Page 131 of The Jack*ss in Class

“I just couldn’t resist when I overheard.” He laughed again.

“Why exactly are you out here torturing us anyway?” Flynn glared at his brother.

“Oh, right. I was just talking to Artie, since she blew me off for some super important rugby thing. And guess who just asked her to be their date for KATman?”

Flynn looked at me. “Your KATman?”

“Oh.” Heat rushed to my face. “Yeah, about that. I’ve never gone before.” I bit my lip. “If you wanted to go with me, that would be…cool or whatever.”

A flash of concern crossed his face. “We have to go to LA for mini camp.”

My heart sank. “Oh. Right. Of course.”

Gryff put one of his hands on each of our shoulders, and leaned in like he was either commiserating or about to tell us something profoundly serious. “You two are the worst.”

Flynn slugged him in the arm. But Gryff shrugged it off, likely having suffered something similar many times in his life. “KATman isn’t until the following weekend. And you ruined the big reveal. Parker asked Aarti, and your very own KAT president, cutie patootie Bettie, asked yours truly. We’re going on a triple date.”

Gryff grinned, looked between the two of us, who were probably looking dumbfounded, and waved his hands like we were a lost cause. “Literally the worst.”

But then Flynn gave me that patented flirty smile of his. “It’s about time I get to see you all dressed up.”

“It would be my first real dance,” I admitted quietly. “With a real date.”

His expression softened. “Tempest... you’ve never been to a dance? Not even prom?”

I shook my head.

Something fierce and protective flashed in Flynn’s eyes. He pulled me close again, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Then we’re definitely going. And I promise to make it unforgettable.”

Now I needed a dress. So when Flynn and Gryff headed off to LA for their mini camp, which sounded adorable, but apparently was going to kick their asses, I grabbed my friends and went dress shopping.

Which did not go great. After four stores which had only matronly mother-of-the-bride-style dresses in my size, we regrouped at a coffee shop.

“Don’t give up yet,” Bettie insisted.

I shrugged, trying to appear more nonchalant than I felt. “I should have realized sooner. This is worse than my quinceañera. We special ordered a dress because nothing in the stores fit right.”

“You never thought you’d go to KATman,” Alice reminded me gently. “How could you have planned?”

“Exactly. So maybe it’s just not meant to be.”

Parker plunked down beside me, eyes wide, holdingout her phone with an email open. “Tempest, did you just get me a job interview with FlixNChill’s IT department?”

“More like strongly suggested they look at your resume. The rest will be up to you.” I managed a small smile. “Because they have utterly failed at finding out who their leak is. And I was hoping you could, umm, help them.”

Parker threw her arms around me in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “You’re the best roommate in the history of roommates.”

I met her gaze. “I know I’ve been asking a lot of you lately, with all the donkey-sitting and boyfriend-sneaking and identity-crisis management, and well, I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me shit, sister.” Parker spun around in her chair and it wasn’t even the spinny kind. “I am going to hack the hell out of their systems and then they’ll have to hire me.”

We all frowned at her and she stopped spinning. “Uh, ethically hack whatever it is they ask me to so that they are very impressed and offer me a job.” She cleared her throat. “That’s what I said, and you didn’t hear anything different.”

Three days later, Parker burst into our room, her purple hair disheveled and her eyes wild with triumph.

“I finally got it. Well, almost, but I’ve got a great lead.” She dropped my own laptop onto the bed. “Look at this.”

I peered at the screen, trying to make sense of what looked like The Matrix displayed there. “What am I looking at?”

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