"OH! MY! GOD!" Mal squeals up and down as I hand her Design #1, aptly titled "Excite the Night". It's a neon-colored tracksuit with glitter stars and binary code (to represent the "tech" in UnDoSieTech), matched with the perfect standing sneakers and hair bows. "I love this so much! Eee!"

"Well, that's good to hear," I say. "This has honestly been a pretty hard assignment."

"Has it?" Mal asks, eyes still glued to the outfit sketch. She rubs her hand up and down the page with care and admiration, which makes my chest flip for a number of reasons.

"Yeah, kinda," I speak, rubbing my hands on my neck awkwardly. "I've been in a mind block lately."

"What entails a mind block this time around?" Mal asks, now looking at me. "You are eating, right?"

"Uh, yeah? You see me every day at lunch don't you?"

"The times I don't see you, you smart alec," Mal sticks her tongue out.

"Yes, and before you ask, I've been sleeping," I add in. "Maybe I'm not getting seven hours a night, but it's a work-in-progress."

"Mmm..." Mal hums unconvinced.

"Seriously, everything is fine," I keep going. It takes everything in me not to make that cartoonish "gulp!" sound when I swallow my rock-hard lies. "I think it's just finals season messing me up."

"Oh, Zo, you have nothing to worry about!" Mal waves her hand. "Everyone knows you're getting the top marks. I'd even go so far as to say that you'll get one of the top marks in trig this time."

"Not even you believe that," I shake my head in disbelief.

"Actually, I do! And why shouldn't I?" Mal says, putting the notebook in her coverall pocket momentarily. She takes me by the shoulders and looks me dead in the eye, and no offense to Mother Nature or anything, but not even something as alluring as the Northern Lights could be as breathtaking a view as this.

"My dearest best friend, you've worked extremely hard for this! I mean, no shocker there, but also I am really freakin' proud of you, dude!" Mal congratulates me as she wraps me in a hug. Gosh, what I wouldn't do to savor this moment ... that is until I catch a view of someone walking our way. I quickly pull away from Mal, who seems a bit confused, until --

"Ladies!" Havana walks up to us, along with Yasmin, the cousin. It's funny; since that meeting, the two of us still haven't talked at all. I guess after one occurrence/finding out the relation between her and my tutor wouldn't immediately propel us to best friend status or anything, but I figured there'd be some movement other than a quick "hi" before we took our seats. And yes, I know Yasmin is more than Havana's cousin and vice-versa, but I feel somewhat compelled to know more about her with this information. Havana said they grew up together with their grandma; where are their parents? Are their moms siblings or is it one mom and the other's dad? Was Yasmin also born in The Bronx? All this and more on the next What in the World did I Get Myself Into? (to the tune of the classic Carmen Sandiego theme song).

"Hi, Havana, Yasmin," Mal beams. "What's goin' on?"

"Well, we just wanted to know if you were still coming to our practice match tonight," Havana chimes. Oh, crap. I started to wave my hand in the manner she did at that meeting.

"Practice match?" Mal cocks her head in confusion. She looks right at me, and I have to pretend to swat away a fly. Real smooth, genius.

"Oh, Zo didn't tell ya?" Havana looks surprised. Oh, where's a hole to swallow me up when I need it?

"Here," Yasmin hands Mal a flyer. "It's at Spirit High today after school."

"Wow, a whole flyer!" Mal nods. "This must be really important."

"Ah, well it wasn't really going to be," Havana clicks her tongue. "But apparently, Spirit High wants to live up to their name, so they put posters all around the school. There's even a rumor they sold tickets."

"Not sure how legal in the game sphere that is, but oh well," Yasmin shrugs. "So we're trying to gather a sizeable audience."

"And speaking of, we better keep moving before the bell rings," Havana informs after looking at her watch. "Hope you can make it, Mal! Let me know if you need a ride with Zo!" I shoot Havana a "please stop!" look, eyes bulging out of my head like a madman, and it seems she gets the message as the two of them continue on their invite excursion. I breathe a sigh of relief, which doesn't last long as I feel the back of my head being burned by Mal's laser eyes. I turn her way, and she's giving me a look. A "Well?" type of look that makes me so uneasy.

"So ... is there something I'm missing here?" Mal squints at me.

"N-no? No!" I wave my hands.

"Oh, really?" Mal inches closer to my face. "Is that why you can't look me in the eye, young lady?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I shake my head, not helping my case as I continue to avert her gaze. Mal clears her throat dramatically and holds the flyer in her hand like a 14th-century decree. 

"Fireside Foxes, come support our math decathlon's first mock match of the year!" Mal acts out in an uppity badly-done British accent. "Spirit High, after school today -- tell all your friends about it!" She rolls up the paper like in decree-like fashion, then taps me on the shoulder like a newspaper to a dog's nose. 

"Hey!"

"All your friends, Zo!" Mal reiterates. She makes a box around her body. "Hello? All! Your! Friend!"

"You heard Havana, it wasn't supposed to be a big thing anyway!" I rebut.

"Okay, let's say that," Mallory debates. "Why did she ask you if you had told me about it?"

"I --" Oh darn, I don't have an argument for that.

"What the heck, Zo?!"

"Look, I didn't think you'd be interested!" Oh boy, doesn't that sound familiar?

"What on Earth gave you that idea?"

"Uh, well let's see -- the first time you abandoned me!"

"I forgot! I told you that!" Mal "reminds" me, and I cringe knowing that I already knew it but just needed an excuse. "When did you even find out about this anyway? At tutoring yesterday?"

"Not ... exactly," I shrug. "It was at the rapid-fire meeting."

"What?!" Mal gasps. 

"It was Stewart who told me about it!" I explain. "And when he was telling me, Havana was going like this --" I motion my hand over my neck. " -- like she didn't want me there!"

"Wait, so she didn't want you there?"

"No, she did."

"So then why would you think she didn't?"

"Because she thought I wouldn't be interested."

"Well!" Mallory puts her hands on her hips. "Isn't that something?! And do you want to go?!"

"Okay, I know, hypocrite over here!" I wave the white flag. "And yeah, I do."

"You know what hurts most about this?" Mal asks, and I feel that familiar pang of guilt. 

"W-what?"

"You're getting a ride from her, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, that was the plan ..." I admit. "B-but I can ride with you and Jhene if you want!"

"Are you kidding?" Mal's eyes bulge. "First, Jhene would never give us a ride to another school when she doesn't even take us to this one." I jolt when I hear that ... I haven't exactly told her that Jhene has given one of us a ride to school now. 

"And second, Havana has a Cadillac! A Cadillac!" Mal waves her arms for emphasis. "I've always wanted to ride in it!" 

"Ah, right," I nod understandingly. "The car."

"But fine, if you think I wouldn't be interested ..."

"No, no!" I pat her on the back. "Please come. I really want you to."

"Do you?"

"Why wouldn't I?" I shoot back. "It's not like I'm gonna know anyone else there but the contestant herself! And I don't think we've ever been to Spirit High, which I don't hear the best things about."

"You mean like the fight that broke out last week during their lunch period?" 

"See, I hadn't even heard about that fight."

"You know the crazy thing is that they continued the fight after school."

"Get outta here?"

"It's true!" Mal affirms. We both smile and giggle at the thought. Finally, the air is clearing.

"So will you?" I ask, clasping my hand and batting my eyelashes. "I'll need the protection!" 

"Hehe, why of course!" Mal takes my hand, all knightly. "For who would I be if not the protectant of my nearest and dearest?"

"And look, I'm sorry about not telling you about it," I apologize. 

"All good, bud," Ma smiles, whipping out the design notebook. "Now then, back to these beauties! Or, beauty, so far -- which by the way, I don't mean to rush you but if the two of us are going to match we need to start shopping like yesterday!"

"Right," I sigh. Almost had the smoothest sailing, there. We look over the design again together, and as I talk to her about my choices in relation to hers, I feel chilly with guilt. I know I should've invited her, and again, I did want to. So now this works out because we'll both go together, riding in the back of Havana's Cadillac. Hah, rhyme. There's still a major problem, though, and it's eating away at me. We ruled out that Mallory is, in a way interested. Maybe she's going for me, maybe she's going for Havana, or maybe a secret part of her actually does enjoy the mathematic arts (oxymoron, I'm aware).

So, why do I still want to go on my own?