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I quickly straighten up to face Cassie and she takes a swing at me. On instinct, I tighten my grip around the base of the flag pole and slam it into hers. She gives me a crazy, wild-eyed look—part I’m going to kill you, and part how dare you mess with the great Cassie Deegan?

  Again, she swings at me with her pole and again, I slam mine into hers as hard as I can. The collision sends shockwaves up my arms. Shoot, I was really hoping I would be strong enough to knock the pole out of her hands. She is deceptively strong for a girl who looks so tiny and malnourished.

  Our flag poles clang together again as we continue to sword fight. If I wasn’t so scared that she would break my arm, it might have been kind of fun. This goes on for about twenty seconds, with all of the students in the gym whooping and hollering for me. I glance at the gym door again, praying for an interception by absolutely anyone—I’d take a janitor or a lost mother dropping off a lunch bag at this point—and Cassie knocks my flag out of my hand. Crap! I fall back onto the gym floor and she puts her flag pole up to my chest. I know my minutes are numbered.

  I close my eyes in preparation for my throttling and then I hear it. A group scream—“AHHHHHHH!!!”

  Cassie hears it too because when I open one eye to peek, I see her glance over her shoulder and mumble, “What the—?”

  My girls! The entire flute section, including Rayne, jump on Cassie’s back, knocking her to the ground.

  “Hey! Stop! What the hell are you idiots doing?” Cassie screams. Her face is smooshed into the gym floor. “Get off me! Let go!”

  Now there are two girls sitting on each of her legs and a girl holding down each arm. The rest of the band is going wild, laughing and cheering. Lizzie runs over, tuba case in tow. She lays it on Cassie’s back and then sits on it.

  “She’s not going anywhere,” Lizzie yells. “Someone go get Principal Rodriguez.”

  “Aaaaghh,” a muffled moan comes from Cassie. “Get off me, you heifer!”

  “Sorry, Cassie,” Lizzie says. “Guess I shouldn’t have had all that ice cream this weekend.” Lizzie bounces hard on the case.

  Cassie groans.

  I kneel beside her, to make sure she’s still breathing okay. We don’t need to get in trouble for hurting her. Which is extremely nice of us considering that she just tried to kill me.

  “You’re so done, Brooke,” she whimpers at me. “Your life is so over. You’re such a freaking moron!”

  “Yeah, well you’re the one trapped under a tuba case right now,” I say. Which gets a bunch of giggles out of the bystanders.

  “I don’t know why I ever let you in the club,” she continues. “Chris wasn’t even worth it. He’s as pathetic as you!”

  “You’re probably right about Chris,” I say. “But you’re the pathetic one. You obviously have monster self-esteem issues.”

  “Whatever, Brooke. Just you wait. You’re going to be the bottom feeder of the entire school.”

  I shrug.

  And then it happens. Her own people turn on her. Suddenly we are surrounded by the dance squad, who surprisingly, has stood back this entire time and just watched everything that went down without ever trying to intercept. One of the senior dance squad members, Amber, gets right in Cassie’s face.

  “YOU are the bottom feeder, Cassie! You think you run everything here at school, but you don’t. We’re sick of you, we’re sick of your stupid club, and we’re sick of your pathetic, twisted need to have everyone’s boyfriends.” Amber reaches up her sweatshirt sleeve and pulls out a pale pink scarf. She balls it up and throws it at Cassie’s face. “I hope you choke on it!” She flips her long mahogany hair and walks away.

  Cassie looks at Amber’s retreating back with a stunned expression, but quickly recovers. “Well, you’re a loser too Amber! And Anthony’s a sucky kisser!”

  “Am I a loser too, Cass?” Britney asks, stepping up and dropping her scarf in front of Cassie’s face.

  “Us too?” Sara asks, as her, Angela, and a tall redhead I don’t know drop their scarves in front of Cassie’s face.

  “Y-yes. You all are,” Cassie says in a shaky voice, like she might cry any minute. The expression on her face suddenly turns to confusion and she whispers, “Delaney?”

  I fling my head around and see Delaney standing there.

  “Yeah, me too,” Delaney says, tossing her scarf on the ground. “You’re an awful, awful person, Cassie. Find yourself a new lackey.” She turns on her heel and marches straight out of the gym.

  I stare at her retreating back, in shock.

  A couple more girls slip their scarves off and drop them on the floor in front of Cassie. And I know it’s my turn. I untie my scarf from my hair.

  “Brooke, you’re—” she starts.

  I kneel down and shove my scarf into her mouth. “I think we’ve heard enough from you today,” I say and stand back up.

  A cheer goes through the gym again and people clap.

  I walk toward the gym doors, rubbing my right shoulder. I think I pulled a muscle during the pole fight. I practically bump into Mr. Shank on the way out. Nice of him to finally show up.

  “What’s going on in here?” he shouts.

  “Lizzie can explain,” I say and keep on walking out of the gym.

  * * *

  I head for the nurse’s office, intent on hunting down a pain reliever and an ice pack, when I see Delaney and two of the dance squad girls hovering near the lockers. I walk straight toward them.

  “See you guys later,” Delaney says to the two when I arrive and for the first time in forever, looks me straight in the face.

  “Hi,” I say.

  “Hi.”

  “Look,” I begin, “I just wanted to say thanks.”

  “No need to thank me,” Delaney insists. “I should have done that a long time ago.”

  “Yeah, but I know it was hard for you,” I say.

  She shrugs.

  We’re both quiet, thinking of what to say. Finally I speak. “I’ve got to ask, why now? Why stand up for me now when you’ve ignored me for so many years?”

  She takes a deep breath. “I wasn’t just standing up for you. I was standing up for me. And I didn’t ignore you.” Delaney briefly considers this and then adds, “Okay, I did. But I didn’t know what else to do. I wanted to be friends with those kids and they didn’t want me to be friends with you.”

  “That’s lame,” I say.

  “Not everyone is as strong as you, Brooke,” she says.

  I give her a confused look. Me? Strong? What the heck is she talking about?

  “You don’t need to belong,” she continues. “You’re a strong person all on your own. Some people just want to fit in, like me. But you, you’re brave.”

  “I am?” I ask.

  She smiles. “Uh, yeah. Like how you marched out of that party in 6th grade. No one else dared to do that. And how you trot around in that ridiculous band getup, head held high like its next spring’s Dolce and Gabbana when it’s really 1977 sweaty polyester band garb. You’re happy being you. You don’t care what people think. And I'm totally jealous. I wish I didn’t care so much.”

  I don’t care, do I? Well, that is, I didn’t used to care. Not until I got caught up in all this Boy Swap stuff. Hmm.

  “Thanks, Delaney. Thanks for reminding me of me.”

  Chapter 26: Sheer Poetry

  It’s been two weeks since the Boy Swap Club died that early morning in the school gym. Cassie still hasn’t come back to school and people are speculating that she transferred to the town’s Catholic school. I would if I were her. Absolutely everyone here hates her. Word of the Boy Swap Club and our big fight spread throughout the school at lightning speed and you can guess whose side everyone took. Okay, if you can’t guess, I’ll tell you—they took my side!

  I have to confess, though, I’m not completely unhappy that I joined the BSC. I mean, at first I thought Cassie really screwed up my life and stole my true love and all. But in a way she kind of helped me. Chris wasn’t the right guy
for me and it might have taken me a lot longer to figure that out if it wasn’t for her. And I had thought that I wanted to be more popular, and I guess technically I am. But it doesn’t matter because I know now I’d be happy either way. I like my new friends and I love my super fantastic old friends. The ones who really pulled through for me when I needed them. And I also got something else. Something really wonderful that I totally wanted.

  “Are you ready to start hanging these puppies up?” Carter interrupts my thoughts, waving a pile of yellow fliers in front of me.

  I glance at the flier:

  Want to meet new friends?

  Share lots of laughs?

  Drink lots of coffee?

  Join POETRY CLUB!!

  Co-founded by Brooke Thomas and Carter Jones, POETRY CLUB meets the first Monday of every month in the Bookends Bookstore Café @ 4 p.m. Bring your favorite poems to share!

  “It’s perfect!” I stand on my tiptoes and give Carter a long kiss on the lips. Now this is definitely the kind of club I am more than happy to be a member of. And if no other members show up, you sure won’t find me crying into my latte. I will be happily listening to Carter’s beautiful voice read me poetry.

  ###

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  About the Author:

  Kristina Springer is the author of: the young adult novel, THE ESPRESSOLOGIST (Macmillan/FSG, October 2009), which has been published in seven countries, was purchased for film by Vuguru and is being produced as a web series, and was a 2010 Society of School Librarians International Honor Book; the middle-grade novel, MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS (Macmillan/FSG, August 2010), which was a Scholastic Book Club Bestseller and a 2012 YALSA QUICK PICK; the young adult novel, JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS, which is a Fall favorite (Macmillan/FSG, October 2011); and an ebook-only young adult novel, THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT (December 2013), which hit number one on an Amazon top free books list in 2013. She has a Masters in Writing from DePaul University and resides in a suburb of Chicago with her husband and children.

  Connect with her online:

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/TinaSpringer

  Facebook: http://facebook.com/KristinaSpringer

  Website: http://www.KristinaSpringer.com

  Blog: http://kristinaspringer.blogspot.com

  Find her other books on Amazon:

  The Espressologist: http://amzn.com/B003NHR9EM

  My Fake Boyfriend is Better than Yours: http://amzn.com/0312641591

  Just Your Average Princess: http://amzn.com/B00BDHY5OG

  The Paparazzi Project: http://amzn.com/B00AMO4GSQ

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Tap, tap

  Chapter 2: The Pink Scarf

  Chapter 3: Friday Night Fights

  Chapter 4: Relax sister!

  Chapter 5: Stepping out

  Chapter 6: Kiss and Shop

  Chapter 7: Denial is Bliss

  Chapter 8: Sex, Sex, Sex

  Chapter 9: Enough is Enough

  Chapter 10: Don’t Get Mad, Get Swapping

  Chapter 11: Truth or Dare

  Chapter 12: I Heart Google

  Chapter 13: Follow Those Boobs

  Chapter 14: Sisterly Advice

  Chapter 15: On with the Plan

  Chapter 16: Study Buddies

  Chapter 17: Last Year’s Coach Bag

  Chapter 18: Love You, Love You Not

  Chapter 19: Chatting in the Girls’ Room

  Chapter 20: Talk Poetry to Me

  Chapter 21: Return of the Sparklers

  Chapter 22: To Send, or Not to Send

  Chapter 23: See You Latte

  Chapter 24: Bloomer Tumor

  Chapter 25: The Duel

  Chapter 26: Sheer Poetry

  About the Author: