Page 31 of Wylder & the Rising Rockstar
“Yeah.” Wylder sighed. “I knew that one was a long shot. We can scrap it, but what do you think about having specific student contracts for this event?”
“That’s a wonderful idea. I already have the lawyers working on drawing it up to show the board. We will also collect phones and limit the audience. Each student can have two tickets for people who don’t go to the academy. Does that sound about right?”
Wylder nodded. “And they have to be related.”
“Oh, the board will like that.” Her pen paused, and she looked up at Wylder. “You are performing in the review, right?”
“Planning on it.”
“With Mr. Cook?”
Wylder smiled. “It’s a comeback.”
Ms. Jones went back to writing, but the smile didn’t leave her lips. “Good. That’s good.”
* * *
Wylder had never felt more proud of herself when she walked out of the board meeting. A grin stretched across her face. They did it.
The board agreed to allow the Winter Review to proceed. Between the petition, news of students gathering, and Wylder and Ms. Jones’ talking points, they hadn’t been able to reject the idea.
And she’d done that.
She stopped in the middle of the hall outside the conference room. It hadn’t mattered to them that she had colored wax in her hair, that she was the notorious Wylder Anderson, or that she didn’t exactly look the part of an academy student.
They’d listened to her.
Ms. Jones stepped up beside her as the rest of the board members filed past them. “Good job in there.”
Wylder looked up at her, wondering how this woman had known she could do it. They were so different. One, a perfectly styled career woman, the other an unruly student.
Wylder lifted a fist, and Ms. Jones only stared at her. “Go on, Ms. Jones. You know you want to pound it.”
Ms. Jones laughed. “What am I going to do with you, Wylder?”
Wylder shrugged. “No one ever knows the answer to that.”
She leaned down. “Well, I do. I’m going to make sure you stop telling yourself you aren’t good enough to succeed in life. You’re wrong.” She stepped forward to head back to her office.
Wylder stood there frozen with her fist still lifted like an idiot.
Ms. Jones paused and turned on her heel. She gave a shake of her head and tapped her fist against Wylder’s. “You did good, kid. Now, go tell your classmates they did good as well.” She left Wylder standing there, grinning.
Wylder checked the time on her phone. Five o’clock. The dining hall would have just started serving dinner. She hurried from the building and ran down the path to the dorms, excitement building as she pushed through the glass doors and thundered down the stairs into the dining hall.
She skidded to a halt as she slammed into a cart of plates on her way in. They clattered to the floor with a loud crash and chatter died down as the students who’d come for an early dinner turned to look at her.
Ignoring the scattered plates, she lifted her arms. “We did it!”
A cheer rose from where the hockey team sat surprisingly close to Diego’s band of smarties—as she’d now call them instead of nerds. Many of the students here might not know what she was talking about, but the ones who’d been at the meeting did.
A dining hall worker gave her a disapproving frown as she bent to pick up the plates. Wylder hurried to help her.
Once the mess was cleaned, she straightened and yelped as two arms wound around her from behind. “Hi, girlfriend,” Logan murmured against her neck.
She turned in his arms and couldn’t help grinning. “Girlfriend? Hmm… I don’t know your girlfriend? Maybe if I saw you two on a date, I’d get a better idea who she was.”
“Yeah?” He pressed a kiss against her lips. The hockey team cheered again, but for a different reason this time. That was when Wylder realized it. Killian and Diego had known about some of the kissing, but most of the school was blissfully unaware. She’d never imagined anyone cared.
