“Look, if you could just tell us where we’re supposed to be?—”
The door to the classroom opened behind me. “What are these guys doing here?” a girl’s voice asked. Suddenly our little band of brothers was surrounded by the leotard-clad girls we’d been watching through the glass. They were eyeing us with curiosity as they headed over to the girl in the hoodie, whose gaze hadn’t veered away from me.
“I don’t know,” hoodie girl said. “They say they’re here for a class.”
“Weare,” I said, not loving the way she said ‘they say’ like we were suspect or something.
“Really.” A pretty, tall blonde stopped beside the tiny warrior in the hoodie, turning in our direction with a sniff. “The most prestigious ballet academy in the Northeast, and we’re now opening enrollment to…thesepeople?” Her gaze moved over the lot ofus and she pursed her lips when her gaze landed on Ryan beside me with his too-long hair and ripped jeans.
“These people,” Ryan repeated softly. Turning to me, he said louder, “You were right. Ballet dancers are a bunch of stuck-up?—”
“I didn’t say that,” I interrupted, my eyes seeking out the little brunette. “I never said that.”
“Why not?” the brunette said. “It’s true.”
Ryan laughed and I couldn’t stop a grin, especially when the snooty blonde rolled her eyes in irritation. “Ugh,Collette.” The blonde turned to her with a sigh. “Don’t encourage them.”
So mystery girl’s name was Collette. I mentally filed that away.
One of the other girls, shorter but no less skinny than the rail-thin blonde, stood on the other side of Collette, partially hiding behind her as she eyed us. Her eyes lit on Cooper and her plain features turned pretty when she smiled. “Hi, Cooper.”
We all turned to Cooper, whose expression hadn’t changed. It rarely did. He was glowering at the timid, petite girl with the bun that looked painfully tight.
“You know him, Eve?” Collette asked.
Before Eve could respond the blonde turned to Collette. “Better question, how do you know them and why did you let them in?”
I took a step forward, ready to stand up for Collette, but I should have known she didn’t need my help. “I didn’tlet them in. They walked in. This isn’t a high-security fortress, it’s a school. And as for how I know them…” She shot me a look. “I don’t. One of them just ran me over.”
I let out a huff of exasperated amusement. “I told you, I didn’t see you there.”
She opened her mouth to respond but the blonde beat her to it. “How could you miss her?”
As if her taunting tone weren’t enough of a clue, I heard some of the girls beside us giggle. I looked over to see Collette hugging the hoodie tighter around herself, a splash of color in her cheeks.
“What are you guys doing here?” The question came from one of the girls to my left.
Before I got a chance to explain, a woman’s voice came from behind us. “Iinvited them.”
TWO
COLLETTE
Leave it to Mom to ruin my fun. I should have known she was behind the display of man meat standing in front of me. I mean, come on, there was no way the muscles on the guy called Cooper were homegrown. I was pretty sure whatever they were feeding the guys at Oakwood High wasn’t on the FDA’s approval list.
It had to be packed with hormones.
“Ms. Boucher,really?” Bianca whined in a pitch that hurt my ears.
She was standing next to me in all her five foot eight glory. Her stomach was flat. Her legs, long… I blinked, forcing my thoughts to something other than the fact that I was never going to live up to my mother’s idea of the perfect ballerina. No matter how hard I tried, I was never going to cut it.
Ugh. I’d become envious of Bianca. What waswrongwith me?
“You know Coach Reynolds?” Ethan asked. He’d finally stopped staring at me long enough to glance over at Amiee Boucher, aka my mom. Aka the serpent of the school.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom. In a ‘Harry Potter loveshe who shall not be named’ sort of way. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.
Mom nodded as she folded her arms and tapped her forearm. “I do. Although he said nothing about his team members storming my studio and interrupting our practice.” I could feel the daggers Mom was shooting the other girls. The ones who were once practicing but now had gathered out in the hallway.
