We needed to swing for the fences. Wait. Wrong sport.
Suddenly, Leona’s phone beeped loudly with a message, and both Coach T and I glared at her. It was very frowned upon to have your cell on in the gymnasium. She glanced down but then snapped her head up to widen her eyes at me.
Man on the moon! It was about the mission. Thinking quickly, I reached forward to put my hand supportively on Coach T’s forearm. “Thanks for your belief in us.” I smiled. His lip curled slightly. “We’ll make you proud.”
Coach T stepped back, seemingly made off balance by my sweetness as he looked around at the squad. Then he hiked at his waistband again and snorted, “See that you do, Tessa.” With that, he turned and hustled his way out of the gymnasium.
The minute the metal doors clicked, I rushed over to Leona. “Give me the double scoop.”
She handed me her phone as I sat on the wooden bleacher next to her. I looked down and scrolled through the SOS text message.
Blaze Harmon is hooking up @ the field house in 10 min. Might want 2 add him to yr Naughty List
The message had come from a restricted number, so I couldn’t pinpoint the source. But that wasn’t unusual. In the spying business, we couldn’t always vet all of our sources. In fact, a lot of Naughty List tips came anonymously.
“It’s about Blaze,” I said, turning to look back at all the girls. “He’s hooking up at the field house in ten. We need to go.”
“I can’t wait until this mission is done,” Leona said, standing up and stretching her arms over her head. “I’ve been listening to the locker-room chatter nonstop, and I’m so sick of hearing about jock itch.”
“Ew.” Kira scrunched her nose.
“I know, right?”
“You’ve done a nice job, Leona,” I said. “Now, you and Izzie come with me. Everyone else take off. We’ll have a meeting before school about the findings. Plus we’re going to need to start getting organized for the big game.” The girls murmured excitedly and collected their things.
“What about me?” Kira asked. My heart skipped a beat as I looked over at her. She was my go-to spy. Or at least, she used to be before she’d tried to ruin me.
“Right,” I said quietly. “You’re with me, too.”
Even though Kira was suspended from the squad, we’d decided that we still needed her on SOS. She had a good sense for undercover work, and she knew a lot about the guys at school. She was an asset we couldn’t ignore.
Not that I completely trusted her yet. And not that she forgave me about Joel. But we’d called a truce. Or at least, it appeared that way.
I took a deep breath, slightly relieved. This mission had me stressed out, and now with the ESPN news, I wasn’t sure I could split my time so easily. And I had to admit, I was a little curious as to who Blaze was seeing. His girlfriend Trishelle was, like, a total supermodel.
The girls and I scooped up our gym bags and jogged toward the locker room to change into appropriate spy gear. We pushed into the room, quickly undressing. It was nice to be together again like this. We were like a SWAT team, only way peppier.
“So who do you think it is?” Leona asked as she pulled her uniform shirt over her head and tossed it on the bench.
“No idea,” I answered. “I can’t picture Blaze with anyone but Trishelle. Remember them at prom last year? Adorable.”
“They were a vision in blue,” Izzie added dreamily.
“Well, whoever it is,” Kira said, slipping into a pair of black spandex shorts, “I bet she puts out. Word is Trishelle is one of those purity-ring chicks.”
“No way.” Leona laughed. “Wasn’t she the one at the WSU party that played spin the bottle with Alpha Phi?”
“Yeah, but that was a sorority, and I don’t think girls count.”
“True.”
“Focus,” I said, securing my ponytail. “Now we need to get out to the field house without being detected. What’s the best path, Leona?”
“Up the west side behind the bleachers and then along the far wall.”
“Perfect. Are we ready?” I glanced around and smiled when I saw my squad looking completely stealth. I had to admit, although I preferred pink, black was a fabulous color on us.
“I have to pee,” Izzie said, biting on her lip.
“No time,” Leona spoke up, flipping her wrist to look at her watch. “We have to move now if we want to catch the cheat in progress.”
“Can you hold it?” I asked.
Izzie made a squeaking sound and then nodded. It was awfully sweet of her to risk a UTI for us. Sometimes our spying demands were terribly inconvenient.
Leona led the way as we filed behind her. I glanced back toward the parking lot but didn’t see Blaze’s silver Trooper. Good. It meant he wasn’t here yet.
When we got to the field house, Kira slid her pack off her shoulder before picking the lock and pulling open the heavy metal door. “By the way,” she said, looking over at me. “I wanted to talk to you about updating the SOS handbook.”
“Updating?”
“Yeah.” We entered the room, and again the smell made my nose twitch. I used to love this athletic smell on Aiden—somehow on him it was sexy. But in here, it just smelled like sweat. I pushed away all thoughts of Aiden (and his smells) and scoped out the scene. “We’ll talk about it?” Kira asked.
I glanced at her. “The handbook?” She nodded. “Uh, sure. I’ll bring it up next meeting.” I looked for Leona. “Time?” I asked.
“Minus three minutes,” she whispered. My heart fluttered. I wasn’t sure we could set up proper surveillance that quickly.
Just then there was a noise from outside the door. “Snapple facts! Get to the back!” I pushed Izzie, and we scrambled toward the back corner of the room, behind the lockers. We’d just turned the corner when I heard the metal clang of the door hitting the wall.
“In here, baby.” It was Blaze, and he was using his sexy voice. Gosh darn it. This was going to be another confirmed cheat. Always one hundred percent. It was enough to make my sunny disposition cloud over.
There was a mumbling, but I couldn’t catch what his accomplice said. Instead, I heard the clacking of heels on the tile of the locker-room floor. Jeez, she was stomping around like a chimpanzee. They were getting closer.
I put out my arm and backed the girls as far into the corner as I could. The clacking stopped. They were on the other side of the lockers, the sound of smacking (kissing?) coming from that direction.