Chapter 5: Sponsor

I hardly slept, because the girl on the poster smiled at me every time I closed my eyes.

Tilly had found out what she could before curfew.

The stand-in was a Greaves, and she would walk in as me on Friday, wearing my hair and my name.

"Whatever you do, don't go near her," Tilly said. "Not yet."

I agreed, and I meant to be near her the moment I could.

The dean called me into her office at eight the next morning.

She was a brisk woman with a stack of forms, and she did not look up when she spoke.

"Every transfer needs a senior sponsor to countersign her registration by Friday."

"Does the senior get a vote?" I asked.

"Not in your case," she said. "I've paired you with Mr. Karrick."

I looked at the door, and Cade Karrick was already leaning in the frame.

He had come in without a sound.

"I've said no," he told the dean.

"And I've said yes," she said. "Sign here, Mr. Karrick, or the captain's seat goes to your co-captain."

He signed.

He didn't look at me once.

In the hall he said, "Five a.m. at the rink. Wear something you can fall in."

"Why the rink?"

"Because that's where I am," he said, and walked away.

I was early.

The ice was empty, and the lights were on half power again.

He was already out there, skating long, slow circles in a black practice jersey with number nine on the back.

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