“I like avocado toast. It’s healthy. You should try it.”
“I like avocado toast too. With bacon and eggs.”
“I swear it’s like you could eat nothing but cheeseburgers and pizza and then die a happy old lady.” He shook his head with a smile. “It’s not natural.”
“Throw some strawberry milkshakes in there, and you’ve got all the major food groups covered.” Wylder headed toward their regular table where Killian and Diego sat with a lonely looking Will.
“Hey, guys. Where’s Dev?” Wylder pulled up her seat.
“She always sleeps in on Saturdays when she doesn’t have a tournament.” Diego pushed his glasses up.
“Does she?” Maybe she went back to sleep after waking Wylder and Logan.
“She still gets up before you do.” Killian gave her a weird look.
“What?” She lifted a bite of crepes to her lips.
“Nothing. You just look … chipper. You’re never nice before noon.”
“That’s because we have a protest to plan.” Wylder leaned in to tell them about the petition to bring back the Winter Review.
8
Wylder let herself into Killian’s dorm room, holding her hands up in front of her face. “Is everyone decent?” She peeked through one eye to find Killian, Diego, Will, and Logan staring at her from the sitting room. They were playing video games.
“Oh, it was a lot juicier last time I barged in.”
“That’s because you barged into my bedroom on date night.”
“Don’t say date night. It makes you sound like an old married guy.” Wylder moved to squeeze in between Will and Logan on the small sofa. “You guys ready for the protest?”
“Huh?” Will looked at her, his hands moving wildly over the game controller. “What’s she talking about?”
“Killer, you had all day to get the hockey team on board. We have to leave in a few minutes. It’s almost two.”
“Relax, Wylds, they’ll be there.”
“Oh, the music thing, yeah.” Will nodded. “We’ve got your back.” He turned toward her, his face flushing red with exertion.
“You should save some of that for the ice, Will. You look like you’re going to pop a vein.”
“Give the guy a break.” Logan laughed, draping his arm around her.
“Right, so hit pause, save your game, whatever you do, let’s go. Chop-chop.”
“One sec.” Diego hammered on his game controller, and the boys all yelled. Logan’s hand shot up in the air to high five Diego. “That’s my man!” Logan cheered.
“What just happened?” Wylder looked from one boy to the next.
“We’ve been trying to beat this game all week, and D-man just won it for us.”
“Go D.” Wylder cheered for him. “Now seriously, we can’t be late for this. It’s important. Diego, did you call all your tech geeks?” She said geeks with a great deal of reverence. She loved her Diego to bits.
“Yeah, they’ll be there.” He pushed his glasses up. “But they don’t usually like to be called geeks, just so you know.”
“Techies?” Wylder asked. “Said with lots of love?”
Diego just nodded. He was used to her.
“What are we supposed to do at this thing?” Will asked as they made their way downstairs.
“Just be there to show your support.” Wylder charged through the glass door, eager to get to the meeting at the main theater.
“Er, what exactly are we supporting?” Will shoved his hands in his pockets, eyeing Logan and the way he walked close beside Wylder.
“The board wants to cancel the Winter Review because of what happened to me and Logan with the viral video, but they aren’t canceling sports or other major events. It’s not fair.”
“That sucks. They should just collect phones like they do at the arena.”
“Exactly, Will-my-Will.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You’re a good friend.”
“Well … um … anything for you … er … and to support the arts and all.” His face burned bright red.
“You feeling okay, Wills?” She reached to check his forehead. “You’re kinda flushed like you might have a touch of fever. You should go see the nurse later if you’re not feeling better.”
Wylder led the boys across the quad to the performing arts building. Most of them had never been inside the building before, but when they entered through the double glass doors, the entire hockey team was waiting for them. And Diego’s techies were waiting down the hall, far enough away from the jocks so as not to call attention to themselves.
“You guys are the best.” Wylder stepped between Killian and Diego. “Really, thanks for this, it means a lot.”
“Anything for you, Wylds.” Killian tried not to choke on his laughter. “You know Will is in love with you, right?” he whispered.
“Shut up, you.” Wylder pinched him in the ribs, but there wasn’t much to grab there. Killian was all muscle. “I need some Killer time later to discuss a rather important Logan development I don’t know how to handle.” She talked out of the corner of her mouth so Logan couldn’t hear.
“Wow, she’s even more clueless than me,” Diego muttered.
“What’s he talking about?”
“Nothing, Wylds.” Killian shook his head. “Just focus on the protest, and we’ll talk later.”
“Thanks, Killer.” For as much as she’d wanted to know if she and Logan were more than just friends, now that she knew he wanted to be her boyfriend, she wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t know much of anything about being a girlfriend. A real girlfriend. She’d dated Sebastian for a bit over the summer, and it was fun, but that was nothing like it was with Logan. Things with Bash were spontaneous and exciting. But they’d always had an expiration date. With Logan … she really wanted this, and it scared her. Wylder messed things up. She didn’t want to do that with Logan.
“Oh my gosh, Wylder.” The girl from the earlier protest came up to her. “Did you get the hockey team on board?”
“And the techies.” Wylder beamed at her.
“This is incredible. With so many students supporting us, we might actually get the board to listen.”
“Just trying to do my part.” Wylder gazed around at the theater filled with students. She suspected some of them were here for lack of anything better to do on a freezing Saturday afternoon. “So what now?”
“Now we come up with a plan, I guess.” The girl left them to make her way up to the stage. She stepped up to the microphone, tapping it to make sure it was on. “Hi, everyone, thanks for coming. Um, my name is Meghan, I’m with the theater students. We’ve all been working hard to prepare for the Winter Review that’s been canceled due to recent events.”
Wylder turned around, looking for Logan. She was part of those ‘recent events’ but so was he. “Hey, where’s Logan?” She followed Killian to a row of seats down near the stage.
“He didn’t come in with us.”
“What? Why?” She started to leave.
“Just sit.” Killian pulled her down beside him. “All the music people probably think he’s the reason for the board canceling the show.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. He doesn’t think that, does he?”
“I mean, you guys are kind of the reason, you know. Not that it’s your fault, what happened. He just knows how important this is to you and wanted to bow out so everyone stays focused on getting the show up and running again.”
“He should be here.” Wylder sat back against the old velvet chair. She didn’t like it that he felt like he wasn’t wanted.
“So let’s ask her to come up and say a few words.” Meghan stepped back from the microphone and scattered applause sounded around the theater.
“That’s your cue, Wylds.” Killian nudged her.
“What?” She looked around at everyone staring at her.
“Come on up, Wylder.” Meghan called.
“Wait, what?” Wylder looked at Killian for help. “How did
this happen?”
Killian just shoved her out of her seat, and Wylder had no choice but to make her way up to the stage. What was she supposed to say? What did these people expect of her?
Meghan walked toward her, hand held out to shake Wylder’s. “The petition is going around the room.” She grinned. “Everyone’s signing it.”
“What am I supposed to say?” Wylder hissed.
“Just welcome everyone and try to start a dialogue for a plan.” Meghan shrugged and grinned and left Wylder on stage alone.
She walked up to the microphone to see more than two hundred students staring back at her. “Okay, so I’m Wylder. Hi.” She waved. “Not sure how I ended up standing here, but let’s just run with it.” She looked to the back of the theater when the door opened. It was Logan. He moved to sit in the back row, giving her a thumbs up for encouragement.
She smiled, wanting nothing more than to run off the stage and tell him she wanted to be his girlfriend. But everyone was staring at her.
“Right, so a petition is making its way around the room. If we can get enough student interest in reinstating the Winter Review, we should be able to get the board to at least listen to our concerns. Like … it’s not really fair that certain events are canceled while other events are going on as usual.” Wylder fake coughed, “Hockey.” And the jocks all laughed.
“We love hockey, don’t get us wrong, boys. You’re our eye candy and our Friday night plans all rolled into one delicious package.”
Meghan stood from her seat in the front row. “But we need a plan to make sure we get to be your entertainment for at least one night this winter, it’s the least we can do.” She sat back down. For someone who started all this, she was quick to push it off on Wylder.
“So we need to give the board a compromise. A plan to beef up security at the Winter Review to keep all the students on stage safe from ending up on YouTube when they don’t want to be. That’s right, some of us really don’t want that kind of attention.” Wylder turned to the back of the stage where a whiteboard stood. She grabbed the microphone from the stand and went to the board. “Give me some ideas, guys. What can we do to make it safe for the performers? And remember it’s not really about the performer’s safety. It’s about their parents.”
She scribbled on the whiteboard. “Remember, we go to a hoity-toity school with high walls and security to keep us all safe from media attention. And when Logan and I ended up a YouTube sensation from a school event, y’all’s parents freaked out. So we have to set the parents at ease here.”
“No phones.” Someone shouted.
“That’s a given.” Wylder wrote that at the top of the list.
“Make everyone sign a pledge before they can get into the event,” someone else shouted.
“Oh, that’s a good one.” Wylder added that to the list.
“Email the parents with this list so they know the school is being proactive.”
“Extra security inside the event.”
“Have the AV club film the event so parents can buy copies since they can’t record their kids on stage.”
Wylder added all the suggestions to the growing list, proud of everyone for taking this seriously.
“Why is it, Ms. Anderson, that whenever something like this happens, you’re always involved.” Wylder cringed at the sound of Ms. Jones’ voice and turned around slowly.
“I was drafted,” she blurted. The headmistress stood in front of the stage with her arms crossed over her chest and a very unamused expression on her face.
“When security called to tell me students were gathering by the hundreds in the main theater, I wondered what I would find.” She walked up the steps onto the stage. “A party? Dancing? Pizza? Vandalism? All these things crossed my mind on the way over here.” She moved to stand in front of the whiteboard, picking up the red marker. She popped the cap off and circled several of the items on their list, crossing out only a few.
“But I’m sad to say an organized, peaceful protest was not one of the things that came to mind.”
“I booked the theater, Ms. Jones.” Meghan stepped up to the stage. “It started with the theater students and we got some of the music students involved in a petition, but Wylder really got the other students involved. It’s not her fault, ma’am.”
“You mistake my tone, Miss. Fletcher.” Ms. Jones came to stand beside Wylder. “I am not exactly angry. I’m a little perplexed and also … proud of you. All of you. I will take your valid concerns to the board, along with your petition and your list of compromises. I can’t promise you anything, but if you will all make your way from the building without further protest, I believe we can come to an arrangement that will satisfy the board and the parents. Wylder, I would like to see you in my office. Right now.” She left the stage and marched from the room. “Everyone out. Now.” She shouted back at the silent room.
Wylder hung her head. She was pretty sure she was going to be in trouble for all of this, even though she still didn’t know how she ended up on stage, leading the protest.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Logan said as Wylder made her way up the steps to where he still sat at the back of the theater. Most of the other students were already gone, none too eager to upset their headmistress when she’d let them all go without punishment.
“Yes,” Wylder blurted, taking his hands in hers before she leaned in and kissed him. “Let’s do this.”
“Wait, not that I’m complaining about the kiss, but what are we talking about, Wylds? Use more words.”
She grinned. “Will you go out with me?”
“On a date?” He peered down at her. “Oh, so you’re saying yes to my earlier question?”
“Yes.” She bounced on her toes.
“It’s about freaking time, Wylds, you’ve left me hanging all day. My heart can’t take that kind of anxiety.” He clutched a hand over his chest.
“Sorry.” She leaned up and kissed him again. “Don’t make plans for tonight. I’ve got to go get detention or something worse from Ms. Jones, but then you’re all mine for the evening. You know, if I’m not expelled first.”
9
Wylder took her time getting to the administration building despite the cold. Most of the snow had melted overnight, leaving them with the ugly after effects. She hugged her coat tighter around her and looked up into the gray sky.
The last time she’d gotten in trouble for using school facilities without permission had been to throw a party at Twin Rivers High. This was different, she knew it was. For one, she wasn’t really responsible. And two, Meghan said she’d booked the theater so it was all above board.
Yet, Wylder couldn’t help being transported back to a similar walk, escorted by her parents and two police officers. The school had already kicked her out before the party, so the only punishment left for them to give was to levy charges against her.
And they didn’t. The school that had thrown her out like yesterday’s trash saved her that day. The principal she’d hated decided all she wanted was to never see Wylder again. She’d had to clean up from the party and was banned from ever setting foot on school property again.
The rest of the students had their next dance canceled.
This wasn’t then. Ms. Jones didn’t have a vendetta against Wylder. If anything, she’d been more supportive than any school official ever had. And being pulled into a protest of a school decision was not the same as breaking into an empty school for a party.
Still, the closer she got, the more she felt like that version of herself. The one who’d put on a sarcastic face to hide her loneliness, the desperation brought on by a year-long search for her birth mom. She wasn’t that girl anymore. The academy had instilled a confidence in her, made her believe for the first time she could succeed if she really tried. That she wasn’t an idiot.
She just had to remember that.
As she pulled open the heavy door to the administration building, she lifted her chin, holding her head high. Joining tha
t protest had been the right thing to do. For once, she wasn’t making trouble just to make trouble.
Ms. Jones had to know that.
Wylder stopped outside the headmistress’ partially open door next to the empty secretary’s desk. No one else in the building was working today. Lifting her hand, she knocked.
“Come in, Wylder.” Ms. Jones’ tone held no indication of her mood, but when Wylder pushed the door open further, she found her on the phone.
Wylder hesitated in the doorway.
“Yes, yes,” Ms. Jones said. “We’re going to need similar language in the forms we have the students sign.” She paused. “Okay, get me a preliminary copy I can take to my board. It doesn’t have to be finished, but I need it within the next hour.” She hung up and turned her gaze on Wylder.
“Look, Ms. Jones, the protest wasn’t my idea, but I kind of wish it was. Those theater kids have some serious guts, and I won’t stand here and say I don’t agree with them. Even if my only role was getting students into that auditorium who didn’t tend to mingle with the theater and music kids, I’m proud of the student body coming together. We might not know how to beat each other up while strapping blades to our feet or jump random poles while riding horses who’d rather be in the warm barns, but we have talent too, and we deserve to be seen.”
Ms. Jones leaned back in her chair, folding her hands on her desk. Her lips twitched into a smile. “Are you done?”
“Not really, no. It’s not fair that we’re the only ones facing consequences for the breach in security. It wasn’t even a student who released the video. No one here broke their student contracts, not a single person. Yet, you’re taking away something some of these kids look forward to every single year. Sure, I might not have even known the review was a thing until very recently, but I need it. We all do.”
“Wylder—"
“And another thing. You could have just limited the audience at the review to students only or limited the number of family members who could come. There are rules you could have put in place before deciding to take it away from us.”
Wylder and the Rising Rockstar (Reluctant Rockstars Book 3) Page 7