Page 8 of Crew Girl

You had to hand it to the guy. Knock backs only fueled his ego. Liam spotted the team and headed over, hitting on two more girls along the way. He arrived alone.

The guys split into small packs once they figured out who was going to which class first, but Josh lingered, watching Teagan and Juliet climb the broad stone steps leading up to the main building.

When they reached the top, Teagan turned back and looked directly at him, like she’d known all along that he’d been watching. Not in a creepy way. More… intrigued. The same way she looked intrigued by him.

Britney would’ve made it clear Josh wasn’t available, so whatever it was that had the two of them shooting question marks at each other was hitting somewhere different. A mystery worth exploring.

Bells rang. Students scattered. The quad emptied.

Josh headed to the dining hall. He’d texted chef and was looking forward to sitting down to one of his caviar omelets with a double side of spinach and hash browns. Protein, bruh. Couldn’t beat it.

Fortified, he headed upstairs to grace AP English with his presence.

“Mr. Regis.” Mr. Wu’s voice was tight. “How good of you to join us.”

Yeah. Obvs. Choosing a seat was tactical maneuver number one when you were a disrupter like him.

Wu gave one of his world-weary sighs. “In case you didn’t realize, Mr. Regis, class starts at the bell.”

“Sorry, Mr. Wu.” He wasn’t. The kids ran this school, not the other way around. Hadn’t he learned that yet? “I would have been on time, except”—he waited a beat; he knew his audience—“I didn’t want to be.”

Cackles filled the room. Power play complete, time for phase two. Operation New Girl.

She was parked in the back next to Juliet. As they watched him approach, Juliet whispered in her ear like she was doing a wildlife documentary commentary.

The Alpha Male of the pride enters the room… a hush… as the king of this jungle…

Josh met Ryder’s high five, ignoring the seat beside him in favor of sliding onto New Girl’s bench, pretending he had no idea they weren’t meant for three. She shot him a pissed off look when he budged her over.

Baloo was right. New Girl took no guff.

“Mr. Regis,” Wu said through gritted teeth. “As you’re late, you can do us the courtesy of reading the first stanza.”

Oops. “My bad. I didn’t bring the book.”

He looked at Teagan, and held eye contact until she pushed her book over. “Thanks.” He rearranged himself to face her, then gave Byron the Regis Treatment. “She walks in beauty, like the night/of cloudless climes and starry skies…”

He glanced up, even though he knew her eyes were glued to him, trying to figure how on earth an athlete like himself could make a two-hundred-year-old poem sound so relevant, so personal. People always forgot athletes needed a good grade average to get into the Ivies.

“… and all that’s best of dark and bright/meet in her aspect and her eyes.”

He let the book drop, no mic.

“What do you think it means, Mr. Regis?” Wu asked wearily.

Eyes still on Teagan, Josh said, “I think Byron was trying to smash.”

Teagan shot him the same look she’d thrown at Liam, then looked away.

“Mr. Regis,” Wu chided. “If you put as much effort into your English class as your rowing, you’d actually get somewhere.”

Teagan’s head whipped around, eyes shining up at him like he was a Greek god. “You’re on the rowing team?”

Aha. So she was a boat bunny, was she?

He nodded, all casual. Refused to throw a bone.

She turned back around to Juliet. “Can you show me the boathouse later?”