They The Pretty Stars (Court High 1)

About five hundred pounds… five hundred pounds of grade-A number one certified dog food was currently stored in secrecy in my dad’s guesthouse. I knew because I spent half the night hiding it after I returned home from work. LJ had helped me get it in there after driving me home from work, but after that, I’d been on my own. It was good-ass stuff too, no cheap crap, and that scared me as much as made me happy. It scared me because I didn’t know the reason behind the gift as well as LJ saying the food was only the prelude to my deal with Royal.

What’s Royal playing at?

A question that plagued me the first of many days. I never approached Royal about the dog food because, honestly, I didn’t know how to broach the subject. I’d had opportunities, passes in the hall, time in the lunchroom. I could have walked over, called him out like I did that day on the lacrosse field, but I held my tongue.

That’s when I found the first dog toy.

It’d been in my bag, something I’d dumped out after I got home from school to do my homework. Hershey herself had actually found it, chewing on the small squeak toy, and at first, I thought maybe it’d been something Rosanna put in my bag before school. She’d been known to stick snacks in there, cookies and other contraband she knew my dad didn’t like around the house but that I did like. I questioned her about the toy after I found it, and when she denied putting the thing inside my bag, that stumped me for all of about two seconds until the next day. I found another toy, a ball this time with red polka dots. It also squeaked.

I stared back at Royal, one of few people who knew I had a dog. Chatting with his friends, though, he paid no attention to the girl with a dog toy in her hand.

He must be playing with me, some kind of sick game to scare me or something…

That was all I could come up with and, of course, had no proof. I hadn’t seen him put the toy in there, but he was the only one outside of LJ, Jax, Knight, and Rosanna who knew I had a dog. I watched the other three guys too after that. In fact, all of them for the next week, and not once had I noticed them put anything in my stuff. I even stopped carrying my bag, and that’s when I found them in my chair, a tiny toy or sometimes two. There was at least one left in my seat every day, and it got to the point where my psychosis actually questioned if I had been given these maddening little gifts or not. That was until I caught a freshman in the hall, a boy slipping something into my locker. I’d been walking with Birdie, Kiki, and Shakira at the time, and the moment he saw us approach, he darted off like the guilty little shit he was.

“What’s that about?” Birdie asked me, more than one question I’d gotten since that day she saw me get into Knight’s car. I passed it off, of course, telling her he’d just given me a ride to work, but still, she’d asked. I also noticed her looking at me a lot, which didn’t help since I seemed to always be starting at Royal and his lot recently. I’d been trying to catch them in the act.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, well aware all three of my friends watched as I opened my locker.

Another dog toy fell out, a thin one at my feet. It was one of those crinkling ones that rolled up like a snake.

I picked it up, determined to stop this. I didn’t care if Royal knew about my dog. All this was just too much. I found myself frickin’ paranoid every day, wondering what exactly the toys and dog food meant in regards to me “owing him.”

As well as what he’d do in the end to collect.

A bell sounded in the hall, a warning before class started again, and leaving, the girls said they’d see me at lunch. I

went to close my locker but noticed a note lodged in the vent at the top. That kid must have pushed it in with the toy.

I pulled it out, unfolding it.

“Meet me at McAlester’s Pumpkin Patch tonight, eight o’ clock, past the patch and outside the corn maze. Bring Hershey and the dog toys.”

He’d left no name, but he didn’t have to…

He said bring Hershey.

Fourteen

“Hi, niece. I just wanted to call and let you know I got a few packages back home for you today. From some colleges?”

Shit.

Aunt Celeste would call me during my trip out in the middle of the boonies, to see Royal with my dog wagging her tail in the front seat of my sister’s Range Rover. Then again, maybe this was the perfect time for her to call me.

If I went missing, at least someone would know.

I was using her as my fail-safe again and pushed my hair behind my ear. “Can you just save them for me?”

“You don’t want me to ship them out? Shouldn’t you be deciding on something soon? I mean, some of these are pretty good schools, and you might be able to get a scholarship based off my income.”

Christ, I really hadn’t wanted to talk to her about this now with some distance between us. But some things had changed, and I bit my lip.

“I’m thinking about staying around here.”

“And going to college?” She’d sounded shocked.

“Not necessarily. I think I want to just wait maybe, work? Dad’s job he got me isn’t so bad.”