“Excellent. You’re both on the team.” Gabby’s face went stone-cold serious as she did some calculation. “We just need—”
“Sorry, babes. I’m on Ethan’s team.” Sterling appeared next to Ethan’s shoulder as if by magic. He was waving at a group of three people with bad haircuts and shoulders wide enough to make it clear they were fitness influencers. Turning to Ethan, he let his smile fall as he said, “You know I like to win, and they are clearly not equipped to do that. So, who else should be on our team?”
“I’m already on Jamie’s team.” Ethan shrugged and gestured to me. Sterling looked over, noticing me for possibly the first time ever and sizing me up like he was reconsidering leaving the gym rats.
“Is it my team, though?” I laughed, hoping to ease some ofthe tension. Sure, I’d been wanting to talk to Sterling. But not like this. I wasn’t a great driver like Ethan. The whole moving-vehicle thing still stressed me out. I’d only gotten my license last year because my parents made me so I could get to SAT classes and my piano lessons over the summer. My mom had sworn that I’d be grateful later, but I was still waiting for that moment to arrive. As it stood, I wished right now I were Nittha, who’d wandered off with my camera to film god knew what. The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for anything if Sterling didn’t win. BamBam didn’t need me making enemies of younger beauty influencers she might want to connect with. And she certainly didn’t need to make an enemy of Sterling James over go-karts.
“And I’m also on Jamie’s team,” Gabby said, crossing her arms and sizing him up like she would be ready to try out some judo if he said anything about us. While I appreciated the protective instinct, her help was the opposite of helpful right now.
Taking in Ethan’s and Gabby’s stances, Sterling smiled and turned to me, extending a hand, “Well okay, then. Team Captain Jamie, I don’t think we’ve met before. What do you do?”
“You wouldn’t have heard of me.” I smiled and shook his hand even as my nerves started to fray under the weight of his perfectly lined gaze. “I’m the producer for Ms. Mini’s Makeup—”
“Oh my god, I love her. Ms. Mini is who I want to be when I grow up. Icon.” Sterling grinned, then glanced over at Ethan. Toning his smile down a notch, he added, “Not that your grandma isn’t great, too.” Returning his attention to me, he said, “After we win, Jamie, you and I should talk.”
Ethan shrugged. “You and Mini have matching energy. It makes sense.”
“He gets me.” Sterling smiled over at Ethan, then grew serious again. “What’s the plan here?”
“I think we do this like a track-and-field relay,” Gabby said, leaning in, her competitive spirit growing more intense. Great. Now I had to contend with pressure from two people hyper-fixated on winning when I barely had the skills to parallel park. When no one immediately responded, she rolled her eyes and said, “The person who goes first is the second fastest and the one with the best reflexes for the start signal. I’m gonna guess that is you, Sterling.” Gabby paused for confirmation and Sterling shrugged, a smug smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Alright, then your third fastest goes—that would be me. Our goal is to give the slowest, Jamie, a head start. Fourth is your fastest. Ethan, since you are a car guy, that’s you. You’ll have to make up any ground we lose on Jamie’s leg.” Gabby grimaced at me, then added, “Sorry, James, but you know it’s true.”
“It’s okay. I know—”
“But you won’t lose ground, will you, Jamie?” Sterling interrupted me with a smile, but it sounded like a threat. He had his phone out, ostensibly filming us for his channel. Noticing me noticing the camera, he added, “Don’t worry. I’ll add you all as collaborators if we win.”
Great. Now I also had to contend with the fact that my mother might see me loseanda BamBam×Sterling video might not be in the cards. Cold sweat cropped up on my back as I tried to think of how to respond. “I’ll do my best, but—”
“Jamie’s gonna do fine,” Ethan said, his tone perfectly even. Tilting his chin at the helmet counter, he added, “You should go get the helmets.”
Sterling narrowed his eyes at Ethan for a second, the two of them having some kind of wordless conversation. Then his face relaxed. Turning, he held out an elbow to Gabby. “I don’t want to carry four helmets. Shall we?”
Gabby seemed about as charmed by Sterling’s invitation to get sweaty, used helmets as she would be to spend a winter in Antarctica, but she still looped her arm through his. “Sure. I want the black ones, though. No red sparkles.”
“We can talk about that.” Sterling smiled as the pair of them headed off.
As soon as they were out of hearing distance, I shifted back to Ethan. “I know Mini needs my help with Sterling, but I’m not a fast driver. In fact, driving makes me nervous. What if I find another way to get in his good graces? Maybe you could get that girl who does videos breaking down operas…”
“She is on the fitness-influencer team.” Ethan bit down on his lip to hide his smile. It was the kind of smile that made me wish he’d look somewhere else. I didn’t need to get used to that smile. Taking a deep breath, he added, “Listen. Your grandma wants to reach younger audiences, and Sterling is literally the most competitive person I know. We win this, you win your grandma a meeting with Sterling. He already said he wanted to chat with you. Just gotta keep that momentum going, alright?”
“Yes, but that means I have to win, Ethan.”
“I know. Don’t worry. I’ll help you.” We locked eyes.Instinctively, I started to trace a line between his freckles, memorizing the faint pattern sprinkled across his nose and cheeks.
“Okay.” I took a half step back, putting a little space between myself and those freckles. “What do I need to do?”
“Depends. I think Team Gym Rats will be our biggest competition,” Ethan said, glancing over at the team. All four of them were stone-faced as they gazed over at us. “Since Sterling announced I’m the one to beat, they’ll likely—”
“Here we are,” Gabby called, bouncing in front of us with red sparkly helmets, causing both Ethan and me to jump. Her enthusiasm was firmly back in place. The part of me that wasn’t nervous wanted to know what magic Sterling worked to get her to deviate from her favorite color and say yes to sparkly red helmets.
“Let’s go, people.” Sterling appeared by her side, equally amped and shaking two helmets at us. “It’s time.”
If I had to guess, that short walk had bonded the two of them over their bizarre, ultracompetitive commitment to games. Great. Now if I let us down I’d have Gabby on my case, too.
Ethan and I each took our helmets as Sterling handed his phone to Gabby with instructions to film him putting it on and getting settled into the kart. We followed the pair of them to the edge of the track, careful to keep our distance from everyone else.
Resting his forearms on the railing that separated spectators from the track, Ethan started speaking low. “Like I was saying. We’ll see how the first lap goes, but if it comes down to us and Gym Rats, your size will be an advantage.”
“All the teams will be smaller than them,” I cut in, eyeing theteam with skepticism. I was not particularly little; the Gym Rats were just really big.
