“I mean, her sponsor’s the Oaken Bucket,” Sidney went on. “How much do you really think they’re contributing to her campaign? Whereas you actuallywork for your sponsor, so they’ve got, like, a vested interest in actually promoting you….”

Oh. Oh my God.

I sagged down onto the side of the bathtub in relief. Okay. Sothat was what Sidney was talking about. Not Eric. Nothing to do with Eric.

“And, seriously, does she really think anyone’s going to vote for a Quahog Princess who doesn’t even eat quahogs?” Sidney wanted to know.

I can’t believe I almost forgot. That there’s another type of quahog. I mean, besides the clam and the football team.

There’s the town’s annual contest for Quahog Princess.

Which I’m running for.

And so is Sidney. And so is Morgan.

Which is why Sidney can’t stand Morgan, even though Morgan is really sweet once you get to know her. Which I did, because Morgan, who has been taking ballet since she was, like, four and is a shoo-in for the Joffrey Ballet Company in the city someday, danced Laurey’s dream sequence in the drama club’s production ofOklahoma! last spring (Eric played Jud. And let me tell you, he was the hottest, most brooding Jud ever. A lot of girls — like me, for instance — thought Laurey should have gone with Jud instead of that stupid Curly, who was played by Brian McFadden, who is kind of a girl), and I had to photograph her for the yearbook and the school paper.

Morgan was super nice about doing her grands jetés over and over, since I couldn’t quite get the shot right with my digital Sony, and her legs kept blurring. (I finally got an excellent shot of her in midair, with her legs perfectly parallel to the stage. It looks like she’s flying, but she’s got this calm expression on her face, almost bored, like “Ho hum, I defy gravity like this every day.”)

Morgan’s doing that same dance for the talent portion of the Quahog Princess pageant.

And can I just say that one of the things Sidney dislikes most about Morgan is the fact that Morgan’s talent is way better than Sidney’s, which is singing a Kelly Clarkson song — not to mention mine, which is the worst beauty pageant talent of all…playing piano?

Although, the fact that Morgan’s got this long, skinny neck and no body fat and never talks to anyone doesn’t exactly endear her to the Sidney types of the world, either. It isn’t that Morgan thinks she’s better than everyone, as Sidney insists. She’s just really shy.

It’s scandalous that Eric was trying to use her to try to make me jealous. I am fully going to have a talk with him next time we make out behind the emergency generator.

“Oh,” I said to Sidney, laughing with relief when I finally realized she was talking about Quahog Princess, and not Eric. “I don’t think she was there to spy on us. I think that’s just where Eric took her. It wasn’t like she could say anything. He had to have made that reservation a week ago.”

“Yeah, and what is up with that, anyway?” Sidney wanted to know. “Who makes a reservation at theGull ’n Gulp?”

Sidney, I knew, wasn’t dissing the Gulp. It’s just that no local would ever deign to make a reservation there, unless it was a special occasion, like Mrs. Hogarth’s birthday party.

Or a guy who wanted to make the girl he was currently macking with behind her boyfriend’s back jealous.

“Maybe he wanted to impress her,” I said, carefully fishing my comb out of the toilet, just as there was a thump on the bathroom door.

“I’m in here,” I called to the thumper, who I knew was my brother, Liam, just getting home from the video arcade at Duckpin Lanes, where he’d spent most, if not all, of his nights this summer. No one else in my house was awake, since it was after midnight.

“Yeah, but since when are Eric Fluteley and Morgan Castle a couple?” Sidney demanded. “It all seems a little too convenient, if you ask me. She’s running for Quahog Princess, and needs an escort for the evening gown event, and she just HAPPENS to start going out with the best-looking guy in school? I mean, besides Seth and Dave? And then just HAPPENS to show up at the Gull ’n Gulp on a night when we’re both there?”

“I’m at the Gulp almost every night, Sid,” I pointed out. “So are you, for that matter. I really don’t think Morgan was there to spy on us.”

“Oh, God, Katie,” Sidney said. “You aresuch an innocent.”

Sidney always calls me an innocent because even though Seth and I have been going out forever, I’m still a virgin, and Sidney lost hers to Rick Stamford two summers ago in his room while his parents were out attending the Eastport Towne Fair.

But I just don’t think it’s a good idea for a girl who can’t seem to stick to kissing one guy at a time to start sleeping with them, too. I mean, at least Sidney was sure she loved Rick (and thought he returned the feeling). I think the fact that I can’t stop kissing Eric Fluteley is a pretty good sign that, as hot as I’ve always thought he is and all, I’m not in love with Seth…

…and the fact that I can’t stop kissing Seth means I’m most likely not in love with Eric, either.

Although, I kind of wonder if Sidney would still think I’m so innocent if she knew why Morgan Castle hadreally been at the Gull ’n Gulp tonight — because Eric Fluteley brought her there to make me jealous.

Not that I’m going to tell her — or anyone else — that.

Liam thumped again. I flung the comb into the sink, turned on the hot water in hopes of killing whatever germs were now growing on it, thanks to its toilet plunge, and yanked open the door.

“I’min here,” I said to my brother, who, just this past summer, grew six inches in three months and now towers over me, even though at five seven, I am three inches taller than Sidney, and, in fact, one of the taller girls in my class. Especially when my hair is doing what it’s supposed to, and fluffing up.

“Iknow that,” Liam said sarcastically. “I need to—”

“Then use the downstairs bathroom,” I said, and started to close the door.

“I wanted to tell you something,” Liam said, putting a hand to the door so I couldn’t close it. “If you’d quit yakking on the phone long enough to listen. Who is that, anyway? Sidney?”

“Hold on, Sid,” I said into the phone. Then I turned off the hot water — I’m not sure how long it takes to sterilize toilet germs off a plastic comb, but I don’t want to waste water, either — and said to Liam, in an impatient voice, “What?”

“Who is that?” Sidney wanted to know. “Liam?”

“Yeah,” I said into the phone. To Liam, I repeated,“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” Liam said with a shrug. “It’s just that I saw someone you know tonight down at Duckpin Lanes.”

“That’s thrilling,” I said to him. “Now go away.”

“Okay, fine,” Liam said, turning to continue down the hall to his room. “I just thought you’d want to know.”

“Who?” Sidney chirped in my ear. “Who did he see? Oh my God, ask him if it was Rick. If it was Rick, and he was with Beth Ridley, I’ll die. Martha said she heard Rick and Beth hooked up at Hannah Lebowitz’s Fourth of July barbecue—”

“Liam,” I said. I didn’t say it loud, because I didn’t want to wake up Mom and Dad, who were downstairs in the master bedroom they added on off the laundry room two years ago, so they could be away from us kids. “Who was it? Was it Rick Stamford?”

“You wish,” Liam said with a snort.

“What do you mean,you wish?” I demanded.

“I mean, youwish it was Rick Stamford, and not who I’m about to tell you it was. Because when I tell you, you’re going to freak.”

“Was it Rick?” Sidney wanted to know. “What did he say? I can’t hear him. Your phone gets the worst reception….”

“It wasn’t Rick,” I said into the phone while Sidney, on the other end, shrieked, “It must have been a celebrity, then! Was it Matt Fox? I’ve heard he’s buying a summer place over in Westport. Was it Matt Fox? Ask him if it was Matt Fox!”

“It was Tommy Sullivan,” Liam said flatly.

At that, I did drop my cell phone. Fortunately, however, not into the toilet. Instead, it landed on the floor.

Where it broke into three pieces.

As it was falling, I could hear Sidney going, “Wait, I didn’t hear him, what did he—”

Then — smash.

Then…silence.

Liam looked at the pieces of my cell phone and laughed.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” he said. “Tommy Sullivan’s back in town.”

Three

Okay, why?

That’s all I want to know.

Why did Tommy Sullivan have to come backnow, just when everything was going perfectly, to mess it all up?

The summer before your senior year is the last summer when you can actually have a good time. No stresses yet about college apps and transcripts. No freaking out about extracurriculars or chemistry.

And this has been the most outstanding summer of my life so far: People have finally started to realize that even though I’m the class brain, I can still be fun to party with. I’ve got a job I love, where I make good enough money to have (almost) fully paid for the camera I really want to buy. I’ve got a fantastic boyfriend, and an even hotter guy to mack with behind the emergency generator when that boyfriend isn’t around….

So why does Tommy Sullivan have to come back to town NOW, and ruin it all?

Liam wouldn’t give me any details last night after he dropped his little bombshell, because he was mad I wouldn’t get off the phone with Sidney to listen to him. Liam’s fourteen and starting his freshman year at Eastport High, and his new height totally attracted the attention of Coach Hayes, who spied Liam towering over everyone at freshman orientation, and asked him if he was trying out for the Quahogs.

Since Liam — like every other guy in Eastport — practically lives for Quahog football, this totally went to his head. He’s been impossible to live with ever since. And tryouts aren’t even until Friday.

But I knew from experience that I’d wear him down eventually, and get him to spill the details of his Tommy Sullivan stunner. Liam can’t keep a secret to save his life.

Which is why, when I saw what time it was when I woke up the next morning, I said my best swear word, rolled out of bed and, without even showering first, threw on my clothes (and, okay, a tiny bit of makeup, because a girl running for Quahog Princess really shouldn’t be seen in public without her mascara on), hopped on my bike, and pedaled over to the Y, where Liam’s been going every day to lift weights in the hope of bulking up for Quahog tryouts on Friday.

Oh, yeah. I’m, like, the only seventeen-year-old in Eastport who doesn’t have a car. I’m not one of those vegan environmentalist types who hang out with Morgan Castle over at the Oaken Bucket or anything. I totally love meat. I just think if you live in a small town — and Eastport’s only got 25,000 full-time residents (though May through August, the population rises to 35,000, on account of the Summer People) — you should ride a bike around, and not drive. It’s better for the environment, and better for you physically as well.

Sidney thinks it’s weird I’m saving my money for a camera and not a car, like everyone else we know (although, to be truthful, everyone else we know got a car for their sixteenth birthday. I asked for — and received — a Power Mac G5, along with a full-color printer so I could print my own photos — although I still take my film in to Eastport Old Towne Photo if I want something really professional-looking), but there’s nowhere I need to go that isn’t within biking distance (except the city, but I can take public transportation there), so why waste fossil fuels when I can just use pedal power?

And, unlike Sidney, I don’t have to spend hours in the gym every week, since I get all my exercise from biking around.

Oh, fine. Okay, true confession time: I get carsick. In fact, I get everything sick — carsick, seasick, air sick, train sick, even raft sick (from floating on a raft in a pool) and swing sick (from swinging on a swing set).

The only time I don’t feel sick? When I’m walking. Or riding a bike.

My mom blames it on all the inner ear infections I had as a kid. My dad — who has never been sick a day in his life, and won’t let any of us forget it — thinks it’s all psychosomatic, and that as soon as I fall for a cute enough guy, I won’t get sick at all when he’s driving me around, and I’ll even want to get a license. For instance, so I can drive with the guy in a Ferrari through the Alps. Because, Dad says, no one can function as an adult without a driver’s license.