by Taylor Hart
Her smile faltered. She’d heard about weirdos contacting girls. She’d heard about strangers pretending to be someone else.
Who are you really? she DMed.
Well, it’s not really a mystery. I’m Hunter.
She sucked in a breath and smiled.
He sent another pic. She opened it. This time it was of him with his shirt off, but it only showed half of his face.
Attraction wove through her. He was ripped, with six-pack abs and huge biceps. She lingered on the smile. It was the kind of smile that said he knew some joke and he wasn’t going to tell her.
Send me a pic of you, he texted.
Her heart started racing again. Wasn’t this textbook? Some guy starts DMing her, then he’s asking for pictures…
No. She couldn’t. This was too much like what everyone warned kids about.
The bell rang, and she texted him back. I can’t. Gotta go to class.
***
Math went by quietly. More quietly than ever, which hurt. Just like the girl passing her by at lunch had mentioned, popularity was a funny thing. When you were on top, you had everyone, but when you were at the bottom…
Tiffany walked past her in the hall after math, making a point of freezing her out.
After health class, Karl lingered by Sammy’s chair. She surged to her feet and shoved past him.
“Wait, Sammy.” His hand clasped her bicep, pulling her to a stop.
She yanked out of his grip. “Don’t. Talk. To me.”
The pain in his eyes matched hers. “I never meant to hurt you,” he said softly. “It all just kind of happened.” He threw a hand up.
“You asked me to prom, and then you made out with her. Were you really cheating on me the whole time?”
“I…I didn’t mean to. She would corner me and kiss me. And…”
She waited, hating herself for feeling so vulnerable. “So are we going to prom or not?” Here she was, this pathetic loser.
He frowned, looking down. “I don’t think so.”
She closed the gap between them and slapped him across the face. Hard.
He winced, putting his hand to his face.
“That was so cool!” One of Karl’s friends, Frankie, was holding up his phone and recording. “She totally slapped him for kissing her best friend!”
Humiliation burned through her yet again. Frankie laughed as Sammy ran past him and into the hall, lost in a sea of students who were heading to their next classes. How could she do this?
She headed for the art complex at the other side of the school, but the more she sorted through the students, the more hyper panic grew inside of her. They were all looking at her. They were all laughing at her.
When she reached her locker, her hand shook as she tried to open it. Finally, the door hit the next locker with a clang, and she stared inside into the darkness. How would she get through this? She had nothing. No cheerleading. No friends. She wasn’t good at anything else. She put her books away and wiped at the traitorous tears coasting down her cheeks.
Her phone vibrated in her hand. She looked down at a picture of a guy screaming, his hands up in the air. It was exactly how she felt, and she giggled.
She looked at the handle. It was from @hunterlives. Someone cared. She DMed him back, knowing this was how she would make it through the weekend.
Exactly.
Chapter 8
Zoey
Sunday morning, the captain put breakfast on the table and looked at Zoey and Nicholas. “The mission’s a go. Tick-tock, she’s been Instagramming him all weekend.”
“You mean DMing him,” Nicholas corrected.
The captain raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, see this video.” He pushed play and showed them a video of a redheaded girl, who Zoey recognized as Sammy, performing a routine. On the last halfback, she flipped someone off.
“Oh man,” Nicholas said. He took a huge bite of his BLT, and bacon squished between his teeth.
“Apparently, that’s Sammy’s tryout for state cheerleading captain. Ralph said it was posted by her friend Tiffany yesterday. From what Ralph has gathered, Sammy got suspended from the cheer squad and is upset they couldn’t be team captains for the competition because of it.”
“Maybe smaller bites,” Zoey said to Nicholas as she turned back to the video.
The captain paused and stared at Nicholas. “You’re a pig, dude. Learn some manners.”
“What?” Nicholas said through a mouthful of food.
Zoey’s eyes connected with his, and she couldn’t help but crack a grin. He grinned back. They’d mostly ignored each other during the weekend, only talking about their undercover profiles, which wasn’t that intense. They were basically just transfers from another town. Their “foster dad” had gotten a new job in Denver.
The captain tapped at the phone. “Here’s another video that was on social media last night that Cyrus’s guys intercepted.”
They watched as someone recorded the redhead, Sammy, slap a guy. “She slapped him for kissing her best friend!” someone hollered. They heard someone laughing.
The smack looked like it hurt, and Zoey found herself smiling.
“Hey,” Nicholas said, pointing at her. “We don’t condone violence. You shouldn’t be smiling.”
“Maybe the organization doesn’t condone it, but I do.” She thought of how, wrong or right, that was one thing she liked about being part of this project—she felt powerful with all of the martial arts skills she got to use.
“Are you okay?” the captain asked her.
She nodded. She wouldn’t go back in that dismal place in her mind. It’d been so nice to be at the farm the past few months and now have actual assignments, because it got her out of her dark thoughts.
The captain sighed. “She’s been communicating more and more with @hunterlives.” He showed them a picture of half a face and the top half a mask.
Zoey peered closer, rage boiling inside her. “The guy is going down!”
“Yeah, he is.” Nicholas’s voice was calm. He brought their attention to other, smaller pics. “Can we see those too, Cap?”
The captain relinquished the phone. “You can see them and look around, but don’t reach out. That can get messy. Our specific job is to—”
Before the captain could finish, Nicholas said, “To observe and help the victim make a different choice. On their own.” He said the words in a monotone, then frowned. “You really think Zoey’s ready for this?”
She threw her hands into the air. “Stop it.”
He leaned in close. “I don’t know if you’re ready for a sting like this. It means that maybe you would be best served on the sidelines for a while—make sure you have your crap together before we go in and you risk your life and possibly risk losing the girl.”
That must have happened to him before, Zoey realized. This whole thing wasn’t about thinking she wasn’t ready; it was about his fear. He could be haunted by his previous partner. “What’s your story, anyway?”
Nicholas barked a laugh. “Yeah, right. Not gonna happen.” He let out a light sigh. “Oh man, amateurs.”
The captain put a hand on her shoulder. “Remember the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.”
“Right.” She glared at Nicholas.
“Here’s the deal,” the captain said. “The more Ralph and I have studied this situation, the more we think it would help if you two went in and tried out for the cheerleading team.”
“I was hoping we could skip that part.” Nicholas frowned.
She laughed, unable to smother her glee at his dismay.
The captain’s expression was hard. “I think Zoey’s going to have to train you for this part.”
Nicholas softly punched the table with his fist. “Explain to me, again, why I would need to be on the team?”
Cap shrugged. “From what Ralph has gathered, the cheerleaders are all Instagramming about how they need new cheerleaders for the state competition. You need to be there to gather inte
l.”
Nicholas’s whole body was tense now, and Zoey noticed the cool guy facade was gone. This version was raw and angry, but he was trying to cover it. “Those types don’t like me.”
Zoey shifted her attention back to @hunterlives on the screen, resisting the urge to break the phone. “We’ll be fine. I know the cheer crowd, and I know girls like this.” She didn’t want to talk about the real reason she’d become isolated at the Olympic training center—because the girls were all mean girls, jealous and competitive. But her life then felt like so long ago, like it belonged to a different person. “And they like guys like you.”
He scoffed. “Like what?”
She rolled her words in her mouth before she could reply. “Tough guys, okay? Guys that can yell loud and throw girls. I’ll have to train you, but I think you’ll be able to do it.” The possibility of training him was somehow enticing.
The captain nodded. “Good.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Uh…”
She continued, looking at Cap. “And if @hunterlives tries anything, we take him out.”
Nicholas cocked an eyebrow. “I like that part.”
The idea stoked the embers inside of her. She remembered the night she’d first met Marcus, when he’d picked her up from the bus and she’d thought he was her legit boyfriend. Three guys had seized her as he’d slammed a bag over her head and shoved her in a trunk. Just thinking of the stench of urine made her close her eyes and wish the thoughts away again. She wasn’t sure how long she sucked in long breaths with her eyes closed.
“Zoey,” the captain said quietly.
Zoey’s eyes shot open, and she saw the compassion on Nicholas’s face. “I just…” She knew her cheeks were burning with embarrassment. “I’m fine.”
Nicholas cocked an eyebrow. “Sometimes we all remember the bad stuff.”
“The things you kids have gone through…” The captain searched her face. “Are you sure you’re ready, Zoey? There’s no shame in waiting until you feel more comfortable.”
Zoey lifted her chin, confident. “Don’t ask me again.”
For a moment, all three of them were silent. She turned to Nicholas, who had this look of…almost admiration on his face. She couldn’t be sure, since she didn’t know him that well.
Nicholas nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Okay,” the captain said. “I’m going. You better get started teaching him stuff.”
Nicholas jerked a thumb at his chest. “I don’t need training.”
Zoey laughed. “Whatever. From the videos I’ve seen, they’re really good.”
The captain shook his head. “Listen, Nicholas, I don’t want attitude on this. I need you to be ready to get a spot by tomorrow. This predator we’re after, this @hunterlives…well, we think he could be one of the biggest guys in the cell.”
“He’s a major pimp?” Zoey’s brows furrowed.
“And he’s slippery. Don’t blow this.”
Nicholas growled. “The only thing is…” He broke off, looking flustered. “I don’t know how to dance.”
Zoey smirked at the embarrassment on Nicholas’s face. “It’s fine. You can be a base,” she offered. “You just have to hold people and do a few rehearsed dance moves; it won’t be hard. And I’ll help you figure it out.”
With a look of blatant disgust, Nicholas said, “I don’t dance at all.”
She imagined the big guy dancing. Another little burst of happiness started in her gut and rushed up inside of her chest. “We’ll call them cheer moves. Does that make you feel better?” She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, and she giggled.
Nicholas scowled at her. “You look like you’re enjoying this.”
Quickly, she put a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d giggled. What was happening?
“And you’re laughing at me.” His face darkened, and he looked like the real Thor, like he wanted a challenge. “Fine, I can do this. Easy.”
The captain was walking away, but she heard him laughing too. “Better get started.”
Chapter 9
Sammy
On Saturday, Sammy hadn’t left her room all day, crying like a stupid idiot. Her father had actually come to her room and tried to console her. “In the long run, sweetheart, you’ll see this whole thing doesn’t matter.” He’d opened his arms. “Plus, I love you.”
“Stop it!” she’d yelled at him. “Stop! All you care is if I can give you the grades you want.”
She must have been hysterical, because he hadn’t lectured her, just turned and left. Even though she’d felt bad about how she’d behaved, it wasn’t her fault.
On Sunday, things didn’t get any better. She’d gone to church with her family and sat there the whole time, listening to the preacher talk about God and how much he loved them. And she’d felt hollow. If God loved her, then why had Tiffany gotten her suspended from the cheer squad for fighting, and why had Karl chosen Tiffany? Her breath had hitched as she’d remembered watching them kiss outside of the gym doors.
Now, she’d asked to be excused after lunch and she lay on her bed, staring up at her ceiling. She let the tears run willy-nilly down her face and into her ears. She didn’t care about anything, because no one saw the real her. No one, not her parents, not her friends—well, former friends—and especially not Karl.
Closing her eyes, she saw herself as the star of the Montrose High School cheer team. She’d been told to visualize herself and her team winning state for as long as she could remember. In her mind, she was already there. And they were winning the state competition with her being boosted into the air and flying high.
But not now. Now she wouldn’t get the chance.
She fell into troubled sleep, awakened by a notification ding. Her phone said seven o’clock p.m. Dang, she’d been napping for way too long.
She saw the notification was from Instagram. She unlocked her phone, blinking sleep from her eyes, and saw a DM from @hunterlives.
I see you. I see you, and you’re the best cheerleader I’ve ever watched.
That was exactly what she’d been thinking about. The timing was uncanny.
He sent her another message and she pressed the video. It was a recording of her cheer completion from last fall. He’d zoomed it in on her solo part, where she did a long line of gymnastics in the final back layout, and George, their old line guy, had caught her and then lifted her into a swan pose. She’d held that pose while her team chanted a cheer; then she’d released it into a front flip and landed on her feet, joining in the last couple of moves.
You’re good. Really good, the next message read.
She hovered over his face, the half face and half mask, and a swarm of butterflies fluttered through her. She tapped his profile and scrolled to one of his posts: I like this girl. She’s a cheerleader. Hoping she likes me too.
What? He was already posting about her? She laughed and felt the familiar rush that came when a guy liked her.
She scrolled through the rest of his posts so she could better trace how she knew him. Okay, he was friends with some of the other cheerleaders on Castle Rock cheer team from two years ago. That made sense. She spent the next hour deep diving and watching all his adventure videos. The way he was so active in rock climbing and weight lifting was admirable. Dang, he was hot.
Then he DMed her again. Hey.
She couldn’t stop herself. Hey.
You doing better?
Man, he must think she was all drama. Yeah, it’s just hard.
He put up a picture of a moving gif, one from a Friends episode she’d watched. She laughed and posted a gif from the same episode.
So you want to tell me about it?
She hesitated.
You don’t have to.
She sighed. My boyfriend cheated with my best friend. My best friend got us kicked off the cheer team for the next competition.
I’m sorry. She sounds like a b#$@%.
Sammy let out a snicker. Exactly! A
t least this guy could see that.
As the night progressed, Sammy wasn’t really sure when they stopped DMing, because she fell asleep with her phone in her hand.
Chapter 10
Zoey
Zoey walked out to the garage, where Nicholas always hung out. He’d told her a few hours ago that he needed to finish one thing in the garage, and then they could practice some dance stuff.
Zoey smothered the butterflies that plagued her whenever she was next to him. Her attraction to Nicholas was stupid. After she’d been rescued by Cyrus, she’d sworn to herself that she never wanted a relationship with anyone, ever again. She’d been forced to do too many unspeakable physical things with men; it still made her feel awful and guilty and horrible, even though she knew logically it wasn’t her fault, that she hadn’t chosen to do those things. Half of the times she’d been threatened, starving, drugged, or Marcus would threaten to hurt the other girls if she wouldn’t comply.
She got to the garage and saw Nicholas’s feet sticking out from beneath the car. Loud rock music echoed off the walls. She went to the old boom box and turned it down.
“Hey,” he called out.
“Time to dance,” she said, unable to stop her smile. It was clear that even the thought of cheerleading made him nervous.
He pushed himself out, and his face and arms were greasy. “Okay,” he grumbled.
She waited while he got up, put some stuff away, then took a rag and began wiping himself off. She tried not to notice his muscles.
He stopped moving, and she realized he must think she was checking him out—which she wasn’t. His lips turned up. “Sorry, I’ve been putting you off.”
Was he attracted to her? No. She didn’t want to think about that. Plus, they worked together. This was a working relationship. That’s all.
He put a large wrench down on a big cart that was next to the car. “What do we need to do?”
Her life was not about this anymore. She couldn’t be attracted to anyone. She put her hand on the car to steady herself.