Candid (True Images Series) (22 page)

“I hope you don’t mind that we’re dating.”

“It seemed really weird at first,” I admitted. “But I got over that a long time ago. I think you’re a pretty cool person, and I’m glad she’s dating someone nice.”

“Thank you, Sienna. That means a lot to me. Can I ask you a question though?”

“Sure.”

“If you don’t have a problem with me, why do you look so nervous?”

I sighed. “It’s kind of crazy, but basically, I’ve been trying to get Katie Edwards elected Homecoming Queen and I’m pretty sure that Jordan Rubio will be my mortal enemy from this day on.”

“Undoubtedly.
Take cover here as long as you need. Oh, and by the way, I convinced your mom to let you keep taking pictures at the game.”

“How’d you do that?”

“I looked at her really sad and made her feel guilty over making me hobble around on this leg of mine. She knows there isn’t anybody who’d take care of you as well as Lee out there, so she agreed he should keep spotting for you. Besides, even she knows you two can’t get in too much trouble in front of everybody like that.”

“Thanks.”

“Like I said, it was actually pretty selfish of me. The cold really hurts my leg, and I’d rather be curled up in front of my fire with your mom.” He winked at me and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I always suspected she was somewhere with you on Friday nights.”

I stayed hunkered down in the yearbook room until I got a text from Lee that he was waiting for me in the parking lot. I grabbed my stuff and dashed out to meet him.

I was almost to his truck when Jordan intercepted me. My stomach sank until I realized that she looked extremely cheerful. Clearly, she had no idea what lay in store for her.

“I saw your little blog post last night,” Jordan said, laughing at me like she didn’t have a care in the world.

“You did?” Why wasn’t she gouging my eyes out?

“Yeah.
Nice try, but did you really think you could swing the election to Katie in just one night? Sorry, but I’m afraid you’re just out of luck.”

So she’d only seen the edited post. Thank heavens for that. “Well, we’ll find out, won’t we?” I moved past her and jumped in Lee’s truck.

“Oh, hey.
There you are,” he said, tossing the notebook he’d been staring at onto the seat between us. “You look beautiful this morning – but why are you so pale.”

“I thought for sure I was dead when I ran into Jordan just now.”

“You did? “He looked out his windshield and glanced around. Since he’d backed into his parking spot, we saw Jordan right in front of us and she’d been joined by Brittany and some of the other cheerleaders. “I didn’t see. I was cramming for my English test. What happened?”

“Absolutely nothing.
She doesn’t have a clue that I had that picture of her and Caleb up for a while.”

“Well, she’s sure taking a serious interest in whatever Brittany is showing her on her phone.”

“Oh no.
Do you think…?”

Then Jordan looked up at me and if looks could kill, I’d have breathed my last breath right then.

“Yep,” he said, “It looks like somebody’s sending a screen shot of your first post around.”

“Maybe everyone will think it was taken a long time ago.”

“Sorry. Not a chance. There was a poster behind them for a movie that hasn’t even come out yet.”

“Dang.
I can’t believe I didn’t notice that. Well, it was worth a try. Next time, can you save me from doing something stupid
before
I do it?”

“Sure. Of course, you’d have to warn me first. It’s time to go in. Let’s see if I can keep you alive to enjoy your month of being grounded.”

We had to walk past Jordan and her friends. There was no way around it. Luckily, Lee’s broad shoulders shielded me from the worst of their glares, but I did see that Jordan looked as sick and panicked as she looked angry.

“You’re going to get it now, you ---“she called after me.

“Beep!”
Lee said real loud, drowning out Jordan’s foul tongue. It made me laugh, which only made Jordan madder. Only an air horn could have drowned out what she said after that.

Lee walked me all the way to my home room class and made sure I was safe inside before he took off for his own. Luckily, no one who was likely to want me dead was in class with me. As the morning’s announcements came over the intercom, Principal Duncan went over the rules for the secret ballot voting that would take place at lunch to elect the Homecoming Queen and her court. There was a brief mention that Cecilia
Maycomb
would no longer be on the ballet, but few people seemed surprised by it. Word gets around fast, and hopefully all my friends had gotten out their messages to vote for Katie by now.

The real topic of whispered conversation seemed to be about Caleb and Jordan. Most people hadn’t even seen the picture, but I was sure everyone would hear about it before long.

After home room, I stepped hesitantly in the hall, and was surprised to see Will, Michael, and a few other guys from the basketball team standing outside like they were waiting for me.

“Lee can’t make it, so he asked us to walk you to your next class,” Will told me as I joined them.

“He did? You guys don’t have to do that.”

“Well it won’t be pretty if we don’t, so you might as well come with us,” Michael said. “Besides, it’s not like I mind or anything,” he continued with his sexiest smile.

“Don’t forget what Lee said,” Will reminded him.

“I wasn’t touching her!”

I laughed and said, “Oh, come on or you guys will be late to your classes.” As they crowded around me with protective stances, I had to admit that it felt nice to be so taken care of. Especially when I saw Caleb towering above everyone else as he came towards us down the hall. We made eye contact and my legs felt like they might collapse underneath me I was so scared. Luckily, we got to my class before we had to pass him.

Lee made sure I had some guys around to guard me until lunch, when he could finally meet me himself. When I came out of my class, and saw him waiting there, it was way better than having half the basketball team. He just made me feel safe.

“I hope you don’t mind eating in the cafeteria today, because you’re going to. They’ll be expecting you at your usual spot.”

“Ok, but we have to go vote first.”

“Let’s vote after we eat. I just passed the ballot boxes and the lines are ridiculous.”

“Oh, all right.”

Ten minutes later I was watching Lee shovel his way through a pile of something that was supposed to be lasagna while my tuna salad on whole wheat pita bread lay untouched in front of me.

“Want me to get you something else?” he offered after a minute.

“No, I don’t feel like eating.”

“I wouldn’t either if that’s all I had,” he said, eyeing my lunch with a grimace.

“But you’ll eat that?
Grease, over-cooked noodles, mystery meat, and all?”

“Uh, yeah.
That’s what makes it good.”

“Whatever. I swear there are a million butterflies in my stomach right now, but you seem awfully calm about everything considering how worried you were last night.”

“Well, that was because you were seeing my first reaction to it. I’ve surrendered to the inevitable now. I’ll have to keep a sharp eye on you for a while, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have a run in with Caleb Murphy sooner or later, but there’s no turning back now that you’ve set it all in motion.”

“You know, I’d much rather you
didn’t
get in a fight with Caleb. I
like
the way your face looks.”

Lee sighed.
“Oh, ye of little faith.
I can hold my own with him if I need to.” His expression hardened. “Besides, it’s completely up to him. If he hurts you, that’s it.”

“I don’t know why he cares so much anyway. I mean, won’t he just score points with the other guys for making out with her?”

“Maybe with some, but it can’t be good for team dynamics for him to be putting the moves on the quarterback’s girlfriend. Not to mention
his own
girlfriend is probably freaking out on him.”

“I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. Who is it?”

“You really didn’t know? He’s dating Julia Hatfield.”

“He cheated on the coach’s daughter? Man, he’s not only a slime ball - he’s a complete idiot!”

“Yeah.
I doubt Coach Hatfield will like him too much anymore. Good thing he’s a monster tight end.”

“Good for
who
? I personally wish he was a skinny field goal kicker like Luis.
How long until you’re finished with that?”

“I’m done. Come on, Nervous Nellie. Let’s go.”

Soon we were in line to vote, and Lee had been right to wait. Almost everyone had already voted and filed into the gym to wait for the pep-rally to start. The student council was feverishly counting votes in the library, trading ballot boxes in and out as they filled up.

I admired all the “Crown the True Queen, Katie Edwards” signs hung around everywhere, with their gold glitter crowns and poster paint bubble letters. The volleyball team and some of Marisol’s friends had been in charge of getting them up before school this morning. I was anxious to find out if we’d pulled this off.

After we voted, Lee and I went to find a place to sit in the crowded bleachers. He was looking for his basketball buddies when Katie came up to me. Her smile was bright enough to blind someone.

“Sienna!
There you are. I can’t believe this. I’ve had so many people tell me they voted for me. Do you think we might actually pull this off?”

“I hope so, but I’ll be nervous until they announce the winner. Jordan’s been working on this since we were freshmen, and we’ve only had a couple of weeks. Still, regardless of who gets the most votes, there are a lot of people at this school who think you deserve it, and that counts for something – right?”

“It counts for a lot. Can I ask you something though? Why didn’t you want to be homecoming queen? I know a lot of people wanted to nominate you but you refused to run.”

I flushed pink. I had hoped no one would find out about it. “I don’t know why they nominated me. I’m not cut out for this kind of thing, and I never would have won anyway. Now you – you will make a perfect Homecoming Queen. You’re beautiful, smart, and very nice.”

“Well, you could have been describing yourself, but if you really wouldn’t have liked it, then I feel better. Thanks so much for everything you’ve done.”

“I didn’t actually do much. I didn’t make posters, or send texts, or…”

“Oh, stop. I know what you’ve done,” she said, smiling. “Hey, it’s time for me to go. Keep your fingers crossed.”

As she left, I looked around for Lee and found him waiting a few steps up the bleachers. He held his hand out to help me navigate the narrow path between people, and I took it automatically. As soon as our hands touched, however, I couldn’t believe the reaction I had to just that simple contact.

We’d touched plenty of times before – definitely more than my mom would have liked. But something about the warm, masculine roughness of his skin sent my heart skittering in a crazy beat. Maybe it was because we were in front of so many people and Lee obviously didn’t mind if anyone saw us as a couple. He continued to hold my hand to help guide me in a winding path through people until we reached Will, Marisol, and some of the other basketball players.

When we sat down, I smiled and raised my eyebrows at him. He looked confused and then realized that he was still holding my hand.

He let go and said, “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

I grabbed his hand again. “Well, then let’s both not think about it. My mom can’t see us, even if she comes in, and shoot, I’m already grounded.”

He grinned and ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “It’s your call. Let me know if you want to break any other rules today.”

“We’d better not. If Katie wins, I’m going to be in enough trouble as it is.”

“Yeah.
Maybe I should work on getting you grounded until we graduate.”

“Why?” I asked indignantly.

“To keep you safe from any run-ins with Jordan or Caleb outside of school.”
Then with a quirk of one eyebrow he said, “And because getting you in trouble would be a lot of fun.”

Chapter 15

I couldn’t focus on the cheerleaders’ dance routine, the jump roping contest between the starters for that night’s game, or any of the entertainment that was meant to fill time until the ballots
were
counted. My eyes stayed focused on the doors to the gym, waiting for Evan Plumber, the student body president, to come in with the results.

Finally, when I thought I was going to go bonkers from waiting, he came in. I didn’t realize I was squeezing Lee’s hand so hard until he pried my fingers off and rubbed at the indentions my nails made in his skin. “Sorry.”

“No big deal,” he assured me, but I noticed that he kept checking to see if the marks had gone away.

I somehow survived while the freshman, sophomore, and junior princesses were announced, but by the time he got around to announcing the senior princess, Lee had to remind me to breathe. I must have been turning blue.

Evan announced, “And our
Senior
maid is, Jordan Rubio.”

“Oh
my gosh
! Oh
my gosh
! Katie’s going to win!” I whispered to Lee, trying not scream. The crowd was cheering and clapping, but Jordan looked like she’d swallowed a hedgehog backwards.

Lee was grinning, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he was as excited as I was or because he was getting a kick out of how spastic I was being.

Jordan took her place in the line of girls at half court, and Evan leaned towards the microphone again. “And now, Our Haskin’s High, Football Homecoming Queen is… by a landslide vote… Katie Edwards.”

If I was the first to my feet, the rest of the crowd wasn’t far behind me. The whole gym went crazy cheering for Katie. I threw my arms around Lee and somehow still managed to jump up and down. “Yes! Yes! I can’t believe it! I’m so excited!”

Lee picked me up and swung me around a little as he celebrated with me. He was laughing though, and before he put me down he said, “I hope you know I expect the exact same reaction when I ask you to prom.”