Page 21 of Pages of Amber
“You noticed, huh?”She chuckled derisively.“Did you see when they left?”
Nigel nodded,“Beverly came around to ask if I knew where you were. I simply told her what you told me. That you had something to take care of.”
Beverly had asked of her. That had to be a good sign, right? She was so unsure.
Amber had never known her best friends to hold grudges for long. Sure, Beverly was hard and defensive at a first glance. She was loud and outgoing too, her unapologetic personality leading people to think she was brash, even as they admired her sense of style and fashion. Amber knew the truth though, that her best friend was a softie, especially for the people she loved. Lexi was quiet, but she knew when to speak her mind and when to assert herself. She had said they needed space and Amber would do her best to respect that. Everything will be alright, she reassured herself. If she said it enough times, maybe would start to believe it.
Nigel pulled open the door for her.“Straight home?”
The new ballet theatre schedule said her class didn’t have dance practice today. She could still visit the theatre if she wanted solo practice time but ballet would only exhaust her body. At the moment, Amber craved another solution to exhaust her mind. Thankfully, she had found the perfect place the weekend she had returned.
“Actually, I had somewhere else in mind. Can we go to the bookstore?”
“The one from last weekend?”Nigel asked.“You like the place, don’t you?”
She smiled, already picturing the table and chair at the back of the store she had claimed as her writing corner.“It has exactly what I need.”
A matching smile stretched his weathered cheeks.“Of course. In you go. We’ll be there in a few.”
Amber beamed, excitement brewing at the thought of her destination. As the car pulled away from the lot, her mind returned to the deal she’d reluctantly struck. If Noah was going to do his part and help, she needed to do hers too. She wouldn’t give him an inch to outdo her and accuse her of giving excuses or being scared.
Reaching into her bag for a notepad and pen, Amber let her thoughts run and poured her ideas onto the page. Noah Rhodes would be the best student body president Redmington Academy had ever seen by the time she was done with him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I HATE CALCULUS!”CASEY announced, her voice reaching Amber as she walked up to where Willow and Casey stood at the row of lockers.
“You’re the one who chose it,”Willow answered.“Your dad said you could study either accounting or psychology for college and you made your bed, sweetie.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
Willow slammed her locker shut.“I made a whole board with pros, cons, future benefits and costs, remember? You, on the other hand, wanted to gamble your life on a game of eenie-meenie-miney-mo.”
Casey sulked, clearly unhappy with Willow cutting off her complaints with pragmatic efficiency. But that was who Willow was. All straight-laced, logical and honest to a fault. Exactly what Amber needed.
“Hey, girls!” she called.
Casey spun with a squeal, her petulance falling away.“Amber, hi! We missed you at lunch last Friday. Lexi said a teacher asked for you. Is everything alright?”
Amber tittered, clutching her books tighter.“Yeah, everything’s great. She wanted to check up on my work since I’ve been back, that’s all.”
“And it was okay?”
“Of course,”Amber squeaked. Willow rose a sharp brow, quick to latch onto the slip-up. She cleared her throat, looking to distract her incredibly intuitive friend.“I have a question for you girls.”
“Shoot,”Casey said as she dug around in her locker.
Fingers crossed for luck, she rushed out,“What do you guys think about Noah as student body president? Is he bad, good, average? What are your personal opinions, if you have any, or things you might have heard from other students?”
Oh god, she sounded like she was conducting a job interview. Did she have to ask the questions that way? She sounded crazy. Her friends clearly thought so too. Their widened eyes roamed over her. Casey’s jaw hung open, her locker forgotten in her shock. Willow barely blinked, her eyes drilling a hole in Amber’s head. She needed to say something else.
“That sounded weird, didn’t it? I’m sorry, I got nervous and my tone was way off, like I was a grumpy interviewer or something. No wonder Trent wants me back at the press club.”Her friends continued to stare, and Amber was this close to freaking out.“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Where’s the real Amber? Tell us right now.”Casey flung herself at Amber, shaking her by the shoulder pads of her jacket.
“What?”she questioned in disbelief.
“Better question, what’s going on with you? Are you feeling good?”Willow squinted. She pulled Casey back.“Ease up, Case. She might be having a fever.”
