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PART ONE

Thestar will appear

—Murphy’s Law

PROLOGUE

WE KILLED THEM

Crushed, to be precise Crushed to the point that the other team left the field in tears, like a bunch of five-year-olds, falling into a defeated huddle in their grass-stained blue-and-gold unifor one another the lame consolations of runners-up They did their best to avoid o down the line and slap our hands, congratulating us on our win on their way to their dugout On ourvictory

We, on the other hand, had hoarse voices and couldn’t stop ju everyone within ar them to our filthy, sweaty selves as we screaain, that we’d done it We’d done it We’d done it!

Cat caught h, wiry arms and squeezed me so hard she nearly crushed the breath out ofher voice down, and everyone heard her I could feel the dah

My face blazed in the wake of her coled nervously She never seemed to understand the whole “there’s no I in tea into us As far as Cat was concerned, I was the tea away from her

“You saw him, didn’t you? The scout?”

I didn’t have to answer her or try to explain that I was sure he wasn’t there just for ht up in another round of cheers and congratulations, and after abest friends and focused solely on the fact that we’d just won the championship

That was how Austin found ht past hi lot to meet le myself froratulating us, and herself, and then us soet on the buses to meet up for the victory celebration Of course, my dad had asked Coach to make an exception To let me ride with his he wanted to discuss on our way to the pizza party

Austin was propped against the fence, offering nature smiles It was a smile I’d known almost my whole life, and in it I could picture our entire su days spent on the riverbank as we stretched our dah his bedroomafter his parents left for work so we could sleep till afternoon in his cramped twin bed with its worn Bato but that he still hadn’t parted with Late nights at the drive-in theater, staring up at the stars instead of watching whatever dollar iant screen as we talked about our future and all the things ould do together once ere free of our parents and high school

And kissing Lots and lots of kissing