office aide. Jerking my thumb over my shoulder, I replied, “You kind of already did.”
“Ah, gotcha.” He took a couple of steps backward. “Thanks for showing me around.”
“My pleasure.” The words were automatic since my mother had drilled them into my skull, but they were also one-hundred-percent true.
The big smile on my face was wiped away when I stepped into the office and found two of the school’s queen bees peering through the glass door at Corby’s retreating form while they gossiped. “He’s so hot,” Staci sighed.
Traci nudged her in the side with her elbow. “Yeah, we should totally suggest that we perform at some of the hockey games this year.”
I snorted at the idea of the cheerleading team freezing their butts off in an ice rink, and the two skinny blondes both turned to glare at me. “What do you think is so funny?”
“You didn’t think that just because he was stuck with you walking him around before class that he’d actually notice a little nobody like you, did you?” Traci scoffed before they burst into a fit of giggles at my expense.
I ducked my head and hurried past them into the back of the office. I might not like Staci and Traci, but their mean girl act was the reminder I needed that I didn’t stand a chance of catching Corby’s attention. When he’d invited me to his game, I’d wondered if something could happen between us. For a moment, I’d forgotten the way things worked for me at Black Mountain Academy. I couldn’t let that happen again.
4
Corby
My first few weeks at Black Mountain Academy flew by without any major issues. My teachers were mostly cool, the homework wasn’t too bad yet, and practices were going well. The only problem I had was that my attention kept drifting to the cute girl who’d shown me around the first morning, but she seemed to be avoiding me even though we had two periods and lunch together. I’d caught her looking at me more than a few times, but she’d quickly glanced away without returning my smile.
I rarely saw her talking to any students other than the two girls she hung out with, so I wasn’t sure if she was just shy or if she wasn’t as into me as I’d thought that morning. Whatever the reason, the distance she’d put between us had only made me more curious about her. The longer she pretended to ignore me, the more it killed me to sit on the other side of the cafeteria during lunch without going over to ask her what was going on.
I must not have been hiding my frustration with the situation as well as I’d thought I was because Chuck elbowed me in the side and asked, “You’re into Emmeline Cushing?”
Dragging my gaze away from her, I nodded.
He let out a long whistle. “You’d have to be hella brave to try something with her, man.”
My gaze slid back to the pretty brunette sitting at a table all by herself. Her two friends had been with her when I’d walked into the cafeteria, but they’d left a few minutes ago. Nobody else had approached the table, and none of the hockey guys had so much as glanced over there until Chuck had noticed me looking at her. It was almost as though the three girls were invisible to anyone but me, which seemed impossible with how hot Emmeline was.
“Dude, I wouldn’t go there if I were you.” He clapped me on the back and shook his head. “Nobody else at Black Mountain Academy has, and I haven’t heard any rumors about her dating anyone off campus, either.”
“Why in the hell hasn’t some guy locked her down already?” It was the last thing I wanted to ask since the thought of some douche dating Emmeline made me want to punch the wall, which was crazy as fuck since I barely knew the girl.
He set his half-eaten slice of pizza on the plate in front of him and shrugged. “I think it depends on who you ask. For some of the guys, it’s because she’s the kind of girl you’ll find yourself wifing up before you realize it’s happened. For others, they’re just into girls who’re willing to put out since you’d have to work hard to get in there with Emmeline. She’s pretty and sweet but also super fucking shy. It’d probably take a lot of effort just to get her to agree to a date. And then there