Junie Sakamoto read the note three times before she believed it. Kai Ashford liked her. The most popular boy at school. The same boy Neko had been chasing all year. Junie sat on the club room floor, her planner open on her knees, and felt something sharp and warm rise in her chest. She wanted Neko to see it. She wanted Neko to know she had lost. It was a strange thing to want. Junie spent her mornings with rescue dogs. Her beagle Mochi slept on her feet. She kept her socks folded and her pens in a row. She was supposed to be the nice one. But Neko had smirked at her once, in the hallway, the way you smirk at someone who doesn't matter. Junie had not forgotten. The festival was Saturday. Junie knew what she would wear. A red dress with ribbon straps and a full, airy skirt, the kind of thing that made people stop and look. She held it up against herself in the empty club room and smiled. The door opened. Cordelia Rosewood stepped in, dark blue dress, dark eyes, a stack of books under one arm. She was the girl who always told the truth, even when nobody asked. She looked at the red dress. Then at Junie's face. "You want him," Cordelia said. "He wants me," Junie said. "That's what the note says." "That's not the same thing." Cordelia set her books down. "You don't want Kai. You want Neko to hurt." Junie's grip tightened on the ribbon strap. "That's not fair." "I don't do fair. I do true." Cordelia crossed the room. "Wear the dress. He'll say yes. Neko will watch. You'll get exactly what you're planning." "Then why are you looking at me like that?" Cordelia stopped. "Because I know what people look like when they win the wrong thing." Junie thought of Neko in the hall. She thought of the smirk. She lowered the dress and folded it once, neat, the way she folded everything. "I'm doing it," Junie said. Saturday came. Junie wore the red dress into the festival crowd. She found Kai by the food stalls and told him she'd read his note. She said she felt the same. He smiled and took her hand, easy, like it was already decided. And Neko saw. She was standing ten feet away in a torn purple dress stained with peach juice, her book clutched to her chest, her cat ears flat. She looked at Junie's hand in Kai's. She looked at Junie's face. Then she turned and pushed into the crowd and was gone. Junie had it. The boy, the dress, the win. Kai squeezed her hand and asked what she wanted to do first. Junie opened her mouth to answer. She realized she didn't know. She had planned everything up to this moment and nothing past it. Kai was still holding her hand, waiting, and she had no idea what she wanted now.