The Valentine's Dare (The Sycamore Serial Book 1) (2 page)

“That’s Mason Pryor and his friends.
Tch.
No one reports them - they’re the most popular seniors in all of Sycamore House. Plus Frankie is the Head of House. His dad is an Arterberry alum.”

Kierra whistled. “Do you mean Mason Pryor, one of the hottest guys at Arterberry University?
That
Mason Pryor?”

“The guy you turned down last year because you were with Brooks? Yeah, that’s the guy.” Leila tossed her black hair over one shoulder. “You a
bobo,
missy,” she said, using the Spanish nickname for “idiot.” Leila’s mother was Hispanic, lending her dark beauty and a penchant for watching telenovelas and using Spanish insults.

“I guess it was kind of dumb, turning down Mason.” It had happened in a coffee shop near campus. Brooks was supposed to meet her there, but instead he stood her up for an hour and a half. Seeing her there, Mason had come over and made her laugh - then asked for her number. “I wonder what would’ve happened if I’d dumped Brooks then and there and said yes to Mason.”

“I hear he has a bet going,” Lacy said, using her penchant for suddenly changing subjects.

“What are you talking about? A bet?”

“Something Mason does every year involving the Valentine’s Day Dance. I don’t know what it is, though.” Lacy shrugged.

“Hey - the fire is going out.” Leila kicked the trash can, staring at the refuse inside. “Do you think that’s burned enough?”

Kierra peered at the blackened, crumbled husk of what used to be her ex-boyfriend’s things. The stuff was ashes, but all the memories still stuck around: the times he’d let her down, the lies he’d told, how incredibly gullible he had made her. Through it all, the one thing she’d believed the most was that if she just loved him good enough and long enough, Brooks would change. He’d get better, and give her what she needed.
I’m never dating a guy like that again. Now is a time for friends and classes, not assholes who take all my time and energy.
Did she think it was burned enough? There wasn’t a fire in the world that could burn bright enough to cleanse her past with him.

“I think I’m cold and we should go inside.”

CHAPTER TWO

VDDM

“Alright, let’s move on to new residents. We have just… one transfer this semester,” Frankie scanned the clipboard in his hand. “Kierra Adair?”

“Here.” Raising her hand, Kierra glanced around at the other 80 residents in the room.
This isn’t embarrassing or anything.

It was the winter semester orientation, held the Sunday before classes started back up, and apparently Kierra was supposed to be introduced to everyone. The whole thing sort of weirded her out, but Sycamore House was known for its community, a lot like Elm House was known for its crunchy animal rights activists.

“Okay Kierra, welcome to Sycamore House. As you may or may not know, we have clubs that set up events every semester, and we encourage people to sign up and participate. So if you hear anything during this meeting that sounds interesting, feel free to sign up.”

“Okay.” Kierra smiled nervously, noticing Mason Pryor sitting in the front, casually leaned over to talk in a friend’s ear. His dark hair suited him, setting off his handsome face and the black T-shirt he was wearing. She had to tear her eyes away from him and back to Frankie. “I’ll, uh, be sure to participate and such.”

“Great.” Frankie thankfully moved on, covering mess hall hours and the room waiting list. She drifted off, catching bits of what he was talking about, her eyes constantly sliding over to stare at the back of Mason’s head.
Sure he looks cute,
she thought,
but I’m sure he’s a womanizing liar, just like Brooks. No guy with looks like that is anything but an asshole.
He could get any Arterberry girl he wanted - and no doubt he’d had plenty of them.

“He’s talking about the fourth floor apartment, listen up,” Leila hissed, elbowing Kierra in the ribs.

“Ow! What about the fourth floor?”

“They’re the best apartments,” Lacey murmured, leaning in. “Four separate bedrooms and a full kitchen. They even have their own bathroom instead of sharing one with a neighbor! We’re definitely going to get one for next year. You
have
to volunteer for one of the events, it’s how you get extra points to move you up the waiting list.”

A private bathroom did sound pretty nice; no more elbowing a next-door-neighbor away from the sink so she could wash her hands and brush her teeth.

“Speaking of the fourth floor apartments, the Valentine’s Day Dance is coming up in a month, and you know how I like to plan things.”

“Lame!” yelled the guy sitting next to Mason, laughing.

“Very funny, Thomas. Anyway, we’re looking for this year’s Matchmaker.”

Kierra frowned. “Matchmaker? That sounds familiar,” she murmured to Lacy.

“Just listen, Frankie has a whole spiel about everything. He likes to hear himself talk.”

“Every year, we run into the same problem with our Valentine’s Day Dance: there are 81 residents of the Sycamore House, traditionally 41 girls and 40 guys. Unlike the other houses, we run our dance as a blind date night for residents only, which gives us a chance to mix, mingle, and meet new people.”

The alliteration was enough to make Kierra choke on held-in laughter.

“Of course, there’s one girl left out.”

“Heteronormative,” muttered Leila, using her favorite new word from Gender and Sexuality Studies 101.

“In order to solve this problem on this-“ Frankie gave Leila a pointed look, “
friendly
and not-always-sexual date night, we set up the position of Valentine’s Day Dance Matchmaker, or the Matchmaker, five years ago. One girl volunteers to coordinate the dance and set everyone up so the pairs are even. She sets the seating chart and hands out numbered ribbons so that at the dance, everyone can find their matching pair. Every year, she gets a prize for sitting out and doing all the hard work. This year, we have a very special prize.”

Frankie paused for what he obviously thought would be dramatic effect, but instead all he got was silence and a few coughs. Kierra raised her hand, a question occurring to her. “Yes, Kierra?”

“So what you’re saying is, if we’re not the Matchmaker, we’re
definitely
going to be set up?”

“That’s correct. No one is alone on February 14
th
, not in Sycamore House. Of course, we have the dance early so there’s plenty of time for a date afterwards. No worries if you already have a significant other.”

“I volunteer.” Kierra felt like she was in Panem by the looks all the other residents suddenly gave her, turning in their seats.

“What are you doing?” hissed Lacy, while Leila punched her in the arm.

“But I haven’t even said what the prize is.” Frankie sounded clearly put off by having his big moment interrupted.

“Right. Well. Uh, what is it?” Kierra shifted uncomfortably under all the attention.

Frankie cleared his throat. “This year, the Valentine’s Day Dance Matchmaker will be awarded the guaranteed top of the list position on the residency wait list for their choice of apartment - including, yes, a fourth floor unit.”

Lacy gasped. “Do it, do it!”

“I already volunteered,” she muttered, then stood up, speaking out to the whole room. “I’ll do it. I’ll be the matchmaker. I may not know everyone yet, but I can figure it out. I planned the Elm House Gender Bender Ball last semester. If I can handle a crossdressing dance I’m sure I can do a regular one.”

“Just for the record,” said Mason, meeting her eyes from across the room, “I don’t plan on wearing a dress.”

Kierra frowned at him.
Smarmy little asshole.
“That’s good, since you don’t have the legs to pull one off.”

There was a chuckle from the room, and Kierra basked in it. “I’d have the legs, but they made me return them to the mannequin depot,” Mason responded.

This time there was another, louder chuckle. Kierra frowned, hating to be upstaged, especially when it came to stupid jokes.

“Well, enough of that.” Frankie cleared his throat, trying to get the room under control. “We have tons of stuff to cover and I have a humanities class at 2:00. Kierra, you can coordinate with last year’s Matchmaker after the meeting. Anna Banks?”

A girl in the front raised her perfectly manicured hand. “Over here. Can’t wait to meet you.”

Anna smiled like a 400 watt light bulb, and Kierra smiled back - but she had a feeling the other girl’s expression was just as fake as her own.

“Oh, hand me one of those pigs in a blanket.” Lacy pointed to the other side of the snacks table.

“Get it yourself!” Kierra responded, grabbing her own plate full of chocolates and fruit pieces.

Lacy pouted, her cherubic face and bright blue eyes making her look like a little fairy. “Pl-ease? My arms are too short.”

“Here.” Leila reached over both of them, grabbing the pig in a blanket and plopping it on Lacy’s plate. “Long arms run in my family.”

“And taking forever at the snacks table.” That was Mason, leaning out from behind Leila with a grin on his face. “As long as we’re not going anywhere, care to use those freakishly long arms to get me a pretzel?”

Leila har-rumphed at him. “Lacy, this one wants you to hurry up.”

“Juuuuust a minute.” Kierra watched Lacy poke almost every cupcake on the table before she picked one of them and scampered off. Leila followed her, while Kierra hung back, trying to figure out if any of the chocolate pieces had coconut in them.

“You could just take all of them,” Mason said, leaning forward. “There’s no chocolate police around here.”

Side-eyeing him, Kierra shook her head. “I think some of these have coconut in them.”

“And you’re avoiding them?”

“If by ‘avoiding’ you mean ‘inhaling’ then yes.”

“Since that’s the case, you can give up now. I don’t make chocolates with coconut inside them.”

“You make chocolates?” She looked him up and down: at least six feet tall, dark hair, those hazel green eyes that seemed to light up with humor, and a chiseled jaw that she was most definitely
not
admiring. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that you make chocolates yourself.”

“Come to the fourth floor sometime and I’ll show you how.” There was most definitely a flirting tone in his voice. “First though, we should probably move away from the snack table before the ravenous hordes eat us.”

Kierra glanced at the group of people waiting behind them, irritated looks on their faces. “I have to get back to my friends anyway.”

“And leave me here with these hungry monsters?” She took a step away, and he reached towards her, hand trembling, face frozen in mock fright. “At least shoot me in the head before they turn me.”

The look on his face, combined with the annoyance of everyone behind him who wanted Mason to just let them get to the snack table, was enough to make her burst out in laughter.
 

“I don’t think they’re
that
hungry,” she said, but he just shook his head in denial.

Behind him, one of the waiting residents pushed forward, and Mason recoiled in his touch like he’d been burned. “I’m infected,” he cried out, voice full of anguish. Then he ‘fell’ to the ground, eyes wide, faking dead with his plate balanced on his chest.

“Oh my,” Kierra said, as sarcastically as possible - but with a smile that she couldn’t stop.

“Good…bye…” he whispered, leaving her close to tears with little giggles.

In fact, as she walked across the room to join Leila and Lacy, Kierra found that she was positively giddy. It was only when she reached them that she realized how strange that was.

“What’s got you all bubbly?” Leila reached over to steal a chocolate from her plate. “I haven’t seen you laugh like that in a while.”

“It was stupid,” Kierra thought, waving her off. But all she could think was:
I haven’t laughed like that since before Brooks.

All because of Mason Pryor.

“Was he hitting on you? It looked like he was.” Leila took a pointed bite of the chocolate.

“I think he kinda was. It was actually pretty nice, even though I’m not dating again until after college.” She tried to just drop that casually, but could tell by the looks on their faces that it didn’t work.

“Not dating until
when?
” Leila swallowed her chocolate all in one bite. “Are you mad?”

“Honey, I know Brooks hurt you, but-“

Kierra held up a hand to interrupt them. “Just hear me out. When Brooks and I were dating, my grades slipped. I almost failed English 201! And that’s an
easy
coarse. I’m not going to let a relationship with a guy get between me and my dreams. So I’ll hold off on dating until I graduate.” She paused then, thinking. “So maybe I’ll have a summer fling or something. But that’s
it.
No more Arterberry boys messing up my studies during the school year.”

She could tell they didn’t love it, but neither of her friends could object. For one thing, they were both single too; and for another, they knew what it took for her to put her life back together last semester when she and Brooks were on the rocks, nevermind what he did during finals. Going through that again would be terrible for her future.