Page 32 of Against The Rules

She’s going to know.

My grin stretches even wider, and I launch into the next forty-five-second dance to a Dua Lipa mix like a terrified wooden soldier. The only thing that saves my ass is the fact I could do this routine in my sleep.

The crowd above roars, then moans as one, and the Beaver Cheer captain signals for us to take a knee and face the field. Someone’s hurt.

Ty?

My heart nearly stops, my mouth going dry and adrenaline making my hands all tingly. The poms shake against my knee as I try to catch a glimpse of who’s down. My throat’s so tight it’s hard to breathe.

It’s not Ty, though, thank god. It’s a player on the other team.

Breath whooshes out of me, and the player stands slowly. We stand too, applauding with our poms, and I never thought I’d be so happy to see someone hurt.

I never thought I would be so worried it was Ty.

The team captain signals a break, and we run like a gaggle of pissed off geese to our water bottles, taking a quick sip as the injured player continues to move slowly off the field.

“Savannah, right?” Kelsey, the reporter, grins at me, and I try not to flinch at her attention.

She doesn’t know about me and Tyler. She can’t. She might be here for whatever investigative piece they assigned her, but she’s not a freaking psychic.

“That’s me, Savannah Durand,” I say, tossing my hair before feverishly drinking from my water bottle. It’s hot. Later this season, the games will be cool, then cold, and I’ll miss these hot late August nights… but not right now.

“You looked really worried,” Kelsey continues, and Tiffany and Ashley crowd around me, drinking their own water and shooting me wary expressions, then raising their eyebrows at Kelsey. She was at practice this week. Rebecca introduced her to us and told us she’d be shadowing the cheerleaders, but none of us really had a chance to talk to her.

Not that we do now, either.

“It’s always scary when someone gets hurt. None of us want to see any of the players hurt.” My cheeks hurt from smiling at her.

“Of course not,” she says, and the vehement way she says it makes me curious.

“Right,” I finally say, staring at her. “What are you really doing here? I mean, what kind of… research are you doing?”

Her expression blanks out, and I narrow my eyes at her.

“Writing a piece on pro cheer,” is all she says.

Eva, the captain, calls out the name of a dance, and I give Kelsey a quick grin before dashing back to my place and joining the routine.

I don’t know Kelsey Cole at all—but I recognize something familiar about her. Too familiar.

She has a secret.

Whatever it is she’s doing here, it’s not just writing some puff piece.

I need to be careful around her.

“Loosen up,” Ashley hisses next to me, the words clipped through her toothy grin. “You look like a scarecrow.”

“Rude,” I snap back, shimmying in time with her.

She’s right, though. No matter how much time I spend on my pregame makeup and hair, I just can’t seem to be sexy enough.

My smile falters, and I tilt my chin up, pretending to be confident.

Pretending to be the person I thought putting on the Beaver Cheer uniform would transform me into.

CHAPTER 14

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