Lead Me Astray - Updated Every Monday

Chapter Twelve ~ Hunter

I called Matt as soon as I got home. I threw my stuff on my bed and dialed his number.

He picked up after three rings. "What?!"

"Where's Candy?"

"You're calling me to get to my girl?"

"I want her to hear this."

"Hear what? Ooh! Did Frankie like the flowers?!"

"Where's Candy, Matt?" I smiled.

He grumbled. "I put you on speaker."

"Hi, Hunter!" Candy's voice sounded.

"Hey, Candy, you beautiful, smart-!"

"Hey?!" Matt interrupted me. "She's mine!"

The sound of flesh hitting flesh was heard with an "ow!" quickly behind it. I snickered. "Candy's the best. You have to get used to it."

"Thank you, Hunt! Now why are you flattering me?" She demanded.

"Because you're a genius. Frankie didn't say she liked the flowers but she didn't say she didn't like them. Plus they were her favorites. She said so." I spilled like a little kid.

Candy squealed. "Yes!"

"I told her about the play and she said she wanted to join newspaper so we signed up together but the best part is at auditions for the play!"

"Keep going!"

"It's some stupid thing with a prince and princess but the part we read called for a kiss-!"

"No way!"

"Yeah!"

"Are you two little old ladies or something?" Matt asked dryly.

She must have hit him again because he apologized. "Keep going, Hunter!"

I laughed. "It was the best kiss in the world!"

"Yes!" She screamed.

"I thought I was going to die when she kissed me back!"

"This is what you're going to tell your kids!"

"Kids?!" Matt sounded freaked out. "We're just trying to save her from the A+ Avenger, not give them kids!"

"I love her, Matt!" I snapped.

"What?!" He yelped.

"It was love at first sight!" Candy growled.

"It was!" I added because it had been. The very first time I saw her, it was like the sun coming from behind a cloud and I wasn't going to let that go.

"You two." Matt sighed heavily.

"Didn't you love Candy right away?" I stirred the pot.

It was dead quiet on the line until, "We'll call you back, Hunt. Babe?!"

I hung up. I hoped I didn't ruin his relationship but I hated how people just dismissed me.

I scratched my head before going to my stuff so I could prepare for tomorrow. Frankie wasn't going to know what hit her.

≠

I marched up to the bulletin board before school started and saw that the cast list would be up at lunch so I went to go get in some practice before our game tomorrow.

≠

Before going to the cafeteria, I went to the bulletin board to see if we'd gotten parts.

Right there in black and white was Matt's and Candy's names as the king and queen. I didn't know they'd auditioned. But I shrugged and found my name. It said prince. I was excited, hoping Frankie was the princess.

A cheerleader swished past me. "Hi, Hunter."

"Hi, Barb." I took my eyes off the list.

"Whatcha lookin at?" She came back.

I pointed to the list.

"You're going to be in a play?"

I was offended. Why couldn't I be in a play? But I smiled it off. "Yeah."

She pointed at the list. "Frankie Hall is going to be the princess?"

I snapped my gaze back to the list to read that yes, Frankie made the cut. I swallowed my happiness. "I guess so."

"At least you won't have to worry about it going badly."

"What do you mean?"

"Frankie's an awesome actress."

"How do you know?"

"Freshman year, she played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet but she was also Juliet's nurse. She was really good."

My jaw dropped. Why didn't Frankie tell me she could act? "Who was her Juliet?"

"Stacey Ferber."

I wasn't sure I knew who that was. "Cool."

"Yeah. You'd think they were Romeo and Juliet for real. I was a minor character but every time they were together, there was this heat. Honestly I thought they were together but then both got boyfriends and they were still hanging out so I figure they were just professionals, ya know?"

I squinted but I couldn't find Stacey's name at all. "I wonder why Stacey didn't audition?"

"I'm shocked Frankie did. Boring!Bradley freaked out on her last year about acting and the arts."

My brows slammed together. I hated Bradley now. "He seems like such a jerk. Why is she with him?"

"I don't know. I wish she wasn't. He's dulling her shine, ya know?"

"You think Frankie's shiny?" I smirked.

She laughed. "Very much so. Pretty as a penny."

I raised a brow and she blushed.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah." I think I did? "See you later, Barb."

"See ya, Hunter." She waved and skipped off to lunch.

I took a picture of the casting sheet and sent it to Frankie on my way to lunch. Then I checked my student email. I didn't get much mail there but it was a quirk I had to keep my notifications down.

My phone pinged as I opened the door to go through and get in line on the right. It was an email from the newspaper advisor. He wanted me to submit a sample of my writing. I grimaced, not thinking that far ahead. I had none.

I just decided to send another message to Frankie, asking her help. I put my phone away and began picking up food so I could go through the line and eat with my friends.

≠

I checked my phone after lunch and saw Frankie had responded. I grinned as I walked to class. She'd asked me what I enjoyed most about hockey. Then to put it in words. She could look over it before tutoring to make sure it was grammatically correct and all but she wanted me to "go wild".

I took it to heart and went to computer literacy class to write down everything I loved about hockey and what it meant to me. Before I knew it, the 65 minutes were up and I had to leave. But I sent the document to Frankie.

I left, smiling happily. This could either go right or incredibly wrong.