4

Maxine

Poppy pressed her phone to her ear as we walked down the hall.

“Elodie, save the seat next to you. I’ll be there soon,” she said before ending the call.

All the students were swarming in the same direction.

“Where is everyone going?” I asked.

“Assembly. We’ll join them soon. I’ll show you around first,” she answered.

Our first stop was the cafeteria, which looked more like a very fancy restaurant than a school lunchroom. It was huge too, with a variety of breakfast options and an entire section filled with pastries. Poppy picked up a cinnamon roll and bit into it casually.

“You can have anything you want,” she told me.

I walked over to the pastry section and grabbed a lemon fruit pastry. I took a bite and felt the hard chocolate shell crumble in my mouth, followed by a sweet creamy lemon filling.

Hmm.

It tasted like something made by a high-end chef.

After the cafeteria, Poppy showed me all the important rooms on the ground floor before taking me upstairs to check out the library and the laboratories. I was taking a lot of advanced classes for my GPA anyway, so I knew I would probably spend plenty of time around those areas.

The library was on the third floor, and as we were heading there, I saw one of the Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks trio coming down the stairs.

The airport boy I spilled my drink on.

I nearly choked on my pastry.

They went here too?

What the hell was going on?

Why did they seem to be everywhere I was?

He walked past me and snarled irritatedly. I felt a strange tingle in my stomach when I breathed in his pine and bergamot scent.

“That’s Mike, one of the Glass brothers. They’re part of a friend group of five and they’re basically the sex gods of D.R.Y,” Poppy said.

Good to know I wasn’t the only one who thought they were insanely appealing.

“What’s the name of the redhead and the one with the pale irises?” I asked.

“You’ve met them?” she asked.

“Yeah. They live next door to me,” I explained.

“Wow. Lucky you,” Poppy said.

Well, unlucky me.

They hated me.

And I hated that it made me sad that they hated me. I shouldn’t care about them.

“The redhead is Johnny. The one with the white irises is Bran. He has the highest GPA in the entire school. A perfect 4.0 and a 4.9 weighted from all the advanced classes he insisted on taking,” she said.

Wow.

“Mike is on the football team—the best wide receiver they’ve got. Johnny is one of the best players on the hockey team too, while Bran is on the swim team just for fun,” Poppy explained.

“Do they…”

“Yes. Most of them have girlfriends,” she said.

For some reason my heart squeezed inside my chest, and the sudden rush of jealousy that rose within me made me feel a little light-headed.

What was wrong with me?

I didn’t even know them. How could I be jealous?

“Bran doesn’t date though,” Poppy added. “But he accepts a bunch of offers from girls always trying to get him to suck their boobs in the library.”

I ground my teeth.

Stupid boys.

I pushed the thought of them aside and focused on admiring the library, the gym room, and the music room.

“I’m the head of the cheerleading squad. I’ll have your new uniform prepared,” Poppy said, already picking my extracurricular activities on my behalf.

Fine.

Cheerleading it was.

“Come on. Let’s go join the assembly,” she said.

We went back downstairs and made our way toward the auditorium.

As much as I tried to pretend like the information I had just heard about the Glass brothers didn’t affect me, it did.

It hurt like hell.

I had had crushes before but never one this intense, one that had my body practically shaking with jealousy.

“Ha! They are so going to hate you,” Poppy said with a mischievous laugh.

“Me? Who?” I asked.

“The two queen bees of senior class—Olivia and Rayna.”

“Why would they hate me?”

I knew queen bees were usually mean girls surrounded by a horde of pick-me friends but I had literally just arrived.

“You’re beautiful. One in every two boys we’ve walked past has looked at you twice. You’ll be a threat to them,” Poppy said.

I scoffed in disbelief.

I had never gotten a lot of male attention before, so I didn’t want to believe she was right.

We made a quick stop at my locker so I could keep my bags, and then we walked into the auditorium.

It was huge, illuminated by bright lights with students seated in neat, organized rows. They were clapping in a strangely formal way when we walked in.

That’s when I looked at the podium and saw Bran walking away from it and back toward the crowd like he had just finished giving a speech or an address.

He was fucking hot.

Tall, with a lean but muscular frame, and his uniform fit his body perfectly—neat and freshly pressed.

To be fair, I probably would offer him my boobs too.

I mentally slapped myself.

Focus, Max.

Bran didn’t join the crowd. Instead, he sat at a separate table where a few other students were seated.

That was probably the student council or the executive group.

I spotted Johnny and Mike sitting together with the blonde boy who winked at me earlier and another boy with dark chocolate skin.

They had to be the group Poppy talked about earlier.

Honestly, they looked like a ridiculously attractive table of desserts.

“The blonde boy sitting with the Glass brothers, what’s his name?” I asked Poppy as we walked down the steps toward the front.

“Trevor. The dark-skinned one is Dustin.”

I nodded.

“I have just one friend. I told her to save a seat for you in the front. I have to join the executives,” she explained.

I had almost forgotten she was the student union president.

“You have one friend? Why? You look like a queen bee—although you’re way too nice to be one.”

“Trust me, I used to be. I’m literally the leader of the cheer team. I used to be part of Olivia’s group, but something happened last year that forced me to change,” she said, grabbing my arm.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she whispered before gently pushing me into an empty seat in the very first row.

“Hi, I’m Elodie,” the curly blonde girl next to me introduced herself.

“Hi, Elodie. I’m Max.”

She frowned slightly.

“Isn’t that a boy’s name?”

“Mine is Maxine,” I clarified.

“Ohhh,” she said with a nod.

I faced forward and accidentally met eyes with Bran, who was sitting cross-legged while staring at me like he was offended that I existed in the same school as him.

Elodie nudged me lightly.

“Welcome to Daphne Ray, Max.”