It looked like half the school had turned out to watch the expected catfight.
“Hang on; let Paul get the door. Let’s make a show of this,” I said.
That seemed to fit Brook’s agenda. Paul got out and followed his security routine of identifying any hostiles. When he found none, he came around and opened the door. I hopped out first and made a display of assisting Brook out of the car.
Most of Lincoln High was used to me having security and a driver by now, but the expression on Destiny’s face was worth it. Brook caught it and was all smiles. She was soon greeted by all the cheerleaders, including the ones Destiny was trying to impress.
I watched Destiny while Brook made her grand entrance. Destiny’s eyebrows came together, then her face changed to a cheery smile as she came towards Brook.
“Incoming,” I said under my breath.
Brook acted like she didn’t notice Destiny, but I could tell by her body language that she had. I stepped up beside her and put my hand against her lower back to let her know I was there. She seemed to relax a little. I noticed that Cassidy had appeared on her other side, with Destiny’s brother Don a step behind her.
“Welcome back to school,” Destiny said in an overly sweet voice.
“Destiny, I hope we can put any unpleasantness behind us,” Brook responded in kind.
I felt we were in a bad episode of The Real Housewives of Lincoln High, the reality TV show where all the women acted like they were friends. If I remembered correctly, the term they used was ‘frenemy.’
“Yes, yes. Water under the bridge,” Destiny said, and then her features hardened. “I just have one question.”
I slowly slid my hand around Brook’s waist so I could pull her back if things went south.
“Yes?”
“What was your slutty ass doing sitting on my brother? I thought you had a boyfriend. I didn’t realize that you gave your charms away so freely,” she said as she pulled her phone out and showed our picture from Saturday night.
Everyone tensed, waiting for Brook to retaliate in kind. To my surprise, Brook began to laugh. Destiny saw her ‘ah-ha’ moment going up in smoke when everyone joined in.
“Slow your roll, Big Sister. That was a picture of four friends enjoying dinner, nothing more,” Don said, and then looked at Cassidy. “I can only imagine what this one would do to me if I actually did what you’re implying.”
Cassidy gave him a nod.
“We need to have a talk,” Don said, then grabbed Destiny by the elbow and walked her away from the crowd of onlookers.
I had a bad feeling that this wasn’t the last of the Brook/Destiny feud.
◊◊◊
By lunchtime, things had settled down. When the two of them would pass in the hall, you would hear them exchange pleasantries such as ‘skank’ or ‘bitch.’ Then they would plaster fake smiles on their faces and move on.
I was utterly taken by surprise when Destiny waited for me in the lunch line.
“Can we have lunch together?” she asked.
“Why?” I asked suspiciously.
“I need your advice,” she said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Brook’s eyes narrow as she watched us. I winked at her to assure her that everything was okay and followed Destiny to an empty table. I about laughed when Yuri, who was following me, moved to sit down until he saw Destiny.
“Uh … sorry,” he said, then got up and hurried to find his girlfriend.
“What do you need my advice about?” I asked when Destiny didn’t say anything.
I could see her working through what she wanted to say. While she did that, I got a chance to check out the damage Brook had inflicted. There was concealer under her left eye to hide the bruising. And her hair looked like it had been recently cut to help even out the spot where Brook had yanked it out.
“I need your help to fix this,” she blurted.
What was I supposed to do with this, I wondered.
“You want me to fix you going behind her back to try to take her head cheerleader spot, and then when she gets back, you start a fight with her?”
“This was a mistake,” she said as she started to get up.
“Hold on. I was just trying to make sure we were on the same page. There isn’t something more behind all this, is there?” I asked.
“You.”
“Me?” I asked as I raised one eyebrow.
I loved this new move. It gave me just enough of a look of disbelief without going full-on two eyebrows.
“You were single, and I figured if we dated, I would become the head cheerleader. Then you ruined everything by actually dating the girl I was supposed to replace.”
“I hope you understand how crazy you sound right now,” I said with a half-smile.
“It all sounded better in my head,” she admitted.
“Been there, believe me,” I agreed. “What exactly did you expect I would do?”
“You could dump Brook,” she suggested.
“What’s your Plan B?” I asked, not missing a beat.
“Tracy suggested I talk to you about helping me—and let me quote her here—‘get my head out of my butt and smooth things over.’ She said that if you put in a good word for me, most of this would go away.”
“What do I get if I do this for you?” I asked.
“What do you want?” Destiny asked and blushed.
“Not that,” I said as I shook my head. “I want you to give Brook an apology and mean it.”
“How about I give her an apology, and she believes I mean it?”
“If you’re okay with her accepting your apology and you believe she means it,” I countered.
“Deal,” Destiny said and shook my hand.
“Let me give you a piece of advice. Brook Davis isn’t your enemy. If you would ease up and accept that she’ll be in charge, I think you’ll have a lot of fun this year. The cheerleaders really are a great group of girls.”
“If Trent started in front of you, would you be happy being relegated to another role on the team, say wide receiver?” she asked.
She had me there, but I didn’t see how she would ever get Brook to step down.
“Just so you know, I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding. You should appreciate that Brook is my girlfriend. If you do anything to hurt her, I will not hesitate to protect her,” I said with an edge in my voice.
She gave me a dismissive glance.
“I take it you don’t want my help …” I left hanging.
“No, I’ll be good,” she promised.
I figured this was the best I would get.
“Okay, let’s get this charade over with.”
I grabbed my tray, walked over to our regular lunch table, sat down next to Brook, and didn’t say a word. There weren’t any open seats, so Destiny put her tray on the end of the table and had to stand to talk to us.
“I had a talk with David, and he suggested that I needed to make things right and hopefully move on,” she said.
“And …” I prompted when it looked like she was done.
Destiny’s lips tightened, and she took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.”
Brook gave her a hard look and then turned to me.
“Count that as a win and move on,” I suggested.
Brook took a deep breath herself and slowly let it out as she considered how to respond.
“Don, grab a chair for your sister.” Then, turning to Destiny, “You should have lunch with us from now on.”
I don’t think anyone expected that. Gina quickly changed the subject.
“When’s Halle leaving?”
“Tomorrow morning.
From there, things seemed to settle down, and our normal conversation started. I hoped things would be okay, for now.
◊◊◊
Friday would be our Orange/Blue game. Coach Hope had an announcement about it before practice.
“Unlike what I’ve done in years past where we’ve had a draft, the coaching staff has picked the teams. We’ll play for a half in game-like conditions, and then we’ll go into more of a practice mode. Please note that we expect scouts from all the teams we play this year to be at the game. We won’t show them our full playbook.