Chapter 1
Kiera Owens had perfected invisibility.
Not the dramatic kind, but the quiet type, where teachers smiled approvingly, classmates waved politely, and no one expected anything daring from her. At Jameson Hillside Boarding School for Girls, she was the girl who always sat in the third row, who returned library books early, who color-coded her notes.
And the girl who could never, ever break past a C in math.
She wasn’t miserable. But she wasn’t excited, either.
One night, after another frustrating evening of math problem sets, she sighed and said:
“Kenzie… do you ever feel like your life is just the same every day? Like… nothing changes because you never change?”
Her roommate, McKenzie Carter, looked up from painting her nails.
“Are you asking me as your roommate or your unofficial therapist?”
“Both.”
McKenzie spun in her chair, facing her. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“I’m tired of being the ‘simple one’,” Kiera admitted. “I want something different. Something new. How did you even meet Michael? You two weren’t exactly… obvious.”
McKenzie grinned like she had been waiting for that question for weeks.
“Oh, that’s easy. I stopped hiding.”
“That’s your advice?” Kiera groaned. “Great. So helpful.”
“No, seriously.” McKenzie leaned forward. “I went places I normally wouldn’t. I talked to people I usually ignored. I said yes to things that scared me. And then one day Michael noticed me—not because I did anything dramatic, but because I wasn’t invisible anymore.”
Kiera stared at the floor. “So I need to… be seen?”
“Exactly. You want change? You can’t stay in the same loop.”
McKenzie smirked. “Try talking to someone unexpected. Or signing up for something outside your comfort zone. Or—”
She pointed a nail-polish brush at Kiera.
“—letting someone else see you before you freak out and run away.”
Kiera laughed. “I don’t run away.”
McKenzie raised an eyebrow. “You absolutely run away.”
“Fine. Sometimes.”
“Be brave, Kiera,” McKenzie said softer. “Just once. Pick one thing and push yourself.”
Kiera didn’t realize that the universe already had something planned.
Involving soccer.
Competition.
And a captain who shouldn’t have known her name.
