They The Pretty Stars (Court High Book 1)

by Eden O'Neill

  “Well, he is sweet, isn’t he?” she asked, coming over. Hershey easily won the housekeeper over, rolling in my arms for a belly rub from Rosanna.

  “She’s a she,” I said, smiling. “I named her Hershey.”

  “That’s just perfect, then, isn’t it?” The words more for the dog than for me, Rosanna rubbed Hershey’s belly. “Perhaps we can keep her out in the guesthouse until we warm up Mr. Lindquist. How does that sound, little one?”

  My dad’s guesthouse was posh as hell, this little dog was about to be set up. My heart eased. “Thank you. I’ll take care of her. You won’t have to do anything.”

  “I’m sure that won’t be a problem.” More puppy speak from the housekeeper. She raised a finger as she bent for her clothes basket. “I’ll put an extra veggie burger on the grill for her tonight.”

  “She likes apples too.”

  “And an apple glaze.” She winked, seriously my best friend right now. She had to accommodate all the healthy requests my dad forced her to make, but every once in a while, I found a few packages of individual Oreos in my bag before classes. After finding out I was vegan, she asked me about the things I could eat.

  “And I’ll get her some puppy food in the morning,” she said. Rosanna wasn’t a live-in housekeeper and did go home every night. I appreciated any help I could get.

  Five

  Rosanna and I were a couple of idiots…

  Hershey’s howls reached the house by midnight.

  I’d just fallen asleep the moment puppy dog cries that sounded like full-grown canine barks blasted into the house like an animal orchestra, launching me out of bed with true terror in my veins. I had no idea if Dad had returned from his social event yet, but if he had…

  He’s going to kill me.

  The fear radiating from that, I took the steps two by two, making a circulation through the kitchen, and by the grace of God, no Rolls-Royce keys hung on the pegboard.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck…

  I shot through the back door and across the lawn. Dad might not be home, but who knew when he’d get home, and I had no idea if the neighbors held the same confidence I had with Rosanna. Something told me a dog ripping them out of sleep in the middle of the night wouldn’t move them in my favor, and as I didn’t have Rosanna to vouch for me since she went home in the evenings, I was on my own here. Bare feet padded me through a pitch-black lawn, and that might have been part of the problem considering I had a little dog in a foreign space on her own. Her freak-out was most likely completely all on me. Taking out keys, I opened the door with frantic fingers, the sight making me curse.

  “What did you do?”

  The puppy had ripped up her bed, completely torn to shreds. Rosanna and I had made space for her on the floor in a cardboard box with some of my dad’s old clothes. Rosanna hadn’t thought he’d miss them since he gave them to her for donation.

  I dropped to my knees, and the moment Hershey spotted me, she bounded over the tattered sheets and fluff-filled bedding. The comforter she’d used was completely destroyed as well as the box she’d been in, the thing completely turned over on its side.

  “You okay?” I asked her, the small animal whimpering when I gathered her in my arms. The moment she was there, her cries completed ceased, and I felt like a true dumbass for leaving her out here all by herself. “You’re coming to my room, okay? We’ll figure out something in the morning.”

  Upon taking her into the house, I figured the present state of the guesthouse was okay at least until morning. Dad would have no reason to go out there, and exhausted, I dragged myself through the yard and back inside. We made it upstairs with no interference from Dad since he wasn’t here, and the moment I set Hershey on the bed she made herself right at home.

  “You have to be quiet if you’re in here, cool?” I didn’t consider myself much of a dog whisperer, but the minute I climbed into the bed with her and put the sheets over us, I got nothing but silence. The room still, she even curled up into my chest, nuzzling my neck.

  Well, I guess I figured out what you needed.

  Who knew an animal of her size could create such volume, definitely not me, and closing my eyes, I put out of my mind what I’d have to do to keep her stay with me covert until I was ready. Dad really wouldn’t be having it, but maybe if I explained the situation, how she was alone…

  My phone buzzed once and accompanied with backlighting. Normally, I’d ignore it, so tired, but when it sounded again, then again, I groaned, grabbing the thing.

  Birdie: Have you seen this?

  The same came from Shakira and Kiki, who’d also texted me. We’d exchanged phone numbers earlier that day, and they all provided me a link to the same social media site. It was an account post, and though the account itself was anonymous with its meme profile picture, one of the pictures the account posted I recognized.

  The picture was me, me with illustrated stars over my eyes and pink hearts above my head. I was outside the school but I wasn’t alone.

  Royal was ahead of me, the picture from earlier that day. It’d been right after he left the boathouse and I was behind him because I followed the same path out. There was a caption above us, one I read all too clearly.

  STALKER.

  The word was in big, bold letters, and the caption below was even more mortifying.

  New girl gives it up her first week. Looks like the Court has another fangirl.

  A puppy whimper had me blinking with cloudy eyes, Hershey when she pushed herself between me and my phone and the text messages kept coming in. Shakira and Kiki asked if it was true, and Birdie, the same.

  Birdie: If it’s not, I’m sorry this happened. Call me if you need to talk.

  I dropped my phone on the bed. I didn’t need to talk to her, my hands shaking. I’d only be talking to one person tomorrow, and I had a feeling he had something to do with this even if he didn’t take the photo himself.

  Especially considering he threatened me.

  Six

  One good thing about the Court? People not only knew who they were but where they were… at all times. Finding Royal wasn’t hard, but getting him alone? That was another story. Considering getting him alone had gotten my ass in hot water in the first place, I made it known my agenda the moment class got out, and I figured out which exactly of the campus’s several athletic fields lacrosse practice was held at. From what I understood, he played there Monday through Friday after school, as he was the captain of the team.

  The captain played shirtless.

  Hip bones sectioned off into a divine male V were located directly below perfectly toned abs, also in their appropriate subsections. Dusted with blond hair that matched the tousle he had up above, this guy was a male anatomy chart and currently stood in some type of huddle in the middle of the field. All the players looked to be taking some kind of break as the coaches were off in their own huddle and various players had water bottles in their hands as well as whatever they called those lacrosse sticks. Approaching Royal at this time and in this element was definitely one hundred percent an idiot decision.

  “Hey, Mr. Captain of the Lacrosse Team!”

  I was an idiot. I was an idiot for shedding tears and even worst for going to sleep by them. I was an idiot for letting these people affect me and letting him threaten me yesterday and not doing anything about it. I was doing something about it today, and with my phone in hand, I watched as the huddle holding Royal split up and the man himself parted off from the crowd. I enjoyed watching his eyes twitch wide and his brow flick up at being called out by a virtual nobody in his space. I may have had one shot at this, one shot before complete social suicide, but I wasn’t here for him or anyone else. I was here for Paige and anything that resulted after this moment in time was moot to me.

  “Did you set this up?” I asked, charging onto the field and passing several sweaty boys. I blew past all of them, seeing nothing but red. I had my target set on the guy in the center. I shook my phone as I approached. “Did you have
someone take this? Spread this shit?”

  I had the meme in hand, the meme that mirrored not just that anonymous social media post but others once I followed the trail. The thing was everywhere, haunting me with illustrated starry eyes, and up in the captain’s space, I entered his huddle.

  All parted away, creating a scattered semicircle around Royal and me with the exception of several members of the Court I’d been informed were LJ, Knight, and Jax. Knight was the tallest, broad and thick as he stood beside Royal, but LJ and Jax were only a fraction smaller with their varied statures. Sweaty shirts either clinging to them or on their shoulders, all three boys intimidated just as much as Royal, but I stood up to them too. I’d stand up to anyone who made a fool out of me.

  “Was it one of them?” I asked Royal, eyes on his three friends. “Was this all a setup?”

  By now, everyone both on and off the field had cellphones out, no doubt recording this thing, but I didn’t care. I wanted evidence. I wanted footage as I handed this guy his ass for what he did.

  Royal’s eyes narrowed, arms braced across his muscled chest. “What are you going on about, December?”

  “How about you tell the truth?” I challenged, my breath hiking when my rapidly beating chest brushed his damp and completely naked one. I smelled him in his rawest form this close, hot and entirely too male. I wet my lips. “Tell them how it’s the other way around. How for some reason you tend to be wherever I am.”

  Fists raised to cover oohs and chuckles from tall jocks, Royal put in his place and mocked by everyone but his loyal brood. LJ, Knight, and Jax merely looked at him, and so focused on their reactions, I hadn’t gotten Royal’s himself.

  Otherwise, I would have picked up on the fire in his eyes.

  Instantly snatched up by my arm, I was pulled north, almost dropping my phone in the grass.

  “Hey!” I struggled. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He didn’t tell me, his grip firm, and only when we were back in the school and out of earshot did he let go. We’d entered the south doors of the campus’s rec center, and once inside, he forced open doors that said, Boys’ Locker Room.

  “Get in,” he commanded, more threats in his voice that followed his point inside. I didn’t necessarily like being told what to do and being told to go into a place that said boys’ locker room even less. I crossed my arms.

  Thick eyebrows descended like storm clouds. With a lift of his hand, he went inside by himself, and I was left standing in the hallway. Eventually, I raised my hands, going against my better judgment when I followed him inside. I found him lingering behind the doors, hands propped on his chiseled hips.

  “Have something to say to me, say it here,” he stated, a growl in his voice. “Or do you only get off hearing yourself talk when you know others are around?”

  Heat charging up my neck, I noticed the same in his, a pink crushed tone to his skin. I’d gotten under it, good. I lifted my phone, showing him again. “Was this you? This meme? This bullshit?”

  His eyes lifted toward the rafters when he rolled them. “I was there. How would that have been me?”

  That wasn’t what I asked, shaking my head. “You obviously have friends. Maybe one of those three out there.”

  “It wasn’t.” The sigh dropped his big shoulders. “We had nothing to do with that. I warned you about that place. I warned you what people do in there, and I wasn’t fucking around. Obviously, someone was watching the place, caught you and me?” He feathered fingers through thick, blond locks. “They ran with it.”

  “And you didn’t stop it.”

  He clicked his teeth, shaking his head. “Not my problem, princess.”

  My adrenaline blazed but in a different way, hurt and the line of pain versus anger blurred so quickly I couldn’t see straight. I couldn’t breathe, and it was all his fault.

  My jaw moved, my body… shaking. “You’re an asshole.”

  “And we’re done?” he backed up, hands still on his hips. “I told you what you wanted to know. It wasn’t me, Em.”

  The word stopped me, my name cut off but only in a way I’d heard from one other person. That person was my sister, the one who left me here.

  I dampened my lips. “Are you really telling the truth? You honestly had nothing to do with the meme?”

  So obviously over this line of questioning again, he shook tousled locks. “Why would I lie? I can get any girl I want in this place.”

  Ouch.

  We had differences between us, the captain of the lacrosse team and me. He was the leader of the school, so what would he want with a new girl from a different school? I was a nobody to him, the dirt on his cleats.

  I fixed my stance, the only thing I could do to avoid feeling small. “Since this is all so trivial to you, then,” I said. “My reputation and all that. Is it too much to ask if you’d shut these rumors down? You know, since you can get any girl you want?”

  A consideration moved over those starkly green eyes I watched start at my lips. He moved with his stare, his gaze chasing a path up to my eyes as he closed the distance between us.

  “Is that what you want?” he asked, getting into my personal space. He had a tendency of doing that, but unlike other times, I didn’t step down.

  I raised my chin. “Not if I have to give you something for it.” I may not be from this place, this world like he was, but I didn’t come here without street smarts of my own. I was starting to pick up pretty quick on these games he liked to play.

  And I wasn’t playing them.

  His head tilted. “Consider it done,” he said, surprising me. I’d actually been right in this case.

  Thank God.

  A small smile curled his full lips. “And this one’s free of charge… this time.” He left me with that, opening the doors for me but something distracted me before I could follow him. The boys had a corkboard by the door to the coaches’ offices, photos on it.

  It was there I spotted Paige.

  Chills lining my skin, I’d felt like she’d almost found me. I wasn’t even supposed to be in here, basically dragged. Had I not been in here, I never even would have seen this.

  I approached the wall, my sister in several photos. Some of them were in this very room. My sister was in the locker room with boys—well, one in particular.

  Royal had his arm around her, the pair doing peace signs while someone else had taken the picture. They wore lacrosse jerseys, lacrosse sticks in their hands, and I felt like someone gave me a peek into what seemed like ancient history. It really felt like I hadn’t seen my sister in so long but here she was, and the snapshot in time didn’t stop there. She had lots of pictures with Royal, some of them out on the field. One in particular, they grinned like a couple of assholes, flipping off the camera with their tongues out. This one wasn’t that long ago, though. Her hair cut short, Paige had only been wearing that particular style since junior year, a pixie cut with hair just as dark and flat like mine. The only major difference between us beyond our hair was her lanky height and trim build.

  And I guess the fact that her best friend was captain of the lacrosse team.

  The open doors behind me closed slowly, Royal. He’d let go to join me by the photo wall. He was a part of many of these photos as well as his friends LJ, Knight, and Jax. Their group all had quite a few photos with Paige too. She was usually at the center of their posse. One of them, they were all dirty and messy on the field, their group holding up a trophy with mud splashed on their faces and shins.

  “I heard you guys were friends.” I faced him, his eyes on the photo wall.

  They narrowed. “Not all rumors are fake,” he said, deadpan.

  I touched a photo. “This wasn’t that long ago,” I explained, knowing when my sister got that haircut. I turned. “Has she been in contact with you? I haven’t talked to her since the beginning of last summer.”

  If he was her teammate, her friend, he might have the answers I was looking for. She had to have told someone something
about where she was going, and if she hadn’t told me, why not her friend?

  Royal said nothing, eyes scanning the wall like a mathematician riddled over a sum. He’d merely parted his lips before the door blasted open and a couple of boys came in, basketballs under their arms.

  They froze upon seeing us.

  “Fuck, Royal. Sorry. Didn’t know you were in here,” one said, actually apologizing to him for some reason. They both blinked in my direction.

  “Stalker,” they said together, laughing, and my chest squeezing, I was immediately blasted back into the reasons I approached the lacrosse captain.

  If not for Royal that was.

  “Hey? Shut the fuck up,” he commanded, tossing a slap at the large guy’s chest. He directed a finger. “Don’t say that. Not about her.”

  Blinking, I stood ramrod straight. Not fifteen minutes ago this boy wanted nothing to do with my defense. I mean, before our agreement. Totally holding up his end, he pushed the second guy. “Now get the fuck out of here.”

  Fear shrunk boys at least half a foot in height taller than him, the two grabbing each other before backing up.

  “Sorry, Royal.”

  “Say sorry to her.” Royal’s finger didn’t leave my direction. “And fuck that meme. It’s not true. Tell all your friends that.”

  The boys faced me, mumbled sorrys falling from their lips as they turned and ran like scared little bitches. I’d be a little intimated by Royal myself if the words exchanged hadn’t been in my defense.

  Jesus.

  Royal really had a firm hand around here, one that people definitely reacted to. He opened the double doors. “Come on before someone else comes in here and starts more shit.”

  I peeled myself away from my sister’s photos, moving under his arm. In this case, I supposed it’d be smart to take his direction.

  To: paigealltherage@webmail.com

  From: emthegem@webmail.com

  Subject: Royal