Jason sat in World History Honors alongside Silvia and Blake. Waiting for the bell to ring, he thought about the news Silvia had told him. Lucita had a plan, a crazy plan, an insane plan to set up his ex with her ex. He tried not to think about the several ways this could go wrong.

He didn’t much care for Francis, truth be told, but if it made Elizabeth feel better and more inclined to talk to him, he had to hope that nothing got messed up. But the fact that Blake had agreed with Silvia about it being a shitty plan made him worry.

“He still likes her,” Blake had said earlier. “This is all bullshit. Lucita isn’t thinking straight, she’s gonna fuck it all up.”

“Amazingly, I agree with him,” Silvia had said. “You have to talk to her, Jason. Tell her this is a bad idea. I tried, but she wouldn’t listen and somehow got me to go along with it.”

“You went along with it because it’s Luci, and you have no backbone,” muttered Blake.

“Fuck you, man.”

Jason had let them grumble about it. He didn’t want to talk to Luci about all the ways it could go wrong. Jason wanted her to play matchmaker. He wanted Liz to stop glaring at him like he was scum (not that he didn’t deserve it). But really, he wanted to be able to hang out with his friends again.

The bell rang, and the trio of friends gathered up their stuff. Silvia and Blake hurried back to his side. He had kept silent earlier, but he knew now that they would not let this slide.

“You know, for a smart girl, Lucita is being really stupid.” Jason let Blake lead the way out of the classroom, his bag slung over his left shoulder, hands shoved into his pockets.

“Don’t call her that,” said Silvia, stepping up to his side. When did they start acting like friends, he thought, watching them ahead of him. Maybe if he lingered back a bit, he could give them the slip and take the long way to his next class.

Silvia looked back at him as if reading his thoughts, stopping to walk alongside him.

“Jason, you have to talk to her. She might listen to you.”

“No.” Both of them froze in their tracks, sharing a look.

“Jason,” began Blake, “this could end very badly.”

“Maybe, but I’m not gonna do it. I’m tired of being ostracized—”

“That’s your fault,” began Silvia interrupting him.

He shot her a look. “Yeah, you’re right. But that doesn’t mean I’m not tired of it. So, if this matchmaking works, great. I’m not gonna get in the way.” With that, he left them alone together, heading towards class.

There was no way Francis would cheat on Liz with Luci; Luci wouldn’t allow it. So, as bad as things could get, they couldn’t get that bad.

“I miss having a cell phone,” stated Lucita as she sat in the library with her friends during lunch. Elizabeth and Francis were lounging on the chairs across from one other, too engrossed in one another to have another conversation with anyone else. Lucita rolled her eyes. Gods, she thought, just date already.

“What actually happened to yours again?” asked Silvia, sitting beside her, shoving a handful of Skittles into her mouth.

“I threw it against a wall.” Silvia and Rebecca both gaped at her. Blake looked at her, unsurprised, his arm casually slung over Becca’s shoulder. Of course, Jason probably told him.

She shrugged away their stars, pulling down the sleeves of her sweater. “I have anger issues.” Grinning like a Cheshire cat to hide her discomfort, she stole one of Silvia’s Skittles, wishing they would all stop staring at her. Looking over, she met Liz’s gaze. Liz was giving her a strange look, a look of giving up and giving in.

“Come with me,” said Liz, grabbing her bag, pulling her gaze away from Lucita, and looking at Francis. His eyes widened, but he nodded, grabbing his bag from the floor and following her out of the library. Watching them go, she bit down hard on the Skittles she shoved into her mouth.

“She’s not actually going to do it, is she?” said Silvia, sulking.

“I think so!” Someone shushed Lucita, and she blushed, forgetting herself.

“Oh my god!” said Rebecca, as giddy as Lucita was.

“I’m gonna go spy on them.” Lucita grabbed her bag but stopped short when she noticed Blake staring. “What?”

“Leave them alone to figure it out, Lu.”

“I just wanna know how things go.”

He stared at her. “You’re acting like a jealous ex Lu. Are you a jealous ex?”

Lucita glared at him, shoving her book into her bag. “Hardly. I put the idea in their heads. Why would I be jealous?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know Lu.”

“It was a lousy idea. What if Francis tells her he still has feelings for you?” asked Silvia.

“All the more reason to go spy on them. You know you wanna come with.” Lucita grinned at her friends. Silvia sighed, grabbing her bag.

“This is a whacked-out plan, Luci, but I gotta see this shit show for myself.”

“Can I go, Blake?” Lucita and Silvia shared a look. Why the hell was their friend asking for permission? Lucita was going to have a long talk with Becs about this.

Blake must have caught both girls’ looks because he sighed, pulling his arm away from Becca. “You don’t need my permission, Becs.” He kissed her cheek, pulling his bag from the floor. “I’m gonna go find Amelia and Jason. Have fun not being jealous, Lu.” He grinned, winking at her as he walked past her and out of the library.

Yup, he was totally still a creep, thought Lucita.

“Well, let’s go!” she said, pulling the girls after her.

They headed left, towards the courtyard, and peeked around the corner. They couldn’t have gone too far, thought Lucita. There wasn’t that much time left for lunch period. But soon, she saw them in a very public spot near their classes on the left side of the courtyard.

“How the hell are we supposed to get close enough to hear,” asked Silvia.

“Hmm. Oh! I know! I see my friend Chris over there. He’s close enough.” She saw Chris sitting alone by the spiral staircase that went straight from the courtyard to the third-floor corridor.

“Think we’ll able to hear anything,” asked Becca, trailing after the three girls.

“Doubtful, there’s no place we can get to eavesdrop without them seeing us. Getting to Chris is risky enough, but at least we can hide behind the stairs. And if we climb them, we’ll have the perfect view!”

“She must have known how nosy we were going to be,” said Silvia, walking beside Lucita.

“I know! Damn, that girl for foiling my evil plans and knowing me so well.”

“Does she know why you went awol for a month,” said Silvia, not bothering to hide the bitterness that crept in her mouth. Lucita didn’t look at her, ignoring the question. She would not think about it, about the summer. She was back where she belonged, not among people who kept secrets from her.

“Hey, Chris!” she said, sitting beside him. Chris was a cute, tall blond, built like a quarterback. She was surprised he wasn’t on the football team. He was one of the first people to be nice to her when she started last year, making her feel less like an outsider and introducing her to his friends.

“Oh, hey, Luci. What’s up?”

“Not much. These are my two friends, Silvia and Rebecca.” Both girls waved. “Do you mind if we join you?”

“No, go ahead. How’ve you been?”

He was such a nice guy. Why didn’t she hang out with him anymore? She’d text him if she had a phone.

“I’ve been good.” Lie. “We’re spying on my friends over there.”

She pointed over his shoulder, and he spared a glance at the two. “Why?”

“Well, he’s my ex, and she’s my bestie, and we think they’re about to start dating.”

“I’m hoping against it,” stated Silvia.

“Seriously? Doesn’t that bother you,” he asked, looking at Lucita.

She shook her head. “No. It was actually my idea.”

“That’s weird.”

“Weird is one word for it,” muttered Silvia, who was studying Liz and Francis.

“Anyway,” continued Lucita, “why are you sitting here alone? Where are Lisa and Samantha? You three were always glued together last year.” She hadn’t really liked Lisa and Samantha. They were too girlie, too “blond,” and too focused on makeup and doing their nails in class. They were polite enough, but they acted like stereotypes.

“I wanted to be alone.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. Do you want us to leave?” She caught sight of the familiar shadows under his eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked, gently touching his arm.

He smiled down at her. It was a half-smile, one that both looked relieved and sad at the same time. She knew that smile; she had seen it enough times in the mirror. Lucita didn’t like looking in the mirrors because of what she saw there.

“Yeah, I’m okay. And yeah, you can stay. We hardly see each other anymore now that you’re in all those honors classes.”

“I gotta work hard, dude.” She paused a moment, studying his face. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I just haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I feel your pain. I drink chamomile tea. You should try it. Oh, and Sleepy Time Tea, I love that tea.”

Chris cracked a smile, a real one this time. She winked at him, glad to have been able to make him smile. She did love making people smile.

“Luci! They’re moving,” exclaimed Becca.

“Huh? Oh man!” she looked at Chris, picking at his food. She couldn’t just leave him here alone.

“You gonna go?”

“Come with us.”

“Lucita!”

“You two go on ahead, I’ll follow in a bit.” Silvia and Becca bolted, attracting more attention than they should. Lucita rolled her eyes. Those girls needed to be schooled in the ways of being sneaky. Years of being a sneaky stalker in middle school had trained her well.

“Chris, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just tired.” She stared at him and saw the shadows under his eyes and how red they looked.

“You should skip school.”

“That’s funny, coming from you.”

“I take offense to that, sir.”

He shook his head, a smile on his face. “You’re a good girl. You wouldn’t do anything other than give someone an attitude.”

“I like my attitude, thank you very much.”

“Not complaining. It’s your safety, your attitude, the way you always look like a tough girl. It’s your armor.”

“Have you always been this insightful,” she said. Chris saw her, which annoyed her and made her feel warm inside. Sometimes, she felt like no one saw her, as if she didn’t exist.

“No, but my therapist says I have a knack for reading people.”

That caught her off guard. “You’re in therapy?” His comment caught him off guard because he looked at her like a deer in headlights.

“You should go catch up to your friends before you lose them.” Before she could say anything, he got up, dumping his half-eaten lunch in the trash bin, leaving her alone. Lucita stared after him dumbfounded.

She was about to leave when Silvia and Rebecca surprised her, out of breath from running back from wherever they had come from.

“That was quick.”

“They…are…dating,” said Silvia between breaths,

“No way!”

Both girls nodded. Silvia slumped down on the bench next to her. “They were holding hands. It looked really weird, dude.”

“It was cute,” said Becca. “What was weird was the point they made of walking past Jason and Amelia.”

“Oh dear.”

“That didn’t go as bad as you would think,” continued Silvia. “Amelia, however, is crazy.”

“Why? What happened? Jeez, what did I miss?”

“She’s pretty much scared that Jason is going to leave her. She had half the courtyard staring at her. It was nuts. Jason looked horrified.”

Becca nodded. “From what we could tell, it looked like Liz was trying to make peace, and Amelia was not having it.”

“Ugh,” said Lucita, looking across the courtyard to find Amelia and Jason talking, or rather, arguing. “That girl is a problem. She reminds me of a mini-Tiffany.”

“Ew, don’t say that,” said Becca.

Silvia rolled her eyes. “That’s just what we need. We got rid of one just to make way for another one. Joy.” The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Lucita spared one last look for Chris, finding him nowhere before settling on Amelia and Jason. Too much to do, so little time, she thought.