The Hot List (14 page)

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 began 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.

As Nia dragged her way down the bleachers, Mr. Pan motioned for her to move faster, so she picked up the pace. “Atta girl, Nia,” he said. “I know you can be your normal, enthusiastic self. But you need to take off those beads. You know the rules.”

“Sorry.” She put her peach speckled beads onto the bleacher and smiled enthusiastically for a mini moment.

“Can I switch and be with Maddie?” she asked in a fake sweet voice.

No, then she would be with Maddie
and
get to be with Hayden and Auggie.
No, say no, Mr. Pan,
I telepathically pleaded.

“How about next time?” offered Mr. Pan, who suddenly became my favorite teacher ever. “Today, Maddie and Sophie are going to be partners.” Okay, scratch that. I hated Mr. Pan. He was my least favorite teacher and needed to take a very early retirement.

Nia gave Maddie an even bigger I-feel-sorry-for-you look.

But it was me she should have felt sorry for. Maddie wasn't exactly coordinated. And she was the last person I wanted to be tied up with, doing teamwork. I guess Mr. Pan was taking my suggestion a little too seriously, about pairing some kids up together who had issues. He knew Maddie and I weren't exactly speaking with each other.

I grudgingly stepped away from Hayden and grabbed one of the cords. “I can tie us together,” I said to Maddie.

“Okay,” she mumbled.

As I bound my leg with Maddie's, I glanced down at her shoes. Today she wore a new pair of black converse high-tops with peace-sign shoelaces. I thought about saying
something to her, such as
I like your shoelaces
, but I just couldn't. Because it wasn't true. I hated her shoelaces. They matched Nia's.

Then Maddie said under her breath like a warning, “Blue.”

Huh? I turned around and, sure enough, Hayden stood behind me. “Are you prepared to win?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “You haven't seen Maddie and me do a three-legged race before. We're awesome.”

“Watch it!” Hayden called over to Trent, who played with him on the lacrosse team. “You guys are going down.”

“Don't think so,” said Trent, who was now tied to Ruby.

Then I leaned away from Maddie as much as possible, considering that we were tied together. Maddie was also doing the same.

So far, today was not going as I had hoped. Like right now, Squid was doing a little I'm-with-Nia happy dance. Which I didn't quite get since just yesterday he had told me he was crushing on Maddie.

Boys were so fickle, really. He should be loyal to Maddie. No, that was crazy. Why would I care about that?

“Me and Nia, yeah, bay-bee,” Squid sang out, as he shook his hips. “We're a three-legged legend.” Then he did a front handspring. Of course, he wasn't tied up with Nia—at least not yet.

“Safety first, people!” called out Mr. Pan. “Remember, you have to think of yourself as one organism.” If Maddie and I were an organism, what kind of organism would we be? Probably a scorpion. Definitely venomous. “Once the first pair gets to the finish line, the last pair goes,” continued Mr. Pan. “Whoever comes in first wins. Okay, people? Everyone should be tied together by now. Remember, it's just a simple knot, no cutting off circulation. I wouldn't want anyone sewn together permanently.” He laughed at his own lame joke.

“I'm going to be tied to Nia,” called Squid, as if the entire world didn't already know that. I was going to have to teach him a few principles about playing it cool. I realized I had told him he had to broadcast that he was hanging with cool types, but he had to learn to do it subtly.

“Hiya, Soph!” Squid called out, a big goofy grin spreading on his face. “Sorry you didn't get to be tied up with Hayden.”

I could feel my face flame up. And why exactly had I let Squid know that I liked Hayden? I couldn't turn my head because I didn't want to see Hayden and see his probable look of disgust. This day was quickly becoming a nightmare.

Mr. Pan shouted, “During the race, I'd suggest holding hands.”

“Don't think so,” Nia said. She stared at Squid's hands, which were covered with doodles of little aliens in Magic Marker.

And I was definitely not holding hands with Maddie. No way.

Suddenly, Mr. Pan was screaming, “On your marks, get set, go!”

In our group, Hayden and Auggie went first, and they were creaming everyone by a mile, even Trent and Ruby. It was as if they had morphed into some kind of three-legged rabbit. As they crossed the finish line, they had a lead of half a gym length. “You guys have it,” said Hayden, who was out of breath. Hayden,
the
Hayden. If people could define words, then he would define hot.

“You better keep our lead,” said Auggie.

“No problem,” I said.

“Easy,” added Maddie, and that was when I remembered that she liked Auggie aka Square. She must feel as nervous as me. Although there was nothing to get worried about, since we did have that HUGE lead.

I could hear Hayden and Auggie chanting our names together like this: “Sophie and Maddie! Sophie and Maddie!” as if we were still best friends.

I tried to sprint, but I stumbled, and we began pulling at each other, wanting to go opposite ways.

“Teamwork!” screamed Mr. Pan.

“Grab her hand!” Hayden screamed as Maddie began to fall.

“Grab her hand!” repeated Auggie.

By “grab her hand,” I realized, they meant Maddie's hand.

Only because Hayden was screaming it and because I didn't want to also fall flat on my face, I grabbed Maddie's hand.

But it was too late because we tumbled onto the gym floor. Nia and Squid, who looked like flailing human octopuses, actually pulled ahead of us, along with everyone else. Nia was holding Squid's probably wet, clammy, and full-of-orange-Magic-Marker hand.

Maddie and I got up and continued pathetically hopping along. Hayden was actually still cheering for us, but it was pretty much a lost cause. Nia and Squid were too far ahead. Why couldn't I have been Hayden's partner? It would have been the perfect opportunity to get some actual skin contact with him.

Even Brianna and Elio, who were tied up together, were beating us. I think everyone was beating us. Maddie and I were hopeless together.

All at once the chatter in the gym went on pause. As Maddie and I finally made it to the finish line, everyone
groaned. Except for Mr. Pan. “Sophie, I could see you hustle at the end there,” he said, even though we both know it was not so true. But Mr. Pan
always
gave me the benefit of the doubt.

“Next time, you need to actually work together,” said Hayden.

“You guys suck together,” said Auggie, groaning.

“I could see promise there at the end,” continued Mr. Pan.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“We crushed them,” gushed Squid. He raised his arms over his head in a champion pose. “We're number one.”

“We did it,” agreed Nia.

I dashed as quickly as I could back to the bleachers and joined Brianna. “Nice job out there,” she said, laughing. “Not.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it was
so
much fun.” Then I realized something: Even though I had lost, Squid had actually won.

I
n the cafeteria before I went to sit down with with Heather
and Nicole, I passed by Nia's table after I got my hot lunch, and I saw Squid point at Nia and wink. “You and me, bay-bee. We were one unstoppable three-legged ma-chine!”

“You're hurting our ears,” said Amber, who was the quietest of the Nia table.

“Sorry, sorry!” shouted Squid.

The girls at Nia's table all laughed and held up their hands to their faces and went, “Shun.”

And then I could hear Ava saying something like “He's a little too excited.”

“I know, it's so sad,” said Nia. Okay, maybe step five and six of my get-Squid-hot plan wasn't working. Shunning was not a good sign.

When I put my tray down at my table with Heather and Nicole, I told them about the gym incident with
Squid and the aftermath. Nicole opened her thermos of soup. “What are you going to do now?”

I shrugged. “I'm not sure. I think I've got to move on to numbers seven and eight on my plan.”

“What's step seven?” asked Nicole.

“Make him less goofy. And number eight is to get him less hyper and more chill.”

“But at least Squid looks kind of decent today, right?” said Heather.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said, as I ate my chicken salad sandwich. “But he's still Squid.”

Nicole nodded. “Exactly.”

So, somehow, I got Squid to agree to meet me at the library after school for some lessons in acting regular. It was usually open for students who wanted to work on homework and stuff.

Squid unzipped his backpack and pulled out his notebook, which was scribbled over in unintelligible script from another planet. Balled-up papers, a half-eaten chicken sandwich, a yo-yo, and a wrinkled peach rolled out onto the table too.

“Squid, did anyone tell you that you're seriously gross?”