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I want to roll my eyes at her. Brook can be so headstrong when she decides to do something her way. She could be wrong, and she could know she’s wrong. But she decided she’s right, and there is no way you will convince her she’s wrong, if that even makes sense.

“Brook, let’s just drop it and go.”

“We have plans, Lia. And this is not a part of it.”

“I know, but…”

“You don’t want to break the rules, now do you?” Andrew smirks knowingly.

Jeanette, who’s still standing next to the door where she stopped earlier, looks at her wrist. “Technically, we are all already breaking them because we are late, so it would be great if you could hurry up.”

I hear Mom’s footsteps moving away from us. She’s probably already packing all the things we’ll need. If she doesn’t have them already packed, that is.

Brook looks at me like I betrayed her and all but stomps her foot like a mad five-year-old who didn’t get her favorite candy in the supermarket.

“Come on, B,” I call her, admitting defeat. It’s five against two. We were doomed even before we started this argument. “Let’s grab our stuff and just go. I promise I won’t enjoy it, and we’ll sulk together.”

“You better not, because I won’t forgive you.”

Derek

“Everybody knows it’s mandatory for all senior students to come?” I look at Andrew, not knowing what to think. It’s amazingly stupid, but also, at the same time, amazingly brilliant. “Seriously?”

I’m still not sure if I should be happy for what he did or pissed at him.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” He wiggles his brows teasingly. “After all, I know how to get the ladies.”

“Ohh, please. You wouldn’t know what the lady looks like if she grabbed you by the ass.” We both shut up and turn to look at the prettier half of the Sanders twins. I don’t even want to know much of our conversation she heard. Then again, if she is as smart as they say she is, she would already know Andrew’s story is bullshit.

“Maybe she should grab something else so I can see her better.”

Her ice-cold, grey eyes take him in, a smirk forming on her lips. “I don’t see anything big enough to grab.” She walks past us on the way to her car and just as she walks by Andrew she adds, “Well, except your ego. But that’s all in your head, babe.”

We watch her sashay away. Without giving us a second glance, she enters her car and starts playing with her phone while waiting for her brother.

“She smashed you, bro.”

“She’s acting bitchy. Daddy probably didn’t want to buy her a new dress or something.”

“Yeah, right…” I don’t get to say much, because the door opens once again. Brook almost runs out of the house with a duffle bag over her shoulder, followed by Amelia and Sanders, who is, of course, carrying her bag, playing the role of the reformed bad boy.

“But you should really come with us.” He looks down at her. “What if…”

“My car is perfectly fine, Max,” she assures him. “Dad checked it out and repaired it, so I’m good to go.”

“It’s one old car we are talking about. Something could go wrong again.”

“I’ll take her,” I stand next to Amelia, hands crossed over my chest, daring him to say something or stand in my way.

He doesn’t disappoint. “She can go with us.”

“I can go by myself,” she insists in a stern voice. “The car is fine.”

“We are already here with two cars,” I point out. “There’s more than enough room for everybody. Besides, we have a project to work on tomorrow, or did you forget?”

Frowning lines form between her brows. “We didn’t…”

I stop her before she gets into it. There is no way I’m giving her a chance to brush me off. I want that hour or two we’ll spend working on the stupid project. Fuck, even thirty lame ass minutes will do. It’s my only chance to get her alone and out of the school. “We said we’d do some research and meet up to look at it and put it together. I did some research, so we can look over it and write it down.”

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