According to Plan

Chapter 12: And You Let Her Put Her Gross Hands All Over Our Hard Work?!

Rachel hadn't been at school Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the teachers, it was because her family was on vacation. She was grateful for the break from her. She didn't know if she could keep up the act while trying to focus on her work. She had finally gotten her offer from the University of Summerbrough for the downtown campus, and she seriously needed to focus on Chemistry. She did not need to worry about what Rachel was saying about her.

Thursday morning came around, and in walked Rachel, looking incredibly tanned, and took her seat next to Rose.

"Oh my God, hi, Rose!" She smiled, taking out her books. "How are you? I just got back from visiting my grandparents down in Florida."

She showed her her lock screen, as it was a photo of her standing on the beach in a little blue bikini and an oversized sun hat.

"I spent all the time relaxing and tanning!" She said, setting down her phone, and Rose knew what was coming next. It was basically a given when you had brown skin.

"I am almost the same colour as you!" She smiled happily, holding up her arm next to where Rose's was resting on the desk. She immediately regretted leaving her sweater in her locker. Rachel's tan did not put her skin tone anywhere close to Rose's, but she guessed it was fun to imagine anyway.

"Right." Rose sighed.

"And oh, I saw those cute photos you took with Leo that you posted a few days ago!" She continued, clearly ignoring Rose's mental pleading to end the conversation. "He didn't tell me you were going to Foxside. I would have totally tagged along."

Jesse had taken a few photos of them with the car to "model" it for their moms, as he put it. They had looked adorable, wrapped in their coats and hats, posing on the car. The two she had posted to her story were one where Leo had boosted her up, and she was sitting on the roof of the car, grinning, while Leo stood beside her, looking up at her. The other, they were lying on either side of the car, trying to reach each other over the roof. She thought they were cute and discrete, perfect for selling their little charade, but not enough to raise questions.

Clearly, she was wrong.

"Yeah?" She asked, scribbling pointlessly in her book. She regretted that this was the one time she was early for class and made up for it by blatantly ignoring her comment about coming along.

"Like I am so happy for you guys! Like I have to apologize for the way I acted back at the game when I found out like me and Leo are such good friends, and you can imagine how protective I am of him." Rachel's voice dripped with fake emotion, but she couldn't find the energy to call her out on it.

"Like I told you, we are so close." Rachel crossed her fingers to mimic their "closeness." "So, you have to understand, I don't want you using him as a rebound!"

"I am sorry, a what?" Rose screeched, finally snapping to full attention. Leo was definitely not her rebound. No one even knew about Jake. Only she and Jake even knew about their conversation that night.

That kiss. Her brain reminded her.

Not the time. She reminded her brain.

Then Rose remembered the conversation at the rink. Rachel had known for a while now. She mentioned it when she chewed her out at the game.

"Like you know, you had been crushing so hard on that other goalie, uh, Jacob was his name?" She asked. Someone had told her about her and Jake, but she had no idea who. Leo didn't even know.

All Rose could do was nod.

"And I know that he moved away, and like, didn't want to see you anymore, right?" She shrugged. "So I didn't want you to break his heart like how Jacob broke your heart. Leo is my best friend. We have been through so much together. He helped me through my break up Ryan. He is so great."