Page 16 of Finding Her
Elodie was another one of our “sisters-in-law” as Lilah loved to call her. She was the younger sister of my sister’s boyfriend, and went to our rival school, Westwood Academy. Both Lilah and I had tried to convince her she should switch over to Hartwell but of course, her only response had been that we should switch to Westwood instead so we came to a stalemate.
“Too late!” Lilah said, just as my phone chirped with a text. I didn’t even want to look at it but curiosity got the better of me, and I almost threw my phone at Lilah when I saw the group name.
Operation Get Poppy and Bear Together
“One of these days, I’m going to kill you in your sleep,” I told Lilah.
She shrugged, undeterred. “As long as you get with Bear first. Then I can die happy.”
CHAPTER 11
bear
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
I startled from the voice and tried to stand up, conveniently forgetting my head was currently in my locker, so I slammed the back of my skull into the top of the locker. I groaned and rubbed at it as I came out and looked up to see Claire standing over me.
“Geez!” I said. “Ever heard of not sneaking up on a guy?”
I was still on my knees from digging through the low locker, so my eyes were level with the hem of her plaid uniform skirt, which was several inches higher than the required length. I let my eyes run up her long legs, the grey Hartwell Academy fitted sweater she was wearing, and finally land on her narrowed blue eyes staring at me. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was tapping her fingers in an ominous way that immediately set me on edge. She was clearly in a mood, which was the last thing I wanted to deal with today. The first week of school was finally over and I was ready to go collapse in my room until classes started again on Monday, far away from the insanity that my life was turning into this semester.
Claire didn’t say anything as I slammed my locker shut and got to my feet. And I was glad for it, because the hallway was filled with freshmen that I was sure would be eavesdropping onour conversation—her sister included. Mia’s locker was only a couple down from mine and she was currently standing there, applying lipgloss, clearly watching us out of the corner of her eye.
“Come on,” I said. I grabbed Claire’s elbow and tugged her down the hall to an empty classroom.
“Trying to get some alone time with me?” She taunted as I closed the door behind us.
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” I said, not answering her question. I dropped my bag on the floor and sat on one of the desks, facing her. Conversations with Claire were never short, so I might as well get comfortable.
“Then why haven’t you answered my texts?” She asked. Her voice immediately took on a whiny tone that was grating to the ears. Only one of her many attributes that made me want to bang my head into a wall. In a way, I felt sorry for her—she’d spent her life being told I was the only guy in the world for her, while she and her parents had no idea that I truly couldn’t stand her.
I shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”
“It’s the first week of school, Levi!” She hissed. “How busy could you possibly be?”
“Very,” I snapped. Sure, I was more busy with studying the school rulebook for ways out of my gym class than with homework or hockey or anything else she was imagining, but she didn’t need to know that.
She sighed and stepped up to me, brushing a hand across my chest. “I’m sorry for getting mad. I just miss you, baby.”
Yeah, no.
I quickly slid out of her touch and moved further into the room. She narrowed her eyes, looking like a predator going after its prey, which was how she looked about ninety percent of the time we spent together.
“I told you,” I said. “I’m not looking for a relationship right now, Claire.”
“Oh come on,” she purred. For every step away I took, she took one toward me. “We’re practically dating anyway. Why shouldn’t we make it official?”
I stumbled backward down an aisle, pulling desk chairs out as I went so she couldn’t follow easily. She was undeterred and started heading up the next aisle over, probably aiming to meet me at the end of the room which was unfortunately getting a little close for comfort.
“You know neither of us are allowed,” I said. It was a weak excuse, what with us being at boarding school. Though, there was a higher risk this year than there had been before, now that Mia was old enough to be at Hartwell as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if their parents were using Mia as their spy to make sure their eldest daughter was behaving at school.
“I won’t tell if you won’t,” she said. We hit the end of the aisles and she pounced forward, trying to grab my sweater, but I’d played hockey for long enough to see it coming and dodge. A little harder in shoes than skates, but I made it work. She was starting to look angry as I practically sprinted across the room to get some distance between us. I had half a mind to just grab my backpack and bolt, but Claire was unpredictable and I was worried she would just follow me into the hall anyway. There was a reason I’d pulled her in here—I didn’t want to be a spectacle for the whole student body to watch.
“My dad would kill me,” I said. “He wants me to focus on hockey and?—”
“I’ll help you focus!” She said. “Ilovehockey.”
Well, there was no doubt that was true. Actually, I was pretty sure she liked hockey even more than me. Not as a player, but definitely as a spectator. And she really,reallyliked hockey players. She could act like we were dating all she wanted, but I’dseen her at enough of our team parties to know she was happy to make out with any hockey player who looked her way—whether he was on our team or the opposition’s.
