"I'm sorry, I need to pop into the nurse's office before the next class," Cruz said with a tormented smile. He pressed my scarf to his chest like he was stemming a flow of blood from a wound there.

"Me and my stupid coffee! Please, let me walk you there. I want to make sure you're alright."

"Don't worry, I'm going to be fine. It's only..." He trailed off and panicked guesses crowded my poor head. What did I inflict on the poor guy? First-degree burns? Allergy to crappy coffee? Shock?

Cruz's gaze flickered to something behind my back. "Also, your friends are coming over."

I turned to see Esha and the girls approaching, their grim faces spelling, Intervention!

"Cruz, I must go with you! Right away!" I exclaimed, whirled back to Cruz and froze with my mouth gaping.

One second ago, he was slumping in a gray plastic chair. Now he was standing three feet behind it. How did this happen? When? And why did the boys act like nothing weird was going on at their table?

"Wait! Cruz?"

He already covered a third of a distance to the exit from the cafeteria, something he shouldn't have been able to do at his leisurely walking pace. Only because I stared at him without blinking, I saw what was actually happening. He walked three steps, blurred into a glowing blue shape, then reappeared a few feet farther. What on Earth—

"Zoe, let's get going." Esha dropped the extra bag from her right shoulder and shoved it into my hands. Because it was my bag, duh.

"That's right, Chawla, get this walking disaster out of here, or we'll have no team left for the Sunday game," Aiden said, folding his arms behind his head. "First Dylan gets kicked out, now she's injured Cruz..."

I was so involved with tracking Cruz's insane progress, the insults and Aiden's flexed biceps barely registered, but Esha's eyes narrowed. "The coffee dunk was an unfortunate accident, Rosen."

Let's see... It didn't work out as planned, but eventually happened on pure accident with just a small deviation. So, technically, marginally, Esha remained righteous.

"And your Mr. 'Big Deal' Dylan is a high school drop-out. Another unfortunate statistic for the district, and nothing more." She blew her midnight-black hair out of her eyes, relieved to stand on a less shaky ground in this debate. "I don't need Tarot cards to predict this particular misfortune in your future too, if you don't move your obnoxious butt and go to class. Bye!"

Esha and the others closed the ranks so tightly, I had to struggle a little to get free. "Be right with you, I'm just going to...you know..."

I dashed toward the cafeteria's door that had just slammed shut behind Cruz. They would understand, right? And they would never run in public.

I didn't excel in athletics; my heavy bag slapped my hip as I sprinted; and that mysterious blue glow was a powerful accelerator, but Cruz should still have been going down the long hall when I burst out of the cafeteria.

Yet, as I swiveled my gaze from one group of students to another, I didn't spot his tall, dark-haired figure. At this point, a wise thing to do was to wait for my friends, space out in the afternoon classes and fill my freezer with chocolate ice-cream.

Alas, my wisdom abruptly departed when Cruz had spoken to me. "Where could he—Aha!"

The main exit was way closer than the nurse's office. He probably stepped out for a breath of fresh air to deal with his odd condition.

I stormed out of the Delys High School so fast, my sensible heels drummed on the wide concrete steps like stilettos. My yells bounced off of the building's crumbling red-brick façade. "Cruz! Triana! Wait!"

Cruz wasn't propping one of two columns by the entrance. Neither was he lounging on the dusty lawn. And, nope, he would never crouch behind the dumpsters with the losers and smokers.

That left the parking lot, if Cruz decided to drive home. Unlike other freshmen, Cruz had an assigned spot there. Even in a sleepy town, even in Mississippi, a car like his had to be secure...but did my coffee spill hurt him this much? Gosh!

Principal's jowls, Esha's sighs and a genuine threat of detention flashed through my mind, but I galloped along the school's long side, my eyes devouring the view of the parked cars behind the chain-link fence for the sight of Cruz.

His Porsche was still there—there was no mistaking it for anything. Sleek, streamlined and custom-detailed with a charcoal-gray design on the dusky black sides, the classic car didn't need a price sticker to exude class.

"Thank God!" The exclamation broke my breath. I stumbled to a stop right at the corner of the lot and wheezed, hands on my knees, kicking myself for cutting gym.

To make things worse, the Porsche's windows were so darkly tinted, I couldn't see if Cruz was inside. For a tantalizing second, I peered into the impenetrable blackness. Then, a fresh wave of blue light sparkled inside the car, outlining a man hunched over the wheel.

"Cruz!" I cried out, even though he couldn't possibly hear me.

Cruz straightened, started the engine and drove off at a supersonic speed. The school buzzer tore the air, simultaneously announcing the end of my embarrassing courtship and the next period. It was the loudest, most obnoxious sound on the continent and it demanded that I returned to class.

"Jeez-louise, we're teenagers, not the dead to raise!" I plugged my ears. The thought of running ever again, let alone now, was abhorrent. Making the next period? Why? My soul prayed that I sit down where I stood and have a good cry.

But either option had to wait, because a shadow fell upon me out of nowhere. A long shadow that sucked afternoon sunlight dry. A cold shadow that sent a scatter of goose-bumps over my arms.

"Hello, Zoe," said a melodic voice belonging to literally the last person I would have wanted to witness my Cruz-chase. Namely, his twin sister, Corazon.

God, I should have listened to Esha! Esha was wise. "Sorry, Corazon, I have to run. Don't want to catch a detention and—"

"We spend a thousand hours each year sitting in class." Corazon said, looking me up and down, smiling. "One would think that spending a few minutes on something more important than grades wouldn't be such a bad thing."

I channeled my inner Esha. "More important than grades?"

"Uh-huh. The matters of the heart."

The twins' eyes were disconcertingly similar: large, brown, softened by curly lashes. But where Cruz's smile warmed his gaze instantly, Corazon's preserved its obsidian edge, smile or no smile. Apparently, boys like Dylan didn't value warmth, since Corazon only had to crook her finger, and they fell over their feet to do her bidding. The gulf between us was so huge, that even if I wanted her advice about love, I couldn't have learned anything useful.

"Sorry, I'm in a rush." I brushed past her, but by some sorcery she blocked my path again.

"But, Zoe, you want to talk to me if you want to go to prom with my brother. I'm the only one who could help you."

I tried to resist the honeyed cadences of her voice—and couldn't. My breath hitched in my throat. "H-how?" And why? But my reeling mind pushed this question to the bottom.

"All you need to know is that I can deliver your heart's desire." Corazon's smile widened, sending chills down my back. If this wasn't an expression of a hunter, luring prey into her trap... "But first, I need to safeguard my brother's interests, of course. So, one question, Zoe, just one question before we bargain...are you still a virgin?"

My eyes nearly popped out of their orbits. Of all the inappropriate, intrusive, insipid questions...!

Corazon ignored my spattering. "Dylan is such a blowhard! I couldn't get it out of him if you ever went beyond those pictures, and the pictures are..."

She proceeded to dismiss the very private pictures that ruined me with a wiggle of her elegant fingers. Such triviality, sheesh.

Blood rushed into my face. This wasn't about Cruz, let alone about helping me. This was about Dylan. Why did everything have to be about Dylan? When would it ever end?

"Get lost, you and your stupid Dylan!" I brushed past Corazon again, fully determined to stomp away. This time it was far closer to a shove than to a brush. Yet, Corazon moved with an insane speed to block me.

"That's definitely a yes," she said blithely, like we were BFFs. "Perfect! So, my virginal friend, here is the deal. I want to go to the big game this Sunday."

If you'd never heard of us—I know, hard to fathom!—if you didn't scour the map of Mississippi State with a magnifying glass, we had two schools in our town. Naturally, every game was a big game and a linchpin of our social life. Everyone always went—except Corazon. She took pride in being sophisticated or some such.

"Okay," I muttered. "So go. Your brother is seriously good."

"And I would love to see him play." She nodded. "Except, whenever Cruz is playing, it's my turn to visit our grandpa at the Eternal Acres."

"Oh." I felt a pang of guilt for judging her. "Sorry, I didn't know."

"Whatever. But if you go to the Acres instead of me, I can check out the game and I'll put in a word with Cruz. Right after the game, I promise."

Corazon was a knock-out statuesque brunette. I was mousy, with sandy-blonde hair. There was zero chance we could pass for one another. In case she wasn't making fun of me, I said, "It's your grandfather. He expects you. I mean...just look at us!"

She did glance at me with a faint distaste. "Gramps is so senile, he doesn't even know me from Cruz. You, me, blonde, brunette, short, tall...it's all the same to him. So, do we have a deal?"

Sounded perfect, yet something about her pushiness was sus. "What are you really getting out of it, Corazon? You don't even like football." While I did, with all my heart. I'd hate to miss a game for some idiotic prank.

"What I'm getting is something I don't enjoy wasting on pointless conversations." Corazon's smile now matched her cutting gaze. "Time."

"Okay. Thanks for being honest." Maybe time was one commodity the popular girls lacked compared to us, mere mortals. "But I don't know...it doesn't feel right to trick your grandfather."

She shrugged with a fake indifference. "My offer remains open until the school gets out on Friday, because I need to add you to the visitors' list and stuff. You can watch Cruz play or you can go with him to the prom. You chose. "

I missed the dumb classes that afternoon and ate the detention, because it was like Corazon had said. We spent so much of our lives grinding for the diplomas, it left precious little of it to think about our life. I couldn't explain why, but I believed Corazon: she could deliver on her end of the bargain. What really gnawed at me was whether I should strike a bargain with her. Despite its seeming simplicity, it gave me creeps.