The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 266: Chapter 266 - Planning

Coach Miller raised his eyebrows. "I haven’t volunteered anybody."

"Your face did."

Karen burst out laughing beside her.

Coach Miller looked at Roxie for a few seconds before turning back toward the rest of the team. "Like I said, we still need to figure out the format."

"That means yes," Roxie muttered.

"It absolutely means yes," Karen whispered back.

Roxie gave her a hard look, which only made Karen bite her lip harder to keep herself from laughing again. Great. Apparently Roxie had already been volunteered and the only person who still needed convincing was Roxie.

Across from them, Kendall looked completely unbothered by the idea. If anything, she looked pleased that Marissa had basically announced she was one of the girls people at Briarwick would actually pay money to watch.

Roxie rolled her eyes. Of course Kendall would enjoy this.

She’s a succubus who bathe in attention. She’d probably die if no one talks about her for about a day.

Kendall caught Roxie looking and lifted her eyebrows slightly, which somehow made her look even more pleased with herself. Roxie almost wanted to tell her that being popular enough for people to throw money into a donation jar was hardly an accomplishment worth putting on a résumé, but that would probably only make Kendall happier.

Marissa looked between them. "We need names people actually care about. Kendall already works. Roxie works. Then we get some football players, basketball players, maybe people from student council, whoever students know."

A few girls nodded, and Roxie could already see them taking the idea far more seriously than she wanted. Ava was whispering something to another girl about possible basketball players while Angela had that expression she always got when she was about to make somebody else’s life more entertaining.

Roxie did not like where any of this was going.

"What exactly am I supposed to be doing?" Roxie asked.

"A short dance," Marissa said. "Maybe by yourself. Maybe with somebody. Depends how we set it up."

Roxie stared at her. "By myself in front of the whole school?"

"No. In an expensive private room. Wait... That would literally work."

A couple of the girls laughed, and Roxie stared at Marissa like she had completely lost her mind.

"No one’s dancing in a private room. Marissa’s idea is actually not bad." Coach Miller said in a loud voice.

Marissa looked around with a smirk as if volunteering Roxie and the rideiculous fundraiser were basically done deal.

Roxie looked around too and immediately regretted it. Too many of the girls were nodding. Even some of the younger cheerleaders seemed excited now, which meant this stupid thing was gaining support by the second.

"I can’t dance in front of the whole school."

Kendall gave a short laugh. "Well, it’s a good way to get them stop talking about your breakup with Zac." A few of the girls gasped and Roxie glared at her. "Just tell us if you are scared cause you really doesn’t know how to dance and you’re what... Competing with me? Like there is a competition?"

The gym got noticeably quieter.

Roxie looked at her sharply and she just gave her a haughty smile. She doesn’t know if Kendall is doing this to make her join but goddamn it if she let’s her talk to her like she is scared. "Watch your mouth. I will dance circles around you."

"Ooooooh." The girls cheered. "It is on."

The noise exploded around them before Roxie even had time to realize what had just come out of her mouth. Angela clapped beside her while Ava yelled something toward Kendall, and one of the girls behind Roxie immediately started asking who they thought would raise more money.

Kendall’s smile became unbearably smug.

That was when Roxie realized she had walked straight into it.

Roxie felt her face heat up realizing she fell for it on her own. "Shut up everyone." She breathe through her nose trying to calm down. "What if no one pays?"

That quieted a few of them because apparently nobody had considered the possibility that the entire school might look at the fundraiser and decide they had better things to spend their money on.

Roxie certainly had.

Getting called popular was one thing. Standing there with a donation total beside her name while everyone could see exactly how much money people had been willing to spend on Kendall instead sounded like a completely different form of public humiliation.

Karen leaned toward her, still grinning. Roxie gave her a warning look before she could say anything.

Coach Miller looked down at his clipboard. "Nobody is deciding today. We still have to talk to administration, figure out where we can hold it and decide how voting works. Right now, I just need to know whether this is worth developing."

A few girls immediately said yes.

Then more voices joined them until it sounded like almost the whole team had agreed.

Angela lifted her hand enthusiastically.

Karen looked at her. "Why are you voting? You’re going to volunteer Roxie and then sit there with Caleb eating popcorn."

Angela smiled. "Exactly. Roxie’s gonna make us rich by herself."

"Bitch."

Angela laughed and leaned against Roxie’s shoulder like that somehow made volunteering her against her will more acceptable.

Roxie shoved her away.

Coach Miller looked toward Roxie. "Jones?"

Roxie sighed.

Nationals.

That was the only reason she was even considering this. They had worked too fucking hard to qualify just to lose the chance because getting there cost more than the school wanted to spend. State had taken months from them. Practice after practice, bruises, arguments, competitions, all the shit that had happened while they were trying to get there, and somehow they had actually done it.

Roxie looked around at the girls sitting on the floor.

Even Kendall.

As annoying as every single one of them could be, they had earned Nationals.

If Roxie had to embarrass herself for a few minutes to help get them there, refusing because she hated the idea of dancing in front of people would be fucking stupid.

She could already regret it later.

"Fine."

Coach Miller nodded. Coach Miller blew his whistle before the entire conversation could get worse. "Everybody up. We still have a practice."

The team immediately started getting to their feet, though the Sweetheart fundraiser conversation clearly was not finished for anyone except Coach Miller. Roxie heard girls already arguing about songs while somebody behind her suggested they should make Kendall and Roxie perform back to back so people could vote between them.

Roxie turned around. "I heard that."

The girl immediately laughed and disappeared toward her position.

Kendall passed Roxie while fixing her ponytail, still wearing that irritating little smile.

Roxie narrowed her eyes at her back.

If this fundraiser actually happened, she was going to make Kendall regret opening her mouth.

For the next two hours, Roxie actually forgot about Sweetheart.

Coach Miller ran them through corrections from the State footage, then made them repeat sections until everyone was sick of hearing the same counts. He stopped them twice over timing, once because the back line had moved early and another time because their spacing started collapsing when everyone got tired.

Roxie caught a timing problem in one transition, argued with Kendall over spacing for thirty seconds, then ended up being right, which improved her mood considerably.

Kendall looked deeply offended when Coach Miller confirmed it.

Roxie smiled at her.

Kendall mouthed something Roxie could not hear.

Roxie smiled wider.

After that, practice became exactly what Roxie needed. She threw herself into every count hard enough that her legs started burning and sweat dampened the back of her shirt. By the fourth full run, she was breathing hard enough that thinking about anything beyond the next movement became impossible.

Practice helped.

There was no Zac. No coffee shop. No girls leaning across counters. No empty locker waiting for a Sweetheart invitation. There were counts, corrections, sore muscles and teammates who needed Roxie paying attention instead of disappearing into her own head.

She corrected one of the younger girls when she kept entering a transition too early, then stayed beside her for the next run until she finally hit it correctly. Angela nearly lost balance once and blamed Karen for distracting her. Karen denied doing anything even though Roxie had watched her make a face right before Angela screwed up.

Coach Miller threatened extra conditioning if they did not shut up.

That worked for approximately three minutes.

For a while, Roxie was just co captain again.

She liked that.

Nobody was asking whether she and Zac were getting back together. Nobody cared who was flirting with whom or what happened outside some stupid coffee shop. Coach Miller only cared whether Roxie was half a count late, and Kendall only cared whether she could prove Roxie wrong about something.

It was almost peaceful.

By the time Coach Miller finally dismissed them, Roxie was sweaty, exhausted and feeling better than she had when practice started.

She walked out of the gym with Karen and Angela, carrying her cheer bag over one shoulder while Angela talked about whatever Caleb had planned for the Sweetheart Dance.

"He wants us to match."

Karen made a disgusted sound. "Of course he does."

Angela laughed. "What’s wrong with matching?"

"Everything. Girl, you need space from him."

"He just asked what color my dress is. It’s not like were moving in together."

"Oh god. She’s thinking about moving in...." Karen moaned loudly, looking at Angela with exasperation.

Angela stopped walking and stared at her.

"It’s just color." Angela threw her hands up in the air.

Roxie grinned and added fuel to the fire. "He wants to match his tie? Couples are fucking disgusting."

Karen and Angela looked at her with ’really’ look that made her laugh hard.

It took Roxie a second to realize why.

She had spent months practically attached to Zac. There had probably been weeks where Karen and Angela barely got Roxie without him somehow appearing somewhere nearby.

Roxie laughed. "Come on, let them be."

Karen sighed and hooked her arm through Roxie’s. "Thank god Roxie’s single like me and we’re still going together."

"Obviously."

"And you’re buying dinner."

Roxie looked at her. "Keep dreaming."

Angela smiled. "This is why there are rumors about you too. Break up." Angela squeezed herself between them. "We, three are actually going to have fun."

Karen resisted for all of two seconds before letting Angela wedge herself between them.

Roxie thought so too.

That was the surprising part.

She and Karen could go together with Angela and Caleb. They could get dressed up, make fun of everybody’s dramatic Sweetheart bullshit, dance until their feet hurt. Angela would disappear with Caleb every now and then because apparently having a boyfriend had destroyed her loyalty, but Roxie and Karen could survive.

Maybe it would actually be fun.

Roxie could survive one school dance without having a boyfriend.

She had survived plenty before Zac.

The problem was that she could remember Homecoming too clearly. Zac beside her. Zac looking at her. Zac occupying so much of that night that imagining another school dance without him still felt wrong no matter how many times Roxie told herself she was over thinking about it.

And whatever Zac decided to do that night had absolutely nothing to do with her.

The thought still felt slightly shitty, but Roxie ignored that part.

"Roxie."

She slowed.

Somebody behind them had called her name.

Karen and Angela turned with her.

A boy was walking toward them from the other side of the hallway.

Noah.

Roxie recognized him immediately, though she had barely spoken to him lately. Between cheer, Zac and everything else that had taken over her life, several people Roxie used to see more often had somehow ended up becoming hallway conversations.

He waved as he jogged towards them.

"Long time, no see."

Noah grinned. "Hard to see when Zac blocks your whole view, isn’t it?"

Roxie narrowed her eyes at him. Apparently everyone had jokes now that she was single.

"Shut up. You need something?"

Noah stopped in front of them, still smiling, though Roxie noticed he suddenly looked slightly less confident than he had while walking over.

"Are you already going to Sweetheart with somebody?"

Roxie paused.

That was unexpected.

"What... Just because you got recently a girlfriend, you’re allowed to throw it in our face?"

Noah smile faded. "We broke up last week. So, yeah."

Roxie’s eyebrows lifted.

That was news to her.

Angela looked at Noah. "Oh my god Pres. Are you asking Roxie out?"

Noah gave Angela a look before turning back toward Roxie.

Roxie looked between them before his attention returned to Roxie. "I need a girl to parade in her face. I’m not saying we date the whole night cause you know... student body got shits to do but entering the hall with you is enough."

Roxie stared at him.

At least he was fucking honest.

"No-"

"Before you say no-"

"I already said it."

"Remember every favor you asked me?"

Roxie rolled her eyes. "Do they know the president uses blackmail?"

Noah pouted and acted cute which made the 3 of them cringe. "If you do this, I’ll owe you one."

Roxie was already opening her mouth to reject him again when Karen suddenly grabbed her arm.

"Wait." Karen interjected before pulling Roxie aside. "We can use him for the fund raising program."

Roxie stopped.

Angela’s eyes widened almost immediately.

Then all three of them looked toward Noah.

Noah’s suspicious expression appeared almost immediately.

Angela and Roxie nodded hard. Noah can make their life so much easier. As a student body, he’d have more experience with this than anyone. He knew administration, already organized school events, and probably knew exactly who they needed to talk to before Coach Miller spent a week trying to chase approvals through different offices.

More importantly, Noah wanted something from Roxie first.

That meant leverage.

Roxie turned around, seeing Noah suddenly sensing something was wrong.

"Okay."

Noah narrowed his eyes.

Apparently Roxie agreeing that quickly scared him more than the rejection had.

"Wait. What will you make me do?"

Roxie grinned. "We just need help in the fundraising program we’re gonna do."

Noah paused. Roxie can almost see the gears turning in his head. His eyes moved from Roxie to Karen and then Angela, probably trying to figure out how much trouble the three of them had just decided to drag him into.

"Alright. Do this for me and I’ll help you."

"Deal." Roxie shook his hand before walking out on him.

The agreement felt almost suspiciously easy.

Roxie expected Karen to say something about how Noah was going to regret making deals with them, but Angela spoke first once they were several paces away.

"That Dana’s a bitch." Angela muttered, paces away from Noah. "How can she cheat on Noah? He’s cute, smart and nice."

"Same way you’ve been cheating on your diet. The cake is a cake."

Angela laughed rolling her eyes.

Roxie smiled.

Noah really was not a bad choice.

Actually, the more Roxie thought about it, the better the whole arrangement sounded. Noah already told her exactly what he wanted. He wanted to walk into the dance with somebody his ex would notice. Roxie wanted to go without dealing with a guy who might think accepting meant she was suddenly interested in dating again.

Neither of them expected romance.

Neither of them needed anything afterward.

And Noah was student body president. Walking into Sweetheart with him would hardly make Roxie look like some heartbroken girl whose boyfriend had dumped her and who could not find anyone else willing to take her.

At least she won’t appear too heart broken in that dance. Noah is the perfect date for that night. He won’t expect anything from her.

Roxie adjusted the strap of her cheer bag while Angela and Karen continued talking beside her.

It was perfect.

Simple.

Useful.

No complications.

Then Zac slipped into her mind anyway.

Roxie still wonder...

What would Zac feel seeing her walk in with another man?

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