The Mafia Princess In High School

Chapter 12

Emma's POV

When we get into the gym we see that about 40 other girls have brought their cleats and put them next to the wall, so we do the same. Katie has told me that there are two teams: Varsity (V) and Junior Varsity (JV). They will keep about 17 on each team meaning they will cut about 7 girls.

After we chat about soccer a little longer, the PE coach calls us over. "You have 5 minutes to stretch then you will run laps around the gym," Katie leads me over to a corner and we start stretching.

A minute later my brothers show up. "Make sure you stretch well, Emma. We don't want you to pull something," Jax says. "I won't get hurt. now stop worrying, I will be fine. I'm not that fragile," I say to them.

After a couple more minutes of them watching me carefully, the coach tells us to start running. My brothers start jogging very fast with their long legs, but Katie and I start slower. We go slow enough so that we can talk without getting to out of breath.

As we are on our 5th lap, I make eye contact with Ryder, who is across the gym from us, and he slows down to run with us. "You seem to be holding up pretty well," he says looking down at me. "Sometimes I run with my brothers, so I'm pretty good at it," I tell him.

Then I notice that Katie has slowed down leaving me to run with Ryder by myself. I look back at her and she gives me a wink. I giggle at her trick and Ryder looks at me confused. "What's so funny shorty?" "Oh, nothing gigantosaurus," I say.

I look across the gym and see that Lucas happened to look over at the same time. He smiles, but then he sees Ryder and it quickly fades as he tells the rest of them.

They all speed up, so I grab Ryder's arm and speed up to stay away from them. Ryder realizes what I'm doing and he starts running faster. After one lap of them not catching us, they start using their brains. Lucas, Alex, and Dean slow down and Xavier, Maddox, and Jax speed up effectively trapping us.

"Well, it was nice knowing ya," I joke looking at Ryder to which he chuckles. Then he grabs my hand making my eyes widen. Does he want to die? He laughs at my face just as our hands are pried apart by a fuming Xavier. Suddenly the coach says, "Okay y'all can stop now. You have the rest of the period to do whatever."

I stop running and start towards the water fountain, but I'm yanked back by Lucas. "Snitch," I say to him. He just rolls his eyes and looks toward Ryder. "Did I not make myself clear when I said stay away from Emma?" Xavier seethes towards Ryder. "No I heard you. I just didn't want to listen," Ryder says making everyone even more mad.

"You guys don't get to tell him to stay away from me, that's my decision," I say. "Not now Emma," Maddox says with warning in his voice. "Why not?" I say hoping to bring the attention away from Ryder, but it's no use. "This is your fault," Xavier says pointing at Ryder, "she never used to talk back until you showed up in her life."

"She is allowed to have a voice," Ryder says back. "She does have a voice, but this is for her own safety," Alex says angrily. "I would never let anything hurt a hair on her head!" Ryder says back to them just as angrily. Ryder's words sound so sincere and I can tell that they are the truth. "You better not," Xavier says before grabbing my arm and dragging me away.

"He is bad for you, Emma," Xavier says releasing my arm, but standing in front of me with the others next to him. I look past the wall of my brothers and make eye contact with Katie who is talking with Oliver and Jacob.

She sees my predicament and runs over to help. She slips around Lucas and stands right next to me. "Emma, I need your help! I have a 'girl' emergency, CODE RED!" She says causing the tiniest bit of panic in the boys eyes. She grabs my arm and my brothers part making way for us to run to the bathroom.