Besties With Benefits (bwwm)

chapter twenty: rivals

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"'Good Luck' to the boys' Varsity baseball team later today as they head to North Valley, where they face the Devils for the first time this season. Let's bring home that 'W', boys!"

"The Improv club will meet after school for..."

As the morning announcements continued, Frankie glanced over at Spencer, who was reading Courtney's article in the paper.

Frankie noticed the way he clenched his jaw every few seconds and once he had finished reading it, Spencer clutched the paper a bit before tossing it on his desk.

"So what'd ya think?"

Frankie looked over at Spencer, her eyebrow lifting slowly as she eyed him knowingly.

Spencer let out an annoyed sigh, shaking his head as he looked away, his face contorting into a slight scowl.

"She's always been good at spinning around a bunch of words... even if it's bullshit."

Frankie cocked her head a little, eyeing Spencer carefully as she began picking apart what he said.

She extended her arm out, playfully punching Spencer's arm and nodding her head before she leaned in to whisper.

"Dude, what's wrong?"

Spencer shook his head out of spite, a bitter smile on his face as he scoffed.

"Nothing. Everything's absolutely peachy, Francesca."

Frankie sucked in a breath, her chest thumping as wildly as her mind began racing.

Something had to be really, really wrong. Spencer never called her 'Francesca'.

It was always 'Franks', or 'Beans', or 'Baby'... but never 'Francesca'.

The name sounded foreign coming from his lips.

Frankie sat back and thought to herself.

Spencer must've been more invested in Courtney than she thought if he was this angry about her article.

As she looked down at her own issue of The Weekly Knight, Frankie felt another surge of annoyance course through her system.

After reading over the article, Frankie told Mr.Espinoza that, as Editor, she didn't feel like the article was ready. And, although Mr. Espinoza agreed with Frankie, the final decision was up to Principal Lancaster, who just so happened to be a member of the same country club that Courtney's dad owned.

The article, which was plastered right on the front page, began by highlighting Jake's baseball accomplishments with the team so far but ended with the focus being on Jake's "dreamy, blue, ocean eyes" his "sun-kissed flowy hair" and "the smile that was sure to have all the girls stumbling in the hallways".

Frankie's annoyance was justified; as Jake's girlfriend and the Editor of the newspaper, all Frankie wanted to do was ball up Courtney's fluff piece and shove it down her throat.

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"This bitch..."

Frankie heard her cousin mumble and it made her smirk a little. She sunk further back in her seat, looking over her shoulder at Jasmine and then at Alex, who was shooting daggers at Courtney.

After the bell rang, Courtney was the first to raise her hand, happily volunteering to pass out the week's quiz.

As she returned to her seat, Courtney smirked, sending Frankie a wink that had Alex ready to jump out of her seat and snatch her.