Author's Note: This is a bonus chapter I wrote for fun a while back. Perhaps there will be more. Thanks for reading!

Epilogue

Everyone has been talking about a new secret challenge in the last couple of months — you have to walk across the partially frozen Hudson River, and a Pietr High School Science club will give you ten thousand dollars. They're presenting it as a physics problem, something about calculating the temperature of the March air and the thickness of the ice over the Hudson. I thought it was idiotic at first, but I needed the money. I don't think a girl from Queens will outcompete those Piotr High geniuses for scholarship money next year.

Daniel from my Economics class says he made it about three feet in, but that was two days ago when the temperature was uncommonly warm this time of the year. Today the temperature feels like it is subzero. I am going to give it a chance. All I have to do is make it further in than him.

Around 5:35 p.m., when the sidewalks around the school are the least chaotic, I decide to give it a try. It is a spur-of-the-moment decision. After Jake left and the whole thing with Dave settled down, I've been lonely. I'm just tired of being so ordinary. I want to be recognized at Pietr for winning a contest; even it's just for being a dumb kid who tries to walk across the frozen Hudson River. I know. I'm sure I'm at least fifty pounds heavier than Daniel. I shouldn't be trying to do this, but it isn't the dumbest thing that I've believed I am capable of doing.

How about becoming Internet famous at the age of 16?

Sometimes, you have to believe.

I set my iPhone down to record as I attempt my crazy stunt. Even if I can't get 10,000 dollars of scholarship money, maybe I can upload this onto TikTok myself and gain about a half-million followers. Heck, perhaps I'll be more popular than ever after this!

As I climb over the icy cold metal rails, I think about Jake and what he could be doing now. Both he and Ruth would probably laugh at me for going to such lengths for money — or fame for that matter. Then again, neither of them was poor, ambitious, and hungry to make a mark on the world.

The water level is at least four feet under the concrete walkway. I lower myself down slowly, and then I, ever so gently, set my Nike sneakered foot down on the frozen waters. Taking a deep breath, I set my other foot down as well.

I'm hanging onto the lower bar of the walkway railing now—the ice creaks under my feet.

I just need to run a couple of feet down to get to the other side. There's the railing along the West Side Highway that's so tantalizingly close.

I wonder how it's possible Daniel attempted this without a recording to prove it had happened. He is probably not a fan of "over-sharing" online. Heck, is there anything that's off the table these days when it comes to being internet famous? If you're going to attempt a life-defying stunt, you might as well make some ad money doing it.

That's me. I'm a Piotr High School kid through and through. I never stop hustling, even when death stares me in the face. No, I'm not afraid, not as long as my followers were still watching.

Death doesn't scare me. I'll probably take a selfie with him.

"Corrine!" a voice comes out from above before I can let go of the railing bar. "Corrine, what are you doing?"

I look up and see a flash of blonde hair. It's Ruth. She must have just gotten out of volleyball practice. Her cheeks are flushed, and her hair is wet with sweet dewy sweat.

"Did you slip?" Ruth demands before I can think of an excuse for why I was hanging here like an idiot. "Take my hand. I'll help you back up."

They say that to make it across the frozen river, the key is not to panic. I didn't panic, not until now. As Ruth continues to offer me her hand, I'm not sure if I should make a mad dash for my 10k or if I should take her hand.

"Are you insane?" Ruth asks as she notices my furtive glances across the icy waters. Then her eyes travel to my cellphone with its red, blinking RECORD button. It's still sitting upright, propped up on my backpack just by the side of the railing. "Are you suicidal?"

"I'm just trying to make some money," I reply before she thinks I'm making my own real-life version of 13 Reasons Why. "I'm not trying to kill myself."

"Take my hand," Ruth says, and then she presses her foot against the back of my cellphone setup. "Take it, or I'll kick your cellphone over the edge."

"Fine," I sigh and reach for her hand. She's a star athlete, and my only sport before meeting her was chugging caffeinated vitamin water while binging Christmas Romances on Netflix. Ruth easily lifts me back up so she can glare at me from across the railing.

"You are ridiculous! You could have died!" Ruth screams at me.

"Yes, but I would have been famous and rich," I reply. "It would have been worth it."

"No, NO, it would not have been, Corrine Stone!" Ruth yells at me. "No, because if you died, I would never recover. You-you are my best friend."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better. I don't have any friends here at Piotr," I laugh as I suddenly feel the winter's chill down to my bones. "I'm just trying to feel something, anything at all. Can you believe I've never even been in love?"

"I thought you were an item with that Jake dude."

I hesitate to respond to that question because I wasn't sure if it was really love or just the fact that when I was with Jake I loved being loved.

"I'm not just saying it," Ruth whispers back at me. "I care about you, Corrine. I care about you more than I care about anyone."

And with those words, Ruth Brooks leans in, across the frozen rail that separates us, and kisses me.

Oh no, I think to myself as I give in to her lips. This changes everything.