14. Diego #2
So yeah, that plan was going nowhere. Maybe the new plan should be to win the damn race.
That would knock Jayden down a peg or two.
Though I had no concrete reason for it, the guy was bugging me.
Every chance he got, he touched or played with Tori’s hair.
It made me long to squeeze a handful of Mia’s waves, though they were currently confined in a ballerina-esque bun.
Another team flew past, nearly barreling into Mia, and I grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back. She stared at the departing figures. “Maybe we should run, too.”
No one objected, and we progressed quickly through a half-dozen more checkpoints near the social sciences and history buildings.
At one point, Mia and I posed on a bench next to a bronze statue of the university founder, smoking a pipe and reading a book.
And then next to a scale replica of Pompeii.
We were sprinting across the quad, Mia just a step ahead of me, when a soccer ball rolled across the sidewalk and into my path. Without thinking, I slowed and trapped it.
I bounced it lightly from foot to foot, then once off my knee before giving it a good kick back.
“Nice,” one of the guys said as the ball rolled right to him.
Another called out, “Hey ref! We’re down a man—you in?”
Mia had slowed down to watch, so I waved them off and caught up with her.
“So… I guess that really is a uniform, not a costume.” The way her eyes swept up and down my body affected me more than it should have. “You look like you know what you’re doing.”
With a soccer ball, yes. With her? Not so much.
It wasn’t high praise, but I’d take it from the woman who’d done her best to pretend I didn’t exist since the day she moved in. “Right now, what I’m doing—we’re doing—is wiping the floor with our competition.”
She grinned, and we broke into a run to catch up with Tori and Jayden, but they’d slowed, too, and were talking to a couple of guys sitting on a low concrete wall. Jayden jogged backward until Tori gave the guys a final wave and continued onward.
“Who are they?” I asked, since it was clear at least Tori knew them.
Mia hesitated. “Those are Tori’s… other two friends.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Is she only allowed three, or something?”
“It seems like more than enough to me.”
That seemed like a strange take.
But there was no time to focus on it, because for once, Jayden was stumped. He peered over Tori’s shoulder and read the next clue aloud. “’Strike a pose like Jack and Rose,’” he read. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Titanic,” I said instantly. My foster mom loved that movie.
“So are we supposed to head to the bottom of the ocean?” That was from Tori.
Mia flipped through her phone and pulled up the classic image of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio standing at the bow of the ship. “There’s a white railing in front of them. Is there anything like that on campus where we can get the shot?”
“Yes,” Jayden said, already taking off. What the fuck was he majoring in, obscure corners of campus?
After another run, we arrived at a little garden. I’d seen it a time or two before. There were often pictures of it in the spring, when the trees blossomed. A small pond was centered in the space with an arched footbridge over it.
A footbridge with white rails.
“You guys go first, and we’ll take a picture of you from down here.” Mia swapped her phone with Tori who grabbed Jayden’s hand and ran off.
When they were in the center of the bridge, Tori held her hands out to the side with Jayden close behind her, his hands on her waist.
“Got it,” Mia called, and then we were all running, switching places.
When Mia stepped up to the railing, I moved in behind her. When I slid my hands around her waist, all I could feel was that ridiculous tutu. Why the hell did ballerinas need them? They didn’t do anything except get in the way.
Tori called out that she’d gotten the picture, and Mia stepped back, bumping against my chest. I let her go and stepped out of the way, catching the clean scent of her hair as it whipped past my face.
It was a familiar smell… maybe she used the same shampoo as my ex-girlfriend?
But somehow it seemed like something I’d encountered more recently than that.
Mia and Tori submitted the pictures, and we jogged away, not wanting other teams to see us and figure out the cryptic clue.
Though a bit annoying, Jayden knew his stuff. I’d been at Langley for five years, and I hadn’t known most of these places existed. I doubted most of the teams had reached the checkpoints as quickly as we did.
“There’re just three checkpoints left before the finish line,” Mia said, scanning the list. She exchanged a glance with Tori. “Should we split up?”
“Good idea,” I said quickly. “Only one team can win.” I shot a look at Jayden when I said it. Who knew that scavenger hunts turned me into a competitive jerk?
Mia and Tori hugged as if one of them was leaving for a semester abroad, and then we were finally on our own.
Which meant we could talk to each other. And which also meant we were lost as hell.
She spun around in a circle. “Where’s the art building?”
Ah. That I could find. “Not far.” When she broke into a run, I did too. Maybe we were both feeling competitive.
We reached the building, and Mia looked around. “We’re supposed to find a bird’s nest.” She checked the paper again. “A bird’s nest full of social commentary?”
But I actually knew what she meant. “It’s an art installation. They put it up during my junior year.” I thought it was on the east side of the building, a fact which was confirmed when we saw another team run past us from that direction.
I scanned the trees and spotted an old oak. Twelve feet up, there were a series of oversized, metal nests. “There,” I said, pointing.
But Mia frowned. “We have to get a picture of the inside of one of the nests.”
“How? Got a spare drone on you?”
“I can climb it, if you’ll give me a boost up to that first branch.”
“A scavenger hunt’s not worth a broken bone.” God, I sounded like a little old lady. “I can climb it.” Though truthfully, I wasn’t sure I could reach that first branch even if I jumped.
“I’ll do it.” She jogged over to the base of the tree, tucking her phone in the waistband of her white leggings.
I joined her, leaning my shoulder against the massive tree trunk as I laced my fingers together, providing a step.
She put her foot in my hands and grabbed onto my shoulders as she hoisted herself up.
The white wispy tutu was crushed against my face, and I turned my head to the side.
“Can you get me higher?"
I raised my hands, lifting her, and she stretched out, grasping a branch above her. Feeling inspired, I guided her foot to my shoulder. Once she was balanced on both my shoulders, she was high enough to wrap her hands around the branch.
I looked up to check on her progress, which was a mistake. All I could see was the underside of her tutu and the tight leggings hugging the inside of her thighs. After that, I made sure to keep my eyes down. I was here because Mia needed a partner, not someone leering at her curves.
And fuck, did she have some mouthwatering curves.
Mia apparently also had climbing skills She pulled herself up to the branch and swung one leg around it, straddling it. I watched with concern as she scooted out toward the first nest, but she was able to take a picture of it.
"Catch," she said, and her phone fell toward me.
I caught it. The picture was still on the screen.
The oversized nest, instead of having eggs or baby birds in it, contained a collection of cell phones with broken screens.
I wasn't sure what kind of social commentary that was, but I didn't need to be.
Her phone was warm, and I did my best to ignore the fact that it had just been tucked in the waistband of her leggings.
After I uploaded the picture, there was a rustling sound above me.
"I can't move," Mia called down.
Crap. "It's okay. Just don't look down and slide backward toward the trunk of the tree."
"No, I mean the tutu is caught on the bark."
Oh. That one I didn't know how to fix. "If it rips, we'll buy Jenna a new one."
She nodded, sliding backward. I didn't imagine those thin leggings provided her legs much protection from the rough bark. Ouch.
"Damn it, it’s still stuck," she said, and some brown leaves floated down. "What do I do now?"
I studied her as she perched on the branch. From down here, it looked higher than twelve feet.
"Can you do a reverse of what you did to get up there? Swing your leg over and kind of balance on your stomach like gymnasts do."
"I feel like a gymnast on the top parallel bar," she said, her legs dangling down.
"Uneven bars," I said automatically. My middle school girlfriend had been a gymnast.
I positioned myself under Mia in case she fell. “If you could just drop your body down under the branch, I can grab your feet."
"Are you sure?" For the first time, she sounded worried.
"I've got you, Mia."
I’d used my most reassuring voice and it must have worked, because she wiggled her hips back and forth until she slid off the branch. She slid off it, but the tutu snagged on the bark and stayed up on the limb.
"Crap," she said, grabbing for it and losing her balance.
She plummeted toward me, a drop of only a few feet, but it was like time slowed down. I reached up, pulling her toward me before she could hit the ground. She grabbed at my head, and I pulled her against me in a bear hug until I was sure we weren’t going to overbalance.
Her hands were on my shoulders as she stared into my eyes. Hers were wide and surprised. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and squinted up at the tutu still caught on the branch. "I guess I’m not a ballerina anymore," she said, sounding dazed. "I’m not sure what I am.”
Beautiful.
That’s what my mind supplied, but I held the word back.
I had no right to think of her like that, but some malfunctioning part of me felt like I’d known her for longer than I had.
Like we had a connection—which was absurd, because I’d spent less time with her than any of the other new students in the house.
But it still felt true.
And she really was beautiful.