"Who all is going to the homecoming dance?" asked Amy, dropping her tray onto the lunch table with a clack. "It's coming up!"

"I am!" said Zack, sliding into the seat beside her. "But I thought you knew? I'm going with the most beautiful girl in this entire school."

Amy nudged his shoulder. "Oh, stop."

He leaned in to kiss her cheek. "I can't." He turned his attention to the others as he opened his carton of milk. "You're all going, right?"

"Isaac asked me," said Tess. She smiled, feeling shy. "I guess that means I'm going."

"We knew that would happen," said Jacqui with a smug smile. "And I'm definitely going."

"No one's asked me," said Mackenzie. She glanced up and down the table—Tisha was not there yet—and said, "I think I'm going to invite Tisha to come. It's just as fun with friends."

"Can I hang out with you? It'll be girl's night." Jacqui moved her shoulders in a brief, seated dance.

"Of course you can. Maybe we can all drive together," said Mackenzie.

"Well, I'm going to Dot's this weekend to look for a dress, and if I can't find one there I'll try the department stores at the mall," Amy said. "Do you guys want to come?"

"I'm in," said Jacqui.

Mackenzie shook her head. "We're going out of town this weekend, but thanks for the invite."

Amy looked at Tess. "Tess?"

Surprised, Tess looked from Amy to Jacqui, who was picking the tomato off of her sandwich and so didn't catch Tess's startled look. "Sure, I'd love to," Tess said. "I'll just ask my parents tonight."

Clapping her hands, Amy said, "Great! Should we meet at the food court at, say, 10:00 on Saturday?"

"That works for me." Jacqui. She took a bite of her sandwich and frowned. "Ugh. They contaminate what they touch."

"What?" Amy's expression shifted to disgust, mirroring Jacqui's.

"Tomatoes."

Zack reached out and picked up Jacqui's tomato. He popped it into his mouth. "Problem solved."

Now Amy's expression was truly disgusted. "Ew! You don't just eat stuff off other people's plates!"

"It's just Jacqui," Zack said. He stole a chip off of Amy's plate and put it into his mouth in slow motion, as if demonstrating the harmlessness of food theft—to the food thief, at least. Amy rolled her eyes and changed the subject, but her smile betrayed that she found Zack's antics just as funny as the rest of them did.

Tess enjoyed the rest of the lunch period as the conversation bounced from one topic to another; everyone was in high spirits, laughing, joking, and looking forward to homecoming. The bell rang just as Tess finished clearing her tray. The first class on Wednesday afternoons was green block, which for Tess was sociology. As she headed down the hall to her locker to gather her things, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to see Isaac walking alongside her and greeted him with a smile. "Hey!"

"Hey yourself. How's your day going?"

"It's good so far. The lunch bell on Wednesdays means the week's half over," Tess said.

Isaac cocked his head, considering what she'd said. "I never thought about it that way before," he replied. "I guess I have a reason to look forward to lunch ending now. Never thought I'd say that."

Tess paused as they came to Isaac's locker so that he could gather his books. "Are you having a good day?"

"I was, but green block is Senior English for me, so I'm about to hate my life."

"You aren't alone. It's my hardest class."

Isaac closed his locker, his books under his arm, and they proceeded to Tess's locker, weaving their way through the passing period crush. "Yeah, but you have someone to help you."

"That's true. Miguel makes it seem easy to understand all this stuff...He could probably write an essay in his sleep." They drew to a stop by Tess's locker, and Tess unlocked the door.

Isaac, standing behind her, sounded surprised. "Oh. Miguel? He's a guy?"

Tess nodded. "Yeah, he's a guy. Didn't I tell you his name before?"

"I guess you didn't. What is he, like, 60?"

"No, I think he's probably 19 or so. He's a freshman at Tipton." Tess turned around with her books in her arms and bumped her locker door closed with her hip. She paused, noting the flat expression on Isaac's face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Isaac said. "I thought you said your tutor was helping you with English?"

"He is."

"Miguel is helping you with English? That's the funniest thing I've heard all week."

Tess wasn't sure how to respond; Isaac had delivered the jibe in a light tone that made her wonder if it was a joke, but she couldn't really tell. They walked in silence for a moment, heading toward Tess's classroom, which was closer than Isaac's. Finally, feeling defensive of Miguel, she said, "He's actually great at English stuff. He could probably be an English teacher if he wanted to someday."

"I'm glad you're so interested in his career." Isaac drew to a stop. "Here's your class."

They had made it all the way to Tess's sociology classroom without her noticing. She looked at Isaac, confused and apprehensive. Was it paranoia, or did he seem jealous of Miguel? That would be crazy, wouldn't it?

"Enjoy Senior English," she said.

Isaac turned away to head to his green block. "I'll do my best without Miguel to help me out."

***

That evening, Tess had moved past confusion about her strange conversation with Isaac. He'd been perfectly right to respond the way he had. She should have told him when they'd talked at the pizza place that Miguel was a guy around their age. The way he'd found out, it might have seemed to him like Tess had been hiding it—who wouldn't have been upset?

Although she felt a little sick about the interaction, she was hoping she'd get a chance to clear things up with Isaac soon. After all, his reaction was encouraging. If he saw her as just a friend and wasn't interested in something more with her, he wouldn't have batted an eye about Tess's tutor. She could now be confident that his banter and flirting meant he really liked her.

"Is everything all right, Tess? You've been poking that same noodle with your fork for the past two minutes."

Tess looked up at her mom, giving her a smile. "I'm just making sure it's dead before I eat it."

Her dad dropped his fork, which fell onto his plate with a clatter. "Good Lord! I thought these were vegetarian noodles? Clarette!"

Clarette reached for her glass of wine. "Bucatini all'Amatriciana is not vegetarian, but I don't think it's the noodles you have to be worried about—it's the guanciale."

"The what-ay?" Tess looked down at her plate, wrinkling her nose.

"It's just pork. Eat your dinner, honey." Clarette passed the bread basket to Robert. "When's your next session with Miguel?"

Tess had mulled over the afternoon's interaction with Isaac that she'd converted her worry over his comment to optimism about his feelings for her, but still, sound of her tutor's name caused a lancet of guilt to pierce Tess's stomach. "Tomorrow night. Hey, Mom—Dad—can I go to the homecoming dance?"

Clarette raised her eyebrows and cast a sly look at Robert. "Oh, my. Can she go to the homecoming dance?"

"Dance?" Robert had rescued his fork from his plate of bucatini and paused in the course of licking sauce off the handle. "When?"

"It's on the 7th. Isaac asked me to go." Pleasure and pride brought a smile to Tess's face. "Please?"

"Of course you can go to the dance, honey, although I'm afraid you're probably going to be stuck wearing a dress," said Clarette.

"I know. Jacqui asked me to go with her and Amy to look this weekend, on Saturday. Would that be okay?"

"At the mall?" asked Robert.

"Yeah. There's this boutique there, and if we don't have any luck there we'll go to the department stores."

"That should work. I have to get some new shoes myself. I can drive you." Robert poked his fork into his pasta.

"Nobody asked me if I wanted new shoes," Tess's mom said, raising an eyebrow and casting a playful look at Tess's dad.

"Far be it from me to tell you what you can and cannot buy, dear," said Robert, "but since you already have 7,200 pairs of shoes, I did not think to extend the offer."

"Fine, fine. You're right. But I'll come with you, anyway. We can get lunch while we wait for Tess and her girlfriends."

"Sounds like a date. You won't want your mother to help you pick out a dress, Tess?"

Tess shrugged. She knew her mom would jump at the chance to be a part of dress shopping; Clarette was far more interested in fashion than Tess was, and she was probably excited that Tess was actually going to a dance. "If you want to, Mom."

Clarette shook her head. Her smile was earnest. "I think it's wonderful that you're going to look with friends, baby. I'm sure they'll give you great advice. If you get stuck, you can give me a call and I'll pop right over, but otherwise I'll enjoy the day out with Dad."

Smiling at her mother, Tess tried to express her gratitude without words. She knew her mom would be disappointed to miss out on dress shopping, but both of her parents had seemed worried it would take Tess a long time to make friends. It was nice that her mom was willing to let her hang out with the girls on her own. It was going to be fun.