and up my body. Mallory and Elena bounced around, dancing in their seats. Perry drummed on the dashboard. Hunter tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
I was hanging out with the popular crowd. I started imitating Mallory's and Elena's movements, trying to get into the groove of the music. So this was what it was like to be popular. It wasn't so hard. It was actually pretty fun.
The car skidded to a stop in front of the Ice Cream Factory and we climbed out. Our group took up four booths along the wall of the small shop. We were loud and rude, shouting out orders and making jokes. Some of the guys tossed a football across the booths and no one even asked them to stop. It seemed that the football players and cheerleaders could do whatever they wanted.
And I was right there in the middle of it all, seated next to Elena. Perry had seated himself across from Elena, and he kept leaning over the table to touch her arm or tug on a lock of her blond hair. And whenever Perry would look away to talk to one of his friends, Elena would turn to me and give me that excited look that I'd seen girls exchange whenever the guy they liked paid attention to them. Elena could have given that look to Mallory or Kelsey, but instead she looked at me.
"Hey, Cassie," Perry said while we were all eating our sundaes. "The band is ready to play the victory march tomorrow, right?"
The guys all roared enthusiastically. I stared at my brother, shocked that he knew the band even played at games. I'd never seen him glance in the band's direction.
"Yeah," I said. "We're ready."
"And so are the cheerleaders," Elena said.
"Because we have a secret weapon," Mallory said, grinning at Elena. "Lacede's best cheerleader is now Troy's!"
Elena blushed. "Well, I don't know about best."
"Oh, stop being so modest," Kelsey told her. "You're amazing and you know it."
Elena's cheeks turned even redder. "Thanks. I hope I live up to all this."
"Hey, Cassie, come help me outside for a minute," Perry said. I followed him reluctantly.
"What do you want?" I asked once we were outside.
Perry turned to me, his eyes wide and wild. "I need you to give something to Elena for me."
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, come on. You were sitting right there across the table from her thirty seconds ago. Couldn't you have given it to her then?"
"I don't want to do it in front of everyone," Perry said. "Please, Cassie, you have to help me. I really like her, but I don't want to mess things up. Just read this note and tell me if I'm being too forward."
He held out a hand, a piece of paper pinched between his fingers. I stared at it, my nose wrinkling. The pink paper had flowers on the edges.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered.
"Please," he said again.
"I'm not your personal messenger!" But I took the note and unfolded it, reading over the words as quickly as I could.
Elena,
I can't stop thinking about you, Last night I dreamed we kissed, and I'm dying to make that a reality. Meet me outside, under the big oak tree?
Perry
"What do you think?" Perry asked in a low voice. "I think I'm going to be sick," I said honestly. "What happened to, 'Do you like me? Check yes or no.'"
"This isn't third grade," Perry said. "I have to be suave." I waved the pink floral-print note at him. "And having your sister deliver your love letters makes you suave?"
Perry turned me around and pushed me toward the doors. "Just go give it to her."
I walked back inside, clenching the note in my fist. Was this what love did to a person? Made them write stupid love letters and force their sisters into doing their dirty work?
But why was I surprised? I already knew love made people do stupid things-like kissing their best friends and almost ruining a perfectly good friendship.
I sat down in my seat and pressed the note into Elena's hand. "Here," I said. "I was told to give this to you."
Elena gave me a puzzled look, but when she read the note her expression changed completely. Her cheeks turned pink and a smile spread across her face.
"Be right back," she whispered to me, giggling.
When Elena and Perry returned a few minutes later, Elena grabbed my hand and said, "We have to go to the bathroom now."
I had a spoonful of ice cream in my hand when she grabbed it and so it splattered onto the table. I looked back sadly at my melting sundae as Elena dragged me toward the women's room.
When we were inside, Elena checked the stalls to make sure we were alone, then she turned to me, her eyes wide.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Oh, Cassie, I can't believe it," she said quickly in one breath. She grabbed my hands, squeezing tight. "He likes me. Perry actually likes me!"
I pulled my hands out of her death grip and grimaced. "Well, yeah," I said. "That's obvious."
"I couldn't believe it until I heard it for myself." Elena leaned back against a sink, hugging her arms to her chest. "He said he's never met anyone as beautiful as I am and he can't stop thinking about me. He's just so…amazing. I can't believe he would choose me."
Amazing? My brother? Not a word I would ever use to describe him.
"Why wouldn't he choose you?" I asked. "You are beautiful, and everyone at Troy loves you already."
Elena blushed, shaking her head. "Thank you for everything, Cassie. You've been a great friend. I worried I'd be all alone here at Troy, but you've helped me fit in so well. I can't thank you enough."
I hadn't done anything to help Elena gain status at Troy, but if she felt thankful toward me, I wasn't about to stomp on it.
"So," I said, watching her as she practically danced around the bathroom, "does this mean you and Lucas have broken up?"
Elena blinked at me, her smile faltering a bit. "What?"
"You know, Lucas? The guy who's been your boyfriend for the last three years."
"Oh." Elena waved a hand, as if this wasn't important. "We haven't broken up yet, but we will."
My eyebrows shot upward. "You haven't broken up with Lucas? But I thought you were so crazy over Perry?"
"I am," Elena said. "I'm going to break up with Lucas before I go out with Perry. I promise. Don't worry, Cassie, I'll treat your brother right."
It wasn't my brother I was worried about.