How does he do it?
Headmaster Williams smiles at me, and all I can see are his Chiclet teeth. “Even if you’re not a player, I’m sure you’ll become a Wolves fan by the time you graduate.”
His laugh is plastic and grating. I can barely form a smile.
McNeal runs her arm across my shoulders, squeezing me against her. Her fingers are strong, digging into my skin, reminding me to stop acting like such a moron. I have a role to play.
I clear my throat and bob my head.
Headmaster Williams lifts his arm and motions back the way we came. My legs are stiff as I walk out into the late afternoon sun. My heart starts pounding, beating inside my head as we walk through the immaculate grounds, past old brick buildings with a Harvard feel. I’ve never been to Harvard, but I’ve seen pictures of the orange brick buildings. I’ve read books, watched movies. I know what these places are like.
Strict, cold, meticulous…like an old English boarding school with ties and jackets, routines and regulations. No more bikinis and playing hooky for me. I’m stuck here in this isolated hellhole with no escape.
I jerk to a stop, my legs unwilling to take another step.
I’ve made a mistake. This is the wrong choice.
Mother Dearest looks back and gives me a sharp frown. I shy away from it, glancing over my shoulder, tempted to run…but where? Across those fields in the distance? Into the woods bordering the school?
“Think about Robbie,” Rybeck whispers in my ear. “You’re doing this for him.”
My eyes burn as I look up at my towering “father” and fight the rush of tears.
Boys don’t cry.
I sniff and pull my shoulders back, then keep walking.
Robbie’s sweet smile floats through my brain, both a comfort and a torment. His soft fingers tracing my cheekbone, his awe-struck smile as I giggled and pressed my lips to his.
It kills me to know I’ll never see his face again. No one will.
Slamming my teeth together, I fight the panic and rage warring within me. I can’t believe I’m in this situation. I can’t believe how much my life has transformed in such a short space of time.
It’ll never be the same.
If only I’d kept walking instead of running back to give Robbie that kiss.
Would he still be alive? Would I still be safely in Miami, pretending that my family was perfect?
I should never have agreed to go out with him.
But I did…and now I have to stay this course and keep pushing forward.
Because Robbie, the sweetest guy I’ve ever met, deserves justice.
#2:
New Target
Trey
Sweat is pouring off me by the end of practice. It feels good.
I wipe the drips off my forehead and skate off the ice, thumping into Kade with a grin.
“Nice apple on that last play, man.”
Riley scoffs beside me, shaking his head and glaring at both of us when we laugh at him. He’s the shortest of the three of us, and the most serious too. His hair is sandy blond and swoops over his forehead. He swipes it out of his eyes, which are usually blue, but they drift to gray when he’s pissed.
I flick the disgruntled goalie with my glove. “At least in the real games we’re on the same side, right?”
Kade chortles and we pound fists. Since he arrived sophomore year, the two of us have been a danger on the ice. Opposing teams hate us, and any goalie facing off with us has a right to worry. Riley’s fearless in the goal, hardly lets a thing past him. But we got him in practice today and it was sweet.
Thumping into the locker room, I plunk onto the bench and start unlacing my skates, grinning at the banter going on around me.
When I first arrived at Eton Prep, I did everything in my power to get kicked out of this place. An all-boys boarding school? It was like a nightmare come true. But I found my way eventually.
Fate worked its magic to get me rooming with Riley. I didn’t know it at the time but I was meant to be the guy’s best friend. He was being bullied by Ivan the Asshole and I went in to fight for him, taught him how to swing a punch or two. It made us close. And then Kade Kingsley came along, the towering guy the girls like to swoon over. Now his eyes are blue, like clear skies on a summer’s day blue, and he has this fine brown hair that he’s constantly rearranging. When he first walked into our room, I immediately thought, douche bucket, but he won me over pretty quick. He’s got a great sense of humor, and it takes the edge off Riley’s serious intellect.
Between the two of them, they’ve made me believe in family again… so I call them my brothers.
Initially all I wanted to do was fight, get kicked out of Eton and be free of the place. Being able to pound the guys bullying Riley was a good release. Headmaster Williams made me stay in spite of the brawling, gave me one last chance not to screw up, reminding me that if I wasn’t here then I’d be back home with my distant father and highly irritating stepmother.