Chapter 1 #2
“It’s not like they’re hard rules,” I said, coming to Jade’s defense. “Unless you’re dying to date a loser from Jefferson with tacky style and bad hair.”
Connor didn’t even pass me a glance. He didn’t usually.
“They do all have bad style, don’t they?” Riley snickered. “It’s like their class uniform is cringe.”
“It’s because they’re dorks.” Ashton shook his head. “Their quarterback is in theater. I swear, Jefferson is just a laughingstock.”
Riley giggled. “Their QB is in the school theater? What is this, High School Musical?”
I pressed my lips together, because she so didn’t deserve to know her remark was funny.
Connor ignored us all. “I just don’t think we should be letting it go to our heads, is all.”
Reed sank lower into his desk seat, muttering under his breath, “Too late.”
“Connor, you’re just saying that because Coach didn’t pick you as quarterback,” Jade replied, not much sympathy in her voice. “Otherwise, you’d be supportive.”
Connor didn’t argue; he had to know she was right. We’d all been shocked when the football coach picked Landon for quarterback instead of Connor, and according to Jade, Connor was just hiding how much it upset him. I understood it. The star player not chosen for quarterback? What a betrayal.
It made me think about how Jade and I had been voted co-captains of the cheer squad. But that hadn’t been a betrayal—it’d been a blessing.
Jade’s phone chimed again. “Okay, boys, get out. I have to talk to my girls.”
I blinked at the sudden command, but it was like the boys were just waiting for their cue. Ashton and Kyle went out first, laughing at some joke Kyle quietly cracked. Reed, Connor, and Landon went out next, and despite my lingering stare, Landon never turned toward me once.
Jade’s eyes followed them out, and then she turned toward me. “I thought you said you and Landon had talked since the party.”
“We do, here and there. But he always leaves me on read.” I looked down at my phone, dejected.
It’d been June when I’d finally let Jade wheedle me into asking Brentwood’s shyest boy out.
School had just let out for the summer, and Jade had convinced me it was the perfect time to start a fling.
We’d all gone to get ice cream together, and I’d cornered Landon while Jade and Connor went off to sit underneath a patio umbrella.
Landon’s cheeks had gone so red that his freckles blended in with his skin, and, in the politest way possible, he’d turned me down.
I thought I’d done a pretty good job of laughing it off, but if his lack of eye contact was any indicator, things were still… ugh.
“You need to date Landon,” Jade told me, once more kicking off the conversation we’d been having all summer. “It’s tradition. Captain of the squad dates the quarterback.”
I looked down at my knees. “You know he’s not into me.”
“Then your options are Ashton or Kyle.”
I actually jolted in horror. “Don’t even say that.”
“Your mom’s dumb dating ban is finally lifted and you’re in the Top Tier,” Jade went on, landing both palms on my shoulders, pinning me firmly to the cabinet. “You need to date someone.”
“Yeah,” Riley chimed in, popping up over Jade’s shoulder. “You don’t want to be the loser who’s single senior year, Madison. Babble’s already getting bored of you.”
“This is our year,” Jade said in a sweeter tone.
She began to smooth her fingers through my blonde hair.
She always said it was because it had a tendency of frizzing—“that bleach is frying your hair,” she’d say—and she was trying to make me pretty again.
“We need to go out with a bang, and you need to be part of Brentwood High’s next It Couple before someone takes your place. ”
The thought was nothing short of horrifying. Jade and Connor were Brentwood’s OTP, of course, but there had to be a runner-up—and it had to be me. There could be no one second to Jade. “I—I know. But Landon… I don’t think I can convince him.”
“Then we’ll find you someone else.” Jade gave me an encouraging smile. “This is our year. Yeah?”
Our year. I felt it too. With Mom’s no-dating rule finally gone, I could have it all—boyfriend, popularity, front page of Babble news. I could finally be the kind of girl other people talked about in the halls. The kind Brentwood Babble obsessed over.
This year would be… perfect.
I’d make it perfect.
“Not Kyle,” I said, staring my best friend in the eye.
“Not Kyle,” she relented, tugging me off the cabinet. “Let’s go get those cookies from the cafeteria.”
Riley trailed behind us, but Jade looped her arm through mine, and it was like the redhead wasn’t even there.
The halls were packed—mostly with wide-eyed freshmen trailing behind their parents. A few upperclassmen clocked us in our cheer uniforms as we passed, their gazes lingering. Whispers seemed to pipe up through the hall. The Top Tier.
I lifted my chin, angling my face the way I practiced in the mirror, resisting the urge to grin. This was what I’d been waiting for. The stares. The silent awe. The promise of my name whispered down hallways.
Jade looked down at her phone, and when I peeked over, I found a text conversation with a number she hadn’t saved to her contacts yet. “Who are you texting?”
With my question, she jerked her phone flat against her torso. “No one.”
“Is it a boy?” That, I highly doubted, given the fact that she was dating Connor and a scandal of those proportions—Jade Dyer cheating on Connor Bray?
Gasp—was the kind that would get her kicked out of the Top Tier.
But I couldn’t figure out why else she’d be so secretive.
I reached for her hand. “Come on, you don’t keep secrets from me. ”
Jade’s reaction was immediate, and one I hadn’t expected.
She shoved at my shoulder. Hard. Riley was standing close as we walked down the hallway, and I could’ve sworn she stuck her foot out to trip me.
I stumbled over her sneaker, feet all but flying out from under me as I fell backward toward the hard linoleum.
I slammed into something, but it wasn’t the floor.
Arms came around me, the firm embrace keeping me from ricocheting onto the ground.
The grip was strong, catching my weight without hesitation.
One hand braced my waist while the other steadied my shoulder, holding me in a dip as if we were dancing.
The scent of sandalwood and citrus filled my senses, a heady, intoxicating cologne that made my head swim.
And when I lifted my chin, I found myself looking into the eyes of the most gorgeous boy I’d ever seen.
His golden blonde hair sort of fell into his face with the way he peered down at me, brilliant, baby blue eyes wide with the surprise of catching a shimmering cheerleader.
I was practically lying in his arms, and even though I knew I needed to stand up—and stop letting a total stranger support my weight—shock held me immobile for what felt like a lifetime.
My heart pulsed in my ears, the beat eerily in time with Brentwood High’s fight song over the speakers.
“Woah,” the boy breathed as he blinked down at me, a small smile beginning to curve his plush-looking lips. “Now that was a rom-com moment if I ever saw one, yeah?”
I wasn’t sure if it was because I had boyfriend on the brain or if it was fate, but suddenly, I was a firm believer in love at first sight. Him, I decided then and there, surety washing over me. Jade said I needed to find myself a guy, and I knew, in that moment. Him.
He’s mine.
“Ohmygod,” Riley squealed as I straightened, causing every head in the hallway to turn. “You’re such a klutz, Madison, seriously!”
If the world’s cutest boy hadn’t been giving me his full attention, I might’ve shot Riley a dirty glare.
But I was too busy trying to keep my mouth from falling open.
“Good catch,” I murmured to the cutie, dialing into my inner flirt immediately.
I tucked my blonde hair behind my ear, peering at him from underneath my lashes.
“Putting those strong arms to use, huh?”
Because holy wow, were they strong. And I regretted not copping more of a feel.
The boy blinked again, seemingly caught off guard by the spell I’d cast. Even though I hadn’t been allowed to date over the years, I’d still practiced flirting.
Or maybe because I hadn’t been allowed to date, I’d still practiced.
Either way, all of those efforts of making googly eyes at myself in the mirror finally had a chance to pay off.
“Could you, uh—” Cutie began suddenly, but cut himself off to clear his throat. Definitely flustered. He tried again, talking slower. “Could you tell me where the office is?”
“Better yet.” Jade put her hands on my shoulders and gave me a—gentler, this time—shove toward him. “Madison can show you.”
I, for one, had zero objections. In fact, I silently thanked my bestie for her rapid-fire thinking.
Without asking, I looped my arm through the boy’s—ah, those were yummy muscles—and sidled up beside him.
My heart pirouetted in response. “You’re in luck, because I’m the best Brentwood High tour guide,” I told him, giving his wrist a pat.
“Come on. I can give you the full Brentwood High circuit.”
Cutie didn’t shy away from my touch. “What an honor,” he said, and his lips pulled into a boyish grin.
In my head, I could already see everything play out like a perfectly executed cheer routine. I’d caught the cute new boy first—which meant I had dibs. We’d be the next campus couple. There would be endless Babble posts about us—and Jade would be so proud.
Everyone waiting to see who Madison Oliphant chose to be beside her on her Top Tier throne wouldn’t have to hold their breath much longer. The excitement nearly had me squealing.
“You don’t have to take me on a whole tour,” Cutie told me after I led him away from the office. “If you’re busy.”
“I can make time for someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”