Home Sweet Drama (3 page)

AVOID HOMECOMING OR DIE

WHEN I WALKED PAST JAS'S DOOR FOR THE second time, it was shut tight. I smiled as I walked by and opened the door to my room. Paige dashed in front of me, hopping up and down.

“Omigod,” she said. “I have the most
amazing
news ever!”

“Me too!” I said.

We grinned at each other. “You go first,” I said.

“No, you,” Paige said.

I shook my head. “You were the first to say you had news. Go.”

Paige grabbed my hand and pulled me onto her bed. “Okay! Okay! I'll go.”

I looked at her flushed face and had a feeling what this was about.

“I. Kissed. Ryan,” Paige said. She covered her face with her hands, blushing, then glanced up at me. “We kissed!”

“Ohhhhmiiiigod!” I screamed. “Paige! You and Ryan! You kissed Ryan. That's so amazing. Tell me everything.”

Paige's smile was huge. “He asked me to the Sweet Shoppe and when we were leaving, he held my hand. It was so sweet. Then, he walked me back to Winchester. We stopped at the bottom of the stairs and he looked at me and I just
knew.
I remembered you telling me about your first kiss with Jacob and how you had that feeling?”

I nodded. “Yep. You just know.”

Paige got up and started walking around our room. “So he took both of my hands and looked at me. We leaned in at the same time and … kissed.”

“Was it perfect?” I asked.

“Beyond perfect,” Paige said. “Sooo amazing. I thought I'd be nervous and worried about doing it wrong, but it was so special.”

I smiled at her. “That's awesome, Paige. I'm so, so happy for you.”

Paige sat back on the end of her bed. “And that's not even the best part. When I was about to go inside, he asked me to be his girlfriend!”

“I knew he would!” I said. “You've got a boyfriend, Paige Parker. A boyfriend!”

Paige shook her head like she didn't believe it. “I know. But it's so weird. I can't even process it.” She played with the ends of her red-gold hair. “I have a boyfriend.”

I hadn't felt this excited for her in a long time. Paige deserved this.

“Now spill your news!” Paige said. “I need to know!”

I smiled. “Well, it's not as exciting as getting your first boyfriend, but it's pretty close.”

Paige leaned forward. “C'mon already!'

I wanted to build it up, but I couldn't help myself.

“Jasmine got expelled,” I said. “She's gone.”

Paige's mouth fell open in what looked like a scene from a teen movie we'd mock. “What?”

“It's insane. I was riding in the arena with Mr. Conner's camera on. I caught her on tape confessing to framing Julia and Alison for cheating. They got the tape and when I came back to go to our room a couple of hours ago, all of her stuff was gone.”

“Wow,” Paige whispered. “I feel awful for Julia and Alison because they've missed all of that time riding, but … Jas getting thrown out, just like that. Can you imagine?”

I shrugged. “Who cares? She framed them and she got caught. She's
gone.
We never have to see her again. Ever.”

Paige nodded. “Yeah. True. I just wonder where she's going to go. And you found out a couple of hours ago. Where'd you disappear to?”

I paused for a second. “The Trio's. We were celebrating.”

“Oh,” Paige said. “That makes sense.” She looked down at her lap and twisted the silver ring on her index finger.

Paige was definitely not as thrilled as I thought she'd be.

“We're
all
so happy,” I said. “She was our biggest competition and she made every lesson awful.”

“I know, I know,” Paige said. “You're right. I'm really glad she's not going to be stressing you all out anymore.”

“Exactly.”

Paige was quiet for a few seconds, her head bent down. “So, the truth about Julia and Alison finally came out.” She paused. “You think anything else might?”

“Like what?” I pretended I had no idea what she was talking about. She needed to stop going there.

Paige locked eyes with me. “I don't know, like maybe the truth about what happened at your party?”

I got up and pulled open my closet door, searching for pajamas. “Paige, let's not do this again. You promised you
were done talking about it. We both had awesome things happen today, so let's just enjoy it, okay?”

I turned away from my closet and faced Paige.

“You're right.” Paige shrugged. “Sorry I brought it up.”

But I could tell by the tone in her voice that she wasn't too sorry. She still didn't believe that I'd tried to kiss Jacob, Callie's boyfriend, at my birthday party. And she was right—he'd tried to kiss me. But Eric, my then-boyfriend, had caught me with my hands on Jacob's chest. I'd been pushing Jacob away, but Eric had thought it was something else. Pain burned in my throat. I still cared about Eric and I'd hurt him so much. I knew there was no way we'd ever get back together.

I tossed my pj's on my bed and opened my laptop. Beside my computer was the egg Jacob and I were “parenting” for health class. I couldn't help but smile when I looked at the goofy face he'd drawn on it. I stared at the face for a second. I hated hiding this secret from Paige—it was hurting our friendship. Since my birthday party I'd been set on never telling her the truth, but how long could I keep it from my best friend? If I told her the truth about my party, she'd be there for me—listening and offering advice. Maybe I'd been making that mistake all along. Maybe I needed to tell her.

I looked back at my computer. I wanted to check my
e-mail to see if there were any schedule changes for the week since it was Homecoming. I logged in and clicked on
Homecoming schedule
in my inbox. I opened the e-mail.

“Did you see this?” I asked Paige, pointing to my screen. I needed a light topic of conversation to ease the tension.

She walked over and stood behind me. Silently, we both read the e-mail from Headmistress Drake.

Dear Students of Canterwood Crest Academy:

It is with great pleasure that I present a list of activities for this year's

Homecoming. Though the schedule changes from year to year, the tradition

of Canterwood Crest's Homecoming remains the same. This week is a chance

for you to show your support and loyalty to our fine institution. Please review

the list below and I hope your schedule allows you to participate as often as

possible. I look forward to honoring Canterwood Crest with my students.

Sincerely,

Headmistress Drake

Homecoming Week Activities:

Monday: Physical competition after lunch periods

Tuesday: Crazy dress day

Wednesday: Bonfire

Thursday: Green-and-gold day, pep rally and football game

Friday: Dance

The rest of the e-mail listed the nominees for each grade and I tried not to roll my eyes when I read
8th-grade nominees—Sasha Silver, Paige Parker, Heather Fox, Nicole Allen, Callie Harper, Jacob Schwartz, Eric Rodriguez, Troy Brown, Ben Wells, and Ryan Shore.

“Omigod—look at all of that stuff!” Paige said. “A pep rally, the dance, contests—it's going to be
awesome.
”

“Yeah,” I said, trying to keep my voice cheery.

I closed my laptop—not wanting to look at the e-mail for another second. Even the font was hunter green and gold—our school colors. I couldn't have been less interested in Homecoming. The last thing I wanted was to see Jacob and Callie together. Plus, Eric would definitely go and if he brought a date … also something I didn't want to see.

The absolute worst part about my avoid-Homecoming-or-die plan?

I'd been nominated for Homecoming princess.

4

AND THE MADNESS BEGINS

MONDAY MORNINGS WERE ALWAYS KIND OF awful just because they were Mondays, but Paige and I had been waiting for English class to start and I already knew today was going to be bad. The chatter about Homecoming would not stop. There had even been an endless announcement over the loudspeaker during breakfast about how Monday was the first day of Homecoming week and blah, blah, blah.

“Omigod, did you get a dress yet? You did, right?”

“Tyler already asked me to the dance!”

“I look
awful
in everything. I've got to find the
perfect
dress or I'll die.”

I tried to read my notes on
The Secret Garden
for Mr. Davidson's English class, but I couldn't tune out the talk.
It made things worse because the classroom wasn't set up in the typical way. There were only ten of us since it was an advanced class. Instead of desks, Mr. Davidson had arranged comfy chairs in a circle and I couldn't help but hear E-V-E-R-Y word about Homecoming.

I looked up when Alison walked in and took a seat beside Paige. Alison and I smiled at each other, then Alison saw the sparkly purple notebook on Paige's lap. At the top of the page HOMECOMING was written in bubble font and Paige was making notes. She'd written
Things 2 get 4 decorations
as the first thing on her list.

“You're helping decorate?” Alison asked Paige. Her voice was way louder than necessary.

“Of course!” Paige said. “It's
Homecoming
.”

“I'm decorating too,” Alison said. “Omigod, everything's going to look fabulous. Totally green and gold, but not too much so that it's, like, tacky.”

Paige nodded. “Exactly. I've got a list of ideas. Want to see?”

Alison clapped her hands together. “Show me.”

I just couldn't believe it. Even Paige and Alison were bonding over Homecoming.

“Hey, P,” I said.

She looked away from Alison. “Yeah?”

“Can we talk later? There's something I want to—”

“Paige!” Alison interrupted.

Paige looked away from me and Alison pointed to a note on Paige's paper.

“You're going to use gold glitter on the tables?” Alison asked. “Omigod. Love.”

Paige looked back at me and started to say something, but Mr. Davidson walked into the classroom. He picked up a file from his desk and a worn copy of
The Secret Garden
, then took his seat.

“We'll talk later,” Paige whispered.

Sure we would.
After
she did whatever she was doing for Homecoming.

“Happy Monday, class,” he said in a teasing voice. “I hope you all had a good weekend and I especially hope you enjoyed reading the assigned chapters. Let's get the discussion started. Vanessa, please tell us what you thought about the reading.”

Vanessa blushed and, looking down, started fumbling through her papers. “Um, I, well, I …” She let her sentence trail off. “I thought it was good.”

“Good how?” Mr. Davidson asked. His kept his eyes on Vanessa.

Vanessa's pink face brightened to red. “It was good
because … the chapters weren't boring. And the story was interesting. So it wasn't … uh, boring.”

Mr. Davidson narrowed his gaze. “Vanessa, did you complete the reading?”

“No,” Vanessa whispered. “I'm sorry.”

“You know my rule about this class,” Mr. Davidson said. “Anyone who has not done the reading and cannot participate gets a zero for the day. Normally, I'd ask you to leave, but since is the first time you haven't done your homework, I'll allow you to stay.”

Vanessa blushed and looked down at her lap.

Mr. Davidson looked at Mandy. “Mandy?”

She shook her head. “I didn't read either, Mr. Davidson. I'm sorry. I got so busy with prepping for Homecoming.”

Mr. Davidson frowned and shifted his gaze among all of us. “How many of you completed the reading? Let me reiterate—the
assigned
reading.”

Only one guy and I raised our hands. I looked over at Paige and her head was down. Paige had
never
skipped doing her homework. Was Homecoming making everyone crazy?