Crave (Harlequin Teen)

escort?”
    “I’ll be doing that, too. But I needed something to replace football first period and cover my P.E. credit this year. The Charmers team class will do both. And Mrs. Daniels mentioned you were short on managers. So I figured, why not?”
    Why not? I could think of a million reasons why not. “Uh, hate to break it to you, but I don’t think we have a manager’s suit in your size.”
    Laughter burst out of him, and I felt a ridiculous thrill in response. “Not a problem. I’ll be in escort clothing at the games. I’ll only be helping out as a manager at the practices.”
    He’d be with us at every practice and game?
    Oh, no no no no no. This was so not good. Ignoring him in history class was hard enough. How in the world would I manage to hide how I felt about him if I had to spend hours with him, alone, every morning and afternoon?
    To cover my dismay, I started up the stairs but had to stop halfway as another thought hit me. My family. They would make me quit the Charmers for sure. No way would they be okay with my spending time alone with any descendant. Especially not with the leader’s son. Not to mention what the vampire council might assume if they found out about it, too.
    I already wasn’t allowed to dance. Now I would lose even the right to be the head manager.
    “Uh, Savannah?” he asked, making me realize I was still frozen on the stairs.
    Twisting slowly, I frowned down at him. “Why are you really joining the Charmers? I mean, is this because of…you know, what you said after that fight with Greg?”
    “After five weeks?”
    Huh. He had a point. Even as bad as Greg had been affected by the gaze daze, it had still taken him less than a week to recover.
    “So you’re really doing this for the P.E. credit?” I searched his face.
    He shrugged. “It seemed like a good solution, since my parents banned all sports as part of my punishment.”
    I cringed as the question I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about all weekend returned to me now. Why had he and Dylan fought? Logic said it couldn’t possibly have been because of me. But logic also couldn’t explain my dreaming about his being pulled from the football team before I should have known about it.
    Chewing the inside corner of my lips, I continued up the stairs, my mind and heartbeat racing. Okay, I needed to chill out and think clearly here. So what if my subconscious or imagination or whatever had gotten one thing right in a dream? That didn’t mean the rest of it was true. And Tristan showing up here to become a Charmers manager…well, that didn’t have to be about me, either. He just needed something that would fill first period every day. Only the sports and spirit teams took up first period on both A and B days. And if his parents banned him from all sports for the rest of the year, that would only leave cheerleading or Charmers.
    He could have asked his sister to let him be a male cheerleader for a while, my mind whispered.
    I tried to picture Tristan in a male cheer uniform yelling on the sidelines. Hot, but unlikely. He’d never be happy having to take orders from his older sister all the time. Not to mention having to cheer for the football team he used to play for.
    So that left Charmers as the last option available. Nothing to do with me, no reason to think I was the cause behind his fight with Dylan or his volunteering to help the Charmers. Right?
    Unfortunately, Mom and Nanna were still going to have a fit and make me quit the team, no matter what his reasons were for joining. Unless…they never found out. And why would they? Neither of them came to any of the games or team performances since I wasn’t an actual performer.
    Besides, I might get lucky. Maybe he’d quit soon. Mrs. Daniels was tough to please, and flirting with a bunch of giggling dancers could only be fun for so long. One, two weeks tops and he’d be so bored he’d be begging Mrs. Daniels to let him quit.
    Funny how that thought didn’t make me feel relieved as I reached the third-floor landing and pushed open the hallway door. But at least the panic stopped clawing at my throat. Maybe this would turn out to be no big deal, after all. It was just another shared class with Tristan. Right? Nothing romantic. No major rules broken, really. Surely I could hide my feelings for him for a couple weeks.
    The upstairs floor was dark, with just enough light coming in from the windows to prevent me from running into anything. Tristan dogged my