Surviving High School

course.”
    She walked away quickly, wondering what had justhappened between them. She hoped Ben hadn’t noticed. After a few worried minutes, though, she decided to put it out of her mind. Whatever she felt toward Cameron Clark, she’d worry about it some other day.
    Today was about concentrating on the good things. A few months ago, she might have been haunted by the knowledge that this would have been Sara’s senior-year homecoming, but it seemed okay now, as if her ghost was finally at rest.
    Lost in the music, Emily was slow-dancing with Ben near Kimi and Kevin, when he said, “You know, I’m really glad you made me come. The music is good, my friends all came, and I’m here with the prettiest girl at school. If you had told me a couple of months ago that I’d be here, I would have laughed. Now I never want to leave.”
    “You know, I’ve heard that the winter formal’s coming up,” said Emily. “And then prom after that.”
    “Very interesting,” said Ben. “I guess I’ll have to keep my grades up. You’re sure you’re not just a secret agent sent here by my dad to make sure I get into a good college, right?”
    “What do you think?”
    She leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. It felt so natural now. How had she ever lived without it?
    “Looks like Dominique decided not to show,” he said as the next song started. “Good thing—honestly, I was a little worried there would be some drama between the two of you.”
    Emily hadn’t said a word to Ben about Junior Nationals. Better just to let him enjoy the dance with her instead of lettinghim know what she’d given up. Mentioning it would only have been selfish.
    “Yeah,” she said. “I’m glad Dom’s not here.”
    “Of course she’s not,” said Kimi from a few feet over. “She’s at the Junior Nationals.”
    Cringe. Thanks for nothing, Kimi.
    Ben took a step away from Emily and looked her in the eye.
    “What’s she talking about?”
    “It’s Junior Nationals today—but I decided I’d rather be here.”
    “So you don’t want to be there?”
    “No,” she said. “I mean yes. I guess so. But not as much as I want to be here.”
    “Emily—” He didn’t take his eyes off her once. “You’re incredibly sweet, skipping that for me. But I—I couldn’t live with myself if I let you throw away everything you’ve been working so hard for, just for my sake.”
    “Well, it’s not just for you. This is about me being able to make my own choices, even if it means occasionally sacrificing something I want.”
    He kept looking into her eyes as if trying to read her mind.
    “What time are you scheduled to swim?”
    “My first race is at eight.”
    “It’s seven-oh-four right now,” said Kimi. “And the meet is over in Las Playas. That’s an hour away.”
    Ben looked around the dance and nodded.
    “You know, I told you this dance was going to be lame,” he said, arching an eyebrow. “I say we bail and take a little road trip.”
    “But you just said you never wanted to leave!”
    “Really? That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.”
    “You’d really leave early like this, for me?”
    “Are you kidding?” he asked. “I’ve thrown better parties in my sleep. Literally. I’ve gone to sleep in the middle of lots of my parties.”
    “You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Las Playas,” said Kimi.
    “And where she goes, I go,” said Kevin. “Who knows when she’ll mark a whole bunch of demerits in my cons column and dump me for someone better?”
    “Jerk. You know I stopped doing that!”
    “Emily,” said Ben, “what do you say? It’s up to you. Feel like a swim?”
    For a moment, Emily imagined seven girls standing up on blocks at the side of the pool while the center lane—her lane—was left vacant. She imagined Dominique swimming out ahead of everyone else and smiling triumphantly as she won the race. She imagined all the names on the leaderboard disappearing, replaced with Dominique’s. Emily tightened her hands into fists.
    “Let’s do this.”
    “That’s what I wanted to hear,” said Ben. “You have exactly two minutes to grab your stuff from your locker and meet me at the front door. You’ve got a race to win.”
    Fifteen minutes later, Emily was naked under a blanket in the back of Ben’s car. Okay, it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. In order to change, she’d had to strip off her homecoming dress in transit, and was now slipping on her swimsuit. Kimi sat in the back with