Troy High by Shana Norris Read Free Book Online

strategy.”
    Lucas looked at him, blinking, as if he’d forgotten where he was. He looked down at his uniform, then back at the coach and nodded as he stomped into the locker room. He shot a dark glare back at Elena and Perry.
    “You coming with us, Cassie?” Elena asked, sounding just as perky and happy as usual, as if the last five minutes hadn’t happened.
    Behind us, people were returning to their seats, waiting for the game to resume. In the distance, I could hear the rumble of hundreds of voices talking all at once. But in our little corner, everything was silent, as if waiting for me to make a decision. Who to go with—my old friend or new one?
    Greg turned away from us and said in a cold voice, “I have to get back.”
    He ambled away without saying anything else.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Perry said. “I can’t stand to be around so many Spartans much longer.”
    Elena held a hand out to me, smiling. I let her take my hand and lead me toward the gate behind Perry.

 
    “CASSIE,” MOM CALLED FROM BEHIND MY CLOSED door. “Cassie, wake up. You have a visitor.”
    I rolled over, grumbling into my pillow. It was too early. I had stayed up half the night wondering if I had done the right thing by keeping my mouth shut about Elena and Perry. I felt like no matter what choice I made, I would have hurt someone I cared about.
    I heard the door open. “Cassie, get up. It’s almost noon and you have a guest.”
    Moaning, I lifted my head from my pillow and opened one eye to look at Mom. “Who is it?” I asked.
    The door opened wider and I saw Elena standing in the hall, looking unbelievably gorgeous at this time of day. I sat up, trying to shift my Tweety Bird pajamas intoposition and reaching up to smooth down my rat’s nest of hair.
    “I think she’s awake now, Elena,” Mom said. She shot an amused smile my way, raising her eyebrows, and then disappeared down the hall.
    Elena bounced into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. “Morning, sleepyhead!”
    I winced at the sound of her voice. “Not so loud. I just woke up.”
    “You’re sleeping the whole day away,” Elena told me, laughing. “It’s time to wake up. Perry isn’t here. He and Hunter are doing some pregame tradition thing.” She got up and walked over to my dresser, picking up necklaces and CDs at random to inspect them.
    “Waffles,” I said. Hunter and Perry always met the other guys from the football team for breakfast on game day, a longstanding Trojan tradition.
    “Yeah,” Elena said. “I was up and decided to come by and see you. And tell you about what an amazing night Perry and I had after we left the football game.”
    Perry had dropped Hunter and me off at home around ten, and then he and Elena took the car back out to drive around for a while.
    “It was so incredible, Cassie,” Elena said, leaning against my dresser to sigh at her reflection in the mirror. Dozens ofpictures of Greg and me that I had taped along the sides of the mirror framed her face. “We went to the park and it was all lit up by the streetlights. We were alone and Perry pushed me on the swings for a while. Then we lay in the grass and looked at the stars. It was so romantic. And the way he kisses! I haven’t kissed anyone like that ever. Lucas was always such a sloppy kisser, but Perry is amazing.”
    I shifted in my seat. “I don’t really want to hear all the gory details.”
    “I know breaking up with Lucas was the right thing to do,” Elena told me. “I knew it before, but I’m
completely
sure now. Perry is the guy I’m meant to be with. It was fate for me to be transferred to Troy.”
    “Elena,” I said, “did you happen to think that maybe you shouldn’t have broken up with Lucas last night?”
    Elena looked at me as if I were the crazy one. “It wouldn’t have been fair to keep dating Lucas when I’m in love with Perry.”
    “No, it wouldn’t,” I agreed. “But you could have chosen a different time to dump Lucas. He