Page 17 of Baseball and Shifters

“Take care of him? What are you in the mob?” I chuckle as I shake my head.

“I honestly wouldn’t put her past her,” Aubree says.

“Thank you. I would make a great mob boss, wouldn’t I?” Dallas preens.

I don’t think she should be taking that as a compliment.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. I plan on using my powers for good, remember? My future is social work, not the mob. I’m going to help people, not kill them.” She rolls her eyes. “But I would if I had to. Just saying.”

“No one doubts that, Killer,” I chuckle.

“Good.” She nods once. “Now tell me about the secret hot guy everyone but me knows about.”

The doorbell rings as she glares at each of us and I jump up to answer, thanking God for the interruption.

“This isn’t over!” She calls to my back.

I smile, thankful she can’t see it, and open the door. The delivery boy passes over two large pizza boxes and disappears down the stairs before I can even thank him.

Someone’s in a hurry.

Maya sets the table as I bring the pizza over, passing a toe-tapping Dallas as she watches me with her arms crossed. I completely ignore her as I set down the pizzas and open the first box. I recoil as I stare at the pizza in disgust.

“Girl, what isthat? And why would anyone put it on pizza?” I stare at the offending topping covering half of the pizza before finally looking at each of my roommates.

Aubree’s entire body is flushed and I know instantly she’s the culprit.

“What? It’s just anchovies. Don’t judge me. I’m a penguin. We eat fish,” she grumbles.

“Umm. I know I’m new to the whole shifter thing… but I’m pretty sure our animals don’t dictate our diets,” Maya drawls. “I know I’ve never had the hankering for some hay.”

I sputter, trying to hold my laugh in, but it’s no use. Now I’m picturing Maya eating grass with a fork and knife.

“She always tries to blame her penguin for her weird tastes,” Dallas chuckles. “Told you they wouldn’t buy it.”

“Whatever. It’s not that weird. Besides, it’s not like everyone doesn’t eat it.”

“Umm. I’ve never had anchovies, thank you very much.” I scrunch my nose up at her.

That’s disgusting. Look at them. They justlookgross. And they smell. I can’t imagine they would taste good.

“Wanna bet?” She crosses her arms over her chest and raises a brow at me. “Ever had Caesar salad? What about Worcestershire sauce?”

Okay, that’s a random question.

“Yeah. I love Caesar salad. So what?”

“Soooo there are anchovies in Caesar dressing. So you love anchovies.” She tips her chin up, super freaking proud of herself for possibly ruining one of my favorite foods.

“I… I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

“That’s what I thought. Now hand over the pizza and no one gets hurt.”

“You can have your disgusting pizza,” I say as I pass her the box, thankful I only see pepperoni when I open the second box.

We gather around the table and dig into the pizza. It’s nice and peaceful and I think the whole anchovy discussion distracted everyone, namely Dallas, from hounding me about Bastian. I learned his name in English where I spent the majority of the time hiding behind my hair and avoiding making eye contact with him. Mistakenly I think they’ve dropped it until I take my first bite of my second piece of pizza.

“So everyone’s coming to the game with me tomorrow, right? I got us all seats in my favorite section and I’m going to be writing an article for the school newspaper about the opening game. I’m going to be a published author! Eek, I’m so excited!” Maya squeals, bouncing in her seat as she claps her hands.

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