Fraternizing with the Enemy (Most Likely To #5)

Chapter 1

Popularity.

Elusive to most.

Totally desired by all.

I mean, hello. Who didn’t want to be at the top of their school’s popularity pyramid? Gazing at everyone down below while they craned their necks looking up. Everyone knew the truth: everyone wanted their name to be remembered after high school.

And Madison Oliphant? Oh, that was a name people would bring up at reunions and nostalgic trips down memory lane. Co-captain of the cheer squad. One of the prettiest girls in school. Member of the Top Tier, Brentwood High’s most elite circle of populars.

People would remember me. I’d do everything in my power to make sure of it.

“Can we just get this over with?” Riley Miller, a redhead slouching at one of the desks in the middle of the classroom, sighed. “I wanted to get one of the free cookies they’re passing out in the cafeteria.”

I tried not to scrunch my nose at her attitude. Really, I wanted to scrunch my nose at everything Riley did—out of everyone in our group, the snobby cheerleader really had to be my least favorite. Second to her stepbrother, Kyle Filmore.

There were only eight of us. Eight who had the authority over the school. Eight who’d spent the entirety of high school clawing our way to the top and successfully made it.

The Top Tier.

Currently, though, there were only seven of us in the room. “Impatient, are we?” Ashton Shaw, a defensive lineman on the Brentwood High football team, asked. He slid onto the surface of the desk she sat at. “You don’t want to be here with us, huh?”

I wondered what her boyfriend would’ve thought of the doe eyes she gave Ashton. “Maybe with a few of you.”

This time, I didn’t fight my disgust. “Get a room.”

Neither acknowledged me where I sat on top of the row of cabinets that lined the classroom wall.

I kicked my heels to the beat of Brentwood High’s fight song, which played over the speaker system.

It was soft enough to be background music, because no one really was meant to be listening to it, anyway.

Everyone outside of this classroom was probably far more concerned with navigating through the school’s open house, figuring out the lay of the hallways and trying to commit their class route by heart before the first day of school.

Except for the Top Tier.

Reed Manning, a wide receiver who sat in a different row, turned and exchanged a glance with Connor Bray, who took up a desk behind him. He didn’t bother lowering his voice. “How long is this going to take?”

Connor, Brentwood Bobcats star, tipped his head toward his girlfriend. His tone was tired. “Jade?”

While we were all a part of the Top Tier, there was really only one tippy-top spot—and that golden, glittering throne belonged wholeheartedly to Jade Nicole Dyer.

No one dared to try and fight her for it, not even Ashton, who loved stepping on toes.

Everything about Jade exuded royalty status, from the way her bright blonde hair was always curled to the way her posture was always perfect.

Her attitude, too, was nothing short of authoritative.

Really, the Top Tier could have no other Queen Bee.

Jade stepped into the center of the room, propping her hands on her pleated skirt-clad hips. Her Brentwood blue and gold cheer uniform looked perfect on her—like she wasn’t made to wear anything else. “I guess we won’t wait for Landon, then.”

“He texted that he was coming,” I piped up. “He’s probably almost—”

At that exact second, a tall, broad boy pushed through the classroom door, shaking his red hair from his eyes.

He looked a little embarrassed, but then again, Landon Settler’s default look was bashful.

His perpetually pink cheeks didn’t help him.

“I’m here,” Landon mumbled, sauntering straight up to Connor. “You said it was Mr. Norman’s room.”

“He changed rooms this year,” Connor replied, but with a grin. The first he’d sported since we’d stepped onto school grounds.

They did one of those bro handshakes before Landon sank into the desk chair beside Connor’s, throwing a knuckle touch Reed’s way. Landon didn’t look at me once.

Sigh. I’d been surprised he’d replied to my text, honestly, but “coming” seemed to be all I’d get out of him. Were things going to be awkward between us all school year?

“We’re all here, right?” Jade glanced at Kyle, who’d been silent this entire time. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

And just like that, the first Top Tier meeting of our senior year was now in session.

Oh, I could’ve just died. Seriously. I tapped my heels more excitedly.

“School starts a week from tomorrow,” Jade said, lifting her chin as she glanced from person to person. “Which means we officially begin our reign. Everyone needs to wear spirit gear on the first day, so everyone can spot the new Top Tier members. No exceptions. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” I replied, whereas nearly everyone else just nodded.

“Perfect. Now, speaking of the first day of school. What’s the one thing everyone looks forward to at the start of the school year?”

Ashton chuckled. “Seeing Mrs. Diego in those sundresses she wears when it’s too hot?”

Equally ignorant Kyle gave him a high-five.

Riley raised her hand next. “The Most Likely To list!”

“Duh.” Jade gave her a proud smile. “And this year, it’s up to us to make it.”

The Most Likely To list had first surfaced our freshman year, where the popular crowd would elect students most likely to be… something. Like, Most Likely To: End Up Alone or Most Likely To: Never Have A Boyfriend. Interesting. Juicy. Hilarious.

And this year, we were the ones responsible for picking.

I could just imagine it now. Well, sort of. I had no idea who I’d vote for what, but I was going to invent the best label. I’d make sure of it.

“I already have mine,” Ashton declared.

“Save it until we vote.” Jade had absolutely zero patience for him, either. “Just start brainstorming. We’ll check in next Friday.”

“We need fifty of them, right?” I asked.

“Right. So everyone, be sure to come up with a few. Take a look at the list from last year for inspo.” She walked up the aisle of desks, holding her phone in her hand.

“The Top Tier from last year passed down some rules. And you know how sacred the Tier is—like being a Brentwood Babe, or, I don’t know, a national treasure. People will be looking to us.”

I immediately perked up, smoothing down my cheer top like it was a pageant sash.

Sacred. It totally was. And students wouldn’t just know about us by passing us in the halls—no, we’d be front and center on Brentwood Babble now, the school’s gossip site.

Over the years, I’d been one of the many people who tuned into Babble like it was the Bible, eager for the next thread.

And this year, when people scrolled through Babble’s articles, they’d be reading about us.

I watched my bestie intently, considering pulling out my phone to write down the rules myself.

“Rule one: no failing classes. Shocking, I know.”

Ashton groaned like someone had slapped him. “Guess I’m out already.”

Riley giggled. “School hasn’t even started yet, dummy.”

“I’m sure someone’s starting off the school year with their grade in the negative.”

“Better not be you,” Jade said to him without looking up. “We sit together at lunch. No petty drama, no bullying. We’re not twelve.”

“Why can’t we pick fights?” Kyle asked, all fake innocence.

I leaned back on the cabinet. “Do you remember Chris Buckley ever throwing a punch? Or Tristan Webber? Of course not. People are supposed to like us. Respect us.”

Kyle didn’t look offended in the slightest. In fact, he grinned at me. “Whatever you say, Maddie.”

Ugh.

Jade ignored us. “No getting benched for a game. No Fs, no freak-outs, no dating someone from a rival school.”

“Gross,” Riley added, like the idea personally offended her.

“Why would we,” Kyle said, eyes locking on me, “when the best options are already here?”

Ugh times two.

I couldn’t help but look at Connor, Reed, and Landon, who were totally zoning out. And Ashton and Kyle were just cracking jokes. I didn’t get it. This was our inauguration. Why was no one else over-the-moon excited?

“The football quarterback should be in a relationship,” Jade continued to read, this time giving a pointed look to one person in particular. “That’s you, Landon.”

He blinked at her. “I heard should be, not has to be.”

“Interpret that however you want.” And then she glanced over at me.

I slunked my shoulders to my ears, understanding the look.

You too, Mads. She’d call Landon out in front of everyone, but give me the silent pass.

It was a conversation we’d been having all summer, the pressure as ingrained in my head like a tough cheer routine.

Get a boyfriend. I needed to nail this one. Before school started.

The fight song over the speakers looped again, and I continued my kicking, this time with a bit more of an anxious bouncing to my leg.

When Jade passed by me, her palm slapped down hard on my bare knee. “God, would you stop already?”

All at once, I stilled. “Sorry.”

She exhaled and patted my knee—her way of apologizing for snapping.

She finished her circuit of the room and came to a stop where she’d begun, meeting each of our gazes individually.

“Let’s just follow the rules, okay?” Jade locked her phone and smacked it into her palm like a gavel. “I’d hate to kick any of you out.”

I didn’t think Jade was actually cutthroat enough to follow through on the threat, but her expression was stern. Believable.

Jade’s phone dinged with a text, which she quickly checked. When she looked up, her gaze settled on me first. “We’ll talk about the Most Likely Tos next Friday, so be sure you’ve got your labels ready by then.”

Connor folded his arms over the desk. “Do we really have to do it like this?”

Jade arched a brow. “Like what?”

“The rules. The ranking. The List. All of it.”