Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I studied her as she perched on the branch. From down here, it looked higher than twelve feet.
"Can you do a reverse of what you did to get up there? Swing your leg over and kind of balance on your stomach like gymnasts do."
"I feel like a gymnast on the top parallel bar," she said, her legs dangling down.
"Uneven bars," I said automatically. My middle school girlfriend had been a gymnast.
I positioned myself under Mia in case she fell. “If you could just drop your body down under the branch, I can grab your feet."
"Are you sure?" For the first time, she sounded worried.
"I've got you, Mia."
I’d used my most reassuring voice and it must have worked, because she wiggled her hips back and forth until she slid off the branch. She slid off it, but the tutu snagged on the bark and stayed up on the limb.
"Crap," she said, grabbing for it and losing her balance.
She plummeted toward me, a drop of only a few feet, but it was like time slowed down. I reached up, pulling her toward me before she could hit the ground. She grabbed at my head, and I pulled her against me in a bear hug until I was sure we weren’t going to overbalance.
Her hands were on my shoulders as she stared into my eyes. Hers were wide and surprised. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and squinted up at the tutu still caught on the branch. "I guess I’m not a ballerina anymore," she said, sounding dazed. "I’m not sure what I am.”
Beautiful.
That’s what my mind supplied, but I held the word back. I had no right to think of her like that, but some malfunctioning part of me felt like I’d known her for longer than I had. Like we had a connection—which was absurd, because I’d spent less time with her than any of the other new students in the house.
But it still felt true.
And she really was beautiful.
15
MIA
I was still in Diego’s arms, wide-eyed and breathless. His hands were on my waist, and I felt a little too shaky to move. Climbing the tree had been fine, being up there had been fine, but that drop, even though it was only a few feet, had terrified me. The sick feeling in my stomach made it feel like I’d fallen off the side of a cliff. When you thought about it, it was the exact same sensation, at least for the first second or so.
Finally, Diego let me go and stepped a half step back.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
He raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who fell out of the tree."
"Yeah, but you're the one I landed on.” I glanced back up at the bronze nest up there. "Thank you for catching me.”
“You’re welcome.” He glanced up. "Guess we owe Jenna a new tutu."
"We can pay for it out of our winnings," I joked, trying to get back into the spirit of the competition.
"Do we even know what the prize is?" Diego asked.
"No. Aaron probably does, though."
I looked down at myself. Without the tutu, I was just wearing the pink camisole and the white leggings. I wasn’t indecent, but I didn’t usually roam around outside wearing thin, skin-tight clothing. And the absence of the tutu sure made the leg warmers look out of place.
Diego reached out like he was going to touch my face and then he paused. "You have a leaf in your hair."
I angled my head, giving him access to the side he was reaching for, and I heard the crunch of an old, dead leaf. But as he pulled it away, it tugged on my hair, and suddenly the bun just gave up. My hair popped and bounced around my shoulders, finally coming to a rest.
"Oops," said Diego.
He dropped the leaf and then, with both hands, straightened my tiara. It felt almost as intimate as when he'd been holding me by the waist.
I needed to get things back on track, so that we were on more solid footing. Literally.
"Did you upload the picture?"
"Yes. Here's your phone."
"What's next?"
He studied me. "Do you want to take a break? You just had a bit of a scare."
"I'm good. We should keep going. I can't imagine that many other teams have already reached as many checkpoints as we have."
Of course Tori and Jayden had, and possibly others as well.
Diego pulled the folded list out of his pocket, and I studied it.
"I think the last two are by the gym."
I actually knew which way that was, so I took off at a light jog, and within seconds he was by my side.
He was obviously slowing his pace for me, and I remembered that he went for runs in the evenings. I also remembered what he looked like when he got back from one of those runs, all sweaty and shirtless.