“I’ll race you there!” Jade said, and she was already halfway down the driveway before Sloane had a chance to react.

  Taking off at a sprint, Sloane quickly overtook her by the end of the block, but Jade caught up when he tripped on an uneven piece of sidewalk and nearly wiped out. Laughing at him, she threw a rude hand gesture over her shoulder as she knocked a trash can over in his path and picked up her pace.

  “That’s cheating!” he panted, jumping over the can and trying not to think about how angry their neighbor was going to be about the mess. Mrs. Sullivan was always looking for reasons to complain about their family anyway, and this one was at least legitimate.

  As he dodged more obstacles and began gaining ground, Sloane decided to take a short cut that he didn’t think Jade would be able to manage, launching himself at a fence and hopping over so that he could cut through a backyard rather than going around the corner. The decision cost him energy and effort, but he’d been training for an Iron Man race and this was nothing compared to that. Hopping over the shrubs on the far side of the yard, he laughed at Jade who was now eating his dust as he poured on the speed to reach the convenience store first.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  He knew Jade had arrived by the vicious punch she landed in his arm. “You are the real cheater,” she gasped between labored breaths. “You’re such a hypocrite!” The way she said the word sounded foreign as if she wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce it. Jade loved to read so she was always picking up on advanced vocabulary, but most of the words she learned from reading were ones she’d never heard out loud. She would butcher the pronunciations and get fiercely defensive when corrected, so Sloane decided to let this one go. He’d won, after all. No need to gloat. At least not in that way.

  “You’re buying, loser,” he said, pulling the door open and not waiting to see if she slipped through behind him before it swung shut.

  Things had always been like this between them and Sloane wasn’t sure why. Jade had always been talented academically in ways Sloane could never hope to be, but she never felt like being good at the things Sloane couldn’t do was enough. She also wanted to be the best at the things he excelled at doing, competing with him on every subject, not because she even enjoyed those things in the way he did, but because she had to be the best. Sloane hated it.