Page 55 of Hell's Kitten

Lakelyn shoots her a glare. “We never said anything like that. Stay out of this, Tara, and let me handle it.”

My head is spinning. Thepolice?Am I going to jail?

“Jessie’s done nothing wrong,” Alannah hisses. “Neither has Nim. This is completely fabricated. What are they even claiming he’s done?”

Lakelyn looks at me so sadly. “It says they have someone willing to testify that you…bought drugs.”

“Jessie would never—” Alannah yells.

I place my hand on her chest. The look on my face is enough to get her to stop talking.

My mom would have qualified for her med card, but the dispensaries weren’t open yet, and she was in so much pain. It was just a little weed. But I went to that dealer several times. If someone found him…

“I’ll resign from the squad,” I say quietly.

“Jessie, no,” Alannah rasps.

“We can fight this,” Lakelyn tells me tearfully. “You belong here, Jessie. You’ve breathed life into this team.”

Tara scoffs, but at least has the good grace not to say anything.

I shake my head. “I don’t want you to fight and risk the whole team getting banned,” I say truthfully. “I don’t want to cause any trouble. I never did. I just wanted to cheer. I can give you back the hoodie if you need me to.”

I only got it last week, and I’ve been living in it ever since. But I never even got my competition uniform. All we need for games is the Kittens T-shirt.

I guess that’s my cheer career over. I’ll never get to step on a competition mat ever again. All those years of hoping anddreaming that I could get back to who I was before cancer reared its ugly head…for nothing.

Well, not for nothing. I don’t regret or resent a single second I spent with my mom. I certainly don’t regret coloring outside of the lines to get something that would have been perfectly legal if the dispensaries were open in order to stop her from crying and vomiting from the pain she was in.

But I am sad. For me, for Nim, for everyone this ugly business has dragged into the mud.

“The hoodie is yours. Of course it is,” Lakelyn says, visibly distressed. “The suspension is just for this competition. I’ll sort it out, I promise. We want you to stay.”

“Actually,” Tara says, sounding angry for the first time. It’s funny, but I appreciate her genuine emotion rather than the fake niceties she usually panders us with. “I don’t want him to stay. I never wanted him or his trashy friend on the squad at all, let alone being allowed to represent us on the competition mat.”

“Tara,” Lakelyn says, sounding like she’s begging her to stop. “Have some fucking empathy.”

Tara folds her arms as her boyfriend gets to his feet, smoothing down his blazer. Everyone else here is dressed for a workout, and he looks like he’s off to a country club.

He probably is.

“I know,” Tara says. “Why don’t we put it to a vote? Those who want the little criminal Jessie to stay on our team and risk us getting banned from competitions for the rest of the year—maybe forever—raise your hand.”

Alannah shoves her hand straight up into the air. So do the other members of my stunt group, Zazzle, and a couple more girls who are shooting daggers at Tara. A lot of people look worriedly anywhere but me. I don’t blame them. They’re thinking of the squad, and they should be. But Tara’s friends around her grin and wave good-bye in my direction.

“No, I’m not voting,” Lakelyn says stubbornly. “It’s not that simple. I can fix this. Y’all have just got to give me time. Brittany’s aunt is the sheriff. I’m sure we can talk to her and?—”

I cut her off by wrapping my arms around her. “It’s okay,” I say. “This isn’t your fault. I don’t blame you for one second. But the team comes first. That’s what cheerleading is all about. I’ll miss you all.”

She hugs me back tightly. When I let her go, she has tears in her eyes. She looks at me for a few long moments before giving the smallest nod. “Don’t be a stranger,” she whispers.

“I promise, I won’t,” I tell her.

I nod toward the rest of the squad, a lot of whom wave sadly. Then at Alannah.

“Give ’em hell,” I murmur quietly. Then I have to march myself out the door unless I want to run the risk of crying in front of Tara, and I’d never give her the satisfaction.

I don’t make it three feet outside before a body crashes into me, their arms trying to squeeze me in half. “Sorry,” Alannah says breathlessly. “I had to grab my stuff and give Tara the bird before I could run after you.”

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