“Shit.”
“Where do you think you’re going?” Blaze asked, menacingly blocking our path. To accentuate his point, he rammed his fist into the metal locker as a warning. The noise startled me, and I grabbed onto Leona as she steadied me. Kira and Izzie gathered behind us, and Rhett looked between me and Blaze. The tension was thick enough to cut. With a butcher knife.
“Get out of the way, Neanderthal,” Leona growled. “Tessa’s hurt, and I need to get her to the hospital.”
Blaze’s mouth twitched with a smile before it turned into mock concern. “You hurt your little paw?”
“I think it’s broken,” I said, not nearly as forceful as I should have. But I was about to lose it.
He laughed. “I guess you won’t be doing anymore spying then, will you?”
Izzie walked up, grabbing my other arm. I looked sideways at her, and she darted a terrified glance at me. Well, at least, she was pretending to be courageous. I smiled supportively.
Blaze paused, staring us down with disgust. Then, unbelievably enough, he held out his arm, motioning for us to pass. “Get the f**k out of my field house.”
“Gladly.” Leona pulled us forward, elbowing her way past Blaze as I held onto her and Izzie. Rhett stifled a laugh, but I focused on making it out the door.
“You think you’re hurt now,” Blaze called after us, “just wait until school.”
His warning rang in my ears as we left. I knew we were in trouble—at least, waist deep. But when I got out into the parking lot, I closed my eyes, letting the cool wind rush over my face. Oddly enough, my first instinct was to call Aiden. But I knew better than to do that. He was off my radar now.
“Um, you guys?” Izzie said, her voice low.
“What?” Kira murmured from behind us. She sounded lost in thought. I’d only heard that tone from her maybe once or twice before. It was a sure sign of bad things.
Izzie gulped. “I sort of peed my pants.”
My mouth opened in surprise, and Leona stopped with a shuffle, nearly sending me headlong into the pavement. Did she just say—
“Iz! That is totally sick!” Leona said.
“I was scared! I told you guys I had to go!”
Poor thing. I reached out to pat her arm. “It’s okay,” I said weakly. “We all have accidents.”
“When we’re two,” Leona answered.
“I don’t want to talk about Izzie’s weak bladder anymore,” Kira said, shaking her head. “Our duck is cooked!”
“It’s goose,” Leona corrected, turning to pull me forward again. She took out her keys to unclick the locks of her car.
“Whatever,” Kira snapped. “Who eats roasted goose? I’d rather have duck.”
Izzie gasped. “You eat little ducks? That is total animal cruelty!”
“Ladies,” Leona said as she opened the passenger door. “Knock it off. Tessa’s ankle is broken and Blaze Harmon just outed SOS. We’ve been betrayed again.” She darted a look at Kira. “We have some serious problems.” She paused. “Can you imagine what Chris is going to do when he hears?”
Worry passed over Leona’s face. Her boyfriend was on the football team, so he might already know by now that he was dating a member of the spy society who had busted so many of his friends. But being the brilliant professional that she was, Leona straightened her face and continued talking to Kira.
“I’ll call from the emergency room so we can set up an early morning meeting. And whatever you do, don’t answer your phones tonight from anyone else. This news is going to spread like wildfire, and it’s going to burn the whole damn school down.”
“Nice,” I said, easing my way into the seat. Leona was always very good with her words.
“Thanks.” She turned and put her hands on her hips. “Kira, would you mind taking Izzie home? I have a fear of urine.”
“Gross,” Kira said. Then she rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She grabbed Izzie by the sleeve and pulled her toward where she’d parked.
As Leona slammed the passenger door for me, I watched her run around the front of the car. I couldn’t even wrap my brain around the idea of our cover being blown. Or who would have done it.
This was worse than Kira’s copy-Kitten scam. It was worse than Christian tricking me into suspecting Aiden as a cheater last year.
But what worried me the most was that if my ankle really was broken, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to cheer us through this at all.
“Didn’t we just see you here a few months ago, Ms. Crimson?” the doctor asked. He was the same one who had stitched up my forehead when Chloe had hit me with an alarm clock in our less than classy fight over Aiden.
I nodded, wishing he would just give me a painkiller already. My ankle felt like it was pulsing in my brain. I’d convinced Leona to drop me off because the waiting room was packed with coughing patients. She had asthma and feared anything viral. So she told me to call her if I needed a ride. Instead, I gave the nurse my parent’s number.
Now that I was here in this sterile white room, I’d really started to feel the impact of my situation. What would Blaze and the other guys of Washington High do to punish us? The possibilities were endless.
“Seems you’re accident prone.” Dr. Lewis smirked, deep laugh lines creasing around his mouth. He put the x-ray on that light box thingy and examined it.
“Is it broken?”
He sighed heavily. “Yes, young lady. It is. But it looks like a clean break, no fragments. But you’ll be off your feet, possibly the next three months, depending on how you heal.”
The Empire Strikes Back! How would I ever cheer again? “Three months?” I was about to hyperventilate. In fact, if my foot wasn’t in such extreme pain, I might have passed out. I put my hands over my face and waited for the room to stop spinning.
“Now, now,” the doctor said. “Don’t get yourself worked up.”
I shook my head, dropping my arms. “But … I have so much to do. ESPN is coming to do a spotlight on the Wildcats-Ducks game! How am I—”
“Really?” Dr. Lewis asked, suddenly interested. “Do you know which broadcasters will be there?”
I stared at him. Was the doc seriously more worried about ESPN than my nonability to cheer? What about the Hippocratic oath? I pushed my head back into the pillow and closed my eyes.
This was a double dash of a disaster.