They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

The word was in big, bold letters, and the caption below was even more mortifying.

New girl gives it up her first week. Looks like the Court has another fangirl.

A puppy whimper had me blinking with cloudy eyes, Hershey when she pushed herself between me and my phone and the text messages kept coming in. Shakira and Kiki asked if it was true, and Birdie, the same.

Birdie: If it’s not, I’m sorry this happened. Call me if you need to talk.

I dropped my phone on the bed. I didn’t need to talk to her, my hands shaking. I’d only be talking to one person tomorrow, and I had a feeling he had something to do with this even if he didn’t take the photo himself.

Especially considering he threatened me.

Six

One good thing about the Court? People not only knew who they were but where they were… at all times. Finding Royal wasn’t hard, but getting him alone? That was another story. Considering getting him alone had gotten my ass in hot water in the first place, I made it known my agenda the moment class got out, and I figured out which exactly of the campus’s several athletic fields lacrosse practice was held at. From what I understood, he played there Monday through Friday after school, as he was the captain of the team.

The captain played shirtless.

Hip bones sectioned off into a divine male V were located directly below perfectly toned abs, also in their appropriate subsections. Dusted with blond hair that matched the tousle he had up above, this guy was a male anatomy chart and currently stood in some type of huddle in the middle of the field. All the players looked to be taking some kind of break as the coaches were off in their own huddle and various players had water bottles in their hands as well as whatever they called those lacrosse sticks. Approaching Royal at this time and in this element was definitely one hundred percent an idiot decision.

“Hey, Mr. Captain of the Lacrosse Team!”

I was an idiot. I was an idiot for shedding tears and even worst for going to sleep by them. I was an idiot for letting these people affect me and letting him threaten me yesterday and not doing anything about it. I was doing something about it today, and with my phone in hand, I watched as the huddle holding Royal split up and the man himself parted off from the crowd. I enjoyed watching his eyes twitch wide and his brow flick up at being called out by a virtual nobody in his space. I may have had one shot at this, one shot before complete social suicide, but I wasn’t here for him or anyone else. I was here for Paige and anything that resulted after this moment in time was moot to me.

“Did you set this up?” I asked, charging onto the field and passing several sweaty boys. I blew past all of them, seeing nothing but red. I had my target set on the guy in the center. I shook my phone as I approached. “Did you have

someone take this? Spread this shit?”

I had the meme in hand, the meme that mirrored not just that anonymous social media post but others once I followed the trail. The thing was everywhere, haunting me with illustrated starry eyes, and up in the captain’s space, I entered his huddle.

All parted away, creating a scattered semicircle around Royal and me with the exception of several members of the Court I’d been informed were LJ, Knight, and Jax. Knight was the tallest, broad and thick as he stood beside Royal, but LJ and Jax were only a fraction smaller with their varied statures. Sweaty shirts either clinging to them or on their shoulders, all three boys intimidated just as much as Royal, but I stood up to them too. I’d stand up to anyone who made a fool out of me.

“Was it one of them?” I asked Royal, eyes on his three friends. “Was this all a setup?”

By now, everyone both on and off the field had cellphones out, no doubt recording this thing, but I didn’t care. I wanted evidence. I wanted footage as I handed this guy his ass for what he did.

Royal’s eyes narrowed, arms braced across his muscled chest. “What are you going on about, December?”

“How about you tell the truth?” I challenged, my breath hiking when my rapidly beating chest brushed his damp and completely naked one. I smelled him in his rawest form this close, hot and entirely too male. I wet my lips. “Tell them how it’s the other way around. How for some reason you tend to be wherever I am.”

Fists raised to cover oohs and chuckles from tall jocks, Royal put in his place and mocked by everyone but his loyal brood. LJ, Knight, and Jax merely looked at him, and so focused on their reactions, I hadn’t gotten Royal’s himself.

Otherwise, I would have picked up on the fire in his eyes.

Instantly snatched up by my arm, I was pulled north, almost dropping my phone in the grass.

“Hey!” I struggled. “What the hell are you doing?”

He didn’t tell me, his grip firm, and only when we were back in the school and out of earshot did he let go. We’d entered the south doors of the campus’s rec center, and once inside, he forced open doors that said, Boys’ Locker Room.

“Get in,” he commanded, more threats in his voice that followed his point inside. I didn’t necessarily like being told what to do and being told to go into a place that said boys’ locker room even less. I crossed my arms.

Thick eyebrows descended like storm clouds. With a lift of his hand, he went inside by himself, and I was left standing in the hallway. Eventually, I raised my hands, going against my better judgment when I followed him inside. I found him lingering behind the doors, hands propped on his chiseled hips.

“Have something to say to me, say it here,” he stated, a growl in his voice. “Or do you only get off hearing yourself talk when you know others are around?”

Heat charging up my neck, I noticed the same in his, a pink crushed tone to his skin. I’d gotten under it, good. I lifted my phone, showing him again. “Was this you? This meme? This bullshit?”

His eyes lifted toward the rafters when he rolled them. “I was there. How would that have been me?”