Game On (17 page)

“You have no money on you?” Jake laughed. “Looks like you either hop in or walk home.”

She was at his mercy. The fact that they both knew it only made her bristle more.

“It's a nice night,” she said. “I'll take the walk.”

“Suit yourself.” With that, Jake sped off.

Alone again, she felt the immediate consequence of her decision staring her square in the face. It was four and a half miles back to the Academy. And there was no way she was doing this in heels.

Over an hour later, Maya arrived at the front gate. It was well past curfew; if she needed them to open the gate for her, she'd be reported immediately. She could've killed time for a few hours somewhere and strolled in with the sun, but how in the world would she explain the outfit to the guard?
Oh, don't mind me
, she imagined herself saying.
I simply can't go for my morning run without my heels and couture.
The only thing to do was jump the wall.

Jumping the wall would've been impossible for mere
mortals. But Maya was no mortal. She was tall. She was fit. Within five minutes … she was flat on her back in a bush.

As she struggled up out of the bushes, a flashlight trained on her face. It was a security guard. And not just any guard—he was the one who'd woken her up and carted her to Nails's office. As fast as she recognized him, he recognized her.

“I know you,” he said. A smile crept onto his face.

It was official. She was screwed.

The guard escorted her to his nearby booth. He reached inside, removed something from a pile of papers, and promptly handed it to her. “This is you, right?”

It was the Academy welcome packet.

Maya didn't know how to respond. This is what he recognized her from? “Uh. Yeah …”

“I thought so,” he said. “You must've been out late tonight. Looking like that, I bet it was a pretty fancy party.”

If she didn't know any better, he almost sounded starstruck. Over her.

“It was,” she said. “It was this after-party thing for a band.” She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to be just a little more fabulous.

“Nice,” he said, opening the gate … and ushering her in. “Have a good night.”

That was it? She was off the hook, just like that? Maya wasn't going to let her own bafflement over this free pass keep her from darting inside that gate, so in she ran.

Once inside, she smiled, then she made her way back to the villa before he could change his mind.

Maya couldn't believe it. All this time she'd seen people
morph into fawning fools over Nicole. She'd witnessed all the perks that came with being put on a pedestal. But she'd never known what it was like to be on the receiving end of it. How she'd gotten to this place was thoroughly confusing, but Maya knew one thing for sure: it was like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life.

Maya was passed out facedown on her bed still in her dress and heels. Somewhere in the deep recesses of her subconscious, she heard the faint sound of a phone ringing. It persisted, getting louder and louder, until it wrenched her from a sleep so deep she felt her body was still in it.

Her cell phone was blowing up.

Through the slit of a barely open eye, she read her screen. Missed texts, missed calls, a whole bunch of voice mails. One was even from her mother. What was going on?

She listened to her messages, each one making less sense in her haze than the one before. When she got to her mother's, she heard a few words strung together that made her sit bolt upright.

“Sweetheart, what's the Wall and why are you on it?”

The Wall was a major gossip site for celebrities and the people who lived vicariously through them. If you were on it,
you were either sporting a baby bump, going into rehab, or wearing the fugliest dress known to man.

Maya grabbed her laptop and banged out the address.

There she was.

The item was mostly about Nicole and Adam, but Maya was in one of the pictures. She looked so glamorous, like a celebrity (the wonders of a cute dress and some makeup, she thought). And she was identified by name! The whole thing was so beyond cool that she felt like eight shots of espresso had suddenly surged through her veins. Tired? Who was tired? Despite getting three hours of sleep, she bounded from bed and got ready for class. The Wall!

The bounce in Maya's step carried her out of the villa and onto the quad. As she made her way to class, everything and everyone around her just seemed brighter. Friendlier. It was like she was in a musical or something. The more smiles she got, the more she realized—they were specifically for her. Everyone had seen the Wall, and they wanted her to know it.

Smiles became thumbs-ups. Thumbs-ups became winks. She couldn't help but smile back. This was a drug, and she wanted hit after hit after hit.

She took out her cell phone and looked at the picture for another little kick. Suddenly, something caught her eye. Something she hadn't noticed before. Something that stopped her dead in her tracks. Jake, who was standing next to her in the picture, was referred to in the caption as her date.

Oh no
, she thought, the blood rushing from her head.
Oh no no no no no no no no no.

Was that what she was getting all these thumbs-ups for? All these winks and smiles? People thought that she was … that they were …?

Just then, she saw him. Jake. He was beelining right for her.

“Don't you dare,” Maya commanded as he got close. “I don't want to hear a single joke come out of your mouth. Not one.”

But he was as heated as she was. “You think I think this is funny?”

“Oh, I think you think this is hilarious,” she said. “In fact, I wouldn't put it past you to have planted it just to get a rise out of me.”

“Someone thinks pretty highly of herself,” Jake said. “What do you think this does for my dating life? Girls are going to think I've got a girlfriend.”

Maya snorted. “I'm pretty sure the girls you hook up with don't care if you already have a girlfriend.”

Maya's thoughts began to race.
What if Travis sees this? What if he already saw it? What if he thought it was true?
Each thought was like a terrible domino falling into the next.

“I'm breaking up with you,” Jake said.

“What?” Maya asked.

“I said I'm breaking up with you, Maya!” He wasn't saying it to her. He was saying it to everyone in earshot. “It's over!”

How dare he
, Maya thought.
He is breaking up with me? Is that what he wants people to think?
As she looked around, she saw he had not only gotten some people's attention, but they also seemed to be buying what he was saying. It made her furious.

“You can't break up with me!” Maya yelled. “We were never together in the first place!”

Jake refused to back down, making their scene even bigger. “I know I hurt you, Maya, but you have to move on!”

This guy was unreal.

Maya yelled even louder. “Move on?! The only thing bigger than your mouth is your ego!”

There were snickers and a smattering of applause. It only fueled them more. And Maya especially.

“Someday you'll see this breakup was for the best!” he yelled.

“Someday you'll be hit by a bus and I'll be the one at the wheel!” With that, Maya turned on her heel and stormed off. Behind her, she heard a wave of whistling and applause. The people had crowned a winner, and Maya couldn't help but enjoy it.

On her way to class, Maya managed to get a hold of Travis. He had seen the Wall and the bit about Jake, but the only thing he was upset about was missing out on seeing her in that dress. It allowed her to calm down.

“Last night was surreal,” Maya told Cleo. “One minute Nicole, Adam, and I are walking out of the Sour, the next we're being chased like dogs across the parking lot. Nicole throws him in her car and tears off all
Fast and Furious
, I'm left choking on burnt rubber with no money and no way home—”

“Dogs chase,” Cleo said plainly.

“What?” Maya asked, interrupted.

“You said you were chased like dogs, but dogs are the ones that chase. The photographers would be the dogs.” Cleo lazily flipped a page in her textbook.

“Okay, fine, they were dogs,” Maya said, continuing. “So then Jake pulls up in his stupid car and you would not believe what he had the nerve to say to me. …”

“Sounds like a crazy night,” Cleo said.

“Is everything okay?” Maya asked.

“What happened to you last night?” Cleo asked finally. “You were supposed to be there with me and Svetlana.”

“I'm sorry,” Maya said, and it was genuine. “I will definitely be there next time, I promise. Going to that after-party was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“You've been having a lot of those lately,” Cleo said rather flatly.

“I know, right?” Maya smiled.

Mr. Manjarrez made his way to the back of the class. He was dropping essays on each student's desk along the way. When he arrived at Maya's, he had nothing.

Maya realized. She never wrote her essay. She didn't even remember what it was supposed to be about.

“The Bay of Pigs,” he said, as if reading her mind.

As he stood there, Maya suddenly had the same feeling of being screwed that she had last night (this morning?) with the security guard. Which gave her an idea. If a little stardust could help get her out of that jam, maybe it could get her out of this one, too. It was a ridiculous idea. Crazy, even. But she had no other choice, so she just went for it.

“Mr. Manjarrez,” Maya said, “I'm really sorry. I typed the deadline into my calendar, but it's not there anymore. …” She waved her phone, knowing full well her glamour shot on the Wall was still on it.

He took the phone and looked at the picture. Here she was on this amazing site, looking like a full-blown star. He scanned the rest of the photos, a wry smile spreading on his face. “Partying a little too hard with Nicole King and one of the Reed boys, I see.”

“I guess …,” Maya said. She couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Finally, he handed Maya back her phone. “I suppose I could give you an extension. Take another couple of days to finish.”

“Thank you,” Maya said gratefully as he walked on.

“What was that?” Cleo asked.

“What?” Maya replied innocently.

“If you hurled those pictures at him any harder, he would've gotten a concussion,” Cleo said.

Maya focused on exiting out of the site and putting her phone away. “I needed a few extra days to write my paper and got them. It's no big deal.”

“ ‘No big deal'?” Cleo asked. “Oh. Okay. No big deal. So, you're ready to dump that makeover, then, right?”

Maya hesitated. “I think I'm going to hold on to the whole makeover thing a little longer. But not out of vanity or anything. For the advantage.”

“ ‘For the advantage'?” Cleo repeated.

“Look, Cleo,” Maya said. “This place is about more than what you can do on a court or a field. Image matters. And for whatever reason, don't ask me why, this drag I'm in is worth something. Everyone has advantages here. Some kids are rich, some are connected. This is mine.”

Cleo just looked at her. Maya read her face.

“Would you relax?” Maya said. “I'm just thinking smarter. I'm still the same person inside.”

Just then, Mr. Manjarrez handed Cleo her paper back. On the top, in red: D.

Cleo freaked. “A D?! I can't get a D! I have to maintain at least a C average for my scholarship. I'll have to move into the library for the rest of the semester to bring my average back up!”

He was far from moved.

“Mr. Manjarrez,” Maya said, intervening. “If Cleo turned in a crappy paper, it's all my fault. She shouldn't be punished for that. Could she, maybe, get a few extra days, too? To rewrite it?”

He considered it. He looked around to make sure none of the other kids in the class were paying attention, then gave a silent nod. He moved on.

Cleo was dumbfounded. Maya was smiling.

“See?” Maya said, vindicated. She'd proved her point, doing something nice for a friend. “It's all good.”

The look on Cleo's face said a lot of things. And “all good” wasn't one of them.

“So, was Travis pissed about the whole Jake thing on the Wall?” Nicole asked as she sprayed sunblock on her legs. It was a hot, steamy day, and she, Maya, and Renee were spending it on the sideline of the football field watching the guys practice.

“Not at all,” Maya said. “I thought I was going to have to do all this explaining, but he was the one who kept apologizing to me.”

“Why?” Renee asked. Maya's eyes were on Travis, but Renee's were on every other guy on the field.

“He was worried about my reputation,” Maya said. “He said being associated with Jake in that way could be social suicide. Can't say I disagree.”

“Jake really is not discriminating in the least,” Renee said, ogling the entire defensive line.

Maya watched Travis avoid a tackle while managing to find an open man for a touchdown.

“Travis definitely got his dad's brain for strategy,” Maya noticed.

“The only thing I know about football,” Renee said as she continued to leer, “is that it gives you incredible thighs.”

Nicole and Maya shared a laugh.

Maya continued to melt in the heat. Their umbrellas were useless. “There's more shade over there,” Maya said. “Should we move?”

“Travis sat us here for a reason,” Nicole said, spraying her body with tanner.

“What reason?” Maya asked.

Nicole gave Renee a pointed look.

“Why is this spot so special?” Maya asked. “What do you know?”