Game On (4 page)

The coach fed her a deep high ball. Nicole ran for it, hit the tweener … and nailed the cone.
One try
.

“We have a winner!” the coach said, retrieving the cone.

The other kids were both gutted and in total awe.

“I already get my rackets and clothes paid for,” Nicole said. “A store credit is worthless to me. Tell you what, I'll give it to whoever washes and details my car.”

A wild offer, made more wild by the kids who all leaped at it. Maya didn't beg, mostly because if she was going to be friends with Nicole (which clearly had to happen), she couldn't be spit-shining her wheels. It was a sacrifice she felt in her gut as a lucky girl got the thousand dollars and the privilege of washing Nicole King's car.

Still, Maya wanted to hurl herself at Nicole, tell her what an amazing job she did and, oh, PS, profess her love. But there were too many kids between them. In an instant, Nicole was gone. As the other kids went back to their courts to keep practicing, Maya vowed two things: to master that trick shot and to be ready the next time Nicole came her way.

A quick break, and Maya was back on the court. With no coach to feed her balls, she was forced to bust out the big guns. Well, one big gun. A ball machine.

Maya had only hit with a ball machine a few times. It was a luxury back home, so it was wheeled out only on special occasions. Even then, it was the guy at the club who set it up. Maya knew somewhere deep down that it wasn't overly complicated, which made the fact that she couldn't figure it out that much more maddening.

Florida was two things: scorching hot and witheringly humid. Maya was already dripping with sweat after ten minutes of trying to turn the stupid machine on. Finally it kicked in, but getting it to launch balls with the right kind of spin, speed, and angle required a PhD.

As she loaded balls and watched them shoot out everywhere but where she wanted them, she caught sight of something that froze her where she stood.

Travis Reed.

Travis was standing by the fence. Out of his football uniform and in an Academy T-shirt and shorts, he looked no less immortal. As she watched him chat with a couple of kids, she couldn't think of anything else besides just how full-on gorgeous he was.

And how absolutely sweaty and gross she was.

Maya immediately dropped to a crouch behind the whirring ball machine before he could see her. When he didn't walk on right away, she desperately grabbed her cell from her pocket and called Cleo.

“Hello?” Cleo answered.

“He's here,” Maya said, trying to keep her stage whisper from becoming a roller-coaster scream.

“Who?”

“Travis,” Maya said urgently, ready for Cleo to freak out with her.

Cleo was unimpressed. “So?”

“So?” Maya couldn't believe her ears. “I'm talking about Travis Reed, Nails Reed's son? I told you, I met him yesterday.
I'm even grosser than I was then. What if he sees me?” Maya sneaked a look around the ball machine. He was still there, chatting away.

“Would he even remember you?” Maya wasn't sure if Cleo was simply thoughtless or if she was actually trying to punch Maya in the gut.

“Well,” Maya said, ignoring her wounded pride, “if he didn't remember me, he would now.” Maya scanned the area for quick exits, but the only way off the court was past Travis.

“Maya, come on,” Cleo said. “How gross could you possibly be?”

Maya couldn't even begin to describe which breed of wet dog she most resembled. She pointed her cell phone at herself, took a picture, then sent it to Cleo.

“Wow,” Cleo said finally. “You are gross.”

Before Maya could be truly offended, she saw something that knocked every single thought out of her head.

Travis Reed took off his shirt.

Maya wasn't a boy-crazy gawker, but this guy's body was ridiculous. He wasn't a hulk (quarterbacks rarely were), but he had muscles, and they were so defined they looked painted on. By God.

“Maya?” Cleo asked. “Maya, I asked you a question.”

Maya snapped back to reality. How long had she been gone?

“He just … shirt. Off. Body. Wow.” Maya's grasp of the English language was slipping by the second.

“Did you just get out of prison?” Cleo asked, laughing. “Don't they have boys in the cornfields where you grew up?”

“Of course they have boys,” she said. “And they weren't cornfields. I just …”

“That good, huh?” Cleo asked, intrigued. “I'd much rather see a picture of that than your unfortunate sweat stains.”

“Okay.” Maya raised herself just enough to get a clear shot, then covertly aimed her phone at Travis. She steadied it and focused on … Travis looking over at her.

Panicked, she dropped the phone without a second's hesitation.
Into the whirring ball machine
.

Please
, Maya thought,
please don't let him have seen that.

He looked away, oblivious. Maya wasn't particularly religious, but in that moment, she knew there was a higher power, and it was watching over her.

Suddenly, the ball machine clanked. Maya shifted just in time to see her cell phone launch like a rocket. It bulleted past her, through the trees, and into the nearby parking lot, where it connected with something with a loud
bang
.

Forgetting Travis, Maya raced to the parking lot. She saw her mangled phone on the ground … beside a car with a large dent in its side. It was an Aston Martin One-77.

And, Nicole was at the outdoor café fifty feet away from it. Nicole's walk was steady and purposeful as she made her way through the gathering crowd to inspect the damage.

“Whose is this?” Nicole asked as she picked up what was left of the phone. “I said, whose is this?”

Maya went pale. There was no way out of this. She fought her urge to run away screaming, unstuck her hair from her sweaty face, then stepped forward.

“Mine,” she said. “I am so sorry.” Before Maya knew it,
words started pouring out of her mouth. “It was a total accident, my phone fell in the ball machine and … and I know the car is new and … and it represents your big win at the tournament you just came from and, and that's so important, it's so important to treat yourself after a job well done, and it was, it was a job well done, and …”

Nicole eyed her. If Maya hadn't felt like a freak before, she definitely did now.

“What's the big deal?” Nicole said. “I'll just win another one next week.” It wasn't an insult. It wasn't a joke. It wasn't even a brag. It was the truth.

“Sure,” Maya said, easing. “Of course you will. I mean, you're Nicole King. I'm—” Maya stepped forward to introduce herself, but before she could finish the sentence, Nicole simply handed the phone to someone else and walked off. Along the way, Nicole joined up with a couple members of her elite inner circle, Travis among them.

Maya was left sputtering.

Travis had witnessed her humiliation, which was a nightmare in and of itself. But even more scarring was what had gone down between her and Nicole. Maya was nothing more than a flea to Nicole, not even worth handing the phone back to directly. As the intermediary handed over the corpse of her cell and the crowd they had drawn started to disperse, Maya couldn't decide what was worse: making a horrible impression on her idol or making no impression at all.

Maya hated surprises. When she was seven, her father dressed up as Santa Claus, and she dropped him with a punch to the groin. Since then, it was a pretty well-established understanding in the Hart household that Maya always needed advance warning.

For this reason, Maya challenged herself to a late-evening run around the entire campus. She wanted to familiarize herself with everything. Little did she know “everything” was at least a half-marathon. Sure, she'd researched the campus exhaustively online, but she had to pound the pavement, not just her keyboard, to really know it.

As impressive as the Academy was during the day, at night it was something else entirely. The palm trees were decorated with little white lights that twinkled in the gentle, warm breeze. The fountains trickled in the quiet. But if she listened hard
enough, she could hear the distant sounds of music spilling out of dorm-room windows and bursts of laughter punctuating the calm.

Exhausted, Maya cut through the Administration building on her way back to her dorm. Outside the main office, she saw a familiar face. One she almost didn't recognize without her entourage.

Nicole.

Nicole was lingering outside the locked office door.

Maya couldn't backtrack. Not because that would be running away (the urge to run and hide was becoming second nature here), but because she'd have to go all the way around the building, and her legs would not stay attached long enough to pull that off. So she pushed forward.

She had no idea what kind of greeting she'd get from Nicole, if any. So she was downright floored when Nicole turned and not only recognized her, but actually brightened upon seeing her.

“You,” Nicole said, smiling.

“Nicole,” Maya said, seizing the opportunity to grovel. “I am so sorry about what happened earl—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Nicole said. “If you could do me a huge favor, we can call the car thing square.”

Now Maya brightened. “Really? Yeah, sure. Of course.” Maya could only imagine what she could possibly do for Nicole King. Give her a kidney? Give her an alibi? Whatever it was, she'd do it.

“See that framed poster in there?” Nicole pointed to a large
action shot of herself on the court, ripping a vicious backhand. The look on her face was sheer brutality, a marked contrast to what Maya was seeing standing right next to her now.

“Yeah …?” Maya replied.

“I was supposed to sign it for a sick kid in the hospital,” Nicole said. “But this stupid photo shoot I was doing went over and I got here too late. I feel horrible. Have you ever let a sick kid down before?”

“No,” Maya said.

“Me neither,” Nicole said. “Because it isn't done. Not unless you're a monster or you're trying to win a bet on how fast you can spend eternity in hell. But here's the thing. See that window above the door?” It was cracked open for ventilation. “Someone tall enough could just slide through and get it. I don't have the inches, but you do.”

This was about her height? The thing that Maya had been so self-conscious about was going to come to Nicole's rescue? She didn't care how tired her legs were; Maya couldn't jump fast enough.

“I can try,” Maya said.

“Please,” Nicole said. “Eternity is a long time.”

Maya nodded, then started her climb. She was determined to pull this off. And it turned out that pulling herself up took no effort at all. Still, she'd try to sell the effort to score extra brownie points. A few more groans and a fake splinter should do it. Finally, Maya landed on the other side of the locked door.

“Yes!” Nicole beamed.

Maya grabbed the framed poster and slid it, and herself, back out.

“Thank you so much,” Nicole said. “You have saved my soul. And maybe made a little kid's day.”

Maya was glowing. “It was the least I could do.” She sucked on her fake splinter.

“Well, see you around.” Nicole said.
See you around
. The words echoed in Maya's head like a church bell, over and over. Nicole King will see her around. It couldn't get any better than this.

“See you around,” Maya agreed.

Maya was newly supercharged, as if she'd chugged a Red Bull. She waved, then ran the rest of the way back to her place, on cloud nine.

Maya awoke the next morning at seven on the dot. As her eyes focused, they found someone standing over her bed. But it wasn't Cleo. It was an Academy security guard. Stone-faced and severe, he looked more like an undertaker.

“Maya Hart?” His voice struck like a steel baton.

“Yeah,” she squeaked out. She looked around for Cleo. She'd already left for class. Being alone with this guy freaked her out even more. “What's going on?”

“Come with me, please.” It wasn't a request.

Maya had five minutes to get dressed and drag a toothbrush across her mouth before the security guard led her off. As she made her way through the quad with no idea where she was being taken or why, she felt like a criminal.

When the security guard led her into the Administration building, she saw Nails sitting outside his office.
Please don't let him be waiting for me, please don't let him be waiting for me.

“Ms. Hart, I didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon.”

Maya's heart was in her throat as the two of them were left alone.

“Is something wrong?” Maya asked sheepishly. Something was definitely not right.

“That depends,” he replied. “Do you think breaking and entering is wrong?”

“ ‘Breaking and entering'?” Maya gauged him. Was this a trick question?

“And theft,” he added. “Did you think the security camera outside this office was there for decoration?”

Suddenly the realization flooded her.

“I didn't break anything,” she said quickly. “I slid in. And I didn't steal anything; it was for a good cause.”

“A good cause?” Nails asked.

Finally, Maya relaxed. Nails just didn't know about the sick kid. It made sense; he had so much to do on campus that random acts of charity probably weren't high on his radar. This was easily explained.

“There's a sick kid at the hospital,” Maya said. “He was getting that poster of Nicole King, but she got here too late to sign it for him.” Maya smiled. She still had time to go back and catch another hour of sleep before class.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Nails said. “That framed poster wasn't going to any sick kid; it was framed to be hung at the Academy.”