Privilege 3 - Perfect Mistake (16 page)

"Are you kidding? I always knew Connie, but I never really knew him," Lexa said. "If it weren't for you, I never would have found out that the perfect guy was jogging past me every morning on the cross country trail."

"Well then, I'm glad I could help," Ariana replied. "Have fun today."

163

"I will! See you after dinner!"

Lexa practically spun out of the room, closing the door behind her. When Ariana was sure she was gone, she allowed herself a guilt--free moment of happy dancing in the center of the hardwood floor. Everything was coming together. Today Lexa would ask Conrad to the NoBash, officially freeing up Palmer to be Ariana's date. The girl couldn't expect Palmer to be dateless for the biggest party of the season, especially when she already had someone, right? Tomorrow, Allison would be caught cheating on her chemistry test, and the resulting scandal would get her booted from the running for Stone and Grave. Now all Ariana had to do was secure that NoBash invite for Kaitlynn and all would be right with the world.

Well, that and make a spectacle of herself. But she had an idea--a rather terrifying idea--of how she might be able to accomplish that. She was planning to head into the city later that day to secure the necessary materials. But that was later. For now, she had some handwriting to perfect.

164

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

The white tile was so cold Ariana could feel it through the fabric of her short--sleeved blue uniform shirt. She shivered slightly but didn't move. She was leaning back against the wall of the bathroom, which was positioned conveniently across the hallway from the classroom in which Allison was currently taking her chemistry exam. If someone walked in, Ariana wanted to appear casually aloof, but she also wanted to keep her position directly across from the door, so that she could be through it the second the tone sounded. Which was also why she had faked stomach cramps to get out of French class early. It pained her to think that her fellow students might think she had IBS or something, but these were necessary sacrifices.

At least Kaitlynn's midnight rampages seemed to be over. Once again, Ariana and her floormates had woken up intact, no random body parts on their bedside tables.

And now Ariana could just focus on the plan. Allison's fake cheat

165

sheet was pinned between Ariana's hip and the outside of her bag. Everything was in place. This was going to work. No one had to die to ensure that Kaitlynn would get into Stone and Grave. A little scandal would suffice.

The tone sounded. Ariana held her bag firmly against her hip and walked out. Tahira was outside the chem room door, obviously waiting for Allison, which gave Ariana a moment's pause. But Tahira's back was to her for the moment, and besides, she couldn't let a tiny hiccup like this stop her. Mr. Chen, the chemistry teacher, opened the door and stood back to let his students out. A few guys rushed out and jogged down the hallway as if they didn't want to miss a moment of free time in the sun. Then Ariana heard Allison's horse laugh, and she took a few steps forward, gaining momentum. The second Allison stepped through the doorway, Ariana took one giant step and slammed into a poor, unsuspecting sophomore girl who was walking in the other direction. The girl pinballed off Ariana and careened into Allison before hitting the floor herself. Allison dropped two notebooks, her chem text, and a pencil on the ground. Ariana shifted her bag and the cheat sheet fluttered down, coming to rest just to the left of the notebooks. Perfection. Then she quickly moved down the hall to watch the action unfold from afar.

"What the hell?" Tahira said, steadying Allison before she could go over as well.

"Are you all right?" the sophomore's friend asked, helping her up.

The girl looked more humiliated than hurt as she scurried to her feet, her dark eyes avoiding everyone else's. Collateral damage. Sometimes it was necessary. "M'fine," she said, scurrying off.

166

"I'm not," Allison called after the girl, holding on to her arm. "Thanks a lot. That's gonna bruise."

"Do you need to see the nurse, Miss Rothaus?" Mr. Chen asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose with his forefinger.

"No. I'm all right," Allison replied grouchily, rubbing her arm.

Tahira crouched to pick up Allison's stuff. Ariana saw her do a double take when she picked up the cheat sheet. She moved to hide it, but it was too late. Mr. Chen had noticed it too.

"What's this?" Mr. Chen asked, plucking the index card from Tahira's fingers. His glance flitted over the card. Then he fixed Allison with a stern look. "Miss Rothaus?"

Down the hallway, Ariana hid a smile behind her hand. Mr. Chen was playing his part so spot--on she could have written it for him.

"That's not mine," Allison said, her blond curls trembling.

"It certainly looks like your handwriting," Mr. Chen said.

Allison glanced at Tahira, who shrugged an apology. Clearly she believed it was Allison's cheat sheet. The small crowd around them grew, sensing impending fodder for gossip.

"I know, but it's not mine," Allison protested. "Honestly, Mr. Chen. I studied my butt off for this test. I didn't need to cheat."

"Nevertheless, the evidence suggests otherwise," Mr. Chen said, fluttering the index card like a taunt. "Come along, Miss Rothaus. I'm afraid we're going to have to have a conversation with the headmaster about this."

Allison's mouth set in a tight white line. "Fine," she said.

Just then Brigit turned the corner and locked eyes with Ariana,

167

giving her a giddy thumbs--up before walking along as if nothing had happened.

Ariana waited while Mr. Chen shut the lights in his classroom and closed the door, then followed him out down the hallway, admirably keeping her head held high. It wasn't until the heavy door slammed behind her that Ariana allowed herself one small, triumphant laugh, which was drowned out by the twittering gossip and speculation that filled the hallway around them.

It was almost too easy.

168

RETALIATION

"I'm so glad you came to the meeting tonight, Ana," April Corrigan said in her slight Irish accent as she turned out the lights in the multimedia room that evening and ushered Ariana out. "I liked your idea about theming each issue of The Ash after the season in which it's published."

"Well, nothing too on the nose," Ariana said, tilting her chin. Up ahead, the dozen other members of the literary magazine's staff pushed through the double doors of the building. "I'm thinking maybe coming--of--age for fall, death for winter . . . celebration for spring. Just brainstorming here."

April nodded enthusiastically, checking messages on her iPhone while she adjusted the stack of notebooks and back issues of The Ash in her arms.

"We should definitely do it," April said, shoving her square glasses up into her hair to hold her curls back from her face. "Remind me 169

at the next meeting and we can all ruminate on the exact themes together." She fished out a few copies of The Ash and handed them to Ariana as they walked out. "In the meantime, why don't you look these over? I'd love to hear your thoughts."

Ariana beamed. April was very accomplished and she had run the meeting like a professional--organized, to the point, succinct but welcoming. Everyone on the staff had hung on her every word. She wasn't going to be wasting anyone's time with a whole lot of flowery debates over whether a piece was worthy for publication or not. Although, as a senior, April was actually two years younger than Ariana, Ariana found herself looking up to the girl as a real junior transfer would have, honored that April was asking for her input.

"That's great. I'll make some notes and bring them next Monday," Ariana replied, tucking the issues into her arms in a neat pile.

"Perfect. Lexa and Soomie were right about you," April said with a smile.

Ariana's heart skipped a beat. "Why? What did they say?"

"Just that you were my kind of girl," April replied, sending a quick text.

Ariana smiled. So maybe the whole "rigid" thing wasn't a curse after all. Maybe it just meant that Ariana was an April kind of girl. And if Lexa and the others were friends with April, then clearly they could accept Ariana the way she was as well.

But she was still going to show them that she wasn't rigid all the time.

"Interesting," April said, pausing and pushing her glasses up again.

170

She looked across the circle, where a bunch of people were jogging past the class building toward the boys' dorms beyond. "Wonder what that's all about."

Ariana and April exchanged an intrigued look and followed the crowd. Standing behind Ferrin Hall, the upperclassman dorm, was a huge crowd of students that was growing larger by the second. A few people pointed up at one of the windows on the top floor and Ariana squinted in the waning light of evening to see what had caught everyone's attention.

Finally, her eyes lit on a window that looked different from the others. As she squinted at it, she realized that something was stuffed up against the windowpane.

"Is that what I think it is?" April asked, narrowing her eyes.

Just then, Landon glanced over his shoulder and spotted Ariana. He whacked Adam on the back of the head to get his attention, and the two boys joined them.

"What's going on?" Ariana asked.

"Some genius filled Martin Tsang's room with coconuts," Landon said, laughing. "Literally filled it! There must be a thousand coconuts in there."

"More, actually," Adam said, twisting his lips in thought. "You'd need at least two thousand to fill a standard ten--by--ten dorm room."

"The genius of it is, Tsang hates coconuts," Landon said, still laughing.

"It's true," April confirmed with a nod. "He doesn't just hate them. He's afraid of them."

171

"How can you be afraid of coconuts?" Ariana asked, laughing now as well.

"Who knows? Ask Martin Tsang," Palmer answered, joining them. The sound of his voice sent pleasant shivers all through Ariana's body and into her toes. He slung one arm companionably over Ariana's shoulder, the other over April's. This simple touch brought back a thousand vivid memories of Saturday night, and suddenly Ariana's skin was burning. "Little dude freaked out when he opened the door to his room and all those nasty things came rolling out. He's down at the infirmary talking to Dr. Shrinkhead."

"Dr. Shrinkhead," Ariana repeated, trying to appear unaffected.

"His real name's Dr. Brinkshed, but since he's the campus shrink, the nickname wasn't much of a leap," April explained.

"What I want to know is, how the hell did anyone get that many coconuts onto campus and into his dorm in the middle of the day without anyone noticing?" Palmer said, leaning his weight on Ariana and April now, causing Ariana's body heat to skyrocket. "Whoever did this is a criminal mastermind. In fact, I'd like to meet such a per--son.

Something in the way he said it made it absolutely clear to Ariana that he was the mastermind in question. She looked at him and smiled.

"I'd like to meet that person too."

Palmer stood up straight and tugged up on the waistband of his pants. "Who knows, Ana," he said, chucking her under the chin with his fist like an uncle might. "Someday, you just might have that chance."

172

Then he turned and loped away, casually producing his baseball from a back pocket and tossing it up and down as he went. Ariana smiled after him, happy in the knowledge she had just gleaned. As Soomie would put it, the facts were these:

A) This was clearly the retaliation against the Fellows that Lexa had spoken of after the toenail incident, which meant that B) Martin Tsang was in the Fellows, and that C) if Palmer had executed the prank, as Ariana was certain he had, then Palmer was definitely in Stone and Grave.

173

BACKFIRED

"Looking good!" Ariana said as Brigit teetered by her in her new heels that night. She was sitting in the Wolcott Hall common room with her history books open on the table in front of her, but she hadn't studied much since she'd arrived. She was too busy feeling giddy over the certainty that Palmer was in Stone and Grave. That if she got in--when she got in--they would be brought even closer together. And she was going to get in, because the Allison plan had clearly worked. No one had seen the girl since Mr. Chen had dragged her off to the headmaster's office that morning. Ariana hoped that meant Allison was in serious trouble. Maybe she'd even been thrown out of APH entirely. A girl couldn't get into Stone and Grave if she wasn't even enrolled at the school.

"I'm glad I look good. Because I feel like I'm about to--" Brigit attempted to turn at the far end of the room and tumbled sideways instead, falling over the back of a vacant chair. "Ow."

"Are you all right?" Ariana asked, jumping up.

174

"Fine. I'm fine. I just have to master this before the NoBash, because it's going to be a lot worse if I do that and the only thing around to break my fall is Ambassador Tate and her wheelchair," Brigit said, her face flushing as she stood up straight.

"Yeah. That would be bad," Ariana agreed.

"Oh, by the way, I gave Lillian an invite," Brigit said, taking a tentative step. "She was so excited she hugged me for like five minutes. I thought she was going to pee in her pants."

Ariana swallowed back all the snide remarks she wanted to make and tried to feel the triumph of successfully completing another task. Kaitlynn was going to the NoBash. Ariana's life was safe. For now.

"That's great. She's a sweet girl," Ariana said with some effort.

When she's not cutting off our hair and nails, she added silently.

"Yeah. I like her. I'm glad you invited her on Saturday."

A sudden burst of laughter filled the foyer and Ariana turned around slowly. It couldn't be. It just couldn't.

Allison and Tahira traipsed through the door, falling all over each other in giddiness. Ariana felt as if she were being sucked through some kind of wormhole. What was Allison doing here? And why was she so effing happy?

"What's going on?" Ariana asked.