Voted Me Out Champion QB Chose Herself

Ivy Carter won her final high school football game, and her twin brother Ethan, her boyfriend Logan and her best friend Madison all planned to commit to North End University with her. Ethan reminded her of the promise.

On the day commitments were due, all three went dark. Dozens of calls and over a hundred texts went unanswered. Then Ivy saw Lily's post: Ethan, Logan and Madison had taken her to see the bioluminescent ocean.

Ivy unlocked Ethan's tablet—the password was still her birthday—and found a team group chat she was not in. A poll asked whether to follow Lily to North H University or Ivy to North End. Everyone voted A. One comment called Ivy fat and built like a cow. Her own brother agreed she had no friends besides them and would not go anywhere else, and that worst case they could visit her at North every weekend. Ivy committed to Southern State ten minutes before the deadline.

Twenty minutes later, Ethan, Logan and Madison came home with strawberry cake, a gift box and iced milk tea, claiming gift shopping and silenced phones. Ivy put Lily's post and the group chat in front of them. Logan called Lily fragile and scared to go to North H alone. Ethan called Ivy sturdy and Lily the one who needed looking after. Ivy asked which school they had committed to. Nobody answered. Logan offered weekly visits. Then Ethan noticed her necklace, the one her mother had put around her neck before she died, engraved with four words. He wanted to lend it to Lily for a few days. Ivy refused. He snatched it.

At the team party, Madison and Lily wore matching white dresses—the store had no size for Ivy. Logan's spare seat disappeared when Lily said she was cold and he handed over his jacket. No onions, because Lily doesn't eat onions—the same vegetable Ethan used to dump onto Ivy's plate and blame for her weight. Then Lily mentioned seeing Ivy take pills before the state championship. The room went still. Ivy asked what the bottle looked like, which field, what time. Lily's phone hit the floor and cracked. Ethan demanded an apology. Lily reached for Ivy's arm and fell, and a broken bottle cut her leg.

Ethan pulled Ivy's phone from her bag and slammed it onto the floor. "Since you don't know how important other people's things are, maybe now you'll understand." Logan carried Lily out. Madison's parting words: Ivy had gone too far and should apologize at the hospital.

Ivy walked home in the rain and passed out. She woke in a hospital with a fever near 104 degrees. Ethan, Logan and Madison blamed her for getting sick instead of apologizing. Lily arrived with flowers. Ivy has had a pollen allergy since childhood, one that once put her in the hospital, and Ethan used to throw out every flower in the house. The nurse removed the bouquet and ordered them out. Ethan's last words were to reflect on what she had done and then apologize to Lily.