Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(30)

Dev nodded. “It won’t hurt.” He nudged me in the side. “What do you think, Phoebe?”

I couldn’t even shrug since my hands were firmly and safely trapped under my butt. Logical. Maeve was calm and logical whenever she dealt with Deidre. “Would the school even allow it? If someone in the audience gets hit with anything, they’ll probably sue us all.”

Lexie stopped mid-drink, looking as if she had just downed sour milk. “You know, Em’s right. Maybe this should stay inside the theatre club. Pedestrians won’t understand.”

Deidre put her hand on Aedan’s arm. “I don’t think you should be discussing matters of the court in front of,” she threw Maeve a distasteful look, “outsiders with the potential to turn on us.”

“Phoebe’s probably right. I’ve seen the bookends some of those guys in shop tried to make.” Alec said, looking up from his textbook and making a tilting gesture with his hand. Before Lexie could retort, he went back to ignoring her and saying things in mangled French to Grace.

Maeve dug her nails so deep into her skirt, she was positive the silk would never recover. Still, she wasn’t going to stoop to Deidre’s level—not now, and not ever. “Since you’ve hinted about my goblin blood at least three times just now,” she said calmly with a smile, “I think you need to remember that it’s the reason the court still exists.” Then, she stood and walked over to give Aedan a kiss, a small part of her taking satisfaction in how Deidre was seething mad. “But, anyway, I have class, so this is whole conversation is totally moot. I’ll see you later.”

“I think—” I started to say, but Lexie cut me off at the “I” and my voice faded away on “think.”

“Oh, please, it’s a rope with a pulley setup. I doubt they could screw that up.”

A hard kick landed on my shin and I looked up to find Em grinning at me. “Well, as much fun as this was, I’m getting out of this debate right now because I have a doctor’s appointment. But I totally support using Phoebe as much as you want.”

I kicked her back even harder. Too bad my ballet flats weren’t as hard as her boots. “I’ll walk you out. We need to talk.”

Another whack to my shin. I was going to be black and blue. Em’s smile looked a little bit forced. “Dev needs your help.”

Dev watched us like a bad ping-pong game. “I don’t—“

I narrowed my eyes at her. She moved her legs so my last kick didn’t make contact.

“I need to go to my locker anyway. I forgot my history notebook.” There was no way I would last two seconds against Lexie. She was witty and I would be the invisible third wheel, totally not like Maeve, who was able to effortlessly flip Aedan’s attention away from Deidre with only a few words. And Grace and Alec were too busy practicing for their French quiz to bail me out.

“Mauviette,” Grace broke away mid conversation with Alec to kick me, too. I stuck my tongue out at her when Dev wasn’t looking. I wanted to know which French teacher thought it was smart to teach her the word for wimp.

Em threw me a pointed look, and then softened when she saw my face. “C’mon codependent.”

I grabbed my bags and notebook and followed her away from the table with an apologetic little wave at a very confused Dev.

“I couldn’t stay there. It’s bad enough trying to be a part of the conversation when you’re there to help me. Lexie would eat me for lunch.”

Em shook her head at me. “You’re using me as an excuse because you didn’t know what to say? That kinda sucks.” She elbowed me. “You did fine in English class.”

“But that was different.” We passed the sixth grade camp counselor volunteer sign-up table and I stopped short, Coach Rentz’s words about volunteering running through my head.

“We really need to work on your witty banter.” Em had walked a few feet ahead before realizing I wasn’t next to her. Turning around, she made a face when she saw what I was looking at. “You really want to be a counselor for sixth grade camp?”

“It’s only a week.”

“In the woods. With no real showers. And ten year olds.” Em waved her pass at the door monitor as we made our way out of the cafeteria. The monitor didn’t even blink at me, one of the perks of being a notorious rule follower. “You’re not seriously thinking about it, are you?”

“You should be supporting me when I try to branch out to new experiences.” We reached the front entrance and I poked her in the side. “But, if it makes you feel any better, I’m not.”

“Good, because if you can’t even stand up to Lexie, I can’t imagine you standing up to a cabin full of kids.” She poked me back, then added, “Call me tonight. We need to talk about growing you a spine.” She waved her phone at me, and the sound of her pushing open the doors echoed in the empty hallway. “Later.”

I watched her back as she made her way out of the double doors before heading to my locker. Being spineless felt like a good option at the moment.

Golden series book 1: Golden PG 210

The arrow hit the target dead on. The second shot was even better than the first. Third, fourth, fifth—all of the arrows were crowded at the heart of the swinging target.

Aedan turned to look at Maeve, the shock on his face mirroring hers. He quickly schooled his features back to neutral. “And you didn’t lie about not having training?”