Read Rival: A Feuds Novella (The Feuds Series) for Free Online Page A

over again, and she slumped in her seat.
    When Davis reached her building, she could see from the outside that the lights in the apartment were already off. She took the elevator up to the thirty-fourth floor, then punched in her passcode. All she wanted just then was to collapse on her bed. She opened the door to her bedroom to find Fia curled up on her bed, reading a book.
    “Fi-fi, it’s way past your bedtime,” Davis said in a mock-stern tone. Still, Fia was exactly who Davis needed to see just then. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her sister’s black curls splayed all over the pillow as she yawned widely. She shot out of bed, knocking her book to the floor, and hurtled herself toward Davis, wrapping herself around Davis’s legs.
    “You forgot my good-night story,” Sofia reminded her. “You forgot yesterday, too.”
    Davis felt a pang. Even though Fia could easily read her own stories, she still loved having the tradition. But Davis had been so focused on the Olympiads lately, she’d forgotten almost everything else.
    “Is that why you were waiting up, sweetie?” she asked. Fia nodded and spun in a circle around the room, her arms outstretched. Fia was so innocent, so unencumbered by the things Davis thought about. Fia twirled until she fell, giggling madly. Davis laughed, too, lying next to Fia on the carpet. In an instant she realized: Fia was having more fun play-dancing than Davis ever had at rehearsal anymore, with all the pressure she was facing.
    She scooped up her sister, grunting under her weight, and faux-flew her to her own bedroom, making noises like an airplane before depositing her in her bed. Fia grinned up at her, her brown eyes bright. Davis almost teared up. It had been so long since she’d really spent time with Sofia.
    “Too tired for a story?” Davis asked. “Looks like you might be pretty tuckered out.”
    “One story!” shouted Fia. So Davis opened her tablet and read aloud from
Tinker’s Tucket,
Fia’s favorite from when she was little. As Davis read, Fia’s eyes began to droop until they were closed altogether. Davis slipped the book from the bed, switched off the light, and allowed herself a big yawn.
    Davis tossed and turned in her own bed a few minutes later. Gabrielle was getting in Davis’s head; that much was true. She couldn’t get that text out of her head. Now she’d probably screwed things up with Seth irreparably. She was still shaken by the monorail fight, too. What had happened had seemed … so outside the rules, the norm that she was used to. For once, even her father’s words didn’t comfort her.
    Then she realized: nothing had to stay within the rules. Nothing was expected.
    If Gabrielle was going to play hardball, so was Davis. She had to fight her softer instincts and be smarter and tougher than Gabrielle, if she was going to honor her mother at the showcase.
    Davis picked up her DirecTalk and dialed Seth’s number.
    “Hello?” His voice was sleepy and cautious.
    “Seth,” she said. “I’m sorry about tonight. I had … a family thing.”
    “I understand.”
    Davis could sense trepidation in his voice. She didn’t blame him.
    “I want to see you.”
    “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds perfect.” Suddenly his voice was more alert. “You’ll be at the gym tomorrow, right? I’ll find you.”
    “Perfect,” Davis said before hanging up the phone. A small smile passed over her face. Maybe, she thought as she fell asleep, she could get used to life outside the rules.

Chapter 8
    Davis was pulling on her pale pink leg warmers—classy, classic, she always thought—over black tights when her DirecTalk pinged with a message:
Skip Apex,
it read.
Come to my studios on MacKenzie.
    What’s the address?
Davis typed back. Seth probably made such a great living as a trainer that he was able to keep a few separate empty studios for private lessons on the side. It made him all the more attractive—like he’d already “made it” at such a young