My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 4

Chapter 4 I Need a Boyfriend. Now.

:

82

The concrete bench in the courtyard was freezing despite the midday sun. I forced myself to stand up, my muscles stiff and uncooperative.

My legs felt hollow, like dry reeds ready to snap under the slightest pressure. I had missed the first twenty minutes of fifth period. I

needed a late pass. If I didn’t get one, it would go on my record as an unexcused absence, giving Mrs. Gable another piece of ammunition

to use against me.

I walked back into the main building. The transition from the warm, humid outdoor air to the aggressively air-conditioned hallway made

the hair on my arms stand up. The corridors were dead quiet now. The heavy, polished oak doors of the classrooms were shut tight. The

faint, muffled voices of teachers lecturing bled through the wood, but otherwise, the only sound was the hollow squeak of my loafers on

the linoleum.

I pushed open the glass door to the main attendance office.

It was a completely different world from the plush, lavender-scented counseling suite I had just escaped. This room smelled of stale

printer ink, burnt coffee, and anxiety. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed with a low, constant hum that drilled straight into my

temples.

Mrs. Higgins, the attendance secretary, was pounding away at her keyboard. She didn’t look up when the door chimed.

“Sign the sheet, wait on the blue chairs,” she ordered, her voice raspy and dry.

I picked up the pen chained to the front desk. My fingers were so stiff they ached. I managed to scratch out my name and the time: 11:42

I sat down on one of the hard plastic chairs lined up against the wall. The unforgiving plastic dug into my spine. I stared at the beige wall

opposite me, tracing the subtle, bumpy texture of the paint with my eyes.

Find a way to make them look at something else. The counselor’s ultimatum echoed in my skull, loud and relentless. I needed a boyfriend. Not just a boy who would politely hold my hand in the hallway or share his lunch with me. I needed a spectacle.

I closed my eyes and mentally flipped through the Crestview Academy yearbook, analyzing the social hierarchy like a calculus equation.

Chase Montgomery. Lacrosse captain. Wealthy. Traditionally handsome. But Chase cared about his reputation more than he cared about oxygen. If he even caught a whiff of the rumor involving me and Mr. Harrison, he would sprint in the opposite direction. He was entirely dependent on the school’s social ecosystem to survive.

Oliver Vance. Debate team president. He was Harper’s cousin. Absolutely out of the question.

Liam Chen. My AP Chemistry partner. He was kind, but he was aiming for early admission to Stanford. He wouldn’t risk his pristine disciplinary record to associate with a girl under active investigation by the school board.

That was the fundamental problem with Crestview. Everyone was trapped in the exact same invisible cage. We were all terrified of stepping out of line, terrified of losing our spots, our scholarships, our inheritances. To pull off a lie this massive, to create a distraction

1/3

12:36 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 4 I Need a Boyfriend Now.

loud enough to silence Harper Vance, I couldn’t use someone inside the cage.

I needed someone who had already broken the bars.

“I don’t care who started it, Steinmann. You finished it in the middle of the cafeteria!”

The sudden shout shattered the quiet of the attendance office. I flinched, my eyes snapping open.

82

The voice belonged to Principal Evans. It came from the closed door at the back of the room, the one with frosted glass that read Office of the Principal. The plastic blinds covering the glass were twisted, leaving a two-inch gap that offered a direct line of sight into the room.

I shifted in my plastic chair, leaning slightly to the left to peer through the crack.

Principal Evans was standing behind his massive oak desk, his face flushed a deep, ugly red. The veins in his neck stood out sharply

against his starched white collar. He was pointing a thick, shaking finger at the person sitting opposite him.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify