Grace
My muscles are screaming from the effort of keeping up with Zara's drills. She's clearly decided she needs to punish all of us for the third place under the guise of whipping us all into shape. I'm not sure what it's going to achieve when we'll be heading home for the Easter holidays in a couple of weeks and most of us are probably going to make ourselves sick on Easter Egg chocolate.
At least, that's my plan. Maybe I can eat enough of it that I'll be able to forget the mess I made of the competition and the confusing feelings I'm having towards Henry.
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear only to have an image of kissing him flash through my mind. I push it to the side, trying my best to ignore it. This is all his fault. If we hadn't come close to kissing the other night, I wouldn't have any of these thoughts in my head.
I try to focus my attention on the moves Zara is calling out from the front.
A strand of hair falls out of my ponytail and I push it back, only for another image of me and Henry to enter my mind.
Okay. Once I can brush off as me thinking about it after the other night, but twice?
I tuck another strand of hair behind my ear, and sure enough, the same image pops up.
Well, that removes any notions I had that this is on me. Henry is behind this.
This goes way beyond acceptable pixie dust war rules.
"All right, rest!" Zara calls out.
At least that's good timing. I can go find him and tell him exactly what I think of his latest curse.
I search through the other cheerleaders and spot Henry a few people down. I don't waste any time, not even to tell Krissi what I'm doing and make my way over.
"He...Ow," he says as I grab his arm without saying a word.
I drag him behind the spectator benches and out of sight of all the others while I try to get my annoyance out of my system. Or maybe I should just take it out on him.
No matter how fuming I am, I know better than to talk about this with an audience.
"What's up?" he asks, a little confused.
"What have you done to me?" I demand, crossing my arms and glaring at him.
"I thought part of the fun was that you had to work it out?" Henry cocks his head to the side as he tries to work out what's going on.
"With the normal curses, sure. But this?" I brush a strand of hair aside absentmindedly, only to have the same image flash through my mind. Only this time, it comes with the desire to actually do it. "Undo it, now."
"I guess that means I won?" he asks even as pixie dust starts to form on his hands.
"Only because you fought dirty," I mutter.
"What are you talking about?" Something in the way he says it makes me think his confusion is completely genuine. He flicks the pixie dust in my direction, not needing to say that he's undone it. Despite fighting dirty, I trust him to abide by the rules of the war.
"You're making me think about kissing you." I put my hands on my hips, as if that will help get the message across.
Surprise flits across Henry's face. "No, I didn't."
Nervously, I push my hair away from my face, but no thoughts of kissing him appear. "Then why did the countercurse work?"
Understanding dawns on his face, followed by a smug smile. "Oh, Grace, I think that one was all you."
"I hardly cursed myself to think about that," I point out.
"Nope, but I cursed you to think about whatever was on your mind at that moment. You'd just been talking about how you hadn't had enough coffee, so I thought you'd just end up craving more caffeine. Apparently, you had other ideas."
My cheeks burn red at the implication. "What? No. I wasn't..."
"Except that by your own admission, you were." He raises an eyebrow. "Just how much have you been thinking about kissing me, Grace?"
"It's your fault," I murmur.
He steps forward. "How's that?"
I sigh but don't move away. I want to pretend that it's because I'm not aware of what's happening. But that would be a lie. I just want him to come closer. "I've just thought about it a few times since the other night, okay?"
"Interesting." His gaze drops to my lips, or at least I think it does.
"And then you cursed me to think about it more." To make matters worse, now we're talking about it, it's the only thing I can think about too.
"I didn't do that on purpose," he points out. "And I undid it before I even knew what you were talking about."
"Then why am I still thinking about it?" I murmur, somehow super aware of how close the two of us are together, and the fact that no one can see us while we're hiding behind the benches.
"You tell me, Grace."
"Eurgh, you're so infuriating."
"Because you want to kiss me?" he asks. His playfulness has gone, replaced by an earnestness that makes me think he actually wants to know.
Yes. "Because you're you."
"There is a way we can fix this," he suggests.
I bite my lip, his attention instantly going there and only spurring on more thoughts.
"You're not the only one who has been thinking about the other night," he says. "Maybe we should just find out what it's like and then we can go back to normal."
My heart flutters.
Not because of the suggestion of a kiss, but because he's been thinking about this too. Is that what I want to be the case?
"All right," I say. "One kiss, but just so I get it out of my system. But there are rules."
He raises an eyebrow. "Go on."
"You're not allowed to use anything about the kiss to pixie curse me."
"Okay. But that goes the other way too. You can't use anything about this to curse me."
I nod, not surprised he's agreed. "And you didn't win this round."
Henry steps forward and brushes my hair behind my ear in a surprisingly gentle move. "Except that I kind of did," he says softly. "I didn't curse you to think about kissing me, I played by the rules, it's your own thoughts that betrayed you."
"Do you want this kiss or not?" I ask, though there's no bite in my question, not when we can both tell that I'm not going to back down.
"More than you realise," he murmurs.
My breathing hitches as he leans in, and my eyes flutter closed. I reach out to wrap my arms around his neck the moment his lips brush against mine.
All thoughts flee from my mind as I sink into the kiss, realising that it's nothing like the thoughts I've been having.
It's so much better.
And it's everything about it. The feel of his lips against mine, the warmth of his hand on my lower back, and the flutter at the base of my wings. I don't think I've ever felt that when I've kissed someone before. Maybe it's just because I've been using more of my pixie magic than normal so my wings are more at the forefront.
But there's no denying that he's affecting me.
We break apart, neither of us saying anything, or moving apart.
I try to get my thoughts into place, but it's hard. Because there's only one thing I want right now.
Without saying a word, I press my lips back against his, kissing him for a second time. He doesn't hesitate and kisses me back. This time it's different. Probably because we didn't technically agree on this one, which means that it's all about what we want.
My whole body tingles, as if I've been dipped in pixie dust, but I know this is nothing to do with magic.
Somehow, I've gone from being annoyed at him to having a very different kind of reaction and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to get through the next hour of practice without thinking about this in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with pixie dust.