Toe to Toe (On Pointe Book 1) by Penelope Freed (comprehension books txt) 📗

called dibs on Mark Spencer, even though we all know Madison has wanted him for ages.

Me: As long as everyone keeps their mitts off Tyler I don’t care. I licked it, it’s mine.

I add a gif of a baby licking a window for good measure before loading my plate in the dishwasher. I tiptoe past the other bedrooms as I go upstairs, not wanting to wake anyone up. Once in my room, I pull out a bottle of neon purple polish and start working on my nails.

Hannah: Mom wants to know if you’re going to stay with us during YIGP? Or is your dad coming for the whole weekend?

How am I supposed to know? The Youth International Grand Prix competition isn’t for another couple weeks or something, I have no idea if my dad will make the time to come with me or not. Ugh. Freaking Hannah and her super organized mom, always making plans. I don’t do plans, plans are for dorks. I have a hard enough time juggling my life without planning things a month in advance. Unlike Little Miss Perfect, my dad is always at work and my useless stepmom has her hands full with Aiden and Marie, they don’t have time to organize my life too. Which is fine, I’d rather do it myself anyway.

Me: don’t know if he’s coming or not yet

I toss my phone on my bed and go back to painting my toenails. The bright purple nail polish is doing a great job of hiding the disgusting bruised toenail on my right foot. You would think it was from the hours I spend standing on my toes at dance, but you would be wrong. My stupid little brother—stepbrother to be precise—dropped my Spanish book on my toe this morning.

I glare at said Spanish book where it’s sitting on my desk, mocking me. I still have homework to finish for tomorrow but I’m not going to bother doing it tonight. I already finished everything for my first two classes, I’ll do the rest in class before it’s due. My AirPods hum along to my bops playlist and I concentrate on not getting any nail polish on my comforter.

My phone buzzes again beside me and I smudge my pinky toe polish when I glance at it. “Shit,” I say to the world in general.

Tyler: hey Liv, got a problem on Sat. My dorky cousin Trevor is still in town. My mom says he has to come with us or else we have to hang at the house. Know anyone who can come with and keep him occupied?

Well fuck that, I pout. It’s taken ages for me to get Tyler to finally ask me out, not to mention I was almost late to class this morning since I waited around to “bump” into him, and now this?

Me: to babysit?

Tyler: dude, he’s a junior

I hate being called dude. I’m a fucking lady thank you very much. I sigh and try to think of someone who will do it. I could take one of the girls on the squad, maybe Megan? No, she keeps trying to flirt with Tyler.

A year ago, I would have asked one of the dance girls, but since I joined cheer they don’t bother to include me in anything anymore. It stung at first, but I’m over it now. I rack my brain—who can I trust to come with us that will keep his cousin occupied but won’t distract Tyler from me?

Me: Hannah would do it.

Tyler: Who?

Me: Hannah O’Brian? I’m sending you her number so you can ask her

Tyler: Why do I have to ask her?

Tyler: I don’t even know her

Me: Because if I ask, she’ll say no. No way she’ll turn you down, trust me.

I smile to myself as I send her number to him under “Hannah—nerd friend for Trevor.”

This will be interesting.

“Viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!” Aiden is flopping around on the floor, wailing at the top of his lungs. “Not that dino! Other dino!”

What. The. Fuck. I bounce Marie on my hip and take a deep breath before I strangle my brother. “What other dino, Aiden? These are the only kind in the freezer.” There is literally only one kind of dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget in the entire world, right? I put Marie down and scrape Aiden up off the ground. “Marie, don’t move.” I glare at her, praying she doesn’t magically learn how to crawl while I deal with this meltdown.

Aiden hiccups, tears and snot running down his face. Honestly, he’d be a pretty cute three-year-old if he wasn’t such a little shit most of the time. I was kind of excited at the idea of having a sibling when my dad and Martha started dating, Aiden was a really cute baby, but the reality of having two siblings who require constant monitoring so they don’t accidentally kill themselves is not what fourteen-year-old me thought I was signing up for. I suppress my revulsion and pick him up so he can see for himself there is only one kind of chicken dino in the freezer. “See buddy, these are the same dinos as always.”

“Same, same?”

“Yeah, buddy, the same.” He squishes up his face like he’s thinking about it really hard. “How many do you want?” I try, praying he eats them.

“Ummm…fwee? Want fwee.” He holds up three sticky fingers and nods his head. I put him down so I can pull the box out and make these monsters their dinner. I really hope my dad and Martha bring home some leftovers. I strategically agreed to babysit tonight so they could go out on a date. I’ve learned that offense is the best defense when it comes to babysitting the monsters—if I volunteer to do it at regular intervals, they don’t ask me to do it when I really don’t want to. Tomorrow night is my first date with Tyler Stanley, I’m not risking anything getting in the way of it happening.

I pull out the box and dump a handful of nuggets on a