A Good Boy Is Hard to Find (The Naughty List #3)(14)

“No way,” Leona scoffed. “Stacy said he’s like a brother to her.”

“Ew, only if she makes out with her brother regularly behind the band-room Dumpster! I’ve heard rumors.”

“Gross,” Leona, Izzie, and I said at the same time.

“That’s awful,” Izzie continued, pulling her red hair into her hands, tugging on it absentmindedly. “Why pretend that they’re best friends?”

Kira scrunched her nose as if she weren’t comfortable thinking about it. “I’m guessing he wants to keep the relationship quiet. Maybe to not hurt Janet, or maybe because he’s got lots of friends.”

“I buy it,” I said. “Our Naughty List tips have never been wrong, have they?”

“Well,” Leona interjected, “unless you count the fake out with Blaze Harmon.”

Hm. “I don’t think that should tally into our results. All real inquiries have been one hundred percent. Sort of.” Unless you counted Aiden, but again, he was a setup.

“So …” Izzie dropped her hands, looking confused. “Does that mean we’re still spying?”

We all paused and looked at her, sort of unsure how to answer the question. I mean, we were outed now. It would be a lot more difficult to sneak around.

“I think we need a temporary hold,” Leona said. “We’ve got a lot of damage to assess.”

“But what about Janet?” Izzie squeaked. “She needs our help! What if Garrett is a cheating jerk face!” I thought she might cry.

“Izzie, not everyone can be helped,” Kira said, walking to put her arm around her. “Cheerleaders can’t save the world.”

I watched them murmur disappointed statements to each other, looking beat. Looking defeated. But all I could see were some pumped-up unicorns.

“We won’t fail the brokenhearted of Washington High,” I said, my captain’s voice stern and strong, despite the throbbing in my ankle. “The boys may have ruined our cheerleading reputations, but they can’t tarnish SOS. Not when we’ve caught their cheating rears more times than I can count.” Adrenaline began to pump through my veins as I got more involved with our cause. Our sense of justice.

“SOS was never created to make us popular. Or well-liked. We had a mission: to save the tenderhearted girls from their underhanded, cheating boyfriends. And that is exactly what we’ve done for the past three years. Have we broken the law a few times? Sure. But was it with good intentions? Yes. And that’s why it wasn’t illegal.”

The girls nodded at me, determination on their faces.

“And I refuse to give up on our school just because a couple of jocks have decided that us calling them out on their dastardly deeds jeopardizes their cheating ways. We’re here for the innocents. And I say … we fight.”

“Fight,” Leona repeated, a smile perched on her red lips.

“It won’t be easy. Our undercover work is now at ninja status. People know who we are; they’ll be watching for us.” I grinned. “But they’ve never seen a Kitten on the prowl. We can be pretty stealthy when we want.”

“Like that time I hid in Kona Birch’s kitchen cabinet? He was so busted.” Kira beamed.

“Exactly.” I pointed to her and felt all the girls get on board my cheater-catching train. “We are cheerleaders. We are spies. It’s who we are. If we give up on womankind just because some boys are intimidating us, they win. And we don’t give up that easily.”

“I’m texting Janet right now,” Leona said. “We’re going to catch that wormy bastard in the act. He won’t know what hit him.”

“Language,” I murmured.

“Oops. Sorry. I’ve just been listening to so much cussing on my voice mail it’s, like, second nature.”

“Yeah. But we should—”

There was a crackling noise above us, and we looked toward the speaker in the corner. “Can I have your attention please?”

I gulped. It was Principal Pelli.

“I need to see the cheerleading squad in my office. Now. Thank you and sorry for the interruption.”

“Uh-oh,” Izzie muttered. “I’d better use the bathroom first.”

We were French toast.

“Spying?” The principal stood up at his desk while we crowded around it. Leona, Kira, Izzie, and I took the available seats while the rest of the girls sat cross-legged on the floor. We were going to get royally scolded.

“Sir—”

“Save it, Miss Crimson. Coach Taylor wants you off his field, and I’m inclined to agree.”

“You can’t!” I sat up straighter, and my crutch fell forward, smacking against his desk. “This school needs its spirit, Mr. Pelli. Don’t punish the entire student body for our mistake.”

“This wasn’t a small mistake. This was a felony!”

Izzie squeaked from the chair at the end of his desk. “I don’t want to go to jail,” she murmured, looking at me with frightened eyes.

“And what about ESPN?” I asked the principal, glancing back at him. “Who’s going to fill the stadium?”

He laughed as if I’d made a joke. “And what? Do you think the students will come to see you? I’ve already gotten seven threats on my voice mail this morning. People are threatening to sue! They want reparations for the pain and suffering you’ve inflicted. Stuart French is asking for two million dollars!”