Not welcome
1033 Words
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JACE
I only came to the gym because Coach Renner wanted paperwork dropped off for Mrs Linda. That was it. I wasn't supposed to be here at this hour. I was supposed to be on the ice with Alex working on my strength drills. Renner would have informed Linda that cheer season was starting up. Simple drop-off. Two minutes maximum.
And then I walked in.
The air hit me first. Hot and intense and cold and suffocating all at once, which made no sense physically but made complete sense socially. My eyes moved across the room immediately, reading it the way I read the ice... fast, automatic, taking everything in before deciding what to do with it.
The squad was gathered in twos and threes. Their heads leaned in against each other, hands on each other's shoulders and their eyes fixed on one point.
Violetta.
She was standing in the middle of the room alone. Completely isolated. And Sienna was smiling at her.
That was the thing that told me everything. Sienna didn't smile like that at people she was welcoming. Sienna smiled like that when she was enjoying something the other person wasn't enjoying at all.
"Hey, princess." I kept my voice easy. "Why are you standing in the middle of the room like you're auditioning for a cast?" I looked around slowly. "And why is the room so hostile and silent?"
Violetta didn't look at me.
I stepped slightly to the side and looked at her from the corner of her profile. Her jaw was tight. Her fists were folded against her thighs, fingers pressing in. Her eyes were forward and her expression was the specific kind of control that only existed when someone was actively fighting to keep something from showing. Whatever they'd said to her before I walked in had landed hard.
That annoyed me more than I expected it to.
I walked further into the gym.
The atmosphere shifted the moment I did. Everyone here knew what it meant when I walked into a room and the squad responded to it automatically. They suddenly straightened up, untangled from each other, suddenly finding their phones or the floor extremely interesting.
Sienna's eyes ticked up to me. Then moved to Violetta. Then came back to me with something calculating sitting behind them.
"Seriously, princess?" She raised an eyebrow and looked around like she was sharing a joke with the room. "In what world does a stepbrother call his stepsister princess?"
I looked at her. I let a slow smile build on my face, kept my voice soft, rolled it out easy and sweet. "Sienna, love. What do you think you're doing?" I shrugged carelessly. "See, that came out easily enough, didn't it? It doesn't mean anything. Except you're reading signals into a harmless name that you really shouldn't be reading."
Her eyes moved across my face. Something tightened in her jaw. Then she let out a short breath and shrugged like it meant nothing. "We were just introducing Violetta to the squad."
I looked at Violetta. Then at the girls who had been laughing before I walked in. Then back at Sienna.
"Really."
It wasn't a question.
Because this didn't look like an introduction. An introduction didn't produce that expression on Violetta's face. An introduction didn't make a room go this quiet when someone walked in. I wasn't going to say any of that out loud, but I wasn't going to pretend I believed it either.
One girl awkwardly cleared her throat somewhere to my left.
Sienna tried again. "I was only explaining that cheer here is intense. The standard is—"
"Then explain it without acting like assholes."
The gym went dead silent.
I heard it — the complete absence of sound — and I held it. I almost never interfered publicly. Everyone in this room knew that. I knew Sienna was difficult. I'd known that long enough that I'd actually gone to Renner months ago and said she shouldn't be captain. Renner had said it wasn't my business, it was Linda's. So I had left it alone. Because it wasn't my business.
Until she made it my business by extending it to Violetta.
I wasn't entirely sure why that was the line. I told myself it was because I was a gentleman and gentlemen didn't stand in rooms watching gentlemen get taken apart and say nothing. And because as hockey captain I had standing to call out behaviour that was clearly outside the line.
That was why.
Sienna's mask slipped. Just slightly. Her eyes were seething and I could see the tension in her jaw from where I was standing. "You're overreacting."
I looked at her directly. "Am I?" I let the pause sit for a moment. "Because from where I'm standing it sounds like half this squad forgot school policy exists."
"We haven't forgotten school policy."
"Maybe I should have Mrs Linda host a seminar." I smiled at her warmly. "Just in case anyone's unclear."
The name alone changed the energy in the room. Everyone knew what a formal complaint did to team rankings. I watched it move through the squad like a current.
"That's not necessary." Sienna's voice was flat.
"Then we agreed." I nodded simply. "If Violetta wants to try out, she tries out."
I turned and looked at Violetta.
She was staring at me. Her expression had shifted from the tight controlled thing it was when I walked in to something I couldn't quite name. Not relief, something more complicated than relief.
I smiled at her.
Sienna's voice came from behind me, suddenly smooth. Sweet, even. The switch was fast enough to be impressive if I didn't know exactly what it meant.
"Of course she can join." A pause. "We're always happy to make room."
I didn't need to see her face to know what was in it. The tone said everything. It was the tone of someone who had just decided that the direct route was blocked and had immediately begun calculating a different one.
I glanced back at her.
She was already smiling at Violetta.
The look in her eyes promised absolute war.
And I was ready for it.
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