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“This has got to stop,” he barks, looking frustrated, and I spy another teacher who I don’t recognize in the corner of the room with his arms folded.
“What does?”
“This back and forth between you, Presley, and Carter. We know you egged his house yesterday—”
I place my hand on my heart, ready to use my practiced manipulation techniques. “No I—”
“Don’t lie to me, Miss Oaks. We have a witness who described you and your frizzy friend here—”
“Hey,” Alice whines, “I prefer the term wild-haired, thank you very much, Mr. Jefferson.”
He slams his hand down on the wooden surface of his desk and continues where he left off. “—to the T.” He sits in his comfy-looking leather chair and chews on his thin lower lip. “But I also know that those boys and their friends have given a lot more than they’ve received, so I’m willing to pretend none of it happened.”
“Yes!” Alice hisses in victory.
“In return for what?” I ask because I’m not stupid and her face falls.
The teacher in the corner steps forward and holds out his tablet. I blanche and my cheeks heat with embarrassment when I see myself really going for it on the rooftop like I always do.
“Every time that door to the roof gets opened, we get an alert,” the teacher says and puts his phone away. To be fair the footage was actually really good. “I followed you the first time, though you were leaving the roof, not the other way around, and the second, and the third.”
“I followed you on the fourth,” Jefferson puts in and I wonder how I didn’t notice them. But then, when my headphones are in and I’m losing myself, I really do leave the world behind.
“Think I can get a copy of that?” Alice asks, eyes alight with excitement.
“Scandal, this is Mr. Hammond, he’s our dance and drama teacher here at Saint Peter’s.”
“I’m how you get a dance scholarship to some of the best schools in the entire country,” he states boldly and with pride, puffing out his muscular chest beneath his white button-up. I bet all the girls are crushing on him. “And trust me when I say you have the skills to make it.”
“You are now officially a part of Dance Elite SP,” Mr. Jefferson declares, a broad grin on his face and Alice starts laughing as though it’s hilarious.
I look at my only ally in this room who is laughing so hard she can’t breathe. I don’t get the joke. “You can’t just enroll me into dance class.”
“We can and we have.”
“You’d be an idiot to waste this opportunity,” Hammond adds.
“This could be a great way to make friends.”
Alice is still laughing.
I smack her arm. “What’s so funny?”
“Dance Elite SP isn’t just…” She chokes for air. “Oh my God. Mr. Jefferson, that is savage AF, my man. You just can’t do that. She has no idea what she’s agreeing to.”
Before I can question anything, the door opens and two others walk in, both Carter and Presley who glare at me when they see me, as per usual.
“Sal sent us in,” Carter explains, pushing the door behind him. He sneers at me, his thick, swollen lips twisting with it.
“Heard you got egged,” I say sweetly to Presley who steps towards me with anger blazing in his eyes. Carter grabs the back of his collar and shoves him to the other side of the room.
“Not now,” he hisses as though none of us can hear them.
They stare me down and I stare them down right back.
“Thank you for coming, boys,” Jefferson tells them and motions for Hammond to continue.
“Give a warm welcome to your third dancer.”
I blanche, he has a way of making me do that. My smirk quickly becomes a look of horror and betrayal. “I agreed to nothing.”
Presley starts laughing as though it’s hilarious just like Alice did.
Carter immediately argues, “Not a chance in hell.”
“Neither of you have a choice. You’re amazing dancers, but there’s nothing special about you. There are dancers like you in every school in the country. Some better, some worse, but still… you’re not in a league of your own. You want to be, you need her.”
This time I laugh. “I fucked around on a school roof because these dickwads pissed me off. Oh the irony!”
“And I’ve never seen anybody dance better,” Hammond states simply, his light eyes blazing with determination. Both boys look at me as though I just sprouted a dick and slapped them both with it. “Make this work. You’re now a trio and you’re going to take this school farther than any of our dancers before you.”
“It all comes down to nationals, doesn’t it?” Carter snaps, shaking his head. “She’s not even going to be here in a week. Her foster mom is already trying to have her placed elsewhere.”
