Crave (Harlequin Teen)

the morning and every afternoon after school? Even varsity volleyball doesn’t practice that much.”
    Mrs. Daniels had given the team this morning off since it was the first day of school. But tomorrow we all started the two-a-days. I was so not looking forward to having to be here at six-fifteen every weekday. Making it here by eight last year had been tough enough. At least I wouldn’t be expected to run and dance and leap around at that hour of the morning.
    “Varsity soccer doesn’t practice that much, either,” Greg said in between bites of pizza.
    “Maybe the Charmers have to practice more because their dancing sucks more,” Anne said, shooting him a dark look.
    Miraculously, he smiled and shrugged it off.
    Rolling my eyes, I flopped back in my chair in silence. I wasn’t going to argue anymore about this. They didn’t have to like it, but they would have to get over it. I did not live my life to please my friends, much as I cared about and appreciated them. I was already doing way too much bending over backward for my family and the vampire council.
    “I’m done. See you later,” Carrie announced a few minutes later to no one in particular as she grabbed her things and left.
    “Don’t worry, she’ll calm down,” Michelle whispered as she jumped up and grabbed her things. “Nice to finally meet you, Greg.” She gave a hasty smile and wave before she took off after Carrie.
    “Carrie will get over it,” Anne said on a sigh. “But I might not.” Which meant, of course, she would. Eventually. Sighing, she picked up her books and tray. “See you later, Stanwick.” He raised his cola in reply, his mouth too full to speak.
    She gave me one last glare. “See you tomorrow, gofer girl.”
    “Bye,” I muttered.
    I watched Anne stomp off. Should I go after her and apologize? For what, though? For not checking with my friends before picking an extracurricular activity? Give me a break. I did not need their approval.
    Though it would have been nice to have it.
    Awkward silence filled the table for several minutes as we watched my friends leave the cafeteria. Hopefully they would chill out by tomorrow.
    “Guess we’ll be finishing up here alone today?” Greg broke the silence first as the chaos of the lunchtime crowd flowed around us.
    “Yeah. Sorry about that. I guess I should have told them before now.” I prayed the blush would fade from my cheeks soon. Preferably immediately.
    He leaned over and bumped shoulders with me. “Well, you sure know how to clear a table.”
    I laughed. “Blunt much?”
    He shrugged with an apologetic smile. “I’m told it’s curable, but the pills aren’t working lately.”
    Shaking my head, I finished eating then wiped my mouth and sighed. “They’ll get over it. Eventually.”
    “Why don’t they like the Charmers?”
    I explained the rumor to him. “But no one ever found out for sure who started it. Now they just hate all the Charmers automatically.” I caught Greg’s confused look and laughed. “Ridiculous, I know. I think it’s really just a team thing. Like chow the cheerleaders hate the Charmers and girls’ volleyball teams, and vice versa. A few of them are brave enough to cross the lines and have friends on the other teams, but mostly they all seem to think their own team is the only good team to be on.”
    “And you’re one of those girls who cross the line, huh?”
    Holding back a laugh, I shook my head. “You know, I could take that the wrong way.”
    It took him a few seconds to get it. When he did, his cheeks turned ruddy and a cute, embarrassed smile tilted his lips. “I meant…”
    Laughing, I grabbed my lunch tray. “Yeah, I know what you meant. But you should know…they’re not usually like this. When the Clann kids decided to start ganging up on me in athletics in junior high, Anne and Carrie and Michelle nearly got into a fistfight with them.”
    His eyebrows shot up.
    “They’d just really rather I kept playing volleyball with them instead of doing the Charmer thing.”
    “You used to play volleyball? Why’d you quit?”
    I stood up, grateful the bell was about to ring. “That’s kind of a long story.” One involving a series of events where I managed to accidentally take out part of a tiled gym ceiling, bloody Carrie’s nose and get tangled in the net…all at the same tournament. “I’ll tell you about it…later.” As in never. No way did I want him to know what a klutz he was dating.
    We headed for the