“Who what?”
“Who did you screw last night, Ted? Don’t play dumb.”
“Shit,” Teddy muttered, his eyes locking onto something over her shoulder. She could hear the chatter of female voices from the path behind her. “Teddy?”
“Walk with me this way.” He grabbed her arm and led her down a smaller path, away from the practice courts, near the edge of the property that ran along the beach.
“Teddy, what the hell? Why can’t you answer the question?” Jasmine yanked her arm free and turned in time to see a girl with long blond hair, a lot like Indy’s, stride paston the main walkway where they’d been standing. Katie Nelson, probably on her way to the late-morning session with Coach D’Amato, just back from her freshman year at UCLA and hoping to play in a few Challenger tournaments in the summer.
“Sorry, I—”
“Didn’t want Katie to see you.” She finished his sentence for him.
“Yeah, I didn’t want a scene,” he said, looking away from her, keeping his eyes trained above her head.
“Why would there be a—oh, it was her?”
He shrugged carelessly. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“It never does,” she muttered.
“What?”
She deflated, the anger seeping away. They were just friends, nothing more. That’s what they’d agreed to, and if she kept pushing this, she’d lose him.
“Nothing, let’s go hit, okay? I need to get another good workout in before Dom posts the rankings. I know my mom and dad will want to go celebrate afterward, so I probably won’t be around for afternoon session.” She was at her wit’s end, and if she didn’t have a tennis ball to hit soon, she was going to use his head for one.
“Jasmine, come on!” Lara Cronin yelled from the locker room door. “Dom’s going to post the rankings in five minutes!”
Jasmine gathered her racket bag and met the gaggle of girls waiting for her at the locker room door. They weretwittering with anticipation as they all followed her down the hallway, past the Title Wall and out into the main atrium.
“What’s all this?” Roy asked from his desk, looking up over the edge of his newspaper. “You ladies all here for me?”
A ripple of laughter echoed up into the atrium’s high ceiling.
“We’re here for the Classic rankings,” one said, and Jasmine rolled her eyes.
“Ah, it all makes sense now. Dom’s still up in his office. Should be comin’ down the pike any minute, though.” Roy chuckled, going back to his paper.
They all looked up and saw Dom through his office windows. He was in the corner of his office, where his printer sat on a table. He reached for a piece of paper and studied it for a moment before nodding and disappearing from view.
He was so melodramatic, printing out an old-school list when he could have just sent it out to everyone.
Even still, it was like all the air was sucked out of the room. Everyone pulled in a breath and held it, waiting for their coach to appear on the stairwell, rankings in hand.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” one girl muttered.
“Gross, then get away from me,” another chimed in.
“Are they out yet?” a voice asked. Jasmine turned and saw Indy jogging up to the edge of the crowd, hair still wet from her shower and hanging halfway down her back.
“Not yet—”
Jasmine cleared her throat, a firmahem-hum, cutting off whoever was responding. She squinted in that direction, but it was impossible to pick the voice out of the group.
“Oh God, I can’t handle this,” Lara said, gripping Jasmine’swrist. Dom descended the last few steps and surveyed them silently before turning to the wall beside the stairwell.
Jasmine pulled away and moved forward, feeling everyone hesitate and then crowd in behind her.
