They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

Holy shit, he waiting for me. I mean, he did come right to me, but this was a surprise. He clearly worked here, and when he put the other red shirt he had over my shoulder, he let me know he was here to help me on my first day of work.

He put out his hand. “I’m Lance. Lance Johnson but everyone calls me LJ. I manage here, so I’m showing you around.”

As I hadn’t officially met him, I took his hand, shaking. Though, it was all rather awkward considering we did both know each other from school.

And you called his friend out yesterday.

All that not far enough in the past, my smile was stiff as I let go, and obviously, the exclusive Court ran the community center as well as the school.

Obviously.

I nodded at him, taking back my hand. I really couldn’t get away from these guys, and I idly wondered if Royal was bopping around someplace too. Not brave enough to ask, I took my shirt off my shoulder and followed his extended height through the cluster of people. LJ directed me to a locker room designated for female staff, and after dropping my stuff off and changing, I joined him on the floor.

“I’ll be with you until you get things,” he said, pointing out various areas and the events that were typically held in them. “But even after, you only answer to me. I’m your direct manager so if you have any questions you come see me.”

Apparently, he owned me as well, and I bit back a few choice words for my dad. How in the entire fuck did he manage to find a job for me under the direct hand of the Court? I shook my head, grateful at least that, though LJ was firm, he wasn’t an asshole about the way he said and showed me things. He really was just my manager, so at least I had that. Had I been under someone like Royal Prinze, I had a feeling all this “showing me around” wouldn’t be without his bite or familiar threats. LJ, on the other hand, was definitely a lot more laid-back, and after handing me a broom and wash rag, he showed me where I’d be cleaning floors and wiping down mats. I got to play janitor for minimum wage, and I showcased it in each and every room he showed me. I wasn’t the only red shirt doing bitch work, but I was the only girl. They may have had a female locker room, but the lack of female staff was very obvious. In fact, the only members of the opposite sex around here tended to be the actual members either working out here or participating in activities.

“Last room for today,” LJ said to me around three thirty. At this point, I’d been on my feet since basically 7 AM and had the backache to prove it. LJ had me doing various jobs both inside and outside all day, and I felt it.

Working out my backache, I bent into cleaning up the mess from yet another spectator around this place. I’d cleaned up enough scattered popcorn and Skittles to get me through the final semesters of high school, and LJ gratefully didn’t hover. He tended to just check in on me from time to time while he did whatever he did as manager. From what I’d gathered, that typically consisted of socializing and flirting with the various female members, a job that he got right into while I cleaned my “last room for the day.”

Peering over the broomstick, the tall blond was called over by a couple of girls in unitards. Apparently, we were in the tumbling room, half-naked girls doing somersaults and dance routines on the mats. LJ wasn’t watching the show, but didn’t stand by idle when one of the girls waved at him. He gathered her by the waist and joined a group of guys who messed around by the mats. I assumed they were Court and one of them was actually standing on a chair and dancing. He swayed his hips to the girls’ music who currently danced a floor routine, and I recognized him as Jax, a practical joker apparently both in and outside of class. Days didn’t pass where classes sometimes stopped entirely just for our teachers to reel him in. He had a tendency of getting people super amped and was proving to do the same today. Obnoxious, he fell off the chair in the middle of the girls’ routine, which of course made all the girls laugh. This received nothing but a jostle from LJ after he helped him up, but at least, another guy slapped him on the back of the head for being an idiot. I recognized him too, mostly because he was a colossal giant. Knight Reed had to be a defender on the lacrosse team, had to with his force.

“Stop dicking around.”

How I failed to notice the guys’ leader before, I didn’t know. Perhaps, it’d been Jax’s dance but Royal Prinze, the one who spoke, sat right up front for the show. In a folding chair, Royal had himself lounged back, yet another girl sprawled across his lap, and this one stole my attention due not just to the fact she was half-naked like the other girls, but her particular hairstyle.

She’d rocked the same one when she’d been sucking Royal off.

I hadn’t seen the redhead since that day. Really, Royal seemed to have a different chick every day of the week in the lunchroom, but today, she had all his attention. He rubbed her back while he chided Jax, then squeezed her hip as the group settled down. Eventually, she got up to go back to the floor in her bright unitard, and he smacked her ass, making her giggle. LJ came over to Royal’s side once Royal was freed up, and the two fist-bumped.

At least Royal doesn’t seem to work here.

I thanked the world for small favors, trying not to watch the group, but that was made hard when after they bumped fists, LJ bent down and said something in Royal’s ear. Whatever it was made the sandy blond’s head turn, Royal looking right at me when he turned fully around in his chair. He tipped his chin at me, smiling a little before he was called ahead by the redhead. LJ must have told him I was here, and Royal wanted to make sure I saw him for whatever reason.

I really didn’t know what to make of that, but let’s just say, my last room of the day I got through quicker than the others.

*

I didn’t have to work the next day due to it being Sunday and the community center being closed, but after school, I worked the next few days for three- to four-hour shifts at the Maywood Heights Community Center. Hubert dropped me off at home after school, and after a quick look over my homework, dinner, and caring for Hershey, I was right back on the road and working. LJ met me when I arrived and, dare I say, worked me harder than any guy there. He didn’t take it easy on me because I was a girl and, if anything, came down on me even worse. I might not have thought anything of it, but considering the impression I’d made so far in this town and how I yelled at LJ’s friend in front of a shit-ton of people…

I wiped sweat from my brow, shoveling dog poo into tiny sacks. The community center had a dog park, and I got the “joy” of working that today.

Fuck me.

My phone buzzed, and I knew it wasn’t Aunt Celeste since I was at work. She was aware of my new schedule and didn’t tend to bother me during a shift. She also loved the fact that Dad was making me work not even a month into moving to a new town… not.

Birdie: Hey. Can you hang out later? The girls and I plan to pop your party cherry. ;)

I was stinky and I was tired, but I was also eighteen and hadn’t done anything remotely social since leaving LA.

Me: Save me.

Eight

Half the Windsor Prep female basketball team picked me up later that night, a cool blue Hummer their ride of choice. Apparently, Shakira’s dad was out of town, and she had full access to any one of the bazillion and a half cars she had in her parents’ garage. I’d been told her dad owned a car dealership, but e

ven outside of that, these girls had exotic cars guys in rap videos would salivate to have. I’d seen them, another world completely on the opposite side of mine.