Beautiful Disaster (Privilege 2)

"Good. Then I'll see you at the faculty picnic later, cox," he said, backing away from her. "Good practice."

"Good practice," Ariana repeated.

Then he grinned at her one last time and walked out. Ariana's knees felt so shaky from the encounter she had to sit down. She backed up, dropped onto the wooden bench in front of the lockers, and placed her head in her hands.

This is a good thing, she told herself. At least now everything is clear.

Besides, she couldn't go around letting him look at her the way he had out on the water earlier. Couldn't be the girl who flirted with her best friend's boyfriend behind her back. She wanted to make it work here with Lexa and her friends. Undermining Lexa's relationship with Palmer was not the way to make that happen.

Ariana took a deep breath and glanced at her watch. Crap. She had ten minutes to get back up the hill and all the way across campus. She was about to get up and go for a sprint, when something caught her eye. One of the guys had left his watch on top of his gym bag. Ariana leaned over to check it out and her heart stopped. It was a platinum Rolex. Worth a quarter of a million at least.

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars, Ariana thought, her palms starting to itch. With that watch, she would be one quarter of the way to paying off Kaitlynn. Was it possible ... ? Could she actually raise the money through petty theft? The idea had never occurred to her until now, but many of the wealthiest teenagers in the world attended APH. She didn't have much time, but if she could simply scrape a few things together ...

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Maybe she could get rid of Kaitlynn after all.

Ariana's pulse started to race, spurred by adrenaline and the slightest twinge of excitement.

Whose watch was it? And what kind of person left a two hundred fifty thousand-dollar watch just lying out in a public place? The kind of irresponsible person that practically deserved to have said watch stolen. No, not practically. He did deserve it.

Ariana heard a bang in the shower room, followed by more laughter, and grabbed the watch. It slipped right into the inside pocket of her bag as if it was made to fit there.

"Hey. What're you doing?"

Ariana whirled around, her heart in her throat, glancing at the wall for the nearest oar just in case she needed it. Landon was walking slowly across the room, a white T-shirt clinging to his chest as he toweled off his shaggy hair. What had he seen? And why did it have to be him? People were definitely going to notice if Mr. World-Famous Pop Star suddenly went missing.

"Nothing," Ariana said casually, lifting her shoulders. She started past him, focused on the door. "I'd better go."

Landon took a step back and to the side, blocking her path. "Wait."

Ariana's entire potential future passed before her eyes. He'd seen her pocket the watch. He was going to tell. Or threaten her. Or blackmail her. How could she have been so careless? She was going to be expelled from Atherton-Pryce before she even had a chance to take one class.

"I've known girls like you," he said, looking down at her with a smirk.

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"What?" Ariana asked. His words didn't compute. When was he going to accuse her already?

"You think you're better than me, right? Better than my music? That's why you pretended you didn't know who I was in the school store," he said, tossing his towel on the nearest bench. "Just because it's pop doesn't mean it's crap, you know. Have you even listened to any of it?"

Oxygen flooded Ariana's lungs, filling her body with sweet relief. He hadn't seen her take the watch. His ego was so big he probably couldn't see anything past it.

"No. Can't say that I have," she replied coolly.

"I figured. I can spot a music snob from a mile off," he said, tugging his rope necklaces out from under his shirt. "I'll send you some mp3s. At least listen to my stuff before you judge me."

"Okay. I'll do that," Ariana said, sidestepping him. "You can get my e-mail from Soomie. Or Maria," she added pointedly, which caused him to blush. "Whoever you see first."

Then she walked out of the boathouse as slowly and deliberately as possible, even if it meant being a few minutes later for her test. She couldn't risk him or anyone else watching her as she ran up the stone steps cut into the hill.

Only the guilty ran.

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MAKING THE CALL

That afternoon was the faculty picnic on the great lawn, which meant the professors were showing up on campus for the first time to mingle with the students. There were half a dozen buffet tables packed with food and drink, dozens of picnic tables dotting the grass, and colorful banners and sign-up tables for various clubs and organizations, each of which was mentored by a member of the faculty. Ariana signed up for the APH literary magazine. She'd always enjoyed working on Easton's literary magazine, but more important, her signature would prove that she had been there. After that, she quickly slipped away from the party. With hundreds of people milling around, it was the perfect opportunity to walk off unnoticed. She hurried back to her dorm, grabbed her leather gloves from her drawer, and commenced her life as a cat burglar.Just like at Easton Academy, there were no locks on any of the dorm room doors, so it was beyond easy to slip in and out. Within minutes Ariana had gathered several pawnable baubles and trinkets,