Foul Play

Different

The game was surprisingly close. Or at least I assumed it was. The crowd seemed invested.

Every time Heathside scored, the bleachers exploded.

Every time Pennsylvania answered, half the gym groaned dramatically.

I tried to follow along. I really did.

But every few minutes my attention drifted.

Back to him. Kai. Then to Candace. Then back to Kai.

It was ridiculous.I wasn’t even trying to stare. My eyes just kept finding them anyway.

Candace stood with the rest of the cheerleaders near the sidelines, her ponytail swinging every time she moved.

And somehow, every time I looked up, Kai wasn’t so far from my line of sight.

I swallowed. They looked good together. Annoyingly good. Like the kind of couple people talked about years after they broke up.

The kind of couple that somehow made sense from the outside.

My stomach twisted. I immediately shook my head.

Get a grip, Evelyn.

You didn’t come here to analyze your friend’s basketball gossip. You came here to watch a game.

A deafening cheer erupted from the Heathside section. The entire hall seemed to shake.

I blinked and looked toward the court just in time to see the ball drop cleanly through the net.

The crowd went wild. Students jumped to their feet. The cheerleaders exploded into motion..

“What happened?” I asked.

Mia stared at me. “Evelyn.”

“What?”

“You haven’t watched a single possession in the last ten minutes.”

I opened my mouth. Then closed it.

Because unfortunately, she wasn’t wrong.

Well, I never said I was a basketball fan to begin with.

Mia rolled her eyes, shaking her head, “Kai scored.”

Kai scored. Of her he f*****g scored.

Honestly, it would’ve been more surprising if he hadn’t.

You couldn’t look like that, get that much attention every time you walked into a room, and then turn out to be bad at what you do.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

The corner of my mouth twitched as I watched him jog back across the court. Then I felt someone staring at me.

I turned my head. Mia. Oh no.

Her eyes narrowed immediately. “Don’t even think about it.”

I blinked innocently. “Think about what?”

She gave me a look. A long look. The kind that said she wasn’t buying any of this.

“I don’t know,” she said, voice full of sophistication. “Maybe ‘bout a blonde haired guy with green eyes, but you tell me.”

I tilted, trying, and failing, to look confused. “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Evelyn.”

“Mia.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“I genuinely don’t.”

She let out a dramatic sigh. “Sure.”

I nodded. “Good. Glad we cleared that up.”

Mia rolled her eyes so hard I was genuinely concerned for her eyesight. Then she pointed toward the court. “Just remember I warned you.”

I followed her gaze. Unfortunately, it landed directly on Kai again.

Which probably wasn’t helping my case.

༺♥︎༻

The last few minutes of the game were complete chaos. Or at least they were to me.

Everyone around me seemed to understand exactly what was happening. I didn’t.

Students were on their feet. People were shouting.

The Pennsylvania section looked progressively more miserable by the second.

And somehow, despite the fact that I barely knew the rules, even I could tell Heathside was winning.

The scoreboard glowed above the court.

78 - 71.

Less than a minute remaining. The entire gym buzzed with anticipation.

“That’s it,” Mia said confidently.

I glanced at her. “What?”

“We’ve won.”

“There’s still time left.”

Mia laughed. “Trust me.”

Apparently, I did. Because thirty seconds later, another basket went in.

The crowd erupted. A sea of blue and yellow exploded to their feet.

The noise was so loud I felt it in my chest. On the court, the players were already grinning.

Some of them were celebrating before the game had even officially ended.

The final buzzer sounded. For half a second, everything froze.

Then the gym absolutely lost its mind. Students jumped from the bleachers. The cheerleaders rushed onto the court. Music blasted through the speakers.

People were hugging each other like Heathside had just won a national championship instead of the first game of the season.

I laughed despite myself. The excitement was contagious.

Below us, players exchanged high-fives and shoulder bumps.

And right in the middle of it all - Kai.

His teammates crowded around him almost immediately.

Someone shoved him forward. Someone else wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

He was laughing at something one of them had said.

Completely at ease. Like he belonged there. Like he’d always belonged there.

And judging by the way the entire gym seemed to orbit around him, maybe he did.

Then, Mia jumped from her seat, her body full of excitement. “Okay. We’ve got exactly twenty minutes.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Twenty minutes until what?”

“Logan’s pool party.”

I blinked, leaning slightly away. “There’s a pool party after the game?”

Mia laughed, rolling her eyes as if it’s an obvious fact. “Duh.”

My lips twitched with uncertainty. “Uh… I’m not sure I can come.”

Mia’s face instantly dropped. “What?” She said, jumping from her seat. “Why not?”

“I don’t have a swimsuit prepared.”

Mia eased, then said calmly “girl, nobody’s got a swimsuit ready.”

༺♥︎༻

Logan’s house looked less like a house and more like the kind of place people used to go to on vacation.

The neighborhood sat only a few minutes from the beach, lined with large coastal homes that looked straight out of a North Carolina postcard.

White siding. Wraparound porches. Tall windows glowing warmly against the night.

Palm trees swayed gently in the ocean breeze as music drifted through the air long before we even reached the front gate.

My jaw nearly dropped. “You people actually live like this?”

Mia glanced at me. “You say that like we’re royalty.”

I pointed at the house. “Look at this house, Mia.”

“Fair.”

The backyard was even worse. Or better.

I honestly couldn’t decide.

The pool stretched across most of the yard, illuminated from beneath by soft blue lights that made the water glow in the darkness.

Colorful floaters drifted lazily across the surface.

Giant swans. Pink flamingos. A floating basketball hoop.

Students crowded around every corner of the yard.

Some sat with their feet dangling in the water.

Others danced near the speakers.

Laughter echoed constantly over the music.

A fully stocked drink station had been set up beneath a covered patio, surrounded by students helping themselves to sodas, mocktails, and enough snacks to feed an entire football team.

String lights hung overhead, casting a warm golden glow across the backyard.

For a moment, I simply stood there.

Watching. Taking it all in.

This wasn’t the kind of party people threw back in San Diego.

This was the kind of party that happened in movies.

Near the far side of the pool, a group of students lounged on deck chairs, talking loudly over one another.

A few couples occupied the hot tub, making out with one another without feeling any shame.

Was this kind of behaviour acceptable here?

I immediately looked away. Nope. Not my business.

“Welcome to Heathside,” Mia announced proudly.

I stared at the crowd. The lights. The music.

The pool. The impossible house. Then back at her. “Are all your parties like this?”

Mia smiled. “Pretty much.”

For a while I was too distracted to notice anything else.

The house. The pool. The lights reflecting across the water. Everything felt unreal.

Like I’d somehow walked into one of those teen movies people pretend aren’t accurate, even though everyone secretly wishes they were.

Mia laughed at my reaction before disappearing toward the drinks station. “I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder.

I nodded. Then found myself standing alone for the first time all evening.

At first, I kept looking around. Taking everything in.

The giant pool. The floating swans drifting lazily across the water. The string lights hanging above us.

A few students jumped into the pool, earning cheers from their friends. Someone turned the music up even louder.

I smiled to myself. Maybe moving here wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Then I noticed it. A glance. Quick. Gone before I could fully catch it.

I frowned. A few seconds later, another.

This time from a girl standing near the hot tub.

She whispered something to her friend.

Both of them looked in my direction.

Then immediately looked away.

The smile slowly faded from my face. My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag.

Maybe it was nothing. Except once I noticed it, I couldn’t stop noticing it.

A group of boys near the pool. A pair of cheerleaders by the drinks table. Two girls sitting on a lounge chair.

Eyes. Everywhere. Not constant. Not obvious.

Just enough. Just enough to make my skin feel too tight.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other.

Back at Heathside, during my first week, nobody had seemed particularly interested in me.

People had smiled. Gone to class. Lived their own lives. Most of them barely acknowledged I existed.

Tonight felt different.

Like the first game of the season had brought everyone together long enough for the rumors to catch up.

Long enough for people to start connecting names to faces.

Long enough for them to decide what they thought of me.

Scholarship girl. The words settled heavily in my chest.

Nobody actually said them. They didn’t have to. I could see the curiosity. The assumptions.

The silent questions behind certain looks.

I suddenly became aware of everything.

My clothes. My accent. The fact that I didn’t grow up in houses like this.

The fact that I was standing in a backyard that probably cost more than every apartment my family and I had ever lived in combined.

I swallowed. A laugh erupted somewhere behind me.

For a second, I was irrationally convinced it was about me. It probably wasn’t. But that didn’t stop the feeling.

I folded my arms across my stomach.

And for the first time since arriving at Heathside, I felt exactly what I had been trying so hard not to feel. Different.

༺♥︎༻

Hey my lovely girls, how r u all doing?

Here’s our fourth chapter, hope you’d enjoy this one.

Next chapter something very interesting is coming up, and also Evelyn’s and Kai’s very first one on one meeting, and dialogue!

So u should definitely look out for it, that’s all for today.

Love u all soo soo soo much, Audrey

Xoxo 💋