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Savannah

When I woke up, I could swear I still felt the press of Tristan&039;s lips against ood dreaain, lad it was only a drea out on playing football for the rest of the year

I rolled over, looked atlike a baby over a dreaet up and ready for the fundraiser The Char as carhops at the local Sonic today All tips would go toward paying for things like our teaame-day tea the early lunch hour, so the tips should be good for our shift

The job was easy, just delivering food and taking er&039;s counting out change for us Or at least the job had been easy until a certain black, chro spot near the glass doors of the Sonic building Instantly, that familiar ache filled my chest and sto the driver I barely held back a sigh Tristan should not be allowed to wear sunshades It ought to be illegal to look that good

My rill filling the kitchen with his deep voice

I willed the regular eether Tristan&039;s order We were swamped with custo orders Which left only me to deliver Tristan&039;s

Just as his order was ready to go, Bethany Brookes returned, granting me a reprieve

"Here you go" I thrust the tray of food at the stunned blonde "Car five"

"Uh, okay," shewhy I didn&039;t take itnot to have to take that particular order o No way could I have faced Tristan today Not after last night&039;s dreaain with the memory of his kiss I rubbed the spot and turned away fro atneck When sorateful to take it to a car parked on the row opposite from Tristan&039;s

When I returned, the relief was short-lived

"Milk shake for car five," thea red plastic tray with a foam cup toward me I searched for someone else to take it, but I was the only Charrabbed the tray, headed toward Tristan&039;s truck and braced myself for emotional impact

"Hey, Savannah," he murmured when I reached hisHe&039;d removed his sunshades, and I felt the full effect of that watchful gaze on al, after all At least they would have given old-tipped eyelashes Why, oh, why, did the boys always get the long eyelashes?

I couldn&039;t speak; my throat was too dry So I forced a suess you heard the news by now"

That got h as his nose "H an electric-blue polo today A white T-shirt peeked out froertips itched to trace that ribbed collar

"About last night&039;s game?" he prompted

"Oh Yeah, I saw it"

"Seems like everyone did" His chuckle sounded just like it did in my dreams "So, I suddenly have a lot of extra time on my hands And a free first period every day"

Wait What? "You&039;re not playing football anymore?" Why wouldn&039;t the coaches have just te kicked off the tea a team-mate seemed a bit overkill

"Yeah My parents yanked me from the team for the rest of the year"

Holy crap Just like in my dream My heartbeat took off How the heck had I drea, like clairvoyance or ESP?

And inbecause of me

Was it true?

"Tristan, did you shove Dylan because of-" Wait I couldn&039;t say that without sounding like an egohting? If you don&039;t , that is"

He froze, then lifted one shoulder in a half shrug "Don&039;t worry about that So listen, Bethany had an interesting suggestion"

I fought the urge to frown Of course he would think anything Bethany said was brilliant Everything the perky blonde said captivated the boys Good thing she was actually nice orher on a daily basis

Tristan continued "She said your tea left for an escort"

A Charmers escort? Him? He&039;d be bored out of his ers at the football ga the second quarter when the officers went over to reet the other dance teams Not to mention Mrs Daniels and the new Charmers captain usually handpicked each year&039;s escorts The job was invitation only

Then again, no Char on Tristan&039;s ariven the chance If he asked, they&039;d let him be a Charmers escort in a heartbeat

But why in the world would he want to?

"Ued to staive it a shot? Agled his eyebrows like a goofy coave me money for his order

I tried to put on h A sh escapedwith the Char the Charmers Since his player notoriety was already firht in

"Good point It would make it easier to actually see a Charmer, since your team seems to have nonstop practices and perfor a Charmer made my stomach churn

"So you think I should do it?" He stopped s as if my answer actually aze into his eyes, I stared down at the five-dollar bill he&039;d given e"

I tried not to run for the safety of the kitchen What refuge could it really offer anyway? The building was lass on the upper half of its front three walls And I kneith absolute certainty that Tristan was staring at ered inside until the er frowned at me, then I sloalked back to his truck "Here&039;s your change" I counted it out, careful not to touch hiive aze slid up to his ot hiasped as his fingers wrapped around both the straw and my hand "And your answer to entle tor with it the slightest hint of his cologne, a little bit spicy, a little bit cool and crisp I wanted to drink it in

What was the question?

Oh, yeah Should he be a Charmers escort?

Oh, Lord, what a question to askmy hand, too He must know or at least suspect that I had a crush on him Okay, a bit more than a crush now, but that was beside the point

He stared at entle and warm on my skin Oh, crud

"Um, Tristan, I think you should do whatever will ood reply "I&039;d better go Thanks for helping out the Charreat" Whatever else I had otten as he lifted my hand to press a kiss to the back of it

He paused thenme decide"

After he released my hand, I stumbled away a few steps, co tiain, I turned and sloalked to the safety of the kitchen, rubbinghand as I went

Tristan

I sat inbut watch Savannah walk away froht was another crazy stalker

Was it tooher hand like that? I&039;d hoped it would reht But what if it scared her off instead?

I&039;d hoped that after last night we could ress today I&039;d had it all scripted out, though I&039;d had to order a et her to come to my truck But the conversation hadn&039;t followed the plan at all Why couldn&039;t I get her to relax and be herself with me in real life like I could in our dreauard down around me in real life, too One or two shared drea to cut it We needed to spend ether

Hmm Well, she did say I should do whatever would makeSavannah every day up close and outside the Clann&039;s spying eyes would definitely ive her tirabbed le for a certain woman&039;s number

Savannah

I clutchedof teaot out oflot The truck was an old, single-cab Chevy S10, priray and in desperate need of a few layers of paint My father had had it delivered last week for my sixteenth birthday, an obvious and unsuccessful bribe to try and get hter didn&039;t even rate a truck with an actual paint job Not that a brand-new sports car would have been enough toMom&039;s and Nanna&039;s lives, either

Even esting I buy so any further Still, it got o and was free, so I&039;d asked Mom to pass on my thanks to hi the door shut with one foot It wasn&039;t like I could da, late-October hush, the campus was cooler now that autumn had finally arrived It was also empty and peaceful, just the way I liked it best No one around watchingme No one to have to try to hide all an to show up in the next fifteen minutes, the cah I never saw them around this early before school At this ti the school felt cozier, like a giant green blanket to hide in

I adjusted the headphones over my hair and ears, pushed Play onI needed to getor I&039;d be late with the sound system for practice I&039;d switched out this duty with the freshs and deliver roll-call charts to the front office instead This new system should work out perfectly since I had to unlock the dance roo, started up the ce&039;s foyer doorsand nearly dropped ainst the doors, his hands tucked into the pockets of his faded jeans In the early-, he looked surreal against the royal-blue painted doors Maybe I was still half-asleep and i, Savannah"

I stumbled but quickly recovered Nope, he was definitely here "U, Tristan"

"You use the old-style headphones Interesting choice" He nodded at the hot-pink and black headphones still dangling fro fast, I jerked open the zipper onand shoved my iPod inside "Uh, yeah My ears are too ss to stay in" Plus the old-style headphones stayed on better when I danced "What are you doing here?" I winced That came out ruder than I&039;d intended, but it was better than showing how I really felt about hi-"

"Yes and no"

Okay That cleared it all up "Are you here to talk to Mrs Daniels?"

"No, I already talked to her on Saturday I gave her a call and explainedas slowly as I could, I still wound up at the doors And h the teaet the doors unlocked so I could move away from the temptation as quickly as possible

"Here, letover mine in the process A tiny shiver rippled up my spine I froze for a few seconds then recovered and focused on unlocking the doors He held open the door for me and offered me the thermos

"And what did Mrs Daniels say?" I took the therers, then darted under his arh to ne

"She and I came up with a better idea" He followedshut behind hi was How alone ere together

Why, oh, why, did he have to be a descendant?

I had work to do I should remember that and stay focused on th of the shadowed foyer, pausing at the base of the stairs Was he going to followthis close to hiain "So are you going to tellat the newest Charave a wry smile

I couldn&039;t help it; I snorted Like the dancers, the Charers had always been feht You? Aan escort?"

"I&039;ll be doing that, too But I needed so to replace football first period and cover my PE credit this year The Charmers team class will do both And Mrs Daniels ured, why not?"

Why not? I could think of a million reasons why not "Uh, hate to break it to you, but I don&039;t think we have a hter burst out of him, and I felt a ridiculous thrill in response "Not a probleaer at the practices"

He&039;d be with us at every practice and ga hih How in the world would I e to hide how I felt about hi and afternoon?

To cover my dismay, I started up the stairs but had to stop halfway as another thought hit me My family They would make me quit the Char time alone with any descendant Especially not with the leader&039;s son Not to ht assume if they found out about it, too

I already wasn&039;t allowed to dance Noould lose even the right to be the headslowly, I frowned down at hi the Charmers? I mean, is this because ofyou knohat you said after that fight with Greg?"

"After five weeks?"

Huh He had a point Even as bad as Greg had been affected by the gaze daze, it had still taken hi this for the PE credit?" I searched his face

He shrugged "It seeood solution, since my parents banned all sports as part of ed as the question I hadn&039;t been able to stop thinking about all weekend returned to ic said it couldn&039;t possibly have been because ofabout his being pulled from the football tea the inside corner of my lips, I continued up the stairs,Okay, I needed to chill out and think clearly here So what if otten one thing right in a dream? That didn&039;tup here to becoerwell, that didn&039;t have to be aboutthat would fill first period every day Only the sports and spirit teams took up first period on both A and B days And if his parents banned him from all sports for the rest of the year, that would only leave cheerleading or Charmers

He could have asked his sister to let him be a male cheerleader for a while, my mind whispered

I tried to picture Tristan in aon the sidelines Hot, but unlikely He&039;d never be happy having to take orders fro to cheer for the football team he used to play for

So that left Char to do with ht with Dylan or his volunteering to help the Char to have a fit and makeUnlessthey never found out And ould they? Neither of theames or team performances since I wasn&039;t an actual perforet lucky Maybe he&039;d quit soon Mrs Daniels was tough to please, and flirting with a bunch of giggling dancers could only be fun for so long One, teeks tops and he&039;d be so bored he&039;d be begging Mrs Daniels to let hiht didn&039;tand pushed open the hallway door But at least the panic stopped clawing atdeal, after all It was just another shared class with Tristan Right? Nothing romantic No s for him for a couple weeks

The upstairs floor was dark, with just enough light co into anything Tristan dogged my every step, so closely that, when I stopped at the hallway light switch, he burabbed my waist, I was pretty sure from reflex

"Ooainst the back of ers sliding froht again "Um, why don&039;t you stay here? I&039;ll be done in a minute"

My hands shook as I unlocked the dance-roohts in both areas as I went I grabbed the MegaVox portable PA syste from the office closet then rejoined him in the hallway I was surprised to find a dark scowl on his face

"What, afraid of the dark?" My feeble attempt at a joke

"This is part of your daily routine?"

"Yep" I headed out of the hallway, but he stopped me to take the sound syste Except the foyer doors-those the janitors lock up at night"

We headed down the stairs, the heavy trainer bag thudding againstme feel about as attractive as a packbefore speaking again "Do the other o with you for safety?"

"You sound like er al when she used to do this There used to be three full-tier Aers were needed as alternate dancers for the rest of the football season after two of our dancers got hurt So now it&039;s just er, and two fresh it all? The unlocking in the ht?"

We headed down the ceh the caed "Sootta do it, and the tea choreography, putting togetherwith the school band onpractices"

He gruawake this early in the