Chapter 332 - What She Earned

Chapter 332: Chapter 332 - What She Earned

Did she hear that right?

Roxie felt her face freeze around the smile she had been wearing. For a moment, everything after the word scholarship seemed to reach her from far away, and her eyes dropped to the card in the host’s hand as though staring at it long enough might explain how something she had kept to herself for years had suddenly become part of a national television interview.

The host seemed completely unaware of what she had just done. "Briarwick is known as one of the more selective private schools in Virginia, and according to the profile your school submitted, you entered through a full academic scholarship. Did you ever imagine that a few years later you’d be sitting here as co-captain of a national finalist team?"

Roxie opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

Her hands were resting neatly on her thighs, exactly where Angela had told her to keep them so she would look composed on camera, but her fingers had curled into the fabric of her skirt.

She wanted to look behind the cameras. She wanted to find Karen, Angela, Zac, Coach Miller, anybody. Instead, her body seemed stuck facing forward beneath the lights.

A laugh finally escaped her, small and slightly breathless. "Honestly, I didn’t even know that was on the profile."

A ripple of laughter moved through the audience, and the host glanced down at the card.

"Well, I may have just surprised you on national television."

"Just a little."

More laughter followed, but Roxie barely heard it. Her smile felt stiff now, and heat spread across her face while the same thought kept repeating in her head.

Everyone here knew.

And if this was airing nationally, everyone back at Briarwick would know too.

Roxie finally managed to turn toward Kendall and found her already staring.

There was obvious surprise on her face, enough that Roxie immediately knew she had never suspected it. For one horrible moment, Roxie waited for something else to appear there. Pity. Awkwardness. That tiny shift people made when they suddenly understood why someone never had money.

It never came.

Kendall simply looked surprised.

That should have helped, but Roxie still found herself searching the audience. Angela had both hands over her mouth. Karen was staring straight at Roxie now, her earlier grin completely gone.

Farther back, Zac had stopped leaning against the wall. He still had Roxie’s ridiculous collection of bags hanging from his shoulder, but his attention was entirely on her.

Their eyes met.

He gave her a small nod.

Roxie swallowed and faced the host again.

"So, what was that experience like?" the host asked. "Coming into a school like Briarwick through scholarship and eventually becoming one of its captains?"

Roxie rubbed her thumb against the side of her index finger beneath the edge of her skirt.

There were probably a hundred acceptable answers to that question. She could say she was grateful. She could say Briarwick had given her an incredible opportunity. She could talk about hard work paying off and smile while everyone applauded.

Instead, the first thing that came into her head was the student parking lot.

Freshman year. Cars that cost more than the bungalow. Girls complaining that their parents bought the wrong designer bag for Christmas. Friends deciding where to eat without ever checking the prices first while Roxie sat beside them pretending she was not counting the money in her wallet.

Her throat tightened.

"At first?" she finally said. "It was... weird."

The host waited.

Roxie gave another quiet laugh, this one carrying more nerves than humor. "Briarwick is expensive. Really expensive."

That earned a few laughs from the audience, and Roxie glanced down briefly before continuing.

"I knew that before I started there, obviously, but knowing something and actually being surrounded by it every day are different things. Most of the students came from families that lived very differently from mine. There were things everybody else considered completely normal that I had never even thought about before."

Her voice sounded steady.

She had no idea how.

The host leaned forward slightly. "Did that make you feel like you had more to prove?"

Roxie almost answered immediately, then stopped.

Because yes.

She had spent years proving it without ever admitting that was what she was doing. Her grades. Cheer. Showing up early. Staying late. Working for the Robinsons, taking whatever odd jobs came around the neighborhood, then working shifts at the Grill and coming to school exhausted without telling anyone why..

"It did," she admitted.

Saying it aloud made something twist inside her.

She glanced toward the audience again. More captains were watching now, along with girls from the other finalist teams, but nobody was whispering or laughing.

They were simply listening.

Roxie looked back at the host. "I think when I first got there, I felt like I had to prove that I deserved to be there because I wasn’t paying what everybody else was paying."

The admission felt strange in her mouth. Almost embarrassing.

Her grip tightened around her skirt.

"And I hated people knowing I couldn’t afford things. I hated the idea that somebody might look at me and think the only reason I was there was because Briarwick felt sorry for me."

The room had gone quieter.

Roxie immediately wondered if she had said too much. Her pulse jumped, and for a moment she wanted to laugh it off and drag the conversation somewhere safer.

Kendall shifted beside her.

The host seemed to notice the change in Roxie too. She gave a slightly awkward laugh and glanced toward Kendall. "I may have stumbled into a sensitive subject."

Kendall looked at Roxie first before turning toward the host.

"Briarwick doesn’t care about social status."

Roxie nearly laughed.

That might have been the biggest lie Kendall had ever told on national television.

If there was one thing Briarwick cared about, it was social status. Half the school could probably identify somebody’s family income by the car they drove into the parking lot. Girls noticed which designer bag came from which season. Parties had their own invisible rankings, and people somehow always knew whose parents owned what.

Roxie had survived most of it because she had learned early how to carry herself like someone nobody wanted to test.

She turned toward Kendall.

Kendall was already looking at her.

Then Kendall continued, more firmly this time. "We care about what people achieve."

Roxie’s smile softened.

That part was true too.

Kendall gestured lightly toward her. "Roxie earned her grades. She earned her spot on the team. She earned captain. Whatever brought her through Briarwick’s doors doesn’t change what she did after she walked through them."

Something tightened in Roxie’s throat for an entirely different reason.

The host looked back toward her. "Would you agree with that?"

Roxie glanced past the cameras toward the girls she had spent years practicing with. Tori and Marissa were watching her. Angela had lowered her hands from her mouth. Karen had a smile she was obviously trying to hold back.

Roxie breathed out slowly.

"Yeah," she said. "Briarwick never made me feel like I didn’t belong on that team."

She looked toward the girls.

"And I know they never will."

The reaction was immediate.

Angela screamed first.

The rest of Briarwick followed, cheering loudly enough that several people in the audience turned toward them. Tori jumped to her feet. Marissa raised both hands over her head while Karen laughed and clapped beside Angela.

The camera swung toward them, catching the entire team waving and yelling before Coach Miller finally motioned for them to settle down.

Roxie laughed.

A real one this time.

When the camera returned to her, the host was smiling too. "Well, I think your team answered that for you."

"I think so."

The pressure in Roxie’s chest had started to ease.

The host moved the conversation back toward Nationals, asking what Briarwick had changed since State and what they thought they needed to do differently in Finals. Kendall handled most of the technical answer, talking about execution, timing, and staying clean under pressure, while Roxie added that making Finals had already shown them they could compete with the best teams in the country.

"So what should everyone watching expect from Briarwick tomorrow?" the host asked.

Roxie looked toward Kendall.

Kendall gave her the smallest nod.

Roxie smiled. "Our best routine."

Kendall leaned toward her microphone. "And hopefully a championship."

The audience laughed and applauded.

"There it is," the host said. "Confidence."

"We didn’t come all the way to Orlando to be shy," Roxie replied.

That earned another round of laughter.

The host asked a few more questions about their preparation and what making Nationals meant to Briarwick before finally thanking them and wishing the team luck in Finals.

Roxie smiled through all of it, but part of her kept waiting for the other question.

The videos.

The pictures.

Her mother.

Something about all the garbage that had followed her here and somehow become attached to her name.

It never came.

By the time the host thanked them, Roxie almost found that funny too. A few days ago, the viral posts had seemed enormous. Every whisper had felt louder than the music. Every phone pointed in her direction had made her wonder what people were saying about her.

Now, after sitting beneath national television lights and telling an entire room something she had spent years hiding, all of that suddenly felt smaller.

The host stood and shook both their hands. "Good luck tomorrow."

"Thank you," Kendall said.

Roxie smiled. "Thank you."

The applause followed them off the stage.

Angela barely waited until Roxie reached the Briarwick section before throwing her arms around her.

"Oh my God!"

Roxie stumbled backward. "Angela!"

Karen joined from the other side, wrapping an arm around both of them. "You survived national television."

"Barely."

"You were good."

More of the girls crowded around them until Roxie was trapped in a mess of arms, perfume, bows, and laughter. Somebody squeezed her from behind. Tori yelled something about their captain making them emotional before Marissa complained that she had almost ruined her makeup.

Roxie laughed into Angela’s shoulder.

Nobody was looking at her differently.

That was the strangest part.

They knew now.

Kendall knew.

The team knew.

Probably half the country would know by tonight.

And nothing had changed.

When the girls finally loosened their hold, Roxie looked toward the back of the room.

Zac was waiting.

Still carrying her bags.

Roxie smiled before she even reached him.

"There’s my famous scholarship girl," he said.

"Shut up."

His grin widened.

Roxie walked straight into him and wrapped both arms around his neck. Zac immediately shifted the bags awkwardly to one side so he could catch her around the waist.

Then he lifted her clean off the floor.

Roxie laughed against his shoulder.

"Put me down."

"No."

She tightened her arms around him anyway.

For years, she had thought being found out would somehow make her smaller.

Instead, with the secret finally gone and everyone she cared about still standing exactly where they had been before, Roxie felt lighter than she had in years.