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I lean down and pick up the seaweed, then sprint toward him, leaping onto his back before he even has a chance to dodge my attack. Trev’s built like a washing machine, but I’m a couple inches taller than him, so it’s no surprise he stumbles a bit, trying not to wipe out under my full weight.
“You know I’m always down for a Hooks Burger,” I croon in his ear, locking my legs around his torso and pulling his collar open to shove the slimy mass down the front of his shirt.
“Shit, Murdoch!” Trevor whines, trying to shove me off with one arm while pulling at the front of his top with the other. “This is my favorite shirt!”
Which only makes me laugh harder. And now the other guys are busting a gut, too.
He finally gets his shirt untucked and extracts the seaweed, then reaches back to smear it on my face. Only, I lean to the left, so he misses, and it falls against my shoulder instead. He curses at me some more, mumbling something about getting a rash and how I’ll be to blame.
I jump off his back, then jog to catch up with Scarlett, who’s wandered ahead of us. I scrape a stray bit of seaweed from my shirt and squish it between my fingers.
“You coming to Hooks?” I ask.
She leans away from me, side-eyeing the seaweed. “Get that shit away from me, Seb.”
“It’s basically just sushi.” I grin, holding it out toward her peach-blushed cheek. I tap her boot with my sneaker. “So, Hooks? You coming?”
“I mean it,” she warns in a tone that sounds eerily like our homeroom teacher back in seventh grade. “Touch me with that and I’ll maim both your testicles.”
I chuckle. But I withdraw the offending algae. Scarlett’s kinda infamous for following through on her threats.
Leaning in again, I flick her ear with my free hand. “So dramatic, Thiels”
She gives me a dismissive eyebrow tilt. “Such aguy, Murdoch.”
Which makes me chuckle again, because no way that’s the best she’s got. I rip off a chunk of seaweed with my front teeth.
“See?” I grin. “Just like sushi.”
She cringes. “You’re disgusting.”
Still, she can’t help smiling, and I chalk that down as a win.Threesmiles in one evening, now.
We spend the rest of the evening hanging at Hooks. And I don’t think any more about my grades, or the memory glitches, or football, or how pissed my folks are gonna be that I took off tonight, when I’m supposed to be on house arrest for being a class-A screwup.
Chapter Five
Caroline
Iamthebiggestidiot on the planet. Possibly below sea anemone and mollusks. And marginally above a sea cucumber.
Why did I agree to tutor Sebastian Murdoch?
To be fair, I didn’t know it was him when Mrs. Tromely called me into her office this morning. When she went over the proposition, it sounded perfect. Tutoring some guy for three two-hour sessions a week, for a jaw dropping hourly rate. Like,insanerate.
The timing was perfect. I thought my luck was finally changing because I know that realistically, a minimum wage job won’t pay enough in such a short time to raise my portion of my Braden Hall tuition. And here came this opportunity, and I was sort of flipping out.
But I should have known it was too good to be true.
Now, I’m staring at a forwarded email from Mrs. Tromely with the contact info for the student’s father: Graham Murdoch. As in the famous architect, Graham Murdoch. As in Sebastian Murdoch’s father. As in what-the-heck-did-I-just-get-myself-into?
But it’s my ticket out of here. And if this is what it takes, then I can handle it, right? I can handlehim… and whatever gargantuan grade gap I need to help Sebastian Murdoch overcome. Even after the bedroom window encounter last night and the phone hand-off today, where his crude, cruel friends catcalled to me the entire time, I am still willing to do this. Because for the amount of money mommy and daddy Murdoch are willing to fork over to bring their precious star football playing son up to even bare minimum passing grade levels,I can be okay with all of that.
But when I arrive at school Wednesday morning, I realize what an idiot I’ve been. Because after word of my run-in with Sebastian Murdoch at Helicina Cove got out, I’ve become the laughingstock of the entire school. Again. My public ridicule is back to being front-and-center; not just a background undercurrent like it has been so far this year.
The replay of events from the beach encounter has become completely skewed with every retelling, and the story now is that I followed him there, because I have a huge crush on him and wanted him to notice me.
He took pity on me and talked to me.
