Wylder and the Rising Rockstar (Reluctant Rockstars Book 3)

by Michelle MacQueen

  “Can I speak now?” Ms. Jones lifted a brow.

  Wylder scuffed a foot against the floor. “Go for it.”

  “Well, thanks for your permission. Your odd description of our sports programs aside, I agree with you.”

  “But you can’t…. Wait, what?”

  She laughed. “I was wrong to outright cancel the event. That was the easy road to take, and we should have looked at other options first. I could blame pressure from my board and parents, but the buck stops with me. I’m sorry.”

  Wylder’s mouth opened and closed. “Oh… well, thanks.”

  Ms. Jones smiled again. “Wylder, you are a bright girl. Despite your antics, you’re one of my favorites. Just don’t tell the hockey team. They sometimes think they’re the most important students on this campus because of the prestige they bring.”

  “Don’t I know it.” She was so telling Killian Ms. Jones said that.

  “Have a seat.” Ms. Jones gestured to the chair in front of the desk. “You and I have some work to do.”

  Wylder lowered herself to the edge of the seat. “We do?”

  Ms. Jones nodded. “I’ve called an emergency board meeting. We meet with them in one hour.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, Wylder. I need my student advocate, do I not?”

  Wylder didn’t know what to say.

  Ms. Jones gave her a knowing smile. “I’m only going to say this once, and then we’ll start working on our proposal for reinstating the Winter Review.”

  “Say what?”

  “I’m proud of you, Wylder. And all the other students involved. Here at the academy, we like to believe we’re forming the future leaders of America. Today showed me our efforts are not in vain.”

  “I’m no one’s leader.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Tell that to your fellow students who handed you the microphone and then sat hanging on your every word.”

  Wylder, a leader? She’d never considered herself anything more than an outcast, someone people thought was too much. Too loud, too sarcastic, just too everything.

  “Okay.” Ms. Jones dug in. “So, the first thing we must discuss is this idea of yours to have the A/V club film the performances. I’m sorry, but that is not an idea that will pass the board. I’m sure some of the parents who do not fly in would love seeing their kids, but others will not want them on film. We need to make sure no one has a recording of this review. It’s the way it’s always been done to protect the identities of our students.”

  “Yeah.” Wylder sighed. “I knew that one was a long shot. We can scrap it, but what do you think about having specific student contracts for this event?”

  “That’s a wonderful idea. I already have the lawyers working on drawing it up to show the board. We will also collect phones and limit the audience. Each student can have two tickets for people who don’t go to the academy. Does that sound about right?”

  Wylder nodded. “And they have to be related.”

  “Oh, the board will like that.” Her pen paused, and she looked up at Wylder. “You are performing in the review, right?”

  “Planning on it.”

  “With Mr. Cook?”

  Wylder smiled. “It’s a comeback.”

  Ms. Jones went back to writing, but the smile didn’t leave her lips. “Good. That’s good.”

  Wylder had never felt more proud of herself when she walked out of the board meeting. A grin stretched across her face. They did it.

  The board agreed to allow the Winter Review to proceed. Between the petition, news of students gathering, and Wylder and Ms. Jones’ talking points, they hadn’t been able to reject the idea.

  And she’d done that.

  She stopped in the middle of the hall outside the conference room. It hadn’t mattered to them that she had colored wax in her hair, that she was the notorious Wylder Anderson, or that she didn’t exactly look the part of an academy student.

  They’d listened to her.

  Ms. Jones stepped up beside her as the rest of the board members filed past them. “Good job in there.”

  Wylder looked up at her, wondering how this woman had known she could do it. They were so different. One, a perfectly styled career woman, the other an unruly student.

  Wylder lifted a fist, and Ms. Jones only stared at her. “Go on, Ms. Jones. You know you want to pound it.”

  Ms. Jones laughed. “What am I going to do with you, Wylder?”

  Wylder shrugged. “No one ever knows the answer to that.”

  She leaned down. “Well, I do. I’m going to make sure you stop telling yourself you aren’t good enough to succeed in life. You’re wrong.” She stepped forward to head back to her office.

  Wylder stood there frozen with her fist still lifted like an idiot.

  Ms. Jones paused and turned on her heel. She gave a shake of her head and tapped her fist against Wylder’s. “You did good, kid. Now, go tell your classmates they did good as well.” She left Wylder standing there, grinning.

  Wylder checked the time on her phone. Five o’clock. The dining hall would have just started serving dinner. She hurried from the building and ran down the path to the dorms, excitement building as she pushed through the glass doors and thundered down the stairs into the dining hall.

  She skidded to a halt as she slammed into a cart of plates on her way in. They clattered to the floor with a loud crash and chatter died down as the students who’d come for an early dinner turned to look at her.

  Ignoring the scattered plates, she lifted her arms. “We did it!”

  A cheer rose from where the hockey team sat surprisingly close to Diego’s band of smarties—as she’d now call them instead of nerds. Many of the students here might not know what she was talking about, but the ones who’d been at the meeting did.

  A dining hall worker gave her a disapproving frown as she bent to pick up the plates. Wylder hurried to help her.

  Once the mess was cleaned, she straightened and yelped as two arms wound around her from behind. “Hi, girlfriend,” Logan murmured against her neck.

  She turned in his arms and couldn’t help grinning. “Girlfriend? Hmm… I don’t know your girlfriend? Maybe if I saw you two on a date, I’d get a better idea who she was.”

  “Yeah?” He pressed a kiss against her lips. The hockey team cheered again, but for a different reason this time. That was when Wylder realized it. Killian and Diego had known about some of the kissing, but most of the school was blissfully unaware. She’d never imagined anyone cared.

  She hid her face in Logan’s shirt. “I think they just uncovered our secret.”

  “Do you have a problem with that?”

  She bit her lip and shook her head. “You?”

  “Not one bit.” He kissed her again.

  “Okay, you need to stop doing that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m taking you on a date, and I’ll never make it out of the dorms if you don’t.”

  He gave her an indulgent smile. “Where on this campus is there somewhere to go on a date in winter?”

  “Oh, you just wait.” The idea had come to her as she’d sat in Ms. Jones office, looking out the large windows at the library and knowing what lay beyond it. She hadn’t visited the old campus all year. “Meet me at the front doors in one hour, okay?”

  “Sure, but Wylds, what about dinner?”

  She looked around the dining hall, realizing they’d eaten everything she had in her fridge. Her eyes zeroed in on the pizza station. “Sneak some pizza out of here. We’ll eat where we’re going. Do you trust me?”

  “Help me, Wylds, I think I do.”

  As she walked away from him, she hated the stab of guilt those words brought. After tonight. She’d tell him about Luke once they had their one perfect evening.

  Everything would work out.

  10

  Wylder didn’t know why she did it.

  She’d washed the colored wax from her hair and let her short blonde hair stay natural for o
ne evening. She loved having loud hair, but sometimes she wondered if she did it to take attention off the rest of her, like it was a distraction from who she really was.

  “Ow, crap.” She jabbed her eye with the eyeliner pencil. Again.

  “You okay in here?” Devyn leaned in the doorway of the bathroom.

  “No, I’m not okay. I’m kind of freaking out. What the heck am I even doing?” She’d never been so nervous about any single night in her life.

  Devyn didn’t say anything. She only smiled.

  “What?” Wylder snapped, turning to her.

  “What’s wrong with you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before.”

  Wylder blew out a breath. “I… I have a date with Logan.”

  She clapped her hands together, making Wylder jump. “Finally. Okay, how much time do you have?”

  Wylder checked her phone. “Twenty minutes.”

  “Plenty of time.” Devyn stepped in and shut the door. “What are you going to do with your hair?”

  “My hair? It’s already done.”

  “Wylds, it’s just sitting messy on top of your head.”

  “I didn’t put my wax in it.” Wylder shrugged.

  Devyn fingered her hair. “Your color is beautiful. You don’t need to change it, though I do like some of the colors you choose. It’s brave how you don’t care what anyone else thinks. I’ve always envied that.”

  Wylder stared at her in the mirror. Devyn had never said anything so nice to her. She turned around and wrapped Devyn in a hug.

  Devyn froze. “Did Logan break you or something?”

  “No.” Wylder pulled away. “It’s just been a weird day.”

  “Okay, well, sit.” She pointed to the closed toilet seat.

  Wylder obeyed, putting herself completely at the mercy of her roommate.

  Logan was waiting at their predetermined spot when Wylder entered the lobby. She stood in the doorway staring at him, watching as he kicked a toe against the ground, seemingly unable to stand still.

  His hands were stuffed in the pockets of his dark-wash jeans, and a backpack was hanging off one shoulder. His hair had been gelled to within an inch of its life. She’d never seen him with gel in his hair.

  A smile curved her lips at the thought he’d tried as hard as her.

  As her footsteps neared, he lifted his gaze, his eyes widening. “Hey.”

  “Hey.” She gave him a nervous smile. “Does this feel kind of weird?” They’d been hanging out constantly for weeks, but now he felt new to her, an unknown.

  He stared at her a moment before extending one hand. “Yes, but in a good way.”

  She gave him a shy smile as she put her hand in his. Silence stretched between them as they stepped out into the cold. It was already dark, but apparently Logan had planned for this. He pulled a flashlight out of the backpack.

  “You came prepared.”

  He shrugged. “I had no clue where we were going, so I figured it couldn’t hurt.” He stopped suddenly, refusing to take another step.

  Wylder looked up at him. “What is it?” Was he having second thoughts? Was she too much work?

  None of that was in the look he gave her. Instead, he leaned down, pressing his lips to hers. The kiss not only thawed her frozen lips, it sent warmth through her limbs and let the nerves flutter away. This was Logan, her friend.

  When the kiss ended, he didn’t let her go, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked. The weirdness dissipated as his fingers played with the ends of her hair. “No color tonight?”

  “Nah. Tonight I’m just me.”

  “You look beautiful.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “But you look beautiful with the color too.”

  Wylder hid a smile. This wasn’t like them. Compliments and pretty words. She was so anxious for things to be normal between them, she elbowed him. “You’re cheesy.”

  He laughed. “Guess I am now. Am I making you uncomfortable yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mission accomplished.”

  She twisted away to face him, walking backwards. “Oh, Logan. My heart just bursts when you’re near. Your beauty and charm is the stuff of legend. I could write poetry in your name.”

  “Get back here.”

  “Nope.” She turned and took off running, her legs burning almost instantly.

  Logan was faster than her, and she squealed when he caught her, lifting her off her feet.

  “Put me down,” she yelled.

  “Say Logan is awesome sauce.”

  “Logan is cheesy.”

  “Now you’ve done it.” He ran, carrying her onto the quad.

  “Logan! If you don’t put me down I can’t tell you where we’re going.”

  “You mean you didn’t bring me here to live your fantasy of breaking into a school building to ravish me?” He set her on her feet.

  “No one says ravish, you dork.” She slid her hand into his. “But no, we’re going to the old campus.”

  “Old campus?”

  She led him around the administration building to where the library stood lit up like a beacon. It was the only building still open at this time of night. “I don’t know how much you know about the academy, but this school is old. Like really old. But the quad and the buildings around it aren’t.” They stepped onto the barely there path that led behind the library.

  “I don’t get it.”

  “You’ve never explored much of campus, have you?”

  “Not really.”

  “Well, the old buildings were never torn down. They’re too historic. I was obsessed with this place last year because I was convinced the school had a secret society that met back here. I never found any evidence, but it would’ve been cool, right?”

  He nodded as the wrought-iron gates came into view, mostly obscured by the vines twisting around the metal. Wylder left Logan waiting and pried open one of the gates just enough for them to slip through.

  Logan remained silent as they stepped onto the old quad, walking across cracked concrete almost completely overtaken by dead grass.

  The ruins of the old buildings stood tall around them, looming reminders of past eras. In the dark, it was kind of spooky, but that was what Wylder loved about it.

  Logan swept the flashlight around the open space, taking in every part of the old buildings. “How did I not know this was here?”

  Wylder shrugged. “You’re oblivious.”

  “Why didn’t you show me before?”

  “Because I only come in winter.” This was her first visit of the year. Despite the frigid temperatures, it was when this place was at its best for one simple reason.

  Logan’s flashlight found their reason. In the center of the quad sat a walled garden, the only part of the old campus still taken care of. “How…” He looked to Wylder.

  Black winter flowers dotted the garden in full bloom, seemingly unaffected by the cold or the snow of the days before.

  “Come on.” She tugged him closer. “Diego says it’s a seasonal garden so there’s always something in bloom, but winter’s my favorite. Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Steam curled in front of Logan’s face as he pushed out a breath. “So, this is where you wanted our first date to be?”

  Wylder looked down at their joined hands. “I kind of wanted it to be different, because you and I are not normal. This thing between us isn’t normal. You annoy the heck out of me, Logan, but I’d still rather hang out with you than anyone else. It makes no sense, just like flowers blooming in winter.”

  “Can we go in?” Logan turned toward the wrought iron gate.

  “Definitely.” She pulled him behind her. “It’s warmer inside.”

  The garden rested under an enormous iron canopy filled with intricate vines. “It’s heated to help the flowers survive the elements, but all the plants are winter breeds that flourish in colder temperatures.” Wylder didn’t wait for Logan to respond as she released him and pushed through the gate, winding along t
he path to a cozy bench between two black rose bushes.

  When he joined her, Logan set the backpack beside him and draped his arm around her to share his warmth. “I’d rather hang out with you than anyone else too. Just so you know.” He kissed her head. “Even when you’re annoying.”

  “I’m not the annoying one,” she scoffed.

  “But you are the shivering one.”

  “What did you expect?” She looked up at him. “I apparently thought it was a good idea to have a picnic in December, at night. I’m clearly delusional though, in my defense, it is warmer here during the day. The canopy kind of radiates heat, but I didn’t account for the lack of sunlight.”

  “I like your spontaneity, even when it doesn’t work. This place is like a fantasy, Wylds.” His breath warmed her cheek as he held her close and they gazed around the garden. When he looked away, she missed it. He reached into the backpack and retrieved two thermoses. “It’s a good thing your boyfriend thinks things through more than you.” He pulled a bag of marshmallows and another of her favorite melty mints from the bag.

  “Ahh, boyfriend thought of everything!” She didn’t even argue with his words because the moment she smelled hot cocoa, she knew she’d let him say anything if she could get her hands on it. “I think this is the best drink I’ve ever had.” Her words shook as a shiver overtook her, and she let the warm liquid slide down her throat.

  “You only say that because you’re so cold.” He laughed as he took a sip.

  “Maybe.” They didn’t speak as they continued to drink their hot cocoa and stare at the flowers that were as nonsensical as them.

  “I have a proposal,” Logan finally said, his teeth chattering.

  “I’m flattered, Logan, but we’ve been dating less than a day. Isn’t it a bit early for marriage talk?”

  He gripped her sides and laughed. “Not that kind of proposal.”

  “Shame.”

  “This part of campus is super cool, and I’m glad you brought me here, but it’s cold, Wylder, and you’re shaking in my arms. I have a backpack full of pizza. Why don’t we go back to the dorms, curl under a blanket, watch a movie, and stuff our faces.”