Page 202 of As You Wish

“The race hasn’t even started yet,” Wren reminded us. “Oh, here comes Henry to tell us the rules. Everyone smile and nod and pretend this is safe.”

Henry walked up, his face in a tight smile. I did what Wren told us and pretended to pay attention. To be fair, we would be running down the road to get speed and then hopping in. As far as ideas went, this was stupid.

But it would go down in history.

All of us wore helmets and kneepads and had signed a waiver. Henry still looked green at the thought of it.

“Hey,” Hugh said. “If I bust my knee, you can fix it, right?”

Henry sighed. “I don’t know why you even signed up for this. You can’t run.”

“I can! Or I used to.”

“Is this seriously the best way to delay things?” Henry asked.

“Look over there,” I said with a smile. “Kevin’s stupid-ass car is stuck.”

“We’ll be fine, Henry,” Wren said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “This is also something to cross off Jade’s bucket list.”

“Yeah!” I said. “Just this once too.”

“I know,” he said. “I’ll be near the first aid kit.” He sighed and moved to the sidewalk.

Kelsey walked out into the road holding a flag.

“You got this!” Grace said. “I’m rooting for you.”

“Thank you,” I said. “A kiss for luck?”

“You have Gabriel for that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Gabriel isn’t here.”

“Think again.”

She pointed to the crowd of townspeople. Right in the front was the very man we were talking about, and my heart skipped a beat. He was in an old band T-shirt and his hair was up. Like this, he looked so much like the teen that had grown up here.

Next to him were Agnes and Beatrice. Both girls cheered when they saw me.