We The Pretty Stars (Court High 4)

“That’s because you were completely in love with the school’s quarterback and decided to focus on that and ultimately stay here. Nothing wrong with that, Daisy.” After she shook her sister’s knee, Lena nudged me. “The two were basically married when we went to school here, which completely delighted our fathers. They were best friends growing up.”

“Yes, they were.” Daisy played with her hands a little, her faint smile to herself. She shook my arm. “Anyway, enough about me and memory lane. How have you been? I haven’t seen you at the Mallicks’ family dinners.”

Well, that had been a disaster the all of a one time I’d done it. Not to mention, back then Ramses and I had been pretending to be fake girlfriend and fake boyfriend. I shrugged. “Didn’t work out between Ramses and me, but we’re still buds.”

I waved at him for good measure, and funny enough, he noticed me out there on the field again. He pointed a stick in my direction, and when Royal noticed, he elbowed his teammate back into the game. Ramses shrugged, waggling his eyebrows at me before getting back into the game.

I chuckled.

“Oh, glad to hear that.”

I turned, facing Daisy who’d spoken. I noticed her staring at my sister’s journal, those cartoon drawings that I’d finished. I shifted the pages so she could see better. “Paige did the eyes, but I drew the figures. Just trying to match what she put on paper.”

“May I?” Daisy asked, and not minding, I slid the whole thing over to her.

I smiled. “Great. Aren’t they? I mean, Paige’s stuff? I’m just fooling around, but hers are so good.”

Daisy didn’t say anything, thumbing through each page. She smiled too. Though, I noticed it was a little sad. I didn’t know how well she knew Paige, but the fact my sister wasn’t here anymore would make anyone who knew her sad, I supposed. Paige was such a good person. So much stronger and resilient to all obstacles in life like I never could be. I hoped I honored her by adding to what she’d already done on the pages. I could only hope.

“They’re lovely,” Daisy said, but when she started to pass the journal back to me, she hesitated. “Mind if I take a photo? I guess I’m sentimental. I knew Paige. Well, way back when.”

Of course I hadn’t minded it, and it felt kind of good that someone cared about what I’d done too. As Daisy reached into her handbag and got her phone, I gazed up, noticing we scored again. The crowd was on their feet…

And my boyfriend was being lifted from the field.

Knight and Jax had Royal up on their shoulders, LJ, Ramses and the rest of the team hollering behind them. They’d won the game, cheering, but Royal, his eyes were only in my direction. He lifted a hand to me, and I raised mine back, finding it crazy out of all this he noticed me. His team around and beneath him, they shook his attention back their way, but they couldn’t take that moment from us we’d shared. It was ours.

Smiling, everyone else was up around me and celebrating too, everyone but Daisy. She was still looking at my sister’s drawings. She had her hand over the eyes. She must have really liked them.

Fourteen

December

After the game, some of us waited inside the school for the lacrosse guys to shower up, then take us all out. It’d become a thing for a bunch of us to go to a local diner on the other side of town, and since we won from what I understood was a big game today, there was definitely something to celebrate. I waited with Birdie, Kiki, Shakira, and some of our other guy and girl friends, heavily anticipating Royal. He’d shined like a rock star today, always did. Honestly, some days I really couldn’t believe I was with him, but not because he was popular or ruled the school. I couldn’t believe it because of who he was, someone so extraordinary. His light shined more and more every day as the dust started to settle around us, and I hoped in the future maybe we could all move on from the torture of this place. What happened mere months ago was a lot, and though I was still healing too, I hoped eventually, we’d all feel a semblance of whole again.

Some other friends who’d been at the game joined our small party in the hallway, and Birdie immediately went into showing the new arrivals her Princeton acceptance letter. I was so stinkin’ proud of her and definitely gave her the floor when our friends cro

wded in and looked over her letter with her. In my step back, I played around on my phone.

“I’m sorry, Leo. I’m just… I’m sorry.”

I turned, gazing over my shoulder at of all people Daisy. A designer bag on her arm, she came out of the headmaster’s office, and Principal Hastings was right behind her. Honestly, I was surprised he even came to these things, lacrosse games. Maybe since they were such a big deal around this place, it was required in his salary or something. He didn’t seem like the “social” type, but there he was, his hands in his pockets and expression grim.

He crossed distance to her. “Daisy…”

She stepped back, her hand raised. “I’m sorry. It’s just not fair… not fair to them.”

Immediately, Daisy left the hall in the opposite direction, head down as she put more space between her and Principal Hastings. All that none of my business, I started to look away too, but not before catching the eye of the headmaster.

He stared at me, that frown deepening. We actually weren’t really supposed to be milling about in the school on game days, but not only did Principal Hastings not say anything when he noticed my friends and me, he just let us be. Severing our gazes, the headmaster stalked right back in his office, and when he slammed the door, I think I was the only one who noticed. Everyone else was still crowded around Birdie and her news.

Too weird.

That man was so weird and definitely wouldn’t be missed by me. He was one person that I could very much leave behind and not miss a bit. Shaking my head, I went back to my friends.

“The champs have arrived!”

I rolled my eyes, knowing the voice of a certain Mallick lacrosse player right away. Pocketing my device, I watched the crowd’s attention shift to the end of the hallway, and as predicted, Ramses strode down it, his expansive wingspan wide. He pumped the air. “We owned this shit today, baby. Whoo!”