Page 450 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11
Sophie didn’t say a word to me in the hall as we headed to our next class.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” I asked. I felt like I was going to be sick. “Mr. Halifax is my kiss thief and you’re going to homecoming with Axel. Why is everything so backwards right now?”
Sophie finally seemed to snap out of her daze. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. I’m so sorry. I don’t like him, Sophie. I swear.”
“I know. And we don’t know for sure if it’s Mr. Halifax. You still have to dance with him to find out.”
“We don’t even know if he’s going to be a chaperone at the dance.” The one good thing about my dad announcing he was a chaperone was the fact that it reminded me that not all teachers were the worst.
“Oh Mr. Halifax is definitely a chaperone,” Sophie said.
“How do you know that?”
“I got access to the list of chaperones weeks ago.”
I stared at her. “And you didn’t think you should give me a heads up that my dad is volunteering?”
“I figured he’d told you.”
“He doesn’t tell me anything,” I said.
“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve been really distracted recently.”
I swallowed hard. That was because of me. And Mr. Halifax’s stupid flirting. “I’m sorry,” I said again.
“Really, we don’t know it’s him. He was helping you with acceleration questions during detention, remember? He could have just been referring to that.”
I slowly nodded. “I guess that’s true.”
“Totally.” She smiled. “The third base acceleration was just a random coincidence.” She was so much better than me at pretending that none of this was worrisome.
***
I was starting to hate the class my dad taught almost as much as Mr. Halifax’s class.
My dad had been really cool about Jacob and I dating. But now he kept giving Jacob dirty looks in class. And he kept talking about how coding was a greatindependentactivity. And that more of us should spend our free time doing that. Plus another section of our project was due at the end of the week. He gave us way too much homework.
It was almost time for the bell to ring when the speakers turned on and our principal’s voice came into the room.
“Eek they’re announcing the homecoming court!” Sophie said.
My heart started racing as our principal read the names of the nominees for homecoming king.
“Axel Stevens. Jacob Miller. Luis Rodriguez. Eli Jones. And Billy O’Reilly.”
I heard Axel and Jacob high five behind me.
“And our nominees for homecoming queen,” the principal said. “Sophie Hunter.”
I smiled at her.
She shrugged like it was nothing.
“Gigi Cannavaro,” the principal announced.
“Gross,” Sophie said.
