Just Like the Movies by Kelly Fiore

Of course, that meant he was late to third period and got a one-way ticket to Marsden’s Detention Den this afternoon.
    I decide to swing by the third floor and see if my grand plan is working before I head down to the track. Even though we don’t have official practice again until next week, my muscles are pretty unforgiving when it comes to impromptu vacations. I have to keep them stretched and ready tosupport my leaps and bounds, whether I’m technically supposed to or not.
    But I let myself stop on the way outside and watch through the little glass window in Mr. Marsden’s classroom door. I can barely see Lily, hunched over a desk, with a math textbook next to her. Joe is poring over a book of his own, then looks at her and says something. She reaches over and points at something in his book, then points at his paper. He nods and starts writing.
    Seriously?
    This is how she flirts—by
tutoring
? I get them stuck in a room together and the only thing she can think of doing is
homework
?
    I groan aloud, then shake my head. Clearly I’m going to need to spend more time explaining to Lily that math is the furthest thing from sexy and no one ever caught her dream guy by working through equations.
    Minutes later, I’m tightening my shoelaces and then peering out at the hurdles, trying to erase the distractions from my brain. All day long, I’ve been thinking about what movies to use, what scenes would work best, and how I can get Tommy to say that he loves me.
    Now I shake my head. If I’m going to run my event with any kind of confidence, I’ve got to find a way to compartmentalize. I need to separate my running from my relationship. Closing my eyes, I imagine the shotgun start and Ibolt forward. I attempt to pull the magic act that always works best for me—dividing myself into two people. One Marijke who runs with the wind at her back and one Marijke who pauses to consider her options.
    Today, it’s just not working. I leap over my hurdles with a sort of resignation.
    For the first time in—well, ever—running feels less like freedom and more like a job. Every hurdle is like an item on a checklist and not a single one feels like a priority. I’ve got to get things moving with Tommy so I can go back to being the kind of girl who moves forward, not backward. And Lily is the key, with her organized ideas to get the movie plan rolling full force. She’s like some kind of smart, curly-haired secret weapon.
    But I don’t see Lily again until lunch on Tuesday. When she comes up to me, though, her eyes are bright and full of something like ideas.
    â€œSay anything,” she says.
    I squint up at her, now leaning over me with both hands on her hips.
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œSay anything,” she repeats.
    â€œUm . . . anything?” I try, attempting to follow her clearly insane logic.
    She rolls her eyes and plops down on the ground next to me. I decided to bypass my usual lunch table today in favorof the spring air. That, and I know that Posey’s boyfriend, Jeremy, asked her to prom at last night’s tennis match—I heard something about him spelling out “PROM?” in plastic cups pushed through the chain-link fencing around the courts. It’s a cute idea, really—I just can’t really handle hearing someone else’s adorable prom proposal story today.
    Lily drops a DVD in my lap.
    â€œ
Say Anything
,” she repeats. “The movie. That’s how you’re going to get Tommy’s attention.”
    I look down at the case. A young John Cusack stares up at me.
    â€œOf all the movies on the list, you had to choose the only one I haven’t seen yet?”
    â€œTrust me,” she says, tapping the plastic box, “this movie is a classic. And it’s got the most iconic display of true love that’s ever been in a movie.”
    â€œIconic?”
    â€œYeah, iconic—well-known, major, important . .