I didn’t know how long I stood there, but someone steered me into the girls’ locker room after Jesse left.

Which was good because as soon as the locker room door closed behind us, I started crying.

Full-on, not pretty at all, sobbing.

I was crying for Jesse and what had just happened.

I was crying for Homecoming and the way Lindsay and Courtney had treated me—not just that night but ever since I had met them. Not to mention Sophia.

Ever since they’d come into my life, I’d tried. I’d been nice to them, hoping we could be a family. That I’d finally have sisters to share secrets with and trade clothes with and do things with.

That I’d have a stepmom who maybe cared about me, not just my dad. Who wanted to spend time with me and give me advice about boys and my hair.

But I’d given up those notions pretty quickly.

They hadn’t even tried. They’d never cared.

They never truly appreciated my dad.

I cried even harder, grieving everything he’d missed out on. How he’d promised that we’d be together forever.

He’d never be at my wedding or graduation. Never playfully threaten my first boyfriend.

He was gone. Utterly gone when I needed him the most.

And Jesse. I just knew he hated me now. Things would never be the same between us. Countless messages. Homecoming. It had all been for nothing.

I had already lost so much, and now I’d lost him too.

Tears ran down my cheeks in streams, and sobs wracked my chest. After a while, I found myself laying down on a bench.

“Let it all out,” I heard. “It’s the only way to feel better.”

My mouth fell open when I saw the cheer outfit of the person kneeling down in front of me.

Confused, I searched for a face. “Tori.”

I sat right up, not believing I had broken down in front of her.

“I’m sorry,” I said, using the sleeve of my shirt to wipe the tears and snot from my face. Then I crossed my arms, wishing I was anywhere but here. The mortification of someone seeing me like this, someone like Tori, only worsened the shame.

“What are you apologizing for?” she asked quietly. “They should be apologizing to you.”

I looked down at my feet, not sure what to say to that.

“Your stepsisters are the biggest…brats this school has ever seen.”

My head snapped up, and she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I may be the second biggest, but at least I don’t treat nice people like trash. Maybe just the people I can’t stand.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

Then she laughed too, and then we were both just laughing so hard, and I couldn’t even remember why we were laughing.

I wiped a few last tears from my face. “Thanks.”

She shrugged. “Nobody should have to cry like that without a shoulder to lean on.”

I gave her a small smile, but the moment quickly turned awkward as we both seemed to remember the time I found her crying in the girls’ bathroom. It felt like so long ago.

Either way, I never ever would have imagined that I’d be crying like this in front of Tori Rodriguez.

I sniffled again, and Tori walked over to the paper towel dispenser. She pulled out two paper towels and came back, holding out her hand.

“Thanks,” I said, taking them and wiping my nose.

“You’re better than them,” she said. Her lips curved into a soft smile. There was something about it. It wasn’t like her regular smile, the one she pasted on when she was doing a cheer in front of the school.

This one was true. Genuine.

I smiled back, realizing I felt a little better thanks to her.

We both turned at the sound of the door. I wasn’t sure who I was expecting, but I was relieved to see Lena, Harper, and Rey walking toward me.

Lena’s eyes immediately landed on Tori.

We’d never really liked Tori, being the only one who hadn’t fit right into our new group.

They all came over to me, and Harper immediately gave me a hug. Rey gave me a small smile, but Lena kept her gaze on Tori. She stood up but ignored Lena’s look.

“You okay, Ella?” Lena asked, glancing at me for only a second before going back to Tori.

“Yeah, I’m fine now,” I said. “Thanks. I thought maybe you guys had left.”

Rey shook her head. “We were waiting for you outside.”

Harper nodded. “We had no idea what happened until…”

Until everyone left the gym and told everyone else, I wanted to finish for her.

I sighed. This was going to be all over school tomorrow.

Tori kept her eyes on me, ignoring Lena’s suspicious look. “Maybe you should just stay home for a day or two.”

Lena put her hands on her hips. “Oh yeah? Why’s that? Are the cheerleaders going to give her a tough time? Is that it?”

Tori finally turned toward Lena. “No. Not from me, anyway. And no one else in the squad will because what I say goes.”

The rest of us stared at both of them. Lena was a little taller than Tori, but Tori held her own. Lena was confident in herself, but Tori was captain of the cheer squad. I’d never been a cheerleader a day in my life, but I knew you didn’t become cheer captain, even if it was just junior captain, without a whole lot of self-confidence and unwillingness to be pushed around.

Lena squared her shoulders and stood her ground.

“Lena, it’s okay,” I said, not knowing how to word the fact that Tori had acted like a good friend to me before they’d walked in. Something I never would have expected, but I guessed I never expected Baller929 to be Jesse, either, and here we were.

My heart sank again at the thought of him, of what he must be thinking right now.

Harper asked, “So things didn’t go well with Jesse?”

I didn’t know what it was about her, but she was good at reading people and steering the conversation in the right direction.

I shook my head. “I think he was hurt because I didn’t tell him the truth sooner.”

I told them what he’d said to me in the gym, and how I could have told him. How I should have.

Rey rubbed my shoulders.

Harper smiled encouragingly. “He’ll come around.”

Tori nodded. “He will, believe me. Jesse doesn’t like it when people aren’t straight with him. But he’s also like the nicest guy I know, and he’ll get over it.”

Lena finally seemed to relax a little.

I pushed down the frog in my throat. I didn’t want to cry again for risk of starting another avalanche of tears. “I don’t know. It feels like things won’t ever be the same between us.”

“It won’t,” Rey said. “It’ll be better. The truth is out in the open now.”

She gave me a small smile.

Maybe she was right.

“Besides,” Tori said, “he’d be crazy to not be head over heels for you after seeing you in that dress at Homecoming.”

Harper wrapped her arm around me, and I leaned into her.

A thought sprang into my mind, and I looked up at her. “Wait, were you at Homecoming?” Something Courtney said the morning after came to mind. “You weren’t there. I specifically remember Courtney saying so.”

I remembered something else.

Everyone stared at me and then at Tori, who was frozen.

“You guys were all dressed as Disney princesses… Were you supposed to be—”

“—Cinderella?” Tori finished for me.

The rest of us gasped.

“It was your dress?” I asked, taking a step toward her.

Rey and Harper stared at Tori in shock. Lena’s mouth hung slightly open, and I could practically hear the gears turning in her mind.

“You were in the bathroom that night,” Lena said.

Tori nodded and smiled, her arms still crossed in front of her. “You figured it out. It was me. I had to wait for like an hour to leave without you guys seeing me.” She looked away. “My boyfriend, or rather ex-boyfriend, had broken up with me over the phone just a few minutes before. Said he was going to Homecoming with someone else.”

The rest of us were silent, taking that in.

Perfect Tori had been dumped at Homecoming?

“What a jerk,” Lena muttered.

“Yeah, well, I’m better off. I should’ve broken up with him ages ago,” she said, looking down. “But I wasn’t about to show up to Homecoming just so he could flaunt his new relationship in front of me. I hadn’t really wanted to go anyway.”

None of us asked the question that was on our minds.

“It was a girl from another school, by the way. I hear things are already rocky between them,” she said, a satisfied smile on her face.

Lena smiled too.

“Thankfully, I had some extra clothes from cheer practice with me.” She looked at me. “When I heard what your stepsisters did to you…it was messed up. And if I wasn’t going to use the outfit, why not lend it to someone in need?”

She shrugged like it was no big deal, but it had been.

I closed the gap between us and hugged her. She didn’t hug me back at first, but I didn’t care. I had to say thank you, and I wouldn’t be able to say it out loud without bursting into tears again. So, I said it with a hug.

Just when I thought maybe I should pull away, she slowly put her arms around me and squeezed back.

“You guys are the worst,” Lena said, hugging us too. Then Harper and Rey joined in, and I was surrounded on all sides.

I smiled as we finally pulled back.

Lena nodded at Tori, acceptance reflected in her eyes. “Me hugging a cheerleader. Who would have thought.”

We all burst out laughing.

“We’re not all evil,” Tori said. “Not all the time anyway. It gets old after a while.”

She stared off for a second when she said that.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” I asked. “I always wondered who had been my extra fairy godmother that night.”

She shrugged. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

Lena snorted, and then we all laughed again.

I studied our small circle. Lena with her strength, her confidence. Harper with her kindness and caring. Rey with her quirkiness and creativity. Tori with her fierceness and heart, even if it was hidden beneath some thick layers. I was grateful to have Lena, Harper, Rey, and now Tori.

Somehow, our group felt complete.

I woke up the next morning feeling queasy, but I knew it wasn’t me getting sick all of a sudden. I just didn’t want to go to school.

The old-school alarm clock on my nightstand stared back at me in the morning light. It had been my dad’s.

As the digits changed, it went off. I immediately pushed the button to turn it off and stared at it some more. It was 6:30am.

Regardless of whether I went to school, I had to get up and make breakfast for everyone, unless I was practically on my death bed. That had only happened once last year, when I’d gotten the flu. Even then, Sophia had pitched a fit after she’d gone down to the cold, empty kitchen.

She’d actually gotten Courtney to make breakfast for a few days, but no one had been happy about it.

Now, I wondered if I should risk staying in bed a bit longer. I really didn’t want to go to school today. Not after what happened last night.

But something my dad used to say all the time about falling seven times but getting up eight came to mind. I could almost hear him saying it to me. I never really understood it until this moment.

I closed my eyes one more time before I threw the covers off and got ready for school.

I could do this.

I had breakfast ready on plates by the time Lindsay and Courtney came down. I took a deep breath and said, “Good morning,” like nothing had happened last night.

They both ignored me and sat down to eat. Clearly, it wouldn’t be that easy.

They were done in a matter of minutes before they got up to leave.

I grabbed my backpack to follow them, and Courtney said, “We have early cheer practice today, so you can ride the bus…or whatever.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but they were already gone.

I checked the clock on the stove. I doubted they had cheer practice this early. I’d have to bike to school, but I was just relieved Lindsay hadn’t decided to tell Sophia about Homecoming. I’d been sure she would last night, but maybe she was just waiting for the right moment.

I had about five minutes to eat my breakfast. Sophia came down the stairs as I finished. The kitchen was silent as she packed her breakfast to go.

Glancing at the clock again, I grabbed my stuff and went to the garage for my bike.

Sophia was already walking to her car, thermos in hand.

I watched her go as I got on my bike. It sank down. I got back off and inspected the tires. They’d been slashed.

I sighed. So this was the revenge Lindsay had settled on for now. I should have guessed she’d do something like this.

I looked at my phone. Yep, I was definitely going to be late. I slung on my backpack and started power-walking to school, part of me still wishing I was back up in bed.