Starcrossed

like Jason,” Helen said, realizing it was true. He had always been kind to her, and he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. “He’s a really nice guy, and you were awful to him.”
    “Of course you like him, because Jason is nice to everyone. Everyone but me. You don’t have classes with us so you haven’t seen him do it, but whenever we debate, he always tries to shut me down, arguing against whatever position I take. Even when he actually agrees with me, he argues just to play devil’s advocate.”
    “And why do you think he does that?” Helen asked with a little grin.
    “I asked him, and do you know what he said?” Claire plowed on, getting herself even more worked up. “He said everyone else in this school is afraid to stand up to me in a debate, except for him, and it’s good for me to have to work a little bit for once in my life!”
    “How dare he challenge you to think deeper,” Helen said with mock horror.
    “Believe me, it’s not a favor. He’s just trying to prove he’s smarter than me.”
    “Is he?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe. Lucas is smarter than all of us, so there goes valedictorian. And then there’s Ariadne. She’s really bright, too, but I think I have her beat. We’ll see what happens,” Claire said, biting at her lower lip.
    She was deeply worried about all the new competition, and Helen hadn’t even asked her how classes were going so far. It sounded like Claire had basically given up on her lifelong dream of graduating at the top of the class, and Helen hadn’t noticed.
    “I’ve been a terrible friend to you these past couple of days, haven’t I?” Helen asked, suddenly disgusted with herself.
    “I wouldn’t say terrible,” Claire said with a wry smile. “But you could do me a favor to make up for it if you like.”
    “Anything,” Helen replied immediately.
    “If you could keep Lucas awake and occupied the night before exams . . .” Claire said, already holding up her arms to defend herself from Helen’s pretend slaps. “I don’t know why you’re fighting it, Len. One, he’s frigging gorgeous. Two, he’s so frigging gorgeous you need to count it twice. Three, he saw you fall down and left practice to see if you were okay. That’s, like, devotion.”
    Helen didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t exactly explain that Lucas had only come over to make sure she was okay because several of his relatives were trying to kill her. The image of Kate lying unconscious on the dirty ground flashed into Helen’s head and her stomach fluttered. Like Kate, Claire was in danger just being around her.
    “I gotta pick up the pace,” Helen said urgently, and Claire nodded.
    “Show Lucas those legs are for more than drooling over and call me later,” she said cheerfully before Helen sped off.
    When Claire was out of sight, Helen sighed to herself, fighting back a fit of guilt. She didn’t know what she would do if anyone ever hurt Claire. The thought distracted her from reining in her stride and she almost allowed herself to run into Coach Tar’s view far too early. At the last moment she remembered to duck behind some bushes, waiting several minutes before pretending to sprint the last few yards. She still finished first, of course, and then had to spend another half hour waiting for Lucas to finish up with practice. If he was going to continue driving her to school in the morning, she decided she was going to have to come up with another plan for getting to work afterward.
    As soon as Helen walked in the front door of the News Store, Kate started following her around with a stunned look on her face.
    “Wow!” Kate managed to say after a few moments of speechlessness. “He’s like . . . wow! I could go to jail for even thinking what I’m thinking.”
    “Kate!” Helen exclaimed, throwing a balled-up napkin at her. “I thought you were a feminist!”
    “What’s that got to do with anything?”
    “Aren’t you always preaching that there can be no equality if the sexes objectify each other?”
    “Yeah, but damn!” Kate said, fanning herself with her hand. “When I was your age all of the guys were trying to prove how antiestablishment they were by out-uglying each other. I so got robbed!”
    “Keep on going and I’ll tell my dad he’s got competition,” Helen teased, but the joke didn’t have the effect she thought it would. The laughter went right out of Kate’s eyes and the smile melted off her face.
    “I don’t