Page 53 of Wylder and the Secret Rockstar
“What’s in here?” Wylder frowned.
"The nachos we smelled. We’re starving.” Killian stepped into her kitchenette to help himself to the leftovers.
“That’s what you get for doing all that exercise and extra practice at night. You burn off too much, and then you’re starving when you come back after the dining hall is closed .”
“True, but what’s your excuse, lazybones?”
“Songwriting is hungry work. And I don’t need you coming in here stealing all my snacks.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you steal all this first?”
“You are correct.” Wylder turned back to Logan. “But I stole it for us.” She pointed to Logan.
“How goes the songwriting?” Will asked, stuffing his face with jalapeños. Diego’s roommate was also on the hockey team and also a bottomless pit.
“It’s going.” Wylder scooted over closer to Logan to make room for Killian, but Will sat down beside her. “What are you two doing in the girls’ hall after hours?” It wasn’t strictly forbidden for the boys to be here in the evenings, but if they were, they were supposed to be participating in homework groups or group projects.
“Will needed some help talking to his current crush,” Killian sat on the stool by the window with his modest bowl of nachos. “Apparently, he thinks I’m his wingman."
“Oh, who is it?” Wylder nudged him. “Spill.”
“Uh, no one you know.” Red crept into Will’s cheeks.
“You forget, dear Will, I know everyone. Is it Devyn? Or one of her horse girls?”
“That’s not nice.” Killian choked on his chips. “They’re called equestrians.”
“No, it’s not Devyn.” The red spread to Will’s ears.
“Then it’s one of her girls. Want me to talk you up?”
“No that’s okay, um why don’t we talk about something else? Like, literally anything else.”
“What kind of code do you need to borrow my boyfriend for?” Killian asked, coming to Will’s rescue. “He’s kind of busy this semester, putting more pressure on himself than he should.”
“I won’t monopolize him, promise. I just need some guidance to see if what we’re thinking of doing for our performance is even possible.”
“Oh, I’m sure he could do anything you need. I don’t know, maybe it’ll be a good distraction for him.”
“He’s working too hard on his app.” Wylder had worried about Diego and the circles under his eyes.
“Way too hard. He’s losing sleep trying to keep up with his insane class schedule and run a business he’s supposed to be letting his dad run.”
“He runs a business?” Logan asked. “That’s kind of incredible.”
“My little Diego is going to save the world.” Wylder grinned proudly. “Last year he developed this amazing app that turns saving the planet into a game. You earn game points for recycling and game diamonds for doing environmental volunteer work that you can use to buy cool things for the game so you can grow your virtual tree from a seedling to a massive oak. It’s kind of a huge deal.”
“Hey, I have that game on my phone.” Logan sounded impressed. “Diego created that?”
“MyDiego created the whole thing by himself.” Killian gave Wylder a withering look. “But his father has helped him make it happen, and he’s supposed to be letting his father's company manage the platform so he can finish high school, but he’s having some trouble actually letting go of his creation.”
“Hey now, I helped him make it pretty when he was stuck on all the visual stuff.” Wylder had rounded up all her friends to help Diego create a mockup of the game board for the beta version and the final version of the game maintained that same design.
“I worry he works too hard.” Killian set his empty bowl on the table.
“Then I have your permission to distract him with my project?”
“Our project.” Logan elbowed her.
