Teen Hyde (High School Horror Story #2)(18)

When I finished talking, Erica actually jumped up and down and clapped, then let her hands drop when she caught Paisley’s glare.

Paisley tucked her cropped hair behind her ears. As her best friend, this was a dead giveaway. She was nervous. “But we already talked about this, y’all,” she said, turning to implore the squad. “We took a vote. This is a democracy. Votes are sacred. Doesn’t that mean something to you?”

Ava waved her off. “Come on, Paize. The point was we wanted Cassidy to be better. And … well…” She gave a hesitant shrug of her shoulders. “I, for one, am thrilled to have Cassidy 1.0 back.” Evidence that the real original Cassidy was so invisible that she still remained forgotten. Ava extended her arms and came to wrap me in a tight hug.

The warmth inside me flared. “Thanks,” I said softly into her ear.

“Sorry,” she murmured back.

Everyone shifted their weight and muttered signs of approval. Molly, Emma Kate, Alice, Becky, they were all coming around to my side. Back around to my side. I rapped my knuckles on the clipboard. “Well?” I said to Paisley.

I watched as she rearranged her face before my eyes. I watched as the lines of her frown curved upward into a smile. I watched as she expertly pulled the fangs out from where she’d attempted to lodge them in my neck and reinvented herself as Paisley Wheelwright, certified best friend. “Totally,” she said, in the same pitch she’d use if she were performing a cheer. “Just wanted to make sure you’re cool.”

I cocked my chin ever so slightly and responded drily, “Totally.”

For the remainder of our hour-and-a-half practice, I worked the girls harder than they’d ever been worked before. We lunged up and down the court until all of our legs were consumed in a blaze of lactic acid. We ran laps, repeated jumps—straddle, pike, and herkies—performed push-ups and sit-ups in sets of one hundred. I let them feel a fraction of what it’d taken to build Cassidy Hyde, Homecoming queen.

Sweat streamed from our pores and, through my exhaustion, I felt like I was being baptized into a new person. I luxuriated in the feeling of weakness draining from my body.

And of course, I kept a careful eye on Paisley, making sure to call her out publicly for every lapse in form. As Coach Carlson was shutting off the lights to the gym and the basketball players were trickling into the locker room, I blew my whistle three times.

“Great work, everyone,” I said. They wandered over to their gym bags, pulling out bottles of water and wiping their necks with fresh towels. “Time spent today means we’re flawless on Friday.” I caught Liam disappearing into the locker room.

“I swear I must have burned, like, a thousand calories,” Ava said, unscrewing the top of a Gatorade.

“I’m stopping for a Big Mac,” said Erica.

Paisley plopped down onto a bottom-row bleacher. “That totally defeats the purpose, dimwit.”

Erica ignored her and so did I.

My muscles pulsed with endorphins and, besides, I had somewhere I needed to be. “I expect everyone to be on time and ready to run routines tomorrow. Got it? Picture them in your sleep,” I finished. “I’ll see you guys then.”

With those parting words and feeling quite proud of myself, I spun on my heel and disappeared to replace the clipboard and whistle and to snag my belongings from where I’d stashed them inside the girls’ locker room. Two minutes later, with a sheen of sweat still sticking to my forehead, I was waiting outside of the back entrance to the boys’ locker room.

My spot overlooked the vibrant green football field, which, now that it was no longer football season, was being occupied by members of the track team busy running their one-mile cooldown. So much had happened in Hollow Pines this year. I knew the town that I’d worked so hard to master had been changed for good.

But staring out at the field beneath the glow of stadium lights, with the breeze cooling my flushed skin, I caught a glimpse of the Hollow Pines I used to know. Simple and safe. And I wished I could freeze time to keep it.

The door of the locker room swung open and a few members of the basketball team began to trickle out toward the student parking lot. I spotted the back of Liam loping away, his gym bag slung over his shoulder.

“Hey!” I moved from the wall and jogged after him. “Wait up!”

He turned. His smile was easy. He’d parted his wet hair to the side and I could smell the damp scent of fruity shampoo from several feet away. He waved a few of his teammates on and told them he’d catch up with them later. “Everything okay?” he asked and, by the way he glanced at the door to the girls’ locker room, I knew he was referring to the squad’s would-be coup.

“Crisis averted.” I fell in beside him and we walked down the paved sidewalk.

“Good to hear.” We continued along side by side. Liam didn’t volunteer anything further. If this were a guy I was interested in, that alone would have driven me crazy, but since he wasn’t, I found myself envying how carefree and unflustered he always appeared. Maybe things were always easy when you were that gorgeous.

Then again, people used to think that about me.

“I need more,” I volunteered at last.

He fished the keys out of one of the many pockets on his gym bag. “How much more?” He clicked a couple buttons when we arrived at his car and threw the bag into the backseat. Night was falling, turning the air hazy between us, and I found myself growing antsy, although I didn’t know for what.