Dare You to Chase the Soccer Player - Lacy Andersen

Chapter One

Some kids were lucky not to have to hustle during high school. They got everything from their parents, including a plush allowance to pay for all their toys. No babysitting jobs. No pushing pizza slices. No busting their rear ends off to make a dime.

I, Lexi Black, wasn’t one of those kids.

According to my parents, if I wanted the new Artis makeup brush set, I was going to have to earn every single penny. I was getting close. Flipping through the dollar bills in my hand as I trudged down the ditch in a shortcut to my dad’s new house, I added up the dollars and cents in my head.

Only fifty more dollars to go. Today’s birthday party had paid off. One of the parents I babysat for in the evenings hired me to do face-painting at their kid’s party. It wasn’t exactly the kind of stage makeup I wanted to do when I finally busted out of this dinky little town, but it worked for now. I had a pocket full of money and a pink and purple sparkly butterfly spread across my face to show for it.

“And you thought those painting lessons wouldn’t pay off,” I said to myself with a mocking laugh. It was punctuated by the sound of rolling thunder in the distance, as if the heavens themselves were laughing with me.

Dad had paid for my lessons two years ago—it was the summer I’d been convinced I was going to go on to become as famous as Andy Warhol. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that painting on a canvas was about as exciting as watching ice melt.

But painting on a face? Now, that was fun.

I pushed my long hair out of my face, annoyed by the fact that the humidity from an incoming storm had ruined my straightening job this morning. At least my brand new foundation was standing strong. Changing makeup brands was like setting the tone for a fantastic new year. I was about to start my junior year at Rock Valley High next week and everything was going my way.

Thunder rumbled again in the distance and the raindrops that followed it seemed to argue differently. I clutched my face paint kit to my side and picked up speed. Running wasn’t exactly on my short list of talents, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do to keep her mascara from running. And as the rain began to fall harder, I broke into a sprint, altering course for a screened-in picnic shelter only fifty yards ahead.

My gladiator sandals squelched through the field, which was quickly becoming gross and muddy. I squealed as my foot got stuck deep in muck. With the strap of my face paint kit hanging from my teeth and both my hands tugging under my knee, I managed to disengage it. However, another step forward had me slipping and sliding in the slick mud as if this were some kind of yard game.

This time, there was no fighting it. The kids from the party would’ve yelled timber and giggled at my expense. Waving my arms crazily, I went down in an undignified mess of limbs and wet hair...butt firmly planted in a plot of wet grass.

“Why?” I threw my head back to glare angrily at the sky above. “Was that really necessary?”

Mud oozed through my fingers as I fisted the ground around me in defeat. I was just going to sit there and let the rainstorm wash me away. So long, cruel world. My older sister, Audrey, would jump at the chance to turn my bedroom into a music room for all her junk. Dad would probably use the college money he’d been saving for me to buy my new stepmom a MINI Cooper. Lucky her.

At the least, I hoped there was a Sephora in heaven.

But just as I was about to give up on life in general, the sound of feet stomping through the mud behind me had me twisting around to get a look. Was it the Grim Reaper, coming to take me away? I couldn’t be sure, but I definitely hoped so. A hooded dark figure with broad shoulders bore down on me, grabbing me around the waist and plucking me from the mud as if I weighed nothing.

“Come on, let’s go,” he growled, ducking his head against the rain.

I didn’t get a look at his face, but I could feel the strength in his arms as he pushed me toward the shelter. The rain