Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
MADELINE
Oh my God, Kory mouths to me. I’m surprised too.
I didn’t know we’d be voting today. I thought it was before the game tomorrow.
That’s not the shocking part, though. It’s that the coach announced it will be a private vote.
I haven’t even spoken with my sister yet for her to put in a good word with Dean Locke.
I wasn’t fully sure I would. I was going to see about trying to talk to Coach Murphy after practice today.
Coach doesn’t appear happy about this. If she doesn’t think I’m catching the glances between her and Lana, she’s dead-ass wrong. It has all my spidey senses tingling, and my dad taught me to trust the hell out of those.
I try to have a silent conversation with Kory, but she’s only getting about half of what I’m putting down. I guess it’s only Georgia that can tap into silent conversation with me because she and I could have a full-on one without saying a word.
Thankfully, Coach tells us we’ll vote after practice. That might give Kory more time to make sure people are on the same page. Practice drags by, but it’s always nice to be on the ice. By the time practice is over, I’m pretty sure we’ve got it locked down.
The coach hands out the papers and pens. We all scribble down who we believe the captain should be and put them in a hat for the coach to read off.
“This is silly.” Lana rolls her eyes as the coach opens and counts them out. “I’m always the captain.” Not this year, bitch. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling.
“All right,” Coach says when she’s done. “As always, it’s Lana.”
Kory tries to keep the shocked expression off her face. Either people lied to her or the coach is lying. I can’t be sure.
“See,” Lana says with a smug smile. “Now moving on, let’s discuss who will be my co-captain.” She taps her finger against her lips as if she were in deep thought. The only deep thoughts she has are ones about inflicting torture on people.
“Madeline.” I force a smile. This bitch. I’ll give it to her; she got me.
“I’m really new, so maybe not me.”
“You seem really invested in how the team operates” She levels me with a stare, letting me know she’s got my number. Ring ring, bitch. I’ve got yours too. “Besides—” She gives me her best smile, showing off her perfect teeth. “This will help you catch up to everyone.”
“Thanks,” I say dryly.
“Careful what you wish for.” Lana hits me with a wink.
“That’s it for today,” the coach calls out. “You’ll wear your uniforms to classes tomorrow,” she reminds us before we break.
Lana follows after the coach, and a couple of her groupies go with them.
“The fuck?” I say when I get Kory alone.
“I don’t know.” Kory’s brows are pulled together, and I can see this has stressed her. “Someone had to have told her.”
“I know,” I agree. Why else would she have made the comment to me? She knew what was going down. “You think everyone still voted for her or what?” Kory knows them better than I do.
“I know for sure a few that would never. I have an idea about the other two, but I can’t be sure.”
“Let me see what I can find out,” I tell her.
“How are you going to find out?” She laughs, like that’s impossible.
“I might not, but I’ll try.”
“If you say so, but don’t put your ass too far out there. Last year around here. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, even if it would have been nice to knock Lana on her ass.”
“Thanks,” I tell her. I wish I could let it go, but I can’t stand people who push others around.
I take my sweet-ass time taking my skates off, making sure I’m one of the last lingering around. I even make a show of going down one of the tunnels but stall. The hockey players are gone, and so is most of the ice team. A few people are lingering on the ice.
I make my way to Coach Murphy’s office. I smile when I see that the light under her door is off. I peek around to make sure no one is around. My sister will murder me if I get caught. I shouldn’t do this. Kory’s right; it’s not worth it, but hell, I need to know.
The lock clicks over with a little maneuvering, and I slip inside. I pull out my phone to use the flashlight. I go for the trash can, thinking that’s where she would have dumped the papers we filled out.
“Yes!” I whisper too loudly and quickly press my lips together to shut myself up. I grab all the little papers I see and shove them into my bag. I’ll inspect them when I’m back in my room.
When I slip back out of the office, Luke is standing right there.
What the hell? How does he keep popping up on me?
I swear I can’t turn around and not run into him.
If I didn’t know for a fact that he can’t stand me, I’d start to believe he’s stalking me.
Right, pretty sure all the girls in this school are stalking him with the whole bad boy thing he has going on.
It’s stupid and pathetic, and I might be into it too. Damn it.
“You need something?” I ask.
“Why were you in Coach Murphy’s office?”
“Wrong turn. As you know, I’m new around here.”
“So you’re saying you took a wrong turn into a locked office door?”
“It wasn’t locked,” I lie.
“Will the cameras agree?” He nods to his right. Shit. I didn’t know there were cameras. I should have. This school has everything.
“I’m sure they will.”
“All right, then I’ll check them when my brother gets back home to see for myself.” This asshat has got me. His brows are raised, waiting for my next move.
“Have fun with that.” I go to walk past him, but he steps into my path. “We don’t like each other, so why are you everywhere I am?”
“I am?” His expression turns to amusement, implying I’m a dummy for believing that. I might be.
“Are we done here?”
“We are if you want me to let my brother know about you breaking into the coach’s office.” If I were back home, I would so go down for this. My dad would have been okay with it, but here, things are different. I have to keep my sister in consideration. I’m not trying to make her life harder.
“So you really are a snitch?” I try another tactic that I know isn’t going to work. Not on Luke.
“I am what I need to be to get what I want.” Crap. He has one up on me, and we both know it.
“Fine,” I say, folding my arms over my chest. “What do you want?”
“I need to think about it,” he says smugly, his face making a smirk at the same time. I want to murder him. Not over the smirk but because of how attractive he is when he does it.
“I have places to be,” I tell him. “And I know thinking takes you time, but can we hurry this along?”
“You know I’m the one with power here.”
“Right, if you say so.” I roll my eyes, pushing my luck. I don’t think Luke is bluffing, but I can’t let him take me down too easily. Then he will keep trying, and I’m sure it’s shocking to his system that I’m poking back to begin with.
“Give me your number.”
“That’s what you want?” That’s easy. I’ll block him right after I give it to him.
“No, I want your number so when I come up with what I want, I’ll let you know.” I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s going to try to hold it over my head.
“Seriously?”
“You think I’m joking?” His face falls blank. It’s creepy and impressive how he can do that. It also makes me wonder what happened in his privileged life that he learned to perfect such an expression.
“Fine.” I start to ramble off my number.
If he can get into his brother’s computer to check the school cameras, then he could surely get my number in there.
Before I can finish, he plucks my phone out of my hand.
“Hey!” I roll my eyes when his own phone dings and I know he texted himself to make sure he had the right one. I snatch my phone back when he’s done.
“I’ll be in touch, Buttercup.” He steps around me and starts walking. I spin around to glare a hole into his back.
“Don’t call me that,” I growl after him.
“I’ll call you whatever I like,” he tosses back, not bothering to glance at me.
That is until he gets to the end of the hallway. He pauses and does finally look, our eyes locking. Now it’s me that smirks. I’m calling this round a draw.
I book it back to my room. “Hey,” I say to a few of the girls lingering in the lounge area that is right across from my dorm.
“You’re here!” I say the second I’m through the door. Georgia sits up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“Was I supposed to be somewhere else?”
“No, but I have things to tell you.” I dump out my bag on the bed, grabbing all the pieces of paper I took from Coach Murphy’s office, telling Georgia at the same time about the primary vote.
“If neither you nor Kory had a chance to ask the coach to make the vote private, then who did? Too much of a convenience for her to have just done it.” I pause, searching for the last few scraps of paper that I tossed into my bag. Georgia has made a very good point.
“Damn, I don’t know.”
“So, she lost.”
“What?” I snap back to the papers, having gotten lost in why the coach had done the vote that way.
“She loses if these are all the votes.” She waves her hand over all the pieces of paper, and she’s right.
“The coach freaking lied about that count!” That’s freaking crazy.
“It’s not shocking.”
“Really?” I’m shocked to hell and back. “Why take a risk like that for Lana?”
“But is it really a risk for her? No one is outwardly going to admit they didn’t vote for Lana. Also, this isn’t hard proof, plus you’d have to admit you broke into her office.”
“You’re right.” I drop down to sit on my bed.
“But hey, at least you know where the coach stands.” That’s true.
It shows just how far Lana’s reach goes.
Well, not hers but the power that comes with her family’s name.
My phone starts to ring. It shows the last name Locke, and I know the dean isn’t calling me.
Unless Luke did snitch! It still seems weird for him to call me.
“It’s Luke,” I tell her, clearing the call. I give her a quick rundown of our run-in.
“He was probably following you trying to catch you doing something so he could hold it over your head.”
“That was exactly my thought. That little shit.” My phone rings again, and I clear it. He can wait. I’m not at his beck and call. A text dings a few seconds later.
Luke: You’re the one being blackmailed. How are you not answering when I call?
I show Georgia the text. He’s not backing down.
Me: Sorry, call again.
The phone rings, and I clear it before firing off another text.
Me: Like that.