The Perfect League

by Maggie Dallen

  I folded my arms over my chest, trying to focus on his words and not the weird subtext of his glares or the fact that he did smell really nice. I mean, I hadn’t been sniffing him like a weirdo but it’s not like I could ignore the fact that he smelled like leather and soap and…

  Oh forget it. The point was, he was turning me down. He was already starting to walk away.

  “Wait,” I said, following closely. “Mrs. Abney said—”

  He stopped short and I bumped into him, but he didn’t seem to notice. His head fell back slightly at the mention of her name and I heard him mutter a swear word. It looked like he was cursing out the gym’s ceiling, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the case. He rubbed a hand over his face before turning to face me again. “Look, I just told her I’d do it to get her off my case.”

  I couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out but I pressed my lips together quickly to smother it. But seriously, it was kind of hilarious. I mean, here was the big bad wolf basically saying that granny had forced him to be a tutor. But I got it, I totally got it. Mrs. Abney had this way of looking at you like you were crushing her soul when you disappointed her.

  I wasn’t sure her guilt tactics were ethical but they worked.

  “So,” I shifted uncomfortably, suddenly aware that A, I was alone with said big bad wolf, for all intents and purposes and B, this could very well mean that I was back to square one in the tutoring department. I bit my lip, taking a moment to make sure my desperation wasn’t obvious. “So, you’re not available to tutor then?”

  He drew his brows together slightly as if confused by my response. It wasn’t like I was speaking in tongues here, guy. I needed a tutor, he was on the sign-up sheet for tutors. Where was the confusion?

  He shook his head. “Look, I’ve got to get my sister home so…”

  So nothing. He took off, not even bothering to finish that sentence.

  Awesome. My one brilliant plan on how I might possibly be able to dig myself out of this dire situation and he was walking away from me.

  I had to bite my lip again to call out after him. Whatever, I might be desperate but I wasn’t pathetic. If he didn’t want to help me, I wasn’t going to fight him on it. I watched him place a hand on his sister’s shoulder and lead her out toward the parking lot.

  It wasn’t until he was out of view that I grabbed my bag and headed out myself.

  There had to be someone who could help me, right? Someone who wasn’t a jerk, preferably, and someone else who wasn’t friends with my friends.

  Quite frankly it sounded impossible to find someone by the weekend, but with my team counting on me and my entire future at stake?

  Yeah, I’d find a way.

  Chapter Two

  Connor

  Legs for days. That was a phrase my grandfather had used once and it had stuck. Of course he’d been talking about Rita Hayworth, not some basketball player with an angelic smile, but I still couldn’t shake the phrase.

  Now I knew what he meant. Juliette Helms had legs for days. I was only half listening to Gina’s story about her friend getting in trouble during math class as I chopped some vegetables for dinner. The other half of my brain was replaying that bizarre interaction with Juliette, like I had been doing ever since I’d walked away from her.

  I shouldn’t feel guilty about it, but I did. It was that guilt that had me obsessing over the conversation. Well, the guilt and her legs. I’d never known I had a thing for legs until I’d seen Juliette wearing those little shorts. Typically she wore sweats or track pants—not that I was really watching her or anything.

  All right fine, I watched her. But not in a creepy way. It was just that she was there. I mean, I was a guy. I noticed pretty girls, even if they weren’t my type.

  And Juliette Helms? She was so not my type.

  Gina’s story came to an abrupt end, and as usual she changed the topic so quickly my head was spinning.

  “Is Juliette your girlfriend?”

  I stopped chopping. “What?”

  When I looked over she was giving me a grin that could only be described as impish. “Is she?”

  “No, of course not.” I shook my head and got back to work.

  “Why not?”

  I shot her a look before turning back to my vegetables. The look didn’t work—it rarely did with my sister.

  “She’s really pretty,” Gina said.

  That was an understatement. I turned to Gina. “You’re prettier.”

  That earned me a smile so big I could see her molars. But it didn’t deter her from her new agenda. “Abby’s older brother has a girlfriend.”

  “Good for him.”

  “Abby says his girlfriend is really nice to her and she treats her just like her own sister.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “I always wished I had an older sister.”

  Oh man. I turned to her and cocked a brow. “Very subtle.”

  Her giggle was infectious and I laughed as I shook my head. “I’m not going to date Juliette, okay? She just wanted to ask me something about school.”

  She wanted me to be her tutor. I shook my head. I still couldn’t believe she’d asked me that. I mean, a lot of people needed tutors, I got that. But why me? She had a million friends, one of them had to be able to help.

  Gina was quiet for a solid minute, which for Gina was the equivalent of being silent for a month. Honestly it made me a little nervous. I looked over to see her watching me with those big soulful eyes of hers. She’d gotten my dad’s eyes. I didn’t remember much about him since he took off when we were little, but I remembered those eyes.

  When I made eye contact she got that mischievous look again. “Juliette is nice.”

  Again with the understatements. I might not interact with my classmates at Briarwood, but there were some students who were impossible to miss. Juliette was one of those people that everyone gushed about. She wasn’t crazy popular in the sense that she was a queen bee trendsetter, but everyone loved her. Nice was the buzzword when it came to Juliette Helms.

  Honestly, she was the kind of person I hated. Not because she was nice, but because her life was so easy. My mom had moved us around so much that I could spot those kids a mile away. The ones who life had been kind to. They just seemed to glide through their lives with a smile. They were naturally charismatic, liked by everyone, good at sports, and, as if that wasn’t enough, ridiculously attractive.

  Not only were people like that living proof that life wasn’t fair, but I had nothing in common with girls like Juliette, or their male counterparts, for that matter.

  “She’s really nice,” Gina said again. I could hear her kicking her legs against her chair. “I bet she’d be your friend if you wanted.”

  I turned back. “Again with the subtlety.”

  She shrugged. “She would, I bet.” Her sweet sincerity stopped my exasperated sigh in its tracks. For some reason, Gina seemed to hate the fact that I didn’t have friends. Never mind the fact that it was the way I wanted it. She couldn’t seem to understand that.

  But then again, she’d been so young the first few times we’d moved that Briarwood Elementary was only her second school. She didn’t know what a pain it was to make friends only to leave them behind. Would my mom stick around in Briarwood? Maybe. This was her hometown, and she’d moved here so we could be close to her side of the family, rather than moving because of some guy. So yeah, maybe Briarwood would stick, and for Gina’s sake, I hoped it would. But for me, it didn’t matter. I had less than two years to go before I was out. Off to college.

  Thoughts of college made me think of Juliette—or rather, it made me think of my counseling session with Mrs. Abney, which in a roundabout way made me think of Juliette.

  Okay fine, I hadn’t exactly stopped thinking about Juliette for the past hour, but this time I was thinking about her request.

  Why me? It just didn’t make sense. Again, I might’ve acted oblivious at school, but I knew what people were saying. And t
rust me, nothing people said about Briarwood High’s newest loner was good. So far I’d heard rumors that I’d done time in juvie, that I was part of a gang, and that I’d gotten into a fight on my first day.

  That last one was true.

  My mom came in with that same rushed out of breath greeting she always gave us. She was one of those people who was always moving in ten directions at once. No matter how relaxed and fine me and Gina were, she always came running in as if the house were on fire and she was there to save us.

  “Oh good, you’re home,” she said as she dropped her bag and planted a kiss on Gina’s head. She was too short to even come close to my head so she gave me a little squeeze from behind as she walked past me.

  “How was your day?” she asked. This, of course, set Gina off on the same story she’d told me earlier so I totally tuned her out this time.

  Once she was done, I knew my mom would turn to me, and I knew what she’d ask. She’d want to know how my meeting with Mrs. Abney went and what was new in terms of college.

  My mom had a one-track mind, and it was hard to fault her. She’d never gone to college and she couldn’t wait until I sent out applications. She was more excited about the idea of college than I was, and I couldn’t freakin’ wait to get out of town.

  I mean, I’d miss Gina and my mom, but high school? Not so much. And I definitely wouldn’t miss the romance drama that went on in our house.

  You see, my mom had terrible taste in men. Oh, she’d never dated any true scumbags, thank God. I’d have had to kill them if she had. So maybe I shouldn’t say she had bad taste in men…. I guess, the better explanation would be, she had these crazy ideas about love. Like, how she always thought she was in it.

  I didn’t blame my mom, really. I mean, it wasn’t her fault that she’d been raised with all these bizarre notions about true love and happily ever afters. I just wished me and Gina didn’t have to suffer the consequences when the happily ended before the ever after.

  Besides, I hoped she’d find it one day. I might not believe in the fairytale crap, but I knew there were good marriages out there and my mom deserved that. She deserved everything, including seeing me go off to college.

  College…which we couldn’t afford. Not unless I got a scholarship.

  My grades were good enough to get into school, but as Mrs. Abney pointed out—I definitely did not have the extra-curriculars. If it was based on test scores alone, I was a shoe-in, but unfortunately these schools seemed to want it all. Smart didn’t cut it. I had to be freakin’ well rounded.

  Like Juliette.

  Ugh. All trains of thought led to that girl today. I stopped chopping and listened to the soothing background noise that was Gina’s chatter.

  Maybe I’d been too quick to say no. But in my defense, when I’d signed up I’d never had any actual intention of tutoring anyone. Out of all the options Mrs. Abney had given me for volunteer hours, I’d figured that was the safest bet. I mean, who would pick me when there was a nice list full of cheery nerds who lived to do that kind of stuff? All people who would bend over backwards to help the sweet and loveable Juliette get an A on whatever test it was she was stressing over.

  Poor girl was probably worried she’d end up with an A-. Oh the horror. Times must be tough for her to seek me out. Once again, I was back to that nagging question. Why me?

  More importantly, what if she told Mrs. Abney I’d rejected her? I mean, it was one thing if I was listed as a tutor and no one picked me. But if I turned people away, something told me Mrs. Abney wouldn’t hesitate to take that role away from me and I’d be left with zero extra-curriculars. Unless taking care of my little sister counted as volunteer work.

  Something told me it didn’t.

  And there was no way in hell I was going to take Mrs. Abney up on any of the other clubs or volunteer positions she’d offered. Homecoming committee? I didn’t think so. Chess club? I didn’t even know how to play, and besides, I was morally opposed to any club that would accept me as a member.

  Okay fine, so I was paraphrasing Groucho Marx. But still, clubs were lame.

  Gina finished her story and she and my mom were both laughing over it. My mom turned to me. “How was your day, hon?”

  “Fine.”

  Here it came. The daily college question. Part of me couldn’t wait to get in and get that scholarship just so these regular interrogations would come to an end. But once again I was back where I’d started.

  Juliette and her legs for days. She might not truly need a tutor—odds were, she was freaking out over nothing—but that was beside the point. I was starting to think that I needed her. At least, I needed her to tell Abney that I was doing my part as a tutor.

  I sighed at the thought of what I had to do, but when my mom asked the question I knew was coming, I forced a smile. “The meeting went great. She wanted me to add some volunteer work to the application so I’m going to start tutoring.”

  My mom was ecstatic.

  Gina was ecstatic when I told her who, exactly, I would be tutoring.

  The only one who was most definitely not ecstatic?

  Me.

  Chapter Three

  Juliette

  My teammate Aubrey had this mass of frizzy blonde curls that blocked the view of the rest of the hallway whenever we talked. And since her locker was next to mine and we were friends, she talked to me a lot.

  I tried to look past her without being super obvious. But seriously, she talked a lot. Often about things that I had no interest in. Like boys. I mean, I was interested in boys to some extent. But not like Aubrey.

  I didn’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that Aubrey was obsessed.

  Normally I didn’t particularly mind listening to her talk in great detail about her crush of the day, but on this particular day? I was on a mission. I needed to find a way to talk to Connor again, preferably alone, or at least somewhere we wouldn’t be overheard.

  I’d spent all last night trying to come up with a better solution. Some sort of alternative solution. I’d done this while studying, but honestly studying these days just made me want to cry.

  I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Everyone I knew just seemed to manage to ace their classes. Sure they studied but they just…got it.

  I never got it. I was always a step behind. And when I cracked a textbook and tried to catch up, it was like I was reading gibberish. Some part of my brain just turned off. I knew how to read—and I did read. I loved novels. But non-fiction?

  No. My brain just wasn’t having it. In class my brain wasn’t much more cooperative. I tried so hard to focus but always, without fail, after a few minutes, the teacher’s voice started to sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown and next thing you knew my mind was wandering.

  I’d tried to explain all this to my parents, but they didn’t get it. They liked to remind me that Jeremy had never had this issue.

  Of course my saintly, perfect, crazy smart brother didn’t have this issue. That was why he was at an ivy league while I’d be lucky to get accepted into any school, even with my basketball skills.

  So after trying and failing to make any headway studying on my own last night, I’d lain awake in bed trying to come up with new options. I could ask my parents to look into hiring a new tutor and cross my fingers that this one would be a better fit. But I really hated having to do that, especially since my parents weren’t aware of just how bad my grades had gotten.

  And they wouldn’t know until the next parent teacher conference. I was holding out hope that I could rebound before then and save us all the agony of another lecture about what a disappointment I was.

  Besides, finding a paid tutor who could start immediately seemed like a big ask. Most people had lives.

  Most people except for a certain cranky loner with a super sexy voice.

  Last night’s brainstorming didn’t come up with much. Though I did enjoy a daydream about hiring someone to take my tests for me, or maybe accidentally stumbling
onto answer keys for the next test in each and every one of my classes…

  But as far as realistic plans went, I was left with few options. Either humiliate myself and let everyone know just how stupid I was, or convince the son of Satan to do me a solid. I wasn’t quite ready to sacrifice my reputation on the altar of public embarrassment just yet. Which meant I would risk my pride and beg.

  I wasn’t exactly relishing the idea, but it seemed like the least terrible option. All morning I’d been wavering on this decision but then I thought of all the awful conversations I’d have to have if the truth came out. Being known as a giant moron by the school at large wouldn’t be pleasant, but I could probably handle it. It was the thought of my teammates’ reactions that really killed me. I didn’t want them worrying about me or the future of the team. I didn’t want their focus off the game and onto something they couldn’t control, like whether or not I was going to flunk out.

  Every time I thought about that, it strengthened my resolve. I craned my neck a bit to try and catch a glimpse past Aubrey. Still, it would be best if I got this humiliating beg session over and done with before I lost my resolve.

  “So do you think I should ask him?”

  Aubrey’s question cut into my worried thoughts. “Um…”

  She shifted her books, and in doing so her cloud of hair moved so I had a better view of the hallway behind her.

  “The dance is only a few weeks away so I don’t know if I should play it cool or just go for it, you know?”

  I didn’t know. I had clearly not been paying attention so I wasn’t even sure what guy she was talking about. The dance she was referring to was the annual fundraiser our team helped organize along with the boys’ basketball team. The money went toward new uniforms, gear, and travel money for away games.

  The dance had been my responsibility but I’d handed the reins to Aubrey when Mrs. Abney forced me to give up the majority of my after-school commitments.

  Apparently Aubrey didn’t really need my input because she was already talking again, this time verbally weighing the pros and cons of asking this unnamed boy to be her date. I took this as a cue that I was once again free to resume my scouting mission and looked over her shoulder for some sign of the big bad glaring beast. Nothing. Nada. No sign of Connor anywhere.