Coach's Daughter

4.

Chapter 4.

"Hey, Lilly," Tae yelled from down the hallway as soon as I walked through the school doors. She walked in my direction, holding hands with Cade.

I scanned the locker numbers, looking for my locker number: 813. I found it quickly, thanks to Luke's tour, and started setting up the locker shelves Dad had bought for me to keep my locker organized.

The two lovebirds walked up to my locker and stopped, just as I started to neatly stack all of my new notebooks and folders onto the locker shelves.

"Hey," I said, bending down to pick up a notebook and pen, since I had belatedly realized I would need them for my first class.

Tae smiled widely at me, a mischievous grin on her face. "You know, Cade, I think it's time we introduce Lilly to the school. What do you think?"

I looked at her apprehensively. What did she mean by that? The glint in her eye warned me that this was probably not something I wanted to be part of. I looked to Cade for reassurance.

Cade laughed and shook his head at his girlfriend. He shot me a helpless 'I can't stop her look.' "I think your way of introducing people can sometimes be a bit embarrassing for them..." He paused, looking at my panic and shaking his head in amusement. "I should know. She did it to me when I first started here at the beginning of middle school." Did what? I wondered.

"Oh please, it wasn't that bad. Besides, it worked, didn't it? You're now widely popular and loved by the entire sophomore class. Half of the freshman girls this year have crushes on you," Tae retorted sassily, resting her hands on her hips.

She smirked at me, wiggling her eyebrows deviously, then turned toward the crowded hallway. "Excuse me, can I have your attention please?!" she shouted, pausing for a minute to wait for people to turn around and pay attention to her.

A group of girls directly across from my locker turned around, and other people followed suit. I noticed a brunette standing nearby shaking her head and laughing at Tae.

Once most of the hallway had stopped talking and was paying attention, Tae continued. "Right here is Lilly Faye. She's Coach Simon's daughter." She turned toward me, gesturing wildly. "This is her first day at public school. So please go easy on her and give her a warm welcome!"

Instantly, almost everybody's fell on me, and my cheeks turned like 50 shades darker. I hoped I was hallucinating, and Tae hadn't really just done that. The pit in my stomach told me that it was, in fact, really happening.

I began fiddling with my charm bracelet. All of those eyes on me was making me nervous. Why had Tae done that? Who needs enemies when your only friend is that embarrassing?

After a long, awkward silence, people went about their business, and I looked up from my charm bracelet and glared at Tae.

"That wasn't very nice, Tae," the brunette just across the hall said jokingly as she made her way over to us.

I looked over at the girl. Her long hair was straightened perfectly with a single strand framing her face, and her eye makeup looked as though she'd had it professionally done. I was immediately jealous--this is what I had envisioned when I'd tried to get ready for school this morning. You could tell just by looking at her that she was effortlessly cool, and to top it all off, she was dressed in a red and black cheer uniform. She was a cheerleader.

Tae laughed evilly, slinging her arm over my shoulder and pulling me into a sideways huge. "You know I only do that to the people I know I'm gonna be good friends with."

The girl turned and smiled sympathetically at me. "With friends like this, who needs enemies right?" I laughed. She was right. Tae had already embarrassed me today more than anyone else was going to. At least the worst was probably over. "I'm Kelsey," she added.