Only after what seemed like endless hours did the bell ring to end the class. Annie sat rigidly at her seat until the other kids had gone out, and then she dashed out into the corridor, put her books down on the floor, and ripped open the little note.

It read: "We are sorry to inform you that you have not been selected for the Sweet Valley High cheering squad this year. Thanks for trying, and good luck next time!"

Nine.

Annie stood against the wall in the corridor, in a state of shock. The note slipped from her fingers and fluttered to the floor.

"They didn't pick me?" she was finally able to ask herself in a stupor. Who else had been better? Who could possibly have been chosen over her?

Annie glanced down at the message on the floor. She leaned down to pick it up and turned it over to look at the words again.

The note hadn't changed.

Annie crumpled the paper into a tight little ball in her fist. She swayed and thought she might faint. She felt nauseated. Seconds passed. Minutes. Hours. Years.

They don't want me? she wondered to herself. But I was good! I was the best one there!

In her mind's eye, Annie saw herself sailing through her cheers, felt the audience's eyes on her, heard the applause. They were clapping for her. Because she was good. The applause rang in her ears. She heard something else, too-a voice, far away, in the back of her daydream.

Annie felt paralyzed, unable to move. She stood there, held by the applause, the object of the audience's attention. The voice spoke again, this time from closer.

"Are you all right?"

Annie spun around. She saw Ricky Capaldo standing beside her, looking into her face with concern.

"All right?" she parroted. She felt as if she'd never be all right again.

"I'm really sorry, Annie."

Annie saw the pity in Ricky's face, and she couldn't bear it another second. With a cry, she turned on her heel and rushed down the corridor, not bothering to pick up her books from the floor.

"Annie!" Ricky called after her.

She rushed to the staircase, down the stairs, and into the front hall. She dashed down the wide steps and across the green expanse of lawn.

"Wait!" she heard a voice calling.

But Annie did not stop running. All the way across the wide campus she raced, hardly able to see. She ran across the football field. On and on she ran, up an aisle among the vast expanse of empty bleachers.

"Annie!" The voice still followed her.

Annie ran upward until she reached the wall at the very top of the back of the stadium, and there she could go no further. She slumped against the wall and slid to the floor of the top level, exhausted.

That's where Ricky Capaldo found her.

"Hey, who do you think you are, a marathon runner?" he said brightly.

Annie huddled against the wall, silent, breathing in quick little gasps.

Ricky knelt down beside her. "Hey, Annie," he said softly. "Come on."

"Leave me alone."

"Aw, Annie, how can I leave you alone? Way up here in the stadium all by yourself? Let's go to the Dairi Burger for lunch, huh? Come on. I'll buy you a shake. What kind do you like?"

No answer.

"Chocolate? Strawberry?"

"I worked so hard for it. How could I not get it?" Annie asked softly. "I can't believe it."

Ricky sat on the concrete beside her, trying desperately and unsuccessfully to think of some way to cheer her up.

"It isn't possible not to get something you want as much as I want this," Annie said, her voice faltering, tears streaming down her cheeks. "It ... isn't ... poss-possible!"

Annie put her face in her hands and cried with abandon, her body wracked with sobs. Ricky had never felt so useless. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

Annie's head was on his chest. She leaned against him and sobbed as though her heart would surely break.

"I know," was all Ricky could say. "I know, Annie."

"Why?" Annie finally said, sniffing and looking up at him. "Why?"

"Well, there were only vacancies for two girls," Ricky said.

"Yes, but I was the best one who tried out! Wasn't I?"

"I thought you were," Ricky admitted. "But I don't get to vote. I spoke for you, honestly I did."

Annie sat up and wiped her eyes and tried to think. "It was just such a surprise," she said. "I mean, at first, I didn't think I had a chance. But then, after the first tryout and after I found out I could get my grades up, I started to think I could do it. I really started feeling differently about a lot of things."

"You were really terrific at all the tryouts," Ricky agreed.

"So who was chosen?" Annie finally dared to ask. She drew away from Ricky, her head bent in defeat.

"Cara," said Ricky. "And Sandra," he added, his voice barely a whisper.

"Well, Cara was good," Annie admitted, fair to the other girl even in her misery. "And she's already been part of the team. But Sandy-Sandy fell!"

Annie's voice rose at the injustice, and she pounded the wall at the top of the bleachers with her fist. Ricky sat beside her, worrying about her.

"Ricky," she said, lifting her face toward him, "who voted against me?"

"Well, let's see," Ricky said, stalling. "Robin Wilson thought you were great! And so did Maria Santelli."

"Yes," Annie said thoughtfully. "I sort of thought they were for me. Robin even applauded!" Annie's face lit up with happiness at the memory. But then hurt and misery slid back across her lovely features.

"So that means Jeanie, Helen, and Jessica voted against me." Annie shook her head in bewilderment. She could understand Jeanie West's vote, because after all she was Sandra's best friend. And perhaps Tim Bradley had said something to his sister Helen after Annie's less than terrific date with him. But what about Jessica Wakefield?

"I really thought Jessica wanted me on the squad," Annie said. "She knew I could do all the routines." She frowned and looked closely at Ricky. "Did Jessica really vote against me?"

"She voted for Sandra, that's all." Ricky looked away, turning the color of a Mexican red pepper.

Annie rose to her feet. Slowly she began dragging herself down the long stairs from the top of the stadium toward the playing field.

"I could accept it, I guess, if I just could understand," she said, pausing after two steps. She turned to face Ricky again. "Did anybody say anything?"

Ricky looked at his feet. "Aw, what's the difference?" he answered evasively.

Annie walked down two more steps and settled down on one of the long wooden bleachers.

"Sure, somebody said something," Annie stated. "I couldn't have been totally out of the running." A tiny note of pride crept its way to the surface. "Why, there must have been a regular discussion! What was the vote against me-three to two?"

Ricky got up and took her hand. "Come on. Let's go to the Dairi Burger."

"No," Annie said, pulling back. "I have to know what happened or I'll go crazy! You said Robin and Maria spoke for me."

"Sure! And so did Helen Bradley."

"What?"

"Sure! She said that when Sandra tripped, you should have been picked." Ricky was sorry as soon as the words were out of his mouth. His confession could only bring Annie more pain.

"But that would be three votes! You mean Helen changed her mind?"

"Annie, you don't want to keep going over this," Ricky protested. "It's not going to do any good. Why don't you forget it?"

"Ricky, if there were three girls for me, who talked them out of it?"

"Well..."

"Who?"

"Jessica."

Annie was back on her feet. She couldn't sit still. "Jessica knifed me? But why?" Her astonishment was as clear as day.

Ricky took Annie's hand as they ran down the steps, all the way to the bottom, and then out across the track and onto the field.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go get a soda and forget about it." Ricky's shyness was gone. All he could think about was easing Annie's grief.

But Annie was inconsolable. "This is where I'd be in football season," she lamented, looking around the field. "Right here! Watch this!"

And off she went, dashing along in front of the empty team bench and the huge, silent stands, swinging into one cartwheel and then another. From the cartwheels she sailed gracefully into a back flip and finished off with a split, a dazzling exhibition of grace and skill.

Ricky ran to her where she was crumpled on the grass. She was laughing as he ran up.

"That was great," he said, sinking down beside her, taking her in his arms.

Then he realized she was not laughing. She was crying.

"Ricky, if you care for me, you have to tell me what happened."

"I can't."

"You have to. If I did something wrong, I can make it right the next time. I have to know. Tell me the truth."

He did owe her the truth, Ricky decided. He'd given her half the story already, and it was probably worse for her to wonder about the rest of it than to actually know what had happened.

"Well," Ricky began hesitantly, "you see..."

"Yes? Come on, Ricky."

"Annie, you have to realize that some people just say anything about other people. Somebody told Jessica things, and I guess she believed them."

Annie's face began to color, flushing a deep red. Her voice became faint. "What do you mean?"

"Darn it, Annie, Jessica brought up the stories that some guys tell about you."

"Oh, no," Annie said, moving away from him.

"Jessica said everybody in the school knew about those stories, and that-well, that if you were a cheerleader, it would ruin the whole squad."

Annie cried out and lurched backward, tears spurting from her eyes. She shook her head frantically from side to side as though trying to shake off the words.

"No, no," she shrieked. "No! Ruin the whole squad?"

She scrambled to her feet, and once more she was running. She was blinded by her tears, but she did not slow down.

"Annie," Ricky called out, but she did not stop.

Ricky ran after her across most of the stadium field, then slowed to a stop.

Annie's figure grew smaller and smaller. And then she was gone.

Ten.