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A guy with a soccer bag breaks away from the group and jogs over to us. “Burgess! Dude, what’s going on? You’re leaving?”

Jayden gives him a tired smile. “Yeah, I’m out of here.”

“What? Why?”

“Long story.” Jayden motions to his bruised face. “Let’s just say this place and I aren’t getting along anymore.”

The guy swallows hard, and then he scowls at me. I have no idea who he is, but he obviously likes Jayden enough to care, and I bet he thinks this is all my fault somehow.

“What about the team?” he asks.

“Coach will figure something out.” Jayden claps him on the shoulder. “Take care, man.”

The guy mumbles something as we stride away from him, and when I glance back, he has his phone out.

Good. I hope he texts the whole team.

More people turn to gawk at us. A professor with a stack of papers under her arm purses her lips as she eyes our bags. Someone aims a phone at us, and I have to fight the urge to blow a kiss at the camera. For once in my life, I actually want someone to film me.

“How long before Supreme hears about this?” I ask quietly.

“Not long.” Jayden sneaks a look at me. “He’s got people everywhere, so I bet one of them is texting him right now or they already did it.”

“Great.”

“You’re enjoying this.”

“A little.” I bump his arm. “Is that bad?”

“Nope.” He grins. “It’s kind of hot.”

I roll my eyes at him, but the corners of my lips lift up. Once we’re far enough away from campus, we slow down.

Jayden lets out a long breath and yanks his hood up. “Okay. I think we gave everyone plenty to talk about.”

“More than plenty. I bet Supreme knows by now.” At least I hope he does. “Wait, is Coach hearing about this going to be a problem for you? I mean, our families don’t know anything and—”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m cleared to play yet anyway, and I didn’t officially say anything to him or to anyone yet, so he’s not going to believe some rumors right away.”

“Shit! Maybe we should’ve gone to the office to make our transfer official.”

“Nah.” Jayden waves his hand. “We want to leave as soon as possible. Paperwork can be done separately. Besides, we don’t know where we can transfer just yet.”

“Right.”

I hope Supreme’s hand hurts like hell and that he’ll believe the whole thing so we can find him. We just need to be super careful so that no one figures out we’re faking.

Chapter 37

VERONICA

HIDDEN IN THE BUSHES, I part the branches with my fingers, and the area that leads to the lecture halls is still mostly empty, except for a guy who hurries up the steps with his shoelaces untied. The bushes hide Jayden and me pretty well from everyone out there, and if anyone comes our way, we’ll get out of sight before they reach us, since getting caught now would destroy our whole plan.

But we didn’t come unprepared either. I have a blonde wig on and tons of makeup, and Jayden has his sunglasses on and his hood up. Once the coast is clear, we rush toward the entrance and slip inside. Then we press ourselves against a wall so we can take a peek around the corner at the hallway and wait.

The corners of Jayden’s mouth twitch as he turns his head toward me. “The wig kind of suits you, by the way.”

“Focus!” I fight the urge to roll my eyes.