Viktor led the way, and I followed him, careful not to lose my grip on his hand. I wasn't about to lose him in a sea of his people: hockey fanatics.

I could hold my own among them and I knew it, but Viktor was my favorite hockey person and I was his. (Or, at least besides Matt. I was smart enough to respect "bros before hoes.")

I still wasn't feeling much better, but I was confident that I'd be able to pull through thanks to Jackie's magic elixir of laven-mint. And if I couldn't, then I'd puke outside or something. I wasn't going to ruin Viktor's best chance at achieving our goal.

The social game was much more important now that he couldn't play, and his personality would have to win over a few hearts. If he could get me to like him, then I had no doubt that others would find him just as charming as I did.

We walked around a small group of important-looking people, and a wave of nausea came over me.

I sniffed the lavender-mint thing.

It helped a little.

Viktor led me to a table where he had been told to sit, and he pulled out my chair from the table. I laughed at the chivalry, then gave his hand one last squeeze before I sat down.

A guy who looked about my age smiled at us across the table.

I wanted to smile back at him with my middle finger, but he seemed genuine, and Miss Amanda had to play nice with the other kids.

So she did. She smiled back politely.

"Noah," he said, still looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"That's my name. Yours?" he replied.

"Uh, Amanda. Nice to meet you."

"You don't follow the draft too closely, do you?"

"Well, considering I've got a few other things on my mind, it's not my primary concern besides this guy." I nodded my head in Viktor's direction.

"Viktor," Noah said, then smiled.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Viktor smiled back. "Amanda, this is Noah Trainer. He's probably going to be the first pick overall this year."

Was I surprised Viktor knew this dude? Yes. Should I have been surprised? Definitely not. He knew everyone for some reason.

"Oh, I should've guessed by the inflated sense of self-importance. I didn't realize we were cool enough to sit at the big kid table," I said.

"Viktor? Oh, he would have been a top twenty pick easily if it weren't for the injury. Such a shame," Noah said.

"Yes," I said.

I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this "being nice" thing up.

"So you two know each other?" I asked to get their attention on something else.

Viktor nodded. "Back when I was eight, Noah was good enough to play a couple years ahead of his age group, so he was on the same team as Matt and me."

Of course. Anyone who was anyone in the entire state of Minnesota was on that damn team.

But the real question was how the fuck did Viktor still remember Noah's name when it took him nine years to learn mine?

"How is Matt? I haven't heard anything from him," Noah asked.

"He's not playing hockey anymore, and he's—" Viktor began, but Noah cut him off.

"Injuries suck. They've killed so many promising careers. I'm just happy that yours is still going."

I bit my cheek. Matt wasn't hurt. He just wasn't "good enough," by some moron's standards.

Viktor took in a breath. "Actually—"

I kicked his leg underneath the table. I didn't want Noah to think any less of Matthew because of what he was doing: taking care of the triplets.

"Agh, Amanda, what—" He caught himself. "Actually, this is Amanda, his sister."

Noah studied my face for a moment. "You look exactly like him."

"Wow, thanks," I said.

"That's not an insult," he replied as an attractive girl sat down beside him. Our table was beginning to fill up, and Noah didn't seem like a stranger to all the attention.

He had a fucking model for a girlfriend, and I looked exactly like my brother.

Personally, I thought Viktor won in that department, but of course, I was a little biased and making competitions out of things that shouldn't have mattered.

But I was sick, petty, and not in the mood to deal with anyone's shit, especially Mr. First Overall.

I stood up from my chair, plastered on a fake smile, then said the obligatory, "Excuse me. I need some fresh air."

Because saying, "I'm gonna go vomit," wasn't considered all that polite.

I hadn't made a point to look for the restroom as we weaved our way through the crowd earlier, and in fear that I wouldn't find it in time, I headed outside.

We were one of the last pairs to arrive, since somebody couldn't make up his mind on what color tie to wear, and fortunately, there was no one else looking to make their way into the banquet hall.

I leaned over and threw up all over the snow. Bile burned my throat, and my head throbbed.

Well, then, that pretty much ruled out anxiety as the cause, since I wasn't freaking out anymore now that I had established myself in the role of Viktor's girlfriend.

I didn't want to call myself that, but there was no sense in denying it.

It was a bitter winter evening, but I didn't want to go back inside where it was stuffy and filled with people that I could never fit in with. We had a common interest, yes, but I had given off an aura of ignorance for not knowing who the fuck Noah Trainer was.

He wasn't anything yet. I didn't know why he expected me to know him, or why he remembered Viktor after all that time.

I pushed the snow off one of the benches, then sat down, huddling my arms to my body for warmth.

I held my wrist to my nose and inhaled Jackie's aromatherapy concoction.

"You've had enough fresh air. It's twenty American degrees below zero, and you're not even wearing a coat." I heard my favorite voice say.

I looked over my shoulder. "American degrees?"

"I can't remember what they're called. It's weird and doesn't make any sense," Viktor said, holding my coat out to me.

"Fahrenheit makes much more sense than Celsius, and you've been in the US for years, now," I replied with a smile.

"Your butt has to be freezing on that bench. Stand up."

"I'm not cold."

"Yes, you are. I'm cold, so you're definitely cold."

I rolled my eyes and put on my coat. "I don't need you to baby me, Viktor. I'll be fine. You can go back inside now."

"If you're still sick, then we're leaving. You said it was just because you were nervous."

"I'm not still sick. I told you, I just wanted fresh air."

He shook his head. "Please don't lie to me. I'm not nearly as stupid as you think I am."

I breathed in the frigid air, then watched my breath return to the air in a cloud.

"We're leaving," he said.

"You need this, though. Go schmooze. I'll wait in the car," I replied.

"Didn't you listen? Noah said that I'd be a high pick if it weren't for my knee. The teams know I'll come back strong."

"They don't know that, though. You're a gamble. And I can't help but feel like this is more than you and I could ever imagine. You need to show them your good faith, good spirits. Show that you're different from the rest of the world."

"Amanda," he said.

"You can't rely on what you've done on the score sheet anymore. Those numbers mean essentially nothing. You have character, and everyone should know it." I nudged his chest. "So go. Go make a friend. Preferably someone important."

"I don't have character, though. I kind of cheated the system to get better numbers," Viktor said.

"That's not true. The Jardetzky twins and Caroline are the cheaters. You just got caught in the—" I paused. "Holy shit."

"What?"

I looked up at Viktor. "You don't think they got caught, do you? Adrian and Hunter got suspended from the team, and Caroline just dropped off the face of the planet for a day."

Viktor's eyes widened. "No way."

"But—but how could anyone find out? You, Coach Sullivan, Caroline, the Jardetzky twins, and I were the only ones who knew about all this, right?"

Viktor shrugged. "I don't know."

I wrapped my arms around him. "I'm just thankful that you got out of this circus while you could, assuming we're right about this."

He ran his hands up and down my back. "But if we're the only ones who knew, then maybe it's not right at all."

"Caroline isn't nearly as sneaky as she thinks she is. I knew it was her who posted the video of Dr. Mann right away."

"You're actually smart, though. Most people aren't," Viktor said.

"Just in case we are right, though, you should probably go back inside. You can't be missing from a gathering of Minnesota's finest hockey players."

"You won't be mad?"

I shook my head. "I'll be mad if you do anything else. Goals first, Amanda second. Got that?"

"Your priorities are screwed up," he said, but he nodded anyway. He handed me the keys to the car. "Warm yourself up in there, okay?"

I nodded.

It gave me a little time to piece some shit together.

***

I laid awake next to a sleeping Viktor. My stomach had settled down after I puked once in the car, but even with the risk of illness, Viktor still insisted that I sleep with him.

I talked to the Jardetzky twins once. Both Adrian and Hunter were incredibly stupid. It was no wonder that they needed a little extra help to maintain the required grade point average.

Caroline was willing to do anything for the people she cared about. Her father, I assumed, was included in that group. If he told her to make sure his star players were eligible to play, she would do it by any means necessary. She fucked me over by helping Drew, so clearly, the logic was sound.

That brought me to my third point. What had always confused me was why Dr. Mann suspected Caroline of taking the video right away, even before it was ever put on the internet. Adrian, Hunter, Caroline, and I were all in the same class.

Could there be a connection there? Could her main goal have been to get Dr. Mann out of the university before he could turn the three of them in for academic dishonesty?

I normally would have been certain of that, but with Drew's situation, a seed of doubt was placed in my mind.

I didn't want to minimize her issue because it was all too common, but I couldn't help but hypothesize. Caroline wasn't a saint, and there was no way in hell she could have purely altruistic intentions. She needed motivation to save her own ass.

New mission: Befriend Caroline and Drew by any means necessary, besides death.

Or even including death. Fuck it. I was all in.

I sat up, careful not to move the bed too much. There was something about Viktor that was just comfortable, and I resisted the urge to run my fingers through his hair.

"You awake?" Diego whispered.

I flinched and bit down on my lip, resisting the urge to scream. "Uh, yeah."

"You wanna come with me?" he asked.

"What? What time is it?"

"Like, three thirty. Yeah, let's go."

"To where?" I asked.

"We're going to church."

I stifled a laugh. "I'm right with the Lord, if that's your concern. I don't have too many faults on my conscience."

"You talk to yourself too much. I heard about half of your recent sins," he said.

"Like what?"

"The fact that you're a disloyal hoe."

"That's one thing I've done wrong. That's not nearly half of it." I smiled.

Dear Mom,

Talk to God for me, okay? I could really use the strength, patience, logic, and relatability to figure out what's going on with everything. I'm trying to keep your meddling habits alive and well. Thanks.

It certainly couldn't hurt to say that in a church, since it was pretty much guaranteed that it would get sent then.

I slid off of the mattress. "Let me change, then we'll go."

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Hey everyone! Thank you for reading! How are you?

I've written three different endings for this book already, and I think I finally decided on where we're going to end up. There's still plenty of action in store for Amanda, Viktor, and everyone else.

Question: Do you prefer The Exchange or The Score? (I'm just really interested to see whether your views match mine.)