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Maybe. But in my three years at SH Prep, I’ve never seen Mrs. T. as disheveled—or as consistently fuming—as she has been since Sebastian arrived on the scene.
“Good to know,” Sebastian pulls his lower lip between his teeth, still grinning wildly. Looking every bit the miscreant Mrs. T. deems him to be. “So maybe she’s busting her ass to get over here ’cause she just wants to be first in line on the slip’n’slide of the century,” he says loudly, all gleeful bravado.
Those students close enough to hear erupt in fits of laughter, encouraging him further with their whoops and hollers. A spray of water hits my leg and I jump back, cursing the flash of cold against my skin as it soaks through my jeans.
Sebastian glances up. His eyes go wide with a flash of surprise.
“Caroline!” he says, beaming like he’s legitimately thrilled to see me. “You wanna go first?”
My jaw drops. “What?” I step back, horrified. “No! I’m not—I mean I don’t—”
“SEBASTIAN MURDOCH! TURN OFF THAT HOSE,RIGHT NOW!” Mrs. Tromely is halfway across the field now, already out of breath and struggling just to maintain a decent pace.
Sebastian’s gaze doesn’t stray from mine as he flashes a devilish grin: “Fifty bucks says she topples over before she even reaches me.” Then he winks. Again.
And before I can react, he tosses the hose aside, leans over and grabs me around the waist with both arms, and launches us down the slide.
The sudden shock of the water freezes even my vocal chords for a good two seconds. But not Sebastian’s. Clearly.
“Yeah, baby!” he yells, like a jubilant roller-coaster rider.
I inhale a shaky, totally freaked out breath. My butt is wedged firmly between his muscular thighs, and his arms are wrapped around my middle. I don’t know if this makes this entire situation better or worse.
Worse. Definitely worse.
Everything about this situation falls squarely in the “everything is worse” category. Because as the spray soaks through my clothes and blurs my vision while we rocket down the hill, I suddenly become glaringly aware of the fact that everyone’s eyes areAll. On. Me.
Me, wedged between Sebastian Murdoch’s thighs, his arms wrapped around me as we careen down the illegal giant slip’n’slide he just threw together—and launched us down—in front of Mrs. Tromely as she yelled at him to stop.
Oh my God, she’s going to think I had something to do with this! I’m going to get implicated in Sebastian’s stupid, childish prank and get in trouble and it will go on my record. And ruin the chance I had at getting into Braden Hall. Of getting into my top choice college, possibly.
The crowds’ shrieks mingle with Sebastian’s long, gleeful holler as we skid and fly across the final length of plastic onto the grass at the bottom of the hill. Then the screams turn to applause as we slow to a stop.
I stumble frantically to my feet and whirl on Sebastian, who is still sitting there, raking his wet hair off his face. And even through the fury, jealousy clutches at my insides as laughter creases the corners of his eyes before even reaching his lips—because I can’t help thinking how nice it must be to go through life like this: everything always so easy and happy and meaningless. He has no clue. He has no damn idea what it’s like for someone like me.
I am so over-brimming with anger right now, I can’t even speak.
Sebastian gets to his feet, beads of water trailing from his bangs down his flushed cheeks as he gathers the front of his shirt in both fists and twists it to wring out the water, exposing his “look-at-me” perfect washboard abs and tanned narrow hips. Then he shakes his hair wildly, showering more droplets in a wobbly arch. And finally, he straightens and looks over at me. “Scale of one to ten, Caro—how freakin’ awesome was that?”
And then his smile quickly fades. Because my expression is clearly advertising that his wild ride did not, in fact, rank anywhere on my “freakin’ awesome” meter.
“Shit…” He steps closer, reaching for my arm, but dropping his hand when I duck out of his reach. “What’s the—Are you okay?”
“No, Sebastian,” I hiss. “I amnotokay.”
And then I turn my back on him and start making my way back up the hill, because I refuse to get into it with him right here. The last thing I want is to draw any more attention to myself than Sebastian already has. I just want to get the hell away from here as fast as possible.
I know Sebastian is right behind me, because of the shouts and cheers I hear calling out to him from the crowd. And then, “Caroline! Hey! Caro! Wait up!”
I do not wait up.
And suddenly, when we’re almost at the top of the hill, Mrs. Tromely’s bulky form comes into full view, with her liege of fellow staff behind her.
“Everyone, please head to your after-school sports and activities!” she calls out. And much to my shock (delight?), she brushes right past me when I reach the top of the slope and points a trembling finger right at Sebastian, who is just behind me.
“And you… Mr. Murdoch. You can come straight to my office!”
She takes another step toward him onto the soapy plastic. And her feet slide right out from beneath her. So fast it isn’t even a stumble, but a heavy backwards fall onto the grass into a soggy, seething heap.
