Text from: Jake Morris-Whittaker, 6:16am

Ellie's Daily Reminder 12/180: Sometimes, you just have to go for it
(No, I don't mean second dessert)

What about third dessert?

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

🥺🥺🥺

Fine 🧁🧁🧁

😍😁😍
Love you Jake

~*~

William's petition to change our tutoring schedule worked, and on Tuesday, I was spared the oppressive silence of study hall. When I arrived at our usual room, William was already dressed for tennis practice.

"Hey," he said with a smile, closing his laptop. "I hope you don't mind, but I'll have to skip out a bit early. Forgot we're doing a round robin with the JV team today."

"No sweat." I thunked down in my seat and kicked my sports bag under the table. "It'll give me a chance to change for practice without having to pull a Superman in the phonebooth move."

"A superhero reference?" William lifted an eyebrow. "You didn't strike me as the type."

"Are you kidding?" I gushed, dumping my books out. "I've seen every Avengers movie enough times I could recite them from memory."

William's other eyebrow hopped. "Oh?"

"Uh, yeah! Winter Soldier is hands down my favorite."

"Winter...soldier."

"Captain America? The second one, with Bucky and...you've never seen it."

William grinned ruefully. "Nope. Not a single one."

I sank back into my chair. "Seriously?"

"I'm more of a Parasite, Shape of Water kind of guy."

I made a face before I could stop myself. I'd thought only snooty artist types watched movies like that. Besides, I watched movies to be entertained, not to think too hard. Or to be put through the emotional wringer. Maybe if we ended up dating I could help him see the light.

William had the good grace to laugh at my expression, then tapped the textbook. "Let's get to work."

Thankfully, his notes on my chapter summary weren't as brutal as last time. But it was still abundantly clear that I was way too far behind my classmates. He was patient with me though, and every time he praised me for remembering something right, or naming the right general at the right fort in the right year, something inside my chest glowed a little brighter. He explained a particularly fraught standoff between the Union and Confederate army in a way that had me hanging on his every word before his phone alarm went off.

"Ah, too bad. Well, that's all for today," he said, hastily closing up his books.

"Okay but like if all history was as interesting as you just made that"—I whistled—"I wouldn't be so far behind, that's for sure."

William smiled and ducked his head. "It's nothing. I like it, so it's easy to make it interesting. I could geek out about this stuff all day."

And I freaking loved it.

As I shoved my books into my bag and stood, it must've been that silly, lovesick thought that made me say, "Okay so how about this, then. You make history entertaining, and I'll help you improve your taste in movies."

"What's wrong with my taste in movies?" William asked, jokingly affronted as he held the door for me.

"Well for starters, you haven't seen a single Avengers movie."

He chuckled. "I guess they never interested me. Too much CGI and not enough interesting dialogue."

"How can you say that?" I demanded, when we burst out into the warm, fall afternoon. "There's some excellent dialogue in Marvel movies!"

"Excellent dialogue in Marvel movies? Maybe I'm not the one who needs to improve their taste..."

I elbowed him. "Rude."

He laughed as we cut across the lawn towards the sports fields. "What? It's true. You want a master class in dialogue, watch Casablanca."

I made a snoring sound. "What a snooze-fest."

"Just because it doesn't have explosions doesn't make it a snooze fest," William said.

I snored again and he shook his head, grinning.

"You're insufferable." He gestured for me to precede him up the concrete steps onto the walkway towards the tennis courts and locker rooms.

I offered him my brightest, most winning smile. "I know."

His phone blipped. Unwilling to lose him to a text the way I had on Sunday, I blurted out, "So I heard there's this awesome pizza place in town—Gustavo's?"

His hand paused at his pocket as he glanced down at me. "Yeah. Gustavo's is great."

Gathering my nerve, I threaded my thumbs through my backpack straps. "Maybe we could do our next session there instead of at the lib—"

"There you are! Will, you have to be better about checking your phone."

William halted and I reluctantly followed suit, turning to find Madeleine barrelling down on us, a mega-watt smile lifting her cheeks. She was resplendent in her tennis whites, and my mother would've approved of her bruise-less legs.

"Madeleine," William said. I hated the way he smiled at her.

"JJ just told me about the clam bake," Madeleine continued, then looked at me. "Hi, you're Ellie, right?" She extended her manicured hand for me to shake. "I'm Madeleine. I've heard so much about you."

"Oh?" I glanced at William, who cleared his throat and scraped a hand across the back of his neck at my grin.

"Well, he tells me everything." Madeleine snaked her arm around William's. "But it was all good things, I promise." Her bright laugh grated and turned my smile into a grimace when she knit her fingers with his. "Now hurry up, slow poke, or we'll be late for practice."

"I'll see you Sunday," William said over his shoulder. "At the library."

My stomach plummeted to the general vicinity of my feet. I swallowed against the sting of his words and ripped my eyes from where Madeleine was laughing and resting her head against his shoulder. It didn't matter. I'd shot my shot and it hadn't worked out. At least he'd been nice about it and hadn't laughed in my face or—

"Oh, new girl," came a snide, sing-song voice from behind me. "Did you really think you could ask an Ellerby out and get a yes?"

I ground my teeth. "Oh, Emma, did you really think that I'd give enough a crap about what you think to be embarrassed?"

Her smile was glacial as she pushed off from the column at the end of the walkway and slid her phone into her white tennis skirt pocket. "See, most scholarship students know not to hit on Kingsbridge royalty, but clearly you haven't learned your place yet. I'd stick to sports if I were you." She swept her gaze from my head to my toes and snickered. "The Ellerbys—and most of the student population, for that matter—are so out of your league."

She flipped her hair and whirled away, her phone already back in her hand. Probably regaling her vapid friends about the epic burn she thought she'd just delivered.

My nails dug into my palms. I wanted to prove her wrong. Badly. But I also didn't want to rise to her pathetic taunt. I'd taken William's no gracefully. Even if her words stung as much as his rejection had, her opinion didn't change anything.

But as I stormed towards the soccer pitch, the logical part of my brain struggled to talk down the reckless part. I could prove Emma wrong with one text. Two quick words and she and all her cronies would swallow their cruel cackles.

I fumed while I changed, so annoyed that I accidentally ripped out my tie knot. I cursed inwardly, hoping I'd remember to ask Gyeong-Ja to help me with it before class tomorrow. But even that wasn't enough to pull me out of my spiralling thoughts.

What harm could it do, really? It's not like I was going to be dating Theo for real. That meant I wouldn't be distracted. Or at least, no more distracted than I already was by his brother. If anything, it was a way to stop wasting my time with daydreams and actually do something about the pesky feelings that commandeered my thoughts.

Exiting towards the pitch, I threw my bag down and chewed my lip. Audra was already in nets warming up, so I risked a glance over at the boys' bench while I dug my cleats out. Theo punched one of his teammates in the arm, a careless, easy smile on his handsome, laughing face. Behind him, the tennis team had lined up along the base line of the nearest court. Madeleine was still beside William, the pair of them chatting amicably. When he threw his head back with a laugh, something twisted bitterly in my stomach.

I wanted to be the one to make him laugh like that. I wanted to be the one threading her fingers with his. If Madeleine hadn't interrupted us, I doubt his answer would've been the same. Besides, Audra had told me that I was the reason behind his hesitation. Even if he ended up dating Madeleine, Theo was sure that our plan would have him dumping her. So even if Emma thought she knew better, she was wrong. William wasn't out of my league. Not by a long shot. It was high time I proved that I wasn't just some scholarship student here to keep her head down and get her diploma. I was allowed to live a little too.

I unlocked my phone and typed two reckless, tempting words.

I'm in.

Before I could second-guess myself, I hit send.

Somewhere near the guys' bench, a phone chirped. I didn't dare look over and messed up my cleat laces three times before I finally shook my head and got over myself.

My phone buzzed.

Good choice 😘

I looked up without meaning to. Theo tipped his head, a lopsided, troublemaking smile on his face. Heat surged into my cheeks and I shoved my phone away, then leaped to my feet to join the others doing warmup runs across the field and back.

**A/N: IT'S HAPPENING!!!! And a lot of you original FTR's (yes, I see you guys even if I don't always have time to reply to comments!) guessed how it was going to go down. So I'm curious, any predictions going forward? The next few chapters are when the fun really begins, so I hope you'll enjoy them!

As always, if you liked it, please take a moment to vote and comment!**