Free Only Everything by Kieran Scott Page A

laughed. “Or break his arms,” Josh agreed.
    “He’s in a band?” I asked, jealous against my will.
    “They’re called Universal Truth,” Trevor said with an eye roll. “But they’re good.”
    “Annoyingly. They’re so good I actually have to pay them for the gig,” Josh put in. “Anyway, I gotta get to football practice, but Brian’s on his way to help Coach Ziegler with cross-country tryouts. You in?”
    “Come on, man,” Brian said, raising his palms. “You only gotta run a three-mile course. It’s no big.”
    I had that put-on-the-spot feeling that I didn’t love. “I don’t know, you guys. . . .”
    “You make it, you get a varsity jacket,” Trevor told me, opening the lapel of his own like he was modeling it. “The ladies love the varsity jacket.”
    I laughed.
    “And hey! You get to come to Moskowitz’s party next weekend,” Brian said, slapping my chest with the back of my hand. “It’s varsity athletes only. Well, and girls. Lots of girls.”
    “And Universal Truth.” Trevor rolled his eyes again.
    A party? I hadn’t been invited to a party since the fourth grade. And this was a real party. A popular crowd party. With a live band. For a second I stood there, trying to wrap my head around this. All day I’d been waiting for these guys to suddenly pants me in the cafeteria, or lure me into a bathroom for a swirly, or worse. But now the day was over and they were still not torturing me. It was getting harder to believe that they didn’t actually want to be friends.
    But did I want to be friends with them? I mean, they weren’t exactly my type of guys with their thick necks, school spirit, and sports-obsessive attitudes. They were more the Quarterback Twins’ type of guys. But then, wouldn’t rejecting their friendship on superficial criteria be as bad as the kids at the other schools rejecting me for what I looked like? For the things I was into?
    My brain was starting to hurt. And Brian, Josh, and Trevor were waiting. The adrenaline from the near miss with Fred was still coursing through my veins. Maybe I could work it out with a run. Just this once. It wasn’t like I was going to actually make the team.
    “What the hell,” I said with a shrug. “I’m in.”
    “Yes!” Brian cheered, throwing his arm around my shoulders. “You will not regret this.”
    “Aw, yeah,” Josh said, slapping hands with Trevor behind my head. “I knew we’d get him!”
    I tugged out my cell phone as we loped toward the locker rooms. For kicks, I texted my dad.
    HOME LATE. TRYING OUT FOR XCOUNTRY.
    He was probably running drills on the football field over at St. Joe’s right now. I imagined the whistle falling out of his mouth as he stared at the phone in shock. That simple image would make a three-mile run totally worth it.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    True
    “I can’t believe I’m doing this. Why am I doing this? I’m not even supposed to date. My mother would freak out if she knew I was here. I mean, she would freak . Out .”
    Stacey rubbed her knees together as we waited near the back door of the gym, her ribbed stockings making a shush, shush, shush ing sound. There were a few other packs of kids hanging around, some in blue-and-white soccer uniforms, others in football pads, others in plain clothes. Half of them were texting instead of talking to their friends. Ugh.
    At least I’d lost the awful red boots. When I’d taken them off in the locker room for last-period gym, the gym teacher had spotted the open sores on my feet and sent me right to the nurse. Now I sported several bandages, a clean pair of white socks, and a pair of blue-and-white cheerleading sneakers someone had fished out of a supply closet. They were heavenly. I was going to wear them every day for the rest of my exile.
    “Do you really think he’ll like me?” Stacey asked. “What if he doesn’t like me?”
    I looked her up and down through the silver-framed sunglassesI’d taken from an open locker, thereby fixing the