The Hot List Read Free Page A

all caps, so no one will ever know our identities.”
    â€œBut who’s going to go first? Hayden—”
    â€œBlue,” I corrected, reminding her once again to use our special code name for him. Blue because of his sea-blue eyes. Blue because that’s how I felt when I couldn’t see Hayden in English and social studies (he was ONLY in French, gym, math, and homeroom with me). Blue because he always wore blue jeans, but regular color shirtsand shoes and stuff. He pretty much epitomized cool. He didn’t go around speaking a ton. Kind of like me, only he fell into the extremely cool category, and I was semicool—the sporty girl who wasn’t part of a big group. A one-best-friend kind of person.
    And Maddie was my best friend since fourth grade. We had done everything together. In fourth grade, we raked paths through the woods behind Maddie’s house and pretended they were for escaping vampires. In fifth grade, we jumped on our trampoline for gazillions of hours, and made little obstacle courses for Rusty when he was a puppy. Last year, in sixth grade, we survived getting our candy snatched by a couple of punk kids while trick-or-treating, and Maddie recorded me singing my favorite song, using GarageBand. And so far, seventh grade has been much better than everyone says.
    Maddie’s older sister, Gwen, swore that seventh grade was the worst year in middle school because everyone changes and gets all moody—swapping friends as easily as trading Silly Bandz. I was glad to know that because I, for one, didn’t plan on changing. I liked things exactly as they were.
    â€œYou know, you really should say something to Blue,” said Maddie. “About liking him.”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    â€œYou could drop a hint, like carrying Blue’s lacrosse stick for him.” Maddie smiled. Hayden was famous for carrying his lacrosse stick everywhere he went, even now, when it wasn’t lacrosse season.
    â€œYeah, right,” I said again, as my stomach bunched up.
    â€œI bet he’d like you. You’re so pretty.”
    â€œYeah, sure,” I said, running my fingers through my hair, which is probably my best feature. It’s long and dark brown and essentially frizz-free. My eyes are hazel, which means they’re neither green nor brown, like they can’t make up their mind. I guess, if I were to start wearing more makeup, I could glam myself up more, but that’s not me. I’m more of a lip-gloss-and-a-touch-of-mascara kind of girl.
    â€œOkay, we need to decide who’s going to go first,” I said, irritated that Maddie had pulled out her phone again to check for her new messages. “Blue or Square?”
    â€œSquare,” said Maddie, putting up her thumb for her crush, Auggie.
    â€œDefinitely Blue,” I said, thinking that Hayden just had to be number one.
    â€œI’ve got a coin!” Maddie pulled a penny out of her pocket, and we flipped for it. I picked tails and won.
    As I jotted down Hayden’s name at the top of the List, I thought the sparkly ink looked extra sparkly. Softly, Ihummed the tune to this new song that I really liked.
    â€œLet me write. I can do caps too.” Maddie got that frowny look again.
    I continued to hum and ignored Maddie’s pleas because I was afraid she’d make even her caps look, somehow, like calligraphy.
    â€œC’mon,” she begged.
    I sang a little louder this time, actually singing the lyrics instead of just humming along to the tune.
    â€œSophie, you’re
such
a good singer,” gushed Maddie. “You could be professional.”
    I stopped singing. “Yeah, right.” When I’m by myself I love to sing, but I can’t sing in front of people at all. Well, except for Maddie, my dad, and Rusty. And what’s a dog going to say about my singing?
    â€œIt’s true,” said Maddie. “You’re the best. You have to sing at the