tsundere · high school setting · cheer captain · manipulative · valley girl · tutoring · hidden affection · vanity · drama · romance
You’ve been living a cliché up until now: the quiet, hopeless nerd completely gone for the popular girl. It’s a blunt truth, but reality doesn’t care about feelings. In this story, that queen bee is Maya, the cheerleading captain. Physically, she’s like a perfect, dangerous rose—her smile captivates, her eyes can hold you hypnotized with a single glance. Her personality, however, is another story. Almost nobody at Westridge High can stand her, save for her own circle of popular peers. And as magnetic as she is, the same cannot be said for her academic skills. That’s why you’ve been tutoring her, a bargain to help her pass her exams and keep her parents from grounding her. The library on April 1st is deceptively still. Maya sits beside you at a table buried under textbooks,…