Page 22 of The Jack*ss in Class

“I know.” The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Six pairs of eyebrows shot up.

“Not that it matters,” I added quickly. “Look, about the donkey?—”

“We’re already working on it.” Alice held up her phone, showing a color-coded spreadsheet. “Parker’s been doing all the donkey-sitting while you’re in class or at the sanctuary, and vicey-versa, but we can totally take shifts so you two can have social lives too.”

“I can’t ask you to?—”

“You’re not asking. We’re telling.” Bettie stepped forward, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Tempest. Love. Light of my life. You cannot keep a secret baby donkey in your room without letting us help. It’s, like, against the sister code or something.”

“Is there a sister code about adorable livestock?”

“There is now.” She steered me toward my bed and satme down. “Now. Tell us everything. Starting with why Flynn Kingman was flirting with you over coffee.”

“He didn’t—” I started, but the donkey chose that moment to rest his head on my knee and look up at me with those big brown eyes. “Fine. But first we need to figure out how to keep this quiet. If Lindsey finds out...”

Lindsey was a junior, and the house manager. She would definitely not approve of our newest resident.

“On it.” Hannah pulled out her own phone. “I made a group chat. Operation Baby Donkey Sitters Club is officially a go.”

I looked around at their eager faces, feeling something tight in my chest loosen. I’d been so worried about keeping secrets, the donkey, my writing, my general existence, that I’d forgotten what it was like to let people help.

“Okay,” I said finally. “But we need some ground rules.”

The donkey brayed softly, as if in agreement, and the room dissolved into giggles.

Some secrets, it turned out, were better shared.

“Okay, so we need a schedule.” Alice was in her element, already creating a shared calendar on her phone. “Parker can’t keep skipping her internship shifts at the computer lab.”

“I’ve got Tuesday afternoons free,” Bettie offered. “I can do donkey duty between classes.”

“I can take Thursdays,” Hannah added, already typing in the group chat. “My last class ends at two.”

“And I’ve got Fridays covered,” Alice said. “As long as you don’t mind him sitting in on rush committee meetings.”

I pictured the donkey helping select next year’s pledgeclass and had to bite back a laugh. “Are we sure this is going to work?”

“Please.” Parker waved a hand. “Between all of us, we’ve got enough engineering, computer science, and business majors to plan a lunar landing. We can handle one tiny donkey.”

The donkey, as if sensing he was being discussed, abandoned his investigation of my backpack to waddle over to Bettie. She immediately melted.

“Look at that face. How could anyone say no to that face?”

“Mrs. Henderson could,” I pointed out. “And would.”

“Then we don’t let her find out.” Hannah was still typing. “I’ve got noise canceling equipment from my music production class we can use. And Alice already has the perfect excuse for extra traffic to your room.”

Alice nodded. “Rush planning meetings. No one questions why the committee needs to meet so often. Especially not after last year’s glitter incident.”

Everyone winced. We’d all agreed never to speak of the glitter incident again.

“And,” Parker added with a sly grin, “if anyone asks why Flynn Kingman keeps coming around, we can say he’s helping with the athletics recruitment initiative.”

I choked on air. “Why would Flynn be coming around?”

“Oh, honey.” Bettie patted my hand. “We all saw how he looked at you in that video. And Hannah said he was definitely flirting at the coffee shop.”

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