Crave (23 page)

Why, oh, why, did he have to be a descendant?

I had work to do. I should remember that and stay focused on my duties. I headed down the length of the shadowed foyer, pausing at the base of the stairs. Was he going to follow me around?

Oh, good Lord. I could not handle being this close to him much longer. He needed to leave so I could breathe right again. “So are you going to tell me why you're here?”

“You're looking at the newest Charmers manager.” He gave a wry smile.

I couldn't help it; I snorted. Like the dancers, the Charmers managers had always been females since the team's founding in 1984. “Yeah, right. You? A manager for the dance team? What happened to being an 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 every step, so closely that, when I stopped at the hallway light switch, he bumped into me. He grabbed my waist, I was pretty sure from reflex.

“Oomph.” His chest felt like a solid wall as it thumped against the back of my head.

“Sorry,” he muttered and stepped away, his fingers sliding from my sides.

I worked not to sigh and tried to think straight again. “Um, why don't you stay here? I'll be done in a minute.”

My hands shook as I unlocked the dance-room and director's office doors, turning on lights in both areas as I went. I grabbed the MegaVox portable PA system, jam box and
trainer bag from the office closet then rejoined him in the hallway. I was surprised to find a dark scowl on his face.

“What, afraid of the dark?” My feeble attempt at a joke.

“This is part of your daily routine?”

“Yep.” I headed out of the hallway, but he stopped me to take the sound system. “And I do it all in reverse each evening. Except the foyer doors—those the janitors lock up at night.”

We headed down the stairs, the heavy trainer bag thudding against my thigh suddenly making me feel about as attractive as a pack mule.

He waited until we were out of the building before speaking again. “Do the other managers usually go with you for safety?”

“You sound like me on my first day as a manager. I asked my head manager almost the same thing when she used to do this. There used to be three full-time managers plus the head manager. But then Head Manager Amber moved away, and the other two sophomore managers were needed as alternate dancers for the rest of the football season after two of our dancers got hurt. So now it's just me filling in as the head manager, and two freshmen office aides temporarily on loan.”

“So you're doing it all? The unlocking in the mornings, the setup, the locking up at night?”

We headed down the cement ramp toward the road that cut through the campus, connecting the front and back parking lots.

I shrugged. “Somebody's gotta do it, and the team director's already working her butt off creating choreography, putting together music, working with the school band on music and dance routines for halftime performances, running practices…”

He grumbled something under his breath, making me won
der if maybe he had the same problem I did with being awake this early in the morning.

At the end of the cement ramp, we turned to the left, heading down the road past the back of the math building toward the practice field. In the growing morning light, dew sparkled like thousands of diamonds on the grass that bordered the woods at our right, reminding me of my dreams. Of fantasies spent sitting in the grass at night with the very boy who walked beside me now. I ducked my head to hide the rising heat in my cheeks.

At the practice field, we entered through the chain-link gate and crossed the spongy black track that circled the grass.

The Charmers were already gathering at the center of the field, though practice wouldn't officially start for another ten minutes. As they waited, they stretched individually. But even at this hour, they were anything but quiet. Someone's laugh rang out, startling birds in the thin woods that ran along the outside of the field's fence.

Ugh. Morning people. Needing fortification, I sipped my tea then used the thermos cup to hide a smile as the Charmers visibly reacted to Tristan's presence.

I watched the change among the dancers with a strange sort of fascination. Honestly, I didn't know whether to laugh or roll my eyes. Even the seniors sat up straighter and pushed out their chests.

Bethany came running over with a perky smile. “Hey, Tristan! What are you doing here?”

Tristan shot me a smile for some reason. “Everyone seems to be asking that this morning.”

Why was he smiling at
me?
I took the sound system from Tristan then tuned them out as best I could, moving away a few yards to drop my duffel and trainer bag so I could start setting up. Unlike the dancers, my duties started as soon as I
hit campus and didn't usually end until practice was over. I didn't have time to stand around and chat.

“Hey, Miss Savannah.” Keisha crouched down beside me and the MegaVox at the fifty yard line. Her knees popped from the action, making me cringe. She'd need wraps for those soon. “What's he doing here?”

“It seems we have both a new escort and a new manager.”

“Him?”

I nodded, keeping my gaze down on the jam box I was checking the batteries on.

He must have heard us talking about him, because he came over and squatted beside me so close our knees bumped.

“Have fun,” Keisha murmured. I tried to ignore the now familiar pain at seeing her join the dancers instead of working with me.

“
Miss
Savannah?” he asked after she left.

“We all call each other ‘Miss,' then the person's first name, except for the director. It's a team rule to help us remember to always show each other respect.”

“And you have to do that all the time, or…?”

“No, just during team time. Though sometimes we forget and do it in the halls and stuff, too.” I dug through my bag for the clipboard and legal pad I used to take team notes on each day. “You'll need to follow it, too, if you stick around.”

He gave me a wolfish grin. “Oh, I definitely plan to stick around.”

Yep, he was already checking out the Charmer buffet.

“You close with a lot of the team?” He jerked his head in Keisha's direction where she stood talking with Vicki now. They didn't try to hide the fact that they were talking about Tristan. I just hoped they weren't including me in the conversation, because I so had nothing to do with this.

I shrugged. “Most treat me like a stand-in mom or
something. They know they can come to me if they need something or someone to talk to. But Keisha and I are closer than most. She's a manager, or she was till she became an alternate dancer for the season.”

I felt him staring at me, though I tried to ignore that sensation, as well.

“Is that hard, seeing her dancing with the team while you do all the work behind the scenes?”

I looked at him now, wondering if he was trying to be mean. But his eyes were wide with innocence and something else…like he actually wanted to know the answer.

“A little. But I'm really proud of her, too.” I was lying, of course. It was more than a little tough. But I was keeping my promise to the vampire council. No more dancing. And Keisha was a good dancer and worked hard as an alternate. She and Vicki both deserved to get to dance with the Charmers.

After a long, uncomfortable minute, he said, “So, what are we doing here?”

Grateful for the change in subject, I explained how to work the sound system, showing him the MegaVox's two headsets with microphones, one for the jam box and one for Mrs. Daniels to wear so she could call out directions to the team from the bleachers.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Daniels and the rest of the Charmers arrived. The director chatted with her dancers for a couple minutes then climbed into her usual spot at the top row of the metal bleachers.

As soon as Mrs. Daniels was seated, I stood up. The director liked me to hurry and get to her for our pre-practice meetings. “I'll be back in a few minutes. Try to save the flirting for after practice, or you'll tick off Mrs. Daniels.”

He grinned up at me. “Good to know. I'll try to contain myself.”

He'd probably make a beeline for the nearest Charmer as soon as I walked away. No telling how many of them were his exs. And how many more were soon to be.

 

The week passed smoother than I'd hoped for, though everything Tristan did seemed to have both advantages and disadvantages. He asked to be in charge of fetching the ice bags toward the end of each practice. Probably so he could play knight in shining armor for the injured dancers. But at least neither I nor my loaner managers had to deal with Dylan in the field house for a few days.

Tristan also liked to stand close to me and watch my every move while I wrapped strained knees, ankles and shin splints at the end of each practice. Either he enjoyed how the girls blushed from his nearness, me included, or he was gunning for my job. At least he was helpful, handing me things from my trainer bag when I requested them, though his fingers managed to brush mine every single time. I was starting to get used to wearing goose bumps from head to toe now.

Unfortunately, the temporary managers still hadn't completely settled down around him, which was becoming a problem. The two freshmen giggled and whispered a lot more now, which grated on my nerves. So I had to keep finding more things for them to do. The charming smiles he occasionally sent their way didn't help, either.

By Thursday afternoon, I had to pull him aside. “Could you please stop smiling at my loaners?”