Page 15 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
For one thing, because she looked like every bombshell cliché in the book, she had a reputation, one she hadn’t earned.
But for once, she wanted someone to look her way and just see her and not her looks.
“Stay away from the horse for a couple days.” Damien glanced at the barn where a dark-skinned man watched them. “Was Dad in the barn with you?”
“Yeah, but it’s not like he helped. He just yelled for me to get out of the stall.”
“Listen to him. Something has been off with Harbi for a while now. We don’t need you getting hurt.”
“Yeah.” Spencer wrung water from his shirt. “Whatever.” He trudged toward another building and disappeared inside.
Damien watched him with sad eyes.
“Why are you helping us, Damo?” Hadley asked. She’d thought it was a long shot, that there was no legit reason for him to risk suspension with them.
He didn’t take his eyes from the door his brother walked through. “I’m having a… tough time. I think I need this, something to take my mind off everything else. I know we’ll get in serious trouble if we get caught… but it’ll be worth it.”
Hadley shared a grin with Roman. “Yeah, it will.” They’d all had a tough year and needed one bright memory to remember it by.
She didn’t know what Damien was going through, but Roman’s parents had recently moved, leaving him to live with Cassie’s family at the only other home he’d ever known, but he’d just moved in with Hadley’s family so he could date Cassie.
And Hadley? The girl who seemed to have life by the tail? The one with the money and the looks and the bubbly personality?
Some would call it a cliché, but every part of her life felt fake, like it wasn’t meant for her. She needed more than a generic existence, more than being Hadley Gibson.
She wanted to be a legend.
* * *
Drivingout to the Lee ranch was a different chore in the middle of the night. Hadley veered down a winding two-lane road. Florida pines stretched to the sky on each side of the road, shadows in the night.
She gripped the wheel tighter, leaning forward to see the road better. Her headlights cut through the fog just enough for her to keep going.
Behind her, a line of cars followed. They’d enlisted the help of a few of Roman’s friends—none of them seniors oddly enough.
The Madison siblings each drove a car they’d borrowed. Bailey—a junior—and Brayden— a sophomore, wanted in as soon as Roman told them about the plan.
Behind them was Roman, driving a mini-van, something Hadley never in her life thought she’d see. She didn’t know where he got it, but the back was outfitted with straw to transport the goats.
An arching sign, unreadable in the dark, marked the entrance of the Lee’s ranch, and Hadley slowed as she turned, the asphalt turning to gravel underneath her tires. She cringed at the sound the car made driving up the winding path. Stopping at the predetermined spot, Hadley cut the engine and hopped out.
Damien waited for them near the small building that housed the goats at night. He jumped off the fence to approach her. “More cars than we agreed on,” he whispered.
“Well, we needed enough space for the goats. I didn’t want to pile them all into one car where they’d fall all over each other.”
He shrugged as Roman, Bailey, and Brayden joined them. “We ready for this?”
They all nodded.
Brayden sidled up to Hadley as they crossed to the small barn. “This is awesome.”
She held a finger to her lips to quiet him as she looked toward the darkened house.
Brayden didn’t know when to shut up. He never had. “After this, I was thinking we should go grab some breakfast.”
“Bray,” she hissed. “It is two in the morning, and we’re on a mission. Not exactly the time to hit on me.” As the son of the vice principal, he’d always thought he could get away with anything. She didn’t want the sophomore there, but they needed him and his sister.
They were the ones who obtained the keys to the school, after all.
