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“Imagine that,” he drawled, looking amused as he considered her for a moment.

“Can I go to tryouts today?” Mikey asked, forcing the words out of her mouth as she stood there trying not to panic because she honestly didn’t know what she would do if he said no.

Besides cry that is, she amended a moment later when he reached for the red pen. She watched as Mr. Rose took his time going over her book report and just when she thought that she was going to be sick, he flipped back to the first page and–

“Good luck at tryouts, Mikey,” Mr. Rose said with a warm smile as he wrote an A at the top of her paper and handed it to her.

Mikey slowly looked down at the paper in her hands, her gaze zeroing in on that A before shifting to Mr. Rose, back to her paper, back to Mr. Rose, and–

“Thank you!” Mikey yelled over her shoulder as she booked it out of there, afraid that he’d change his mind.

As soon as she made it out of the room, Mikey slowly exhaled as she glanced back down at her book report and felt her lips pull up into a pleased smile. She did it! She actually managed to pull this off, Mikey realized in a daze even as she quickened her pace, eager to tell Sebastian.

She quickly made her way to the cafeteria and headed for the shortest line that she could find all while glancing every which way, looking for Sebastian. When she didn’t see him, Mikey grabbed a plastic tray and shifted her attention back to the lunch line, willing it to move faster as she anxiously tapped her thumbs against the tray. The lunch lady barely had a chance to open her mouth before Mikey was asking for a double lunch, grabbing two milks, some fruit, and two brownies and shoving them on her tray.

With an absently murmured, “Thank you,” Mikey paid for her food, grabbed her tray and headed for a table in the back. Once she was there, she placed the tray on the table, dropped her bag on the floor and–

Threw herself into Sebastian’s arms when he suddenly appeared by her side.

Chapter 19

“You are the best!” Mikey said, hugging him tightly only to drop her arms away before he got a chance to wrap his arms around her.

“I take it that you did well on your book report,” Sebastian said, trying not to

think about how good it felt to have her in his arms as he sat down across from her.

“I really did,” Mikey said, nodding as she grabbed one of the chocolate milks off the tray.

“So, that means you can go to tryouts?” Sebastian asked as he helped himself to a chicken nugget.

Nodding, she said, “It also means that we can finally focus on all those things that you don’t want to talk about.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said, popping the chicken nugget into his mouth as he glared at the little pain in the ass, hoping that it would be enough to get her to drop it.

“And yet, we’re going to talk about it anyway,” the stubborn pain in the ass said with a look that dared him to argue with her as she plucked a chicken nugget off the tray and ate it.

“Shouldn’t we talk about tryouts?” Sebastian asked, hoping to distract her.

“Please don’t make me hurt you,” Mikey said, throwing him a pitying look that had him narrowing his eyes on her.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a pain in the ass?” Sebastian bit out.

Nodding solemnly, she said, “All the time,” making him chuckle as he helped himself to the other chocolate milk.

“Fine. What do you want to know, brat?”

“What are you going to do about school?” Mikey asked as she selected a French fry.

“I’m not sure yet,” Sebastian admitted as he reached over and plucked the fry out of her hand.

Grumbling, she grabbed another fry and quickly popped it in her mouth before he could steal it.

“I think you should keep trying,” Mikey said as though he really had a choice.

“And if I don’t get in?” Sebastian asked, because he honestly didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t get in at this point.

“You will,” she said with a firm nod.