Chapter 13
"Guess who just aced her math test and raised her grade to a C!" I urge Peter, running up to his locker and tapping on his shoulder.
He spins around, a warm smile on his face. "Congrats, not-so-secret genius. I'll miss being your tutor who never tutored you."
I laugh. "I'll miss having you as a tutor who never tutored me. And to thank you, I want to take you to dinner. We can go to that diner around the corner."
"I'm down," he says, taking a book out of his locker. "Miles comes back tonight and Scarlett had this little welcome back party planned. We can eat dinner and then go back to my place for the party if you want."
"Hey, Grace," my friend says with a head nod as he passes.
I wave to Greg before responding to Peter. "That'll be fun. How many people did Scarlett invite?"
"It's Scarlett," he answers simply.
I laugh. "Ah. I'll pretend like I'm not offended that I'm just getting my last minute invitation."
"It's not a-"
"Hi, Grace! Love your top!" Hanna from the cheerleading team compliments. She stops right in front of the two of us.
"Thanks," I say with a small smile, glancing shortly at Peter who looks more than uncomfortable.
"Listen, we've all been talking and we've decided that when you come back, you'll be the team captain. We just see that-"
"Hanna, I-I'm not coming back to cheerleading," I admit.
She opens her mouth to say something but changes her mind. It takes a moment before she says, "you can get your grades up."
"No, it's not that. I just don't want to."
Her eyes widen, horror evident. "Is this about Lucy?"
"No!" I deny, probably a bit too forcefully. "I just don't want to be a cheerleader anymore. It's my own personal preference."
She frowns, her eyes trailing to Peter. He stiffens as he notices her cold glare towards him.
"Hi?" he says awkwardly after she has been staring for about a whole minute straight.
"Don't tell me you're into photography now," she whispers as if Peter couldn't hear. "Only weirdos do photography."
He obviously could. And it obviously hurt him by the look on his face.
"In that case, Hanna, I can say only stuck-up bitches do cheerleading," I say with a proud smile.
She scoffs and walks away.
I stick up my middle finger behind her back, making Peter laugh as he takes my hand in his.
He may have just done it to end my flipping-off of Hannah, but it still had my heart racing. I'm suddenly very self-conscience of my hand and whether it's sweaty or not. Peter's hand is really soft though.
"Let's go," he says, dropping my hand.
We head out to the parking lot and climb into my car. It's too early to eat dinner, so we decide to head back to help Scarlett with the party decorations that she is sure to have stacked up on at Party City.
"Hi, Scar," I say with a wave as we walk into the kitchen.
She spins around with a frazzled look on her face and flour in her hair. "I think I forgot to add eggs."
Peter walks over to her 'cake' that was lying on the counter. He rips off a piece and shoves it in his mouth, immediately spitting it out and wiping his tongue with his hand.
