Max

As I flipped through my textbook to jot down notes and get through my homework, my mind went back to Adam and me sparring in lit class. It had been happening all day. Eating lunch, driving home, sitting in class. I just kept thinking about Adam.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so distracted by someone before. And beyond that, I couldn’t help but think there was more to the moment than just a mental hand-to-hand. There was something so compelling about the way that Adam spoke…and it had been impossible to tear my eyes away from him. He was magnetic when he was on a roll.

“Max! Dinner!” my dad called, and I closed my textbook to go downstairs.

My parents and younger sister, Lucy, were already sitting at the table when I made it down. Lucy was in middle school and reminded me of myself in a lot of ways. We were more similar than different, and it made our relationship pretty easy.

Our relationship with our dad, however, was not…so much.

I braced myself as I sat down. It looked as though Lucy was doing the same, sitting politely until he gestured for us to start serving ourselves.

“How was your day, Lucy?” Dad asked. It was a straightforward enough question but nothing with my dad was particularly straight forward. Questions like How was your day? and Do you feel ready for your calculus exam? carried more weight than they seemed to on the surface.

“It was good,” Lucy said, then launched into a summary of her classes and the projects due. She explained it all in detail, like she was being quizzed and was worried she might fail.

“And you turned your paper in?”

“I did,” she said.

“What did you get on the science test you took last week?”

Lucy looked down at her plate. “A ninety-seven.”

Dad scowled. “What did you miss?”

I looked over at Lucy, offering a supportive look. I knew after dinner, our dad was going to drill Lucy on the elements of the test she missed. She was going to have a long, exhausting—both mentally and emotionally—night. I knew because I’d been there before.

Once Lucy gave him the rundown on her mistakes, he turned his attention toward me.

“The new guy started today, didn’t he? The debater from Woodland?”

“Adam Grey,” I said. I felt a weird sensation in my chest at the casual mention of his name. “Yes, he started today. I debated him at tryouts.”

“And?”

“I won,” I said.

“Of course you did,” he said easily, offering a smile for the first time all night. “Don’t let up, boy. It’s wrong what they did, bringing that kid to Cypress for his last year. He sure doesn’t know what he’s up against, does he? Don’t give him an inch, Max—do you hear me? You are number one on the debate team, and that’s what it will say on your college applications. It’s a done deal. I don’t care how good anyone says this Andrew Grey is.”

“Adam,” I said.

Dad waved his hand dismissively. He went back to his food, leaving his words to echo around in my head. You are number one. It’s a done deal.

I thought about the glimmer of joy on Adam’s face when we debated.

I wasn’t so sure Adam couldn’t beat me.

***

Adam

“Coming up behind you with salt,” Mom said as she crossed the kitchen. I pressed myself into the counter to let her by. She mixed more ingredients in for dinner before tossing the dish into the preheated oven. Unable to stop moving, she then went to prep the salad.

“You haven’t said much about today. How did it go?” she asked as she handed me some parmesan cheese to grate.

“Fine. It’s just school, Mom,” I said.

She turned to give me a look I’d gotten used to seeing throughout my life. “Don’t give me that. I know you didn’t want to go. But you’ve always been so good at meeting new people. You have an almost superhuman ability to make friends. You’ve been this way since you were a kid.”

I grated the cheese and sighed. “The headmaster gave me a condescending speech about my scholarship propelling me to a brighter future.”

“He’s right—that’s the reason I pushed so hard for you to accept the offer,” Mom reminded me.

“Mom, please. I can do just as well coming from Woodland. I don’t need to wear a uniform to get into a good college.”

“I don’t doubt your abilities. I know you’ll thrive anywhere. You’re smart, talented, driven—I don’t know where you got it all from, but I know that wherever you go, you’ll do well,” she said with a teasing smile. “But even if it’s just the guidance counselors helping with the process, Cypress will give you a leg up. Sometimes you have to play the game to get the resources to propel you forward.”

“I just don’t think I should have to do all of this.”

“I know, sweetie. You should be able to accomplish all that you’re capable of accomplishing without the fancy school, but it’s just not that way sometimes,” Mom said sympathetically. She ruffled my hair. “I just want what’s best for you.”

I moved her hand away from my head. “Mom, not the hair,” I said. “And thank you. I know that you do.”

Once we got the salad finished and we got our food from the oven, we served ourselves and sat down.

“What about the debate team?” Mom asked. “How was that? Did you meet them? Tryouts were today, right?”

“They were,” I said. “Their captain, Max Rhodes—I debated him last year. He beat me.”

Mom waved her hand. “Oh well, you can’t be first every day at everything,” she said. That had always been the difference between us—I appreciated that my mom trusted that I was capable of anything, but she’d never pushed for me to do it. All of my drive was purely internal. All I wanted was to be the best purely for my own sake. My mom was more worried about me being happy. I was grateful for it, but I also wished sometimes she’d be a little harder on me.

“Yeah,” I said, not wanting to put up a fight about why it all mattered so much to me.

“This will just make you more motivated to beat him next time,” she added.

I flashed back to the fire in Max’s eyes. I was looking forward to next time; there was no doubt about that.

***

I clicked around a journal article, looking for a piece of information I’d needed during the debate earlier. I’d remembered half of the fact—the statistics but not the exact parameters—during my debate with Max, and it had been haunting me all day. Even though it didn’t matter if the facts were true during tryouts, it made someone look better to show off just how much they knew even before joining the team.

And I’d also never been someone to half-ass anything.

I let out a small knowing sound when I finally found the fact that I’d been thinking about. I jotted it down to commit to memory; I was never going to make that mistake again.

I then shut off my computer and closed my books to turn my attention to my clothes for tomorrow. Another day, another dreary uniform. Only just finished day one, and I was already over it for the school year.

But seeing as the headmaster didn’t seem upset about how I arrived today, I wondered what else I could get away with in terms of spicing up my look.

I rummaged through my closet and found a vintage waistcoat. I held it up in the mirror, studying it closely and trying to envision what the full outfit might look like. If today was about taking it down a notch, tomorrow would be about tightening it up.

I laid the waistcoat out and climbed into bed just as my phone buzzed. I looked over at it and saw that it was Miranda texting.

I picked up my phone.

Look what I found, she wrote.

I clicked on the text and pulled up the full picture—a shot of shirtless Max in swim trunks. I felt something in me stir at the sight, my heart racing just looking at his well-built body. Max might have been shy and kept to himself, but his body was nothing short of worth shouting about from the rooftops.

I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. To think that this was the same guy who’d gotten so fired up during our debate, who was able to hold his own against me in class. To have brains and to look like that…

I was still staring at the photo when Miranda’s second text came in. Me or you—one of us has to have this boy.