Private (Private 1)

Definitely. Girl intrigued, yet mortified? You bet.

wondering if I had misread the whole thing.

“Anyway,” he said, breaking the momentary trance. “You hold

in your hands a relic from another time. Keep it well.”

“Thanks.”

He backed away toward the quad, hands in his pockets, grinning

suggestively. I caught more than a few girls staring at me with unabashed envy. Hearts broke all across the campus. As Thomas

turned away, two guys jogged to catch up with him. He ducked his head and listened as they scurried to keep up.

“Who was that?” Constance asked with inflection that befitted the magnitude of the man.

I grinned. “That was Thomas Pearson.”

“What’s his deal?” she asked, standing on her tiptoes to watch

him as he and his cohorts were enveloped by the crowd making

their way to afternoon classes.

P R I V A T E

61

“All right, ladies! Let’s settle down.” A middle-aged woman with broad shoulders and calves stood at the bottom of the bleachers. I took this to be the coach. She had short blond hair, wore no makeup or jewelry, and had plenty of dirt under her fingernails. Her eyes fell DEFENSIVE MANEUVERS

on me. “You’re Reed Brennan, I assume. I’m Coach Lisick.”

“Hi,” I said.

“Reed comes to us from Pennsylvania where she was the leading

defensive scorer in her division as a freshman,” Coach announced to the group.

I was the first person on the bleachers for soccer practice that after-Great. Now Noelle knew I was from good old, square, boring PA.

noon. Not wanting to be late, I had run back to Bradwell after the I wondered if I could lie and say I was from Philly. Was there any last class to change, pausing only to slip Thomas’s token onto my cachet at all in being from Philly? My guess was no.

silver chain and fasten it around my neck before sprinting all the

“Which means you should all be grateful to have her here,”

way up the hill to the fields. Now, as the rest of the team approached Coach continued. “Got it?”

in one clump, carrying soccer balls and orange cones, I realized that There was a murmur of assent.

being super-early was just as conspicuous as being late. At the front

“Glass-licker got skills,” Noelle whispered, her breath hot on

of the pack, Noelle eyed me as if my appearance amused her.

my ear. “You go, glass-licker.”