The Stand-In Boyfriend (Grove Valley High #1)(34)

“What?” I ask Tia. She’s standing next to me by the water stand and watching me gulp down my bottle.

“Like you’re disappointed I didn’t finish it. We’re not all machines like you.”

I shake my head. “I’m not a machine, but if we want to get to state, we have to be the fittest we can possibly be.”

She rolls her eyes.

“I’m being serious,” I tell her earnestly. “Do you think people would come if I set up an extra practice before school a couple of days a week?”

She snorts and Hallie bumps her with her hip. Tia turns back to me and must see how serious I am.

“Think about the finals,” I tell her. “Don’t you want to know we did everything we could to get there?”

She sighs, but a smile plays on her lips. “Okay, Chapman. You got me. I’ll rally the troops.”

I grin in triumph. I swear half the girls on the team are scared of Tia. If she says they have to do something, they’ll do it.

A loud wolf whistle rips out and I glance over to see Maria with her fingers to her lips and a couple of the other senior players standing around her. They’re all grinning and have their eyes trained on something behind me. I spin around and see Chase, Aaron, and what looks like the rest of the soccer team heading toward us. Their coach is to the side of them and breaks off to talk to our coach near the goal.

“Day-um,” Tia says, her eyes fixed on the boys. I know she’s hooked up with quite a few of the team members over the last couple of years, but she just told me last week she was dating a friend of her cousin. She glances at me and grins. “A girl can look.”

“Hey.” Chase stops in front of me, a cocky smirk planted on his face.

I glance between him and Aaron, confused, before turning to look at their coach, who is chatting with Coach Simpson. “Hi,” I reply cautiously.

“What’s up?” Tia asks.

“We’re training with you today.”

“What?” My voice is probably sharper than it needs to be.

Aaron shrugs. “Coach needs to leave early so he said he was gonna check to see if Coach Simpson could run some practice games with both squads.”

“Whose idea was that?” Hallie asks incredulously. This has never happened before. They’d usually just cut practice short.

“Coach’s.” Chase smirks while Aaron snorts next to him. Somehow I don’t believe them.

I look around. “Is the JV squad coming too?”

Chase doesn’t hide his irritation. “No, they’re not.”

I inwardly wince. Me hoping Jessie was going to practice with us too isn’t exactly helping my feelings stay hidden and convince people I’m into Chase.

Brendon steps forward. “You think you can handle it?” he asks Tia with raised eyebrows. Honestly, the boy will flirt with anyone.

Hallie steps forward, her captain instincts taking over. “We got this.”

I sigh and gulp another couple of mouthfuls of water. It’s not that I don’t want to train with the boys; it’s just that we need to focus and I don’t need these guys distracting the team. Already the rest of the girls have appeared around us, chatting and flirting. We don’t have as much interaction with the male soccer team as you’d think. They’re the popular guys in school and usually stick to the cheerleaders and girly girls—not exactly in our social circles.

“What’s wrong, Chapman?” Aaron grins over at me. “Scared?”

I roll my eyes at him. “We’re wasting time.”

A playful smile crosses Chase’s face. “She’s scared.” Everyone falls silent. When Chase Mitchell speaks, everyone listens. “Don’t worry, Livy, we’ll teach you how it’s done.”

My competitive nature kicks in and my jaw sets. “You can try.”

He grins at me and I start to laugh. Chase is really intuitive or I’m an open book; either way, he seems to know exactly how to get to me. Make something a competition or mention Jessie and I’m hooked—it’s how he keeps convincing me to do things.

Coach Simpson blows his whistle and I turn to see him approaching us while the boys’ coach vacates the field. He quickly confirms what the boys have already told us and splits us in half. His assistant—who is just out of college and more interested in gawking at the cheerleaders and texting on his phone than actually coaching—stays with us while he disappears to the other training pitch with the less experienced players. I assume it will be teams of boy versus girls, but Coach’s assistant explains that he wants it mixed. He picks Aaron and Hallie as captains and tells them they have to pick teams in a boy-girl order then runs back to the benches to check something or another on his phone. I sigh and try not to be irritated about how much time this is all taking.

“Chapman,” Aaron picks me first.

Hallie slides me a look and must decide Chase and I would want to be on the same team because she picks Brendon as I go to stand beside Aaron.

Aaron surveys the rest of the group, and when I glance Chase’s way, his eyes are fixed on Aaron’s as he shakes his head. Aaron shrugs and picks Jackson. Hallie looks confused. Chase is the best player out here and she clearly doesn’t understand why Aaron didn’t pick him, but she has to go for a girl and selects Brittany before Aaron looks at me and I tell him to get Tia.