Without waiting another beat, I turn and head back to Andrew’s car with Zack on my heels. Just before I climb in, I look at him, standing so close I can feel the heat of his body. He smells like citrus and musk, and my heart skips a few beats. I look up into his dark gaze.
“Thank you, but … this doesn’t change anything.” He digs his hands into his pockets and shrugs his shoulders.
“I know. It’s fine.” He nods; I nod.
And then I climb in the Lamborghini and drive away.
When I get back to the academy, I change my clothes, wash the makeup from my face and the hairspray from my hair, and then I report the Bluebloods for drinking.
Oh, and their breathalyzers … don’t exactly zero out.My mind is focused on one thing above all else: college. That’s why I’m here, suffering through this nightmare of a school. Burberry Prep will give me the best possible future, the greatest chance at a good life. So I’ve upped my game, and by the end of the second week, I’ve added a second language (Spanish) to my class roster, and tacked on a few extracurricular activities. I’m now part of the academy’s book club, history club, and the model UN. The one place I am lacking in, however, is in sports.
Today, I’m going to make up for that.
Cheerleading tryouts are taking place in a special gymnasium once used to house the academy’s gymnastics team. Since moving toward more academically focused endeavors, the school retired their gymnastics program and left the building more or less abandoned for close to a decade. This year, with the addition of Zack to the varsity football team, Burberry Prep is looking to dip its toes in the proverbial waters of sports.
This includes revamping the cheerleading team.
It’s no longer going to be used as a sideline sport for football or basketball, but instead as a competition team, something to earn merits in its own right. For the first few football games of the season, the team remained unchanged from last year, but with Principal Collins putting pressure on the coach, she’s having to open up the ranks.
Now, Burberry Prep is a snobby, academic-based school. Cheerleading is almost seen as a bit … basic. But while Harper and Becky have no interest in signing up, the rest of the Blueblood girls are not beyond the allure. So when I walk in with my gym bag over my shoulder, all eyes are on me.
Including Zack’s.
He’s standing in the center of a cluster of girls, smiling sweet as pie. The expression on his face puts a frown on mine, even as he separates himself from the team and they let out a collective groan. Ileana, in particular, is glaring daggers at me. Kiara, too. Maybe they’re pissed that I single-handedly sent all three Idol boys, both remaining Idol girls, and half the Inner Circle to in-school suspension. It starts on Fridays right after class ends, and consists of school-related chores like stocking books in the library, dusting shelves, sweeping leaves, and scrubbing windows. From Friday evening until late Sunday, the in-school suspension students are locked down by staff members with brief nine hour breaks to sleep—and even then, they’re checked on twice a night.
Basically, it’s hell on earth.
“What are you doing in here?” I whisper as Zack comes up to stand beside me, towering over me like he always does. I know it’s not on purpose, but it’s intimidating. I refuse to let it get to me, and lift my chin in defiance, trying to make myself feel a little taller.
“Well, I really didn’t expect you to be in here, so you can’t claim I’m stalking you.” He tucks his hands in his pockets and just stares at me. I can feel his gaze like a heated laser, searching across my face, seeking … something. It bugs me, but I also refuse to back down. “I’m a guest judge for tryouts.” He shrugs his shoulders again, as if that makes it all better.
“You are a guest judge?” I ask, and I get a rare smirk from him, this sensual twisting of lips that makes me realize so very quickly why all those girls are swooning over there. Zack leans in close, putting his forearm on the wall above my head. He’s all around me in that moment, hard muscles and musky smelling cologne. My lashes flutter, and I exhale past the hormones. Last year, they got me into trouble. This year, I won’t let that happen again. “What makes you qualified to judge cheerleading?”
“Um, my sister Kelsey was the head of the Burberry Prep cheerleading team.” Zack leans in a little closer, his letterman jacket falling open in the front, encompassing me. It’d be so easy for him to scoop me up and bundle me inside of it. That is, if I didn’t hate his guts. “Also, my mom went through a spell where she was tired of being more than a boring ass trophy wife; she coached for like three seasons.”
