So Many Boys (The Naughty List #2)(43)
Author: Suzanne Young

“Bye,” I said casually, not returning his compliment.

Pressing his lips together and raising his eyebrows in a “what’s up” gesture, Joel raised his hand to me and crossed to the double doors. I regretted not being able to return his enthusiasm, but I could feel the hot water boiling around me. When Joel was gone, I looked over at Kira.

She was watching me, twisting a blonde curl around her finger. Her eyes were wide and innocent, but I knew Kira. That expression was hiding something underneath.

“Are you upset with me?” I asked, walking toward her.

She laughed, dropping her arms at her sides. “Of course not. Why would I be mad? You’re Tessa. So you get your pick, right?”

I gasped. Leona mumbled something I couldn’t quite catch before walking to the bleachers.

“Kira!” Was she implying that I was trying to steal her boyfriend? That was completely uncalled for! I put my fists on my hips. “What do you mean by that?”

“Izzie,” she said, holding out her hand. “Can you give me the pictures again?”

“Sure.” Izzie sounded absolutely defeated. “There was also an update on the blog,” she whispered. She darted a glance at me and then pulled a few glossy pages of pictures from her backpack. She marched over and handed them to Kira, peering over her shoulder.

“Oh, look,” Kira said sarcastically. “You’re super-photogenic, Tess!” She jutted out her hand, the papers flapping. I took them from her and looked down.

TGI Friday’s! Someone had been spying on me! I swallowed hard as I sorted through the pictures. They were from the fair, when I was with Joel. Only, the way the pictures looked, I was with Joel.

There were several frames of us staring at each other, laughing. Even the moment when he had to reach over to wipe a bit of whipped cream off my chin. We looked rather…cozy.

“It’s not what it seems,” I said, glancing up at Kira.

She watched me for a minute, seeming to think it over. “Someone dropped these in an unmarked envelope taped to my front door a little while ago.” She sighed, maybe suddenly recognizing that I hadn’t actually done anything wrong. “Either way, it’s obvious that you’re their target,” she said. “I think it’s time you start keeping a lower profile, Tess. Maybe Mary was right. Maybe the Smitten Kittens aren’t for you after all.”

The annoyance in her voice was palpable. She turned toward the bleachers, picking at her manicure.

“You can’t just take it back like that,” I called to her.

She spun to face me. “Can’t I?”

“Wait,” Leona said, holding up her finger. I was happy someone was going to stick up for me. “This can be a good thing.”

“It is?” Kira asked, looking over her shoulder at her. I glared at Leona, unsure how my dismissal from the squad could ever be a positive thing.

“Not the Smitten Kitten stuff.” Leona shook her head. “The spying on Tessa. We can use it. Use it to lure out the copy-Kitten. And I have an idea,” she added, starting to smile at me. “But it’s kinda crazy.”

“How crazy?” I asked, my heart beginning to speed up at the look of excitement on Leona’s face. If anyone could make sense of the situation, it was Leona. She was amazingly logical.

“Faked affair,” she said, nodding and licking at her teeth. “One between you and Joel.”

“Oh, that sounds brilliant,” Kira snapped fiercely. “My boyfriend is not a pawn in your game of checkers.”

“It’s chess, you dumb blonde. Now what is your deal?” Leona shouted at her, standing up. “You’ve been a total bitch since becoming captain. Do you have chronic PMS or what?”

“Um.” Izzie raised her hand. “PMS is a real condition. I don’t think we should joke about it.”

“Shut up!” both Leona and Kira said to her at the same time. I gasped. Were my Kittens about to tango?

Kira straightened and then climbed atop a bleacher so that she stood a foot higher than Leona. “You don’t know anything,” Kira hissed at her.

“You mean, other than the fact that your insecurities are making you a jealous maniac? And I’m not just talking about Joel here.”

“Leona,” I scolded, marching over to them.

“Stay out of this, Tessa,” Kira said without looking at me. I stopped, staring at her. But Kira was going skirt to skirt with Leona, locked in some ancient art of intimidation.

“She’s our true captain,” Leona said through a clenched jaw. It made me think they’d had this conversation before—maybe about me getting back on the squad.

“Doesn’t mean I have to stand by and watch it.”

“Watch what?” My heart was pounding in my chest. I felt like I was coming in late to an argument, but I’d been here from the start. From the start of everything.

Both Kira and Leona ignored me for a minute, and then Kira dropped her head. “Whatever,” she said, waving her hand. “Do what you want, but count me out. I’m not putting my boyfriend up for grabs for the sake of Tessa’s reputation.”

Before Leona could respond, Kira hopped down from the bleachers and grabbed up her backpack from the gym floor. She looked up once and met my eyes.

“Sorry,” she said to me, her blue eyes glassy. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, Tess. But…you know what they say.” She put her pack over her shoulder. “Keep your friends close, but your best friends even closer.”

“It’s enemies.”

She pressed her lips together in a sad smile. “Exactly.”

And then she turned around and walked out of the gymnasium.

I flinched like I’d been slapped across the face. I looked over at Izzie, who was watching me wide-eyed, unsure of who to follow. Luckily she stayed where she was.

“Well, that was fun,” Leona muttered, climbing down from the wood bench and smoothing out her skirt. “Can we talk about how the hell we’re going to catch this copy-Kitten now? I have a strongly worded letter that I need to write.”

The plan was simple, really. The weekend after next was the homecoming dance, the primo event for Washington High—a time when relationships (and affairs) were forged. Since the copy-Kitten was so interested in me, even when I wasn’t a subject, they’d surely be interested in investigating me for real, now that I was officially named.

Leona would send in a cheater request form pretending to be Kira and name Joel and me as the targets. The tough part was going to be trying to pull this off without letting Joel in on our plan. Surely he couldn’t know that the Smitten Kittens were SOS, or rather the real SOS.