by Jo Holloway
“D! I’m so happy to see you!”
“Me too,” Delaney choked before Cara released her.
Mak and Sandra added their bags to the pile and each said hello to Delaney in exchange for a quiet wave from the shy girl.
“Come on. We couldn’t carry everything for the guys in one trip, so we have to walk back up. Come with us.” Cara linked her arm through Delaney’s as soon as she nodded.
The other three had made just as quick of a drop off, and they all joined up again at the fork in the path. The guys greeted Delaney, and soon, everyone was telling summer adventure stories—well, the ones that were safe to tell around parents and non-Pyxsees. As they passed between the front two dorms, Mak gave a sudden roar and took off up the path. That was fair. He’d want to go see his friends too.
Her eyes tracked him to see who had come out of the Douglas Fir dorm that he was so excited about, and the butterflies escaped from their cage. Whatever Delaney was saying faded into the background. The poufy hair had been replaced with the styled look he wore when he actually cared who saw him, but his lean form was unmistakable—to her, anyway.
She was way too aware of Rhys. It wasn’t getting better. The more she got to know him, the worse it grew. Maybe all the distractions of school would finally allow it to fade. She’d see him with his own friends, with girls from his class, and she’d have to get over it. Her teeth gritted together.
“That’s great, man. I’m so glad you’re back to graduate with us. Are you coming back to play ball?”
They’d caught up enough to overhear Mak’s conversation with Rhys.
“Maybe. I missed a year and a half. Not sure the team will want me back,” Rhys said.
As he spoke, his eyes caught their group going past and fell on her, but he made no sign of greeting. Of course. She should have remembered he would be in the senior class with Mak, and with all the girls who lived on the floor above her in the Cedars. She’d gotten used to thinking of him as only a year older after Wes’s comment to her the day at the pool. But at sixteen months apart, and with her September birthday, it put him two grades ahead. That was a big gap, even for somewhere as tightly woven as Scovell Academy.
“The team will want you. You didn’t shrink any.” Mak laughed. He was the star of the school’s basketball team even as a junior last year, and had easily two inches over the already extremely tall Rhys. Their voices weren’t fading, and she checked over her shoulder to see the two of them falling into step behind their group. “What were you doing in the Dougie?” Mak asked him, referring to the Douglas Fir dorm from which Rhys had emerged.
“Well, I am back, but not to graduate with you guys, unfortunately. I missed the last few months of sophomore year and all of junior year. Homeschooling around family stuff didn’t quite work out. Anyway . . . I’ve still got to do my junior year.”
“Serious? That is some—”
“Language,” Elena called back over her shoulder from ahead where she walked with Sandra.
How his mom knew what Mak was about to say, Cara had no idea, but it gave her a perfect chance to glance behind her. Her heart had skipped a beat when he’d said he was a junior now. He’d be here for two years, not one. Her arm was still linked with Delaney’s, so she peeked over both their shoulders and immediately caught Rhys’s eye. She swiveled forward again quickly. Of course he’d be looking. She was walking right in front of him. He had to look somewhere.
“Hey, you guys don’t need our help for the rest of your stuff, do you?” she called ahead to Wes and Jory. Both heads shook back and forth without turning around.
“Let’s go find some freshmen to help move in, okay, D?”
“Oh, sure. We could do that.” Delaney looked curious at the sudden topic shift, but happy enough to stick with Cara.
“I don’t actually think I’ve ever been inside the Juni,” Cara said, referring to the Juniper dorm where freshman girls would be moving in. “This’ll be fun.”
It might be fun. But mostly, that old desire to run away was back, and she wanted to indulge it. After saying goodbye to her mom at the cars, she and Delaney helped two freshman girls bring their stuff to the Juni, one right after the other, and left as their tour was getting underway.
“Quick, we should grab some lunch before this gang packs the dining hall,” she said to Delaney.
They hurried out of the Juni ahead of the freshman tour group to beat the rush.
When they finished eating, they headed back to their dorm room to unpack. A group of senior girls walked ahead of her and Delaney, and bits of their conversation floated back.
“I wonder why he’s back now.”
“Or where he went.”
“Did anyone see his sister? Is she back too?”
Cara tensed, pretty sure she knew who they were talking about.
“More importantly, did anyone find out if he’s single?”
“Wow, Fiona, got your claws sharpened already? I don’t know. I guess he’s cute.”
“Yeah, it’s not about how he looks.”
“Oh-em-gee, you’re such a gold-digger.”
“Oh, hey, August, does Emma know yet?”
Cara’s disgust at their conversation did a quick pivot back to interest. She hadn’t seen August in the knot of gossiping girls, but Emma’s name was enough to catch her attention.
“Not sure, but we can tell her.”
August must have pointed, because the group all turned forward and a chorus of excited yelps sounded from them.
“Emma.”
“Hey, Emma.”
By the time Cara could see her friendly cross country teammate, Emma had been mobbed by the gossip gang and was stepping backward out of their crowd.
“Yeah, no, I heard,” Emma said to the jumble of voices. She wasn’t smiling.
Even if she hadn’t looked so distraught, Cara would have hung back to say hello to gracious, graceful Emma who’d always been so nice. All her grace didn’t seem to be saving her now, though.
“No, I don’t need—It’s fine, August—No, I’m not going to find him—” Her voice rose with each dismissal until she finally shut them up. “I’m just going for a walk, okay?” She shrugged the last of them off her and blew by Cara with a quick grunted, “Hi,” as she passed. She dove down the path to the woods alone.
Cara couldn’t blame her. She knew the feeling.
Everything she’d overheard and seen made her think Emma had some kind of special interest in Rhys being back at school this year. Like maybe they had dated. Cara’s feet were rooted to the ground. If this was jealousy, it was nothing like any descriptions she’d ever read. It felt hollow. If he’d dated Emma, then she certainly couldn’t fault his taste. Everything about Emma was flawless. Even the way she was handling this—avoiding the gossip, giving him space, and taking her own—the girl had grace to spare.
That, Cara could work on living up to. She trudged after Delaney into the dorm, trying to muster enthusiasm for unpacking, and stoking her determination to focus on what mattered. She wasn’t helping Liv for her brother’s sake, after all. She was doing it for the girl in the hospital who didn’t ask for any of this.
A few hours later, her dorm room looked good. She gazed around, satisfied. Delaney already had her sketchbook out, drawing Jenner and Marcus curled up together on the floor. Jenner’s eyes tracked Cara’s movements across the room, but he didn’t lift his head or disturb Marcus, whose cream fur mingled with the hair around Jenner’s neck.
“Are you going out, child?” Jenyx asked in her mind.
She nodded. “I’m going over to see Wes and Jory, but I’ll be back before dinner, okay, D? Do you want to come, Jenner?”
She was careful to talk to her roommate and her dog, but Jenyx would know the question was for him. She crossed the lounge to the main doors and stepped outside. Someone called her name.
She rushed forward to give Kaylee a warm hug. “How was your summer?”
“It was nice. Hot, though, right?
I kept up my training runs. I am making that yellow team this fall—before the Skai run! How about you?” Kaylee’s face glowed with a tan and fierce determination. Her cross country teammate had vowed to make the yellow team as soon as last year’s Skai run ended, when she found out their team were the ones who got to plan it. Cara was psyched about it too. They’d be behind the scenes of the magical night for the whole school. But the Skai run still felt a long ways off considering what else she had going on right now.
“I should probably have run more, actually, but you’re right. It was super hot this year.”
Jenner trotted around the corner of the building toward the forest. She wasn’t worried about him going off, not with Jenyx there with him. Besides, there was no one waiting to kidnap Pyx anymore.
“You know what’s crazy? I don’t have a roommate. She transferred out, and there’s no one new to replace her. It’s going to suck being alone.” Kaylee’s comment and change in tone stopped Cara’s mind from wandering off, thinking about a certain kidnapper.
“Oh, bummer.” Cara didn’t know what she would do without Delaney, although it would make some secrets a little easier to keep. “But you won’t be alone. You can always come hang out in our room.”
Kaylee squeaked and gave her another hug. “Can we do some training runs together this year too? I want to get some more in before we start up with practices again. Would you want to?”
“That sounds great. We could run tonight, if you want.”
“Glad you guys are so enthusiastic.”
Both their heads whipped around to the new voice. Jenner trotted back toward her with Emma beside him, smiling at them. “Look who I found at the edge of the woods,” she said, reaching down to scratch Jenner’s head.
Kaylee said hi to Emma and then turned back. “Is seven-thirty a good time?” She clapped her hands when Cara said yes, and skipped into the Cedars.
Cara stopped smiling at the look on Emma’s face. “Are you okay, Emma? I couldn’t help overhearing those girls earlier.”
“Oh, yeah. They were being stupid. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad, though.”
That was mad?
“Was it about Rhys Whalton coming back to school?” Cara’s voice stuck on his name, but Emma’s reaction was probably her own.
“Oh, you know him?” Emma recovered from her little flinch and looked Cara in the eye.
Cara stared at her feet. “Not really. We met at a fundraiser thing this summer.” She kicked at a piece of gravel on the path.
It was true. It wasn’t like she did really know him, although the memory of his face as he held Liv’s hand in the hospital made her swallow. Hard. That and the look on Emma’s face now—the willowy, beautiful girl—sensitive enough to still be affected by whatever she felt about him.
“It sounded earlier like, maybe, um . . . did you used to date or something?”
A sad smile grew on Emma’s face. “For a while, in sophomore year. Then Liv got sick and he was gone. We kept in touch for the first while, texting and stuff. Then less and less.” She shrugged.
“You never actually broke up? He just ghosted you?” For some reason, she was indignant on Emma’s behalf. A tingling chill settled in her belly.
“I wouldn’t call it ghosting. He had a lot going on. His family . . . Do you know how Liv’s doing? Did he say anything?”
Cara swallowed again and then shook her head. “Like I said, I don’t really know him.” She wasn’t about to say anything about Liv. Rhys could tell Emma whatever he felt comfortable sharing when they were reunited.
She kicked a few more pebbles along the path on the way to the Lodge. Inside the door, she paused to check the room map, but the guys had the same room as last year too. Their door stood open.
“Hey, Jory. Hi, Tomyx.” She greeted Thomas with a quick scratch behind his ear. “Where’s Wes?”
Jory looked up from his unpacking and petted Jenner’s head when the dog bumped his hand. “He went to take that medical text over to Rhys.”
Her nostrils flared, and she made a little tch sound, reminding her of Tish.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She wasn’t sure why she was mad at Rhys. “Who else have you seen? I ran into Kaylee, but I still haven’t seen Cassidy or any of those girls.”
“You know who I haven’t seen . . .?” He grinned as he waited, but she obviously had no clue. “Nate.”
“Really?”
Jory’s face glowed more than it had in weeks. “Yep. I saw Liam, though. Nate got kicked out over the summer. Liam finally told his parents it was Nate who beat him up last year.”
She exhaled, blowing out her cheeks. “Wow. I mean . . . that’s good.”
“I know. Got what he deserved, and I’m glad Liam finally found the courage to say something.”
“Speaking of courage—you never did tell me why you quit football that day in the first place. Are you going to go back to it now that Nate’s gone?”
“Probably not. Bad taste in my mouth. I’m sorta looking forward to playing baseball now.”
“Are you ever going to tell me? Or is it a secret?” She sat down on Wes’s neatly made bed. This particular mystery felt so insignificant now compared to the things they’d been discussing lately that she came right out and asked.
“No, it's not a secret. Wes already knows.”
“So it did have something to do with him?” She’d already guessed as much, especially after what Elena had said the day they moved out. If Jory wasn’t talking about something, it was because he was protecting Wes. Or maybe her now.
“Yeah. I explained it when we cleared up some, uh, misunderstandings . . . at the start of the summer.” He chuckled.
She shook her head, remembering her conversations with Wes in early July. “So what happened?”
“That idiot Nate and his buddies were pissed about me calling him a jackass when he was bugging Wes. They thought they'd get me in trouble if they made me mad, so they started mouthing off about him to me during warmup.” He sat down on his bed across from her. “First, it was just stupid stuff about how close he and I are. The usual not-subtle comments and dumb names. Idiotic stuff. I didn’t care. They were being jerks, and not even being original about it.”
She nodded. “So if that didn't bug you, then what made you quit?”
“It was when they decided to imply Wes was secretly stupid and wouldn’t do their homework because he couldn’t.”
“But that's ridiculous. He gets perfect grades, and everyone knows it. He might be the only person I know who reads more than I do.” She couldn’t see how something so clearly false would bother Jory.
“I know. Wes is a freaking genius. That doesn't stop him from being sensitive when people bug him about his scholarship. Nate started in on how Wes was too dumb to come to this school at all and only got in as a special case. Wes could easily get an academic scholarship, but the Siletz tribes’ grant pays his meals and board as well as tuition. His family couldn’t have sent three kids here without it, and all three of them work hard for it. They’re not the only ones, either.” The glow of knowing Nate wasn’t coming back had faded. His face clouded over. “But Wes hates anyone saying he gets special treatment, so he works like a madman just to prove to everyone he doesn’t need it.”
Her jaw tightened at the ignorance of Nate’s words. “I see why you got defensive.”
“I guess when I left instead of shouting or throwing a punch, they had to find another way to get me in trouble. Poor Liam. I should have just decked that idiot Nate. Then he wouldn’t have gone after Liam to frame me.” He rubbed his hand, probably remembering punching Rhys.
Cara knew exactly how he felt, but it wouldn’t have helped. “Then you’d be the one kicked out and Nate would still be here.”
The injustice of the whole thing made her throat burn. Still, it had mostly worked itself out now. Jory's face faded back to normal.
Wes came in a few minutes later. He sat down beside her. “Rhys sa
ys hi.”
She snorted. He hadn’t made any sign of saying hi earlier, and she wasn’t about to care now.
“Um . . . okay.” Wes gave her a sideways look.
“Whatever. He should go say hi to Emma.” She leaned back on her hands, chewing the inside of her bottom lip.
“What does Emma have to do with—” Jory started.
Cara stood. “I’m starving. Is it dinnertime yet? Let’s get Delaney and go eat.” She walked out the door to deafening silence and blank faces.
CHAPTER 23
Uh Oh
DELANEY LEFT RIGHT after dinner, saying she wanted to head back to finish her sketch. Cara and the boys stayed, watching the bustle of the school again. They waved to classmates they hadn’t seen all summer, and talked to the ones who came over. Sometime in the middle, Cara spotted the long, lean form of Rhys pass by. He chose one of the smaller tables and sat alone.
“Should we go over there?” Wes asked.
“No. He won’t want to hang out with us. He probably doesn’t even want to be seen with a bunch of sophomores.” Cara shook her head and clasped her hands tightly in her lap.
“I don’t know.” Wes considered with his head tilted to one side. “He’s not with his old friends anymore, and he’s basically the new guy with the juniors. They knew Liv, not him.”
She hadn’t thought of that, but she didn’t have a chance to answer, because Jory was waving to someone else behind her. A faint smell of strawberries hit her before she could turn her head, and blonde curls tickled her shoulders as Cassidy threw her arms around her.
“Hi.” Cara struggled to push her chair out so she could stand up to give Cassidy a proper hug. “Hi, guys.” When Cassidy let go, she gave Gabby and Tish quick hugs too.
The rush of conversation took over as the girls sat down. Cassidy took the seat beside Jory and flirted a little as always, placing a hand on his arm. He didn’t pull away, but he didn’t flirt back like he often had before. Cara wondered again at the change in him since the day at the hospital. Tish cast an appraising look at Wes. Cara tried not to scoff as the girl’s eyes darted across his chest and shoulders. From the tiny twitch at the corner of Tish’s mouth, Cara gathered his new, more-toned look earned her approval. Not that he’d care about approval from someone like her.