Payton hopped out of Marino’s car the next morning. Today had to be a good day, right? The sun was shining, and the leaves were finally turning colors, the burnt-orange and yellow foliage looking more like giant pom-poms waving in the breeze. Too bad she had to go inside.
She sighed, keeping the trees in sight as she made her way to the school. A moment later, she slammed into something very solid. Payton raised her eyes and stared directly into the sculpted chest of Craig Helton.
“Sorry.” Her gaze slid up his chest, over his broad shoulders, until it reached his face.
He grinned. “It’s not every day a pretty girl runs into me.” He reached out and took her backpack from her.
“Why don’t you quit flirting with my little sister?” Marino socked him in the shoulder. Then he gave him a nod—which Payton totally didn’t understand. Maybe it was some secret guy code or something.
Craig’s face turned red, and he shook his head, which got him a scowl from Marino in return.
Okay, maybe she was missing something here? Why were they acting so weird? Payton took her bag back from Craig. “Um—I’ll catch you guys later.” She walked ahead of them, almost missing their quiet conversation. But she slowed down, glancing back over her shoulder.
“You know that was a perfect opportunity.” Marino tossed Craig a pack of Pop-Tarts.
“Easy for you to say. This stuff doesn’t come easy for me.” Craig shrugged, tearing open the silver foil wrapper.
“You’re running out of time, man.” Marino took a bite of his pastry and then patted Craig’s shoulder.
What in the heck were they talking about? He was running out of time for what? Not wanting to be late, Payton rushed into school.
Before starting the video, Mrs. Bradford stood at the front of the room holding a stack of white papers.
“Okay, everyone, the homecoming ballots are out. I’m going to hand them out to each table. When you’re done voting, pass them back up to the front of your row.”
Payton took one of the slips and scanned it over. She smiled when she saw that Marino was in the running for homecoming king, and Elway and Bradshaw were both nominated for princes. Only seniors could be nominated for king and queen, while the underclassmen had a prince and princess represent each grade.
She went still when her eyes rested on the freshman column. Her stomach twisted in knots. No. This wasn’t happening. Fuck. Payton took a deep breath. There, popping off the page in bold letters like a bad omen, was her name. Only it wasn’t under the princess column, but rather the one entitled prince.
Payton knew immediately who was responsible for it. And it had nothing to do with Kibby’s high-pitched giggle. Besides that, Payton was aware that the student council was responsible for creating the ballots, and Kibby was the class secretary.
Payton stared at the table, trying to ignore the tears pricking at her eyes. Everyone in the whole school was getting a ballot, which meant she’d be the laughingstock by the end of the day.
She slid further down in her chair, drumming her fingers against the table. She didn’t even dare look at Chance, who’d gotten really quiet all of a sudden, not that that was unusual for him.
After she voted for her brothers and Neal, she waited for first hour to end so she could get the hell out of there. Why the hell wouldn’t Kibby just leave her alone? As soon as the bell rang, she raced toward the office.
“Oh, Payton, I really hope you get crowned prince,” Kibby said with exaggerated sweetness, blocking Payton’s way.
“You can shove the crown up your ass.” Payton pushed passed her. People turned to watch her go by, covering their mouths to hide their smiles and snickers.
She barged into the office and over to the secretary’s desk. The secretary glanced up from her cup of coffee and smiled. “Can I help you?”
“I wondered if I could talk to the guidance counselor?” Maybe Mr. Thompson would be able to do something since he headed the student council members.
“Sure, just have a seat, Payton.”
She fought to keep from sobbing as she brushed the tears from her eyes. Damn. She didn’t want anyone to see her crying like this. Payton wiped her face on her sleeve and sat waiting.
A second later, the aging bald man flagged her into his office.
“Ms. Carter, to what do I owe this visit?” He offered her a smile, which quickly disappeared when he looked at her face.
“This.” She shoved the sheet at him. “Kibby Carlton did this on purpose. She’s had it in for me all year!”
“Ms. Carter, that’s quite an accusation you’re flinging around. Kibby is a very well-behaved young lady. I’ve known her for years. I’m sure she wouldn’t purposely do something like that. Why, I bet it was just a typo.” He smiled once more.
What a flipping douche bag. Did he honestly not see how horrible Kibby was? Or maybe he had a thing for her. Payton had heard of teachers falling for students before. Which, in this case, would be totally gross. “A typo? You’re kidding, right? Do you not understand that I’m going to be the biggest laughingstock in school?” Her pulse thundered in her ears, and she suddenly felt like she might get sick. “You know what? Never mind, Mr. Thompson. I’m sure you’re right.” She stood, fighting the urge to flip him off. “I’ll just go to class now.” She rushed to the door.
“Ms. Carter—” he called after her, but she ignored him and kept going.
Mr. Thompson was officially the worst guidance counselor in the world. Where in the frick did he get his degree? The University of Hell?
Payton slid into her second hour tardy by about five minutes. Mr. Decker called her up to his desk.
“Do you have a slip for being late?” He glanced up at her.
“I was with Mr. Thompson in the office. I forgot to ask for a pass.”
“Then I’ll have to mark you late, unless you want to go back down and see if you can get one?”
Yeah, that wasn’t about to happen. No way. Payton refused to meet with that asshat again. Ever. She didn’t care if there was a zombie apocalypse and everyone died and Mr. Thompson was the only one left to talk to. She’d still avoid him.
“No. It’s fine. I don’t want to miss any more of class,” she lied.
“You okay?” Neal asked as she slithered down in her seat.
Payton blinked, hoping no one would see the tears in her eyes. Swallowing hard, she shook her head. Today sucked balls. How the heck would she live this down?
Neal slid his chair closer to her and put an arm around her shoulders. She nestled into his shoulder, sobbing softly. The scent of cologne and fabric softener clung to his shirt, and she inhaled the familiarity of it as she tried to compose herself.
Come on. You have to get your shit together. Don’t let Kibby get you down.
“Mr. Visser and Ms. Carter, do I need to separate you two? I’ll not have that touchy-feely stuff going on in my class.” Mr. Decker stood, with his arms crossed, staring right at them. Everyone in the class turned around to look.
They quickly scooted apart.
“What an asshole,” Neal muttered under his breath. “By the way, don’t worry about Kibby Carlton. Matt and I were already discussing ways to take her down a peg or two.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled, before feeling Neal’s hand grasp hers under the table and give it a squeeze. He held on to it for the remainder of class, definitely something Payton hadn’t expected.
She cast a quick glance at him. Had he always been this cute? His tall frame was stretched out, legs sticking almost out into the aisle. His brown hair stuck up in messy tufts, while his eyes reminded her of mocha, not to mention his piercing white smile. Payton watched him for a few long minutes. Okay, so he was completely hot. But he was someone who didn’t realize he was gorgeous and didn’t try to flaunt it. She’d never even heard him brag about his football abilities, even though he was freaking awesome. He was just down-to-earth and nice. Too bad Chance Montgomery couldn’t be like that.
Payton
made it through her next class and was thankful when the lunch bell sounded in the halls. She had no appetite and decided facing a cafeteria full of assholes like Kibby didn’t sound like fun. So, instead, she ambled into the library and found a table in the very back, hidden from view.
A moment later, Neal sauntered in carrying the books for his next class. With a smile, he sat down next to her. “Hi.”
“Hey.” She waved. “What’re you doing in here?”
“Remember, we were supposed to meet in here for lunch?” He quirked an eyebrow at her, toying with the edge of his folder. “I mentioned it when I was getting out of Bradshaw’s car yesterday,” he reminded her.
Geez, he must think she was an idiot. Her face reddened. “Oh, yeah, sorry—I can’t concentrate on anything at the moment.” She turned to watch a robin land just outside the window. It pecked at the ground for a few seconds then fluttered off.
“I understand.” He reached across the table and patted her arm. “But you have to admit that if you did get crowned prince, you could really have some fun with it.” Neal laughed. “I’m sure Kibby thought it’d be funny to make a fool of you on the ballot, but just think if she had to get stuck walking around the track with you during the homecoming game. Or how about getting her picture taken for the newspaper while on your arm? The prince and princess have to dance in front of everyone during the homecoming dance. And I’m pretty sure she didn’t have you in mind as a dance partner when she set this up.”
Payton giggled. “Oh. My. God. You just made my day. I hadn’t thought of that.” The smile slipped from her lips, though. “But I still feel so stupid, knowing everyone is talking and laughing about me.”
“You’ll get through it, I promise.” He moved his hand back to his side, his gaze sliding to the window then back to Payton again. “I wanted to apologize for being a jerk yesterday during astronomy when the teacher told us we had that project. I-it wasn’t you, I was just really embarrassed about someone seeing my house.” He tore the edge off a piece of paper and rolled it into a ball.
She met his gaze. “I hope you know I’m not shallow like that.”
“I know, but I mean, you have this awesome house and a big family. I have my grandma, who’s great, but doesn’t exactly have much. The thing is my dad died when I was seven, and after that my mom got really fucked up with drugs and prostitution.” He lowered his eyes, his brows furrowed. And she wanted nothing more than to hug him, to erase the pain she saw on his face. “She’s in prison now, which is how my grandma got guardianship of me.”
Payton frowned. No wonder he didn’t talk about his family. She couldn’t imagine going through that. She chewed her lip, staring at him, trying to find the right words to say. But what was there to say? Sorry? That hardly seemed like it’d cut it. For the first time, Payton realized maybe she didn’t know her friends as well as she thought she did.
Neal cleared his throat and continued. “My mom got out of prison for a short time, not long enough to try and get me back or anything. Not that it mattered, because she ended up shooting someone and got put right back in.” His face twisted in anger, and his fingers clenched the edge of the table until they turned white. “I blamed myself at first, thinking that if I’d have been a better son, she wouldn’t be doing these things. But my grandma told me I wasn’t responsible for her behavior. After that, she had my mom’s parental rights terminated and adopted me.” At last, he shifted his eyes to Payton.
“Your grandma sounds amazing.” Payton caught his hand and offered him what she hoped was an encouraging smile. Neal was more like her than she realized. Neither of them had a mom in the picture. The reasons might be different, but it was something she could relate to. Payton’s chest warmed as she stared at him. She definitely needed to invite him over more.
“Yeah, Grandma’s terrific. And she’s been bugging me to bring you over to meet her. I told her she should come to one of our last football games so she can see you in action.” He grinned.
“Tell her if she’d like to come to one of the games, my dad could pick her up. He wouldn’t mind,” she offered. “So anyway, when did you want to start that project? We’ve got tons of mapping to do, and I think I still have my brother’s old telescope we could use.”
“How about tomorrow? You could come over to my grandma’s after practice—it should be dark about then. You can stay for dinner if you want.”
“Tomorrow’s my day off, so that’d be fine. I’ll just have to see if I can get a ride home.” She stretched her legs out then closed her eyes for a moment, letting the sun from the window warm her face and hair.
“There you guys are.” Matt rushed in, out of breath. The librarian glared at him and put a finger to her lips as if to shush him. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Did you eat?” Neal raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I scarfed down a sandwich and bag of chips while I scoured the halls for you. Payton’s brothers are searching for her. Brad even got in Kibby’s face. It was funny as hell.” He smirked, which only made him look more like a big, overstuffed teddy bear. “He told everyone in the cafeteria that Kibby tried kissing him, but he wouldn’t let her because she had dog breath.”
Payton laughed. “Wow, sorry I missed that. But I wasn’t really in the mood to go sit in front of half the school after those ballots came out this morning.”
“Who cares about that? Everyone likes you.” Matt peered around then ducked his head to shove a cookie into his mouth, managing to drop crumbs all over the table. He took his large paw-like hand and swiped them off onto the carpet.
Payton wrinkled her nose, hoping the janitors vacuumed tonight, otherwise the school would probably be infested by mice or something worse.
Turning her attention back to her friend, she said, “Thanks, Matt.”
When lunch was over Payton followed Neal toward class, spotting Elway as she went.
“Where have you been?” He scooped her up in his embrace. “Are you okay?”
“Um—there are people watching us,” Payton said, but she felt the tears coming on again. Her friends had made her feel somewhat better, but with her brothers, it was harder to pretend everything was okay. “I’ll be okay.” She sniffled, wiping her face against his shoulder. “I don’t know why everything has been so messed up lately.”
“I promise we’ll look after you.” Elway brushed her blond tendrils out of her face. “Listen, I better go find Marino and Bradshaw before they tear apart the school trying to find you. You sure you’re all right now?”
She stepped away from him. “Yeah, I’m good. Really.” She forced a smile and stepped away from him.
The day dragged on and on—it even started raining, so they had to practice in the mud and freezing cold rain. By the time Payton got home, all she wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to bed. Too bad she had about two hours of homework to do. She was quiet through dinner and refused to talk about her day when her dad asked. Since her older brothers were working, she didn’t have to get into the embarrassment of it. Instead, she dodged the questions and told her dad she had a ton of homework.
At about ten, she heard a soft knock on her door. At first she wasn’t going to answer it but figured that whoever it was already saw her light still on under the door.
Bundled up in her blue-flannel pajamas, she opened the door to find both Marino and Bradshaw lurking still in their work uniforms. Which meant they were about to go into big-brother mode.
“What?” She yawned, not wanting to cry yet again.
“We wanted to check on you.” Marino pushed into her room, followed by her other brother. “How come you didn’t tell us things were this bad?”
“Oh, yeah, because I so wanted to let my two popular brothers know I’m a total joke.” She snorted. They never had to deal with crap like this. Everyone liked them. Girls drooled all over them. Guys wanted to hang out with them.
“Damn it, Payton—one person like Kibby Carlton shouldn’t decide who yo
u are. Besides, I know tons of guys who like you.” Brad scowled.
This time she did laugh. “Yeah, I’m everyone’s best friend, just one of the guys … ”
“Payton, you’re pretty and nice and people notice that. They also notice you’re one hell of a quarterback.” Marino hugged her to his chest. “You’re always trying to be strong for the rest of us, but you’re allowed to cry and ask for help.”
And that was all it took to open the floodgates. Payton sat there in her brother’s arms for many long minutes, trying to compose herself. She was lucky to have her family, especially at times like this.
“Thanks, guys. I should probably head for it though … ” She glanced at her clock to see it was already ten forty-five.
“Okay, but if you need us, just holler.” Brad ruffled her hair then headed back up the stairs.
Yep, she was definitely lucky to be the only sister of the Carter boys.
So far Payton had been the butt of a few jokes, most of them having to do with her actually being male or being into chicks. It was definitely starting to grate on her nerves, but fortunately Matt, Neal, and Jake had been there to throw back a few insults. She just hoped this blew over quickly. Her brothers never had to deal with crap like this.
But what ticked her off the most was Kelly, who told her it was her own fault for making the football team. As if Payton didn’t have the right to play because she was a girl. Which made her totally happy that they were no longer friends.
By the time fifth hour rolled around Payton wanted nothing more than to go home and just hide in her room with a box of cookies and some chocolate—maybe even a chick flick or two. Payton hurried down the hall, bumping right into Craig Helton, who flashed her his adorable “melt you with one look” smile.
“I was just looking for you.” He caught her arm to steady her.
Payton raised a hand to smooth down her hair and glanced up at him. “Well, here I am, what’s up?” She attempted to focus, but his perfect white teeth and Caribbean Sea-colored eyes had her distracted. The way his arm flexed when he ran a hand through his hair … Oh, God. She needed to look somewhere else. Like the floor. Or the lockers. Because if he didn’t stop staring at her, she might say something stupid.
French Fries with a Side of Guys Page 11