And since she’d had enough of my bad girl ways and she didn’t want me to ruin my life any further, she sent me here.
To become good.
“I’ve been doing you and your mother a disservice. I should’ve been more strict with you and sent you here sooner. If I had, then none of this would be happening. So you’re going to St. Mary’s.”
That’s what Leah told me.
I could’ve refused. I’m eighteen now; turned eighteen a few weeks ago.
I could’ve just walked out but I didn’t have any money. Whatever money I had, I used that to buy the bus ticket and the rest, Leah confiscated.
So here I am.
“But I was going to return the money,” I continue. “I was going to get out of town and get a job and once I had enough savings, I was going to give the money back to her.”
Which is all true.
I actually have a part-time job, or had one. At a restaurant in town where I worked as a waitress. But I’d just blown my savings and I really needed the cash. And I really, really needed to run away.
“Why were you running away?” Poe asks, her eyes wide.
Damn it.
I never should’ve let out that information. That I was running away.
My heart swells and pounds inside my rib cage.
My witchy heart with a thousand secrets.
“Uh, I… was…” I try to think of an acceptable lie.
Maybe I can tell them what I told Leah, that I hated this town and my old school and everything else so I was just hauling ass.
She bought it. I bet they’d buy it too.
But Wyn gives me an out. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain.”
Callie smiles. “Yeah, we all have our secrets.”
“Yeah.” Poe nods, putting her hands up. “Sorry if I came on a little too strong there. It’s one of my weaknesses. I talk too much. And I always ask too many questions.”
Just like that the tension breaks and I can breathe easily.
Thank God.
I just met them. These are the first people to actually be friendly and talk to me in here. I don’t want them to hate me too.
And they will if I tell them why I was running away.
If I tell them my secret.
“Okay,” Callie chirps. “Let’s go to dinner. And you can definitely sit with us, if you want.”
Suddenly, Poe bursts into a series of gasps and actions. She looks at the clock hanging over the blackboard. “Oh my God, we have to go. Now. Forget dinner for a sec. I’ve got something to show you guys.”
“Show us what?” Callie asks.
“Hello? What else? Eye candy.” Poe wiggles her eyebrows again.
“Oh my God. Yes! I needed something nice the first week back to this hellhole.” Callie grins.
“I know. Apparently, there’s a press conference that we should see. This girl from junior year tipped me off. We gotta go.”
I’m confused. “What eye candy?”
At my question, Poe’s eyes go wide again as she takes me in. Not only that, she gasps too before lunging for my arm.
“Oh my God. This is perfect.” Then she turns to Callie and Wyn. “Isn’t this perfect? She knows him!”
I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. But Callie catches on and whips her eyes to me.
“Yes, she does,” she breathes out to Poe before turning to me. “You do!”
“I do what?” I ask, now more confused than ever.
Wyn is shaking her head again in that indulgent manner of hers that I’ve seen before. “Leave her alone, guys. She doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”
So Poe explains it to me. “You know him. You know the Principal’s hot son. Our eye candy.”
All right. I still don’t know what they’re talking about.
Principal’s hot son.
Who the fuck…
Principal’s hot son.
Him.
Oh my God.
The boy with sun-struck hair and summer blue eyes.
He’s the principal’s hot son now, isn’t he?
He is.
Because I’m stupidly at St. Mary’s and Leah Carlisle, along with being my guardian, is now my principal as well.
“You lived with him,” Poe says. “You lived with a soccer superstar.”
“Yes. The Blond Arrow,” Callie tags on.
The Blond Arrow.
That’s his soccer nickname.
That’s what they call him, his fans, the critics, the sports people, whatever. They gave it to him when he debuted last season. When he free-kicked the ball from the center of the field and it went soaring through the air, past all the players and hit the net, right in the center.
Holy fuck, they’re talking about Arrow.
My Arrow.
Before I can say anything though, Poe and Callie are dragging me out of the classroom with Wyn tailing behind and discussing how I can tell them everything there is to know about Arrow Carlisle, the celebrity athlete, because I lived with him before he went pro.
I’m not listening to them though.
I mean, I am, here and there but I’m mostly in… shock.
Which is stupid because I should’ve thought of this.