Take Me There (26 page)

I think.

“Right?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see if it had my name. Or if it was signed.”

“Even with names, anyone could have written it,” Nicole says. “Like a setup. It doesn’t prove anything.”

This is definitely the type of thing that is huge enough to get Gloria’s attention. This would really make her think about the way she treats people.

“Oh!” Danny yells. “And it’s so karma! How Jackson took your note and then he dropped this one?
Yes!
”

I’m still not completely convinced, though. Wouldn’t I get blamed for it? Half the school saw what happened with Gloria and Steve in the cafeteria. “Okay, but—”

“We’ve got it covered,” James says. “No worries.”

They all look so determined. I know they have their own reasons for doing this, too.

I guess that’s it, then. I wanted to find a way, and here it is. My best friends found it for me.

When I go back to school because I forgot my dirty gym clothes, I see them outside the locker room. Steve has Gloria pressed up against the wall. And they’re kissing. He’s kissing her the same way he used to kiss me.

That’s it. Now I’m way beyond angry.

Because maybe the breakup was all about Steve instead of me being lacking in some way. It’s like Brooke was saying about the whole manwhore phenomenon. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m probably fine the way I am. In fact, I
know
I am. Wasn’t I a confident person before The Incident? How could I let him change me like that?

Brooke’s leaving for Europe tomorrow. You’d think Dad would take us all out for dinner tonight to say good-bye. But no. He’s still grumbling about how Brooke dissed the whole internship opportunity. So he’s at work, same with Mom, and Brooke and I are celebrating with Chinese food for the second night in a row in front of the TV. Since
Sex and the City
is Brooke’s favorite show, we’re watching a DVD from season four.

Brooke sticks her chopsticks into my box of chow fun. She goes, “So I finally met a real man.”

I choke on a noodle. That’s, like, the last thing I ever thought I’d hear from her.

She holds up my glass. “Water?”

I grab my glass and glug the water. “You
what
?” I gasp.

“You heard me.”

“Is this for real?”

“It seems real.”

Um-hmm. I’ve been there.

“Proceed with caution,” I warn.

“Will you just let me tell you?”

So of course it’s this eternal story about how she went out last night with a bunch of friends. They were in this random bar she didn’t even want to go to, and there he was. He came up to her and they talked for a really long time and when he asked for her number, she gave it to him. Which she never does. She always takes the guy’s number instead, for safety reasons.

But she was just so swept away that she gave it to him. And things were going great and they walked outside to leave, and that’s when she freaked out. Because what if he never called her? What if he was asking for her number just to get it?

So he was saying bye, and she was so freaked out that she started walking the wrong way. To go
home
. And there was something about a bus almost running her over, but I’m not really clear on that part. So now she’s all paranoid that he’ll never call her because she acted like such a goober.

She’s like, “And naturally this has to happen right when I’m leaving for six weeks.”

“Don’t worry. If he likes you that much, he’ll call you when you get back.”

“Yeah, right. Him and his new girlfriend. Arrggg!” Brooke slams her box of fried wontons down on the coffee table. “This is so
frustrating
!”

“Relax. He’ll call.”

She calms down a little. She looks over at me. “You think?”

“Definitely. It sounds like he likes you for sure.”

“Really?”

“Totally.”

We start a new episode since we pretty much talked through the last one.

“Oh, and thanks for the Cinnabon last weekend,” I say. “Sorry I was so out of it. . . . Did I even say thanks?”

“No. But you’re thanking the wrong person.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t me. I was just getting out of the shower, remember?”

“Then who—?”

“James! James brought it.” Brooke gives me a look like,
How dense can you get?
“I thought you knew.”

We start watching again. This is the one where Aidan moves in with Carrie and they keep fighting about stupid stuff. I mean, to them, in the moment, it all seems important. But by the end of the episode they realize that those things don’t matter. What really matters isn’t where someone puts their stuff or how much closet space someone is taking up. What really matters is who a person is. And how you feel when you’re with them.

Danny lets us in the back door.

“So what’s the game plan?” James says.

James and Danny went to Kinko’s after school and made one thousand copies of the note. They used five different paper colors. There’s enough for everyone to get a copy on their locker, plus we can put them up around the entire school. We’re naturally at risk for getting in serious trouble, but it’s so worth it.

“Why don’t we split up by area,” I suggest. “Like, someone can put one on each locker, someone can do the halls, someone can do the stairways, and then someone can do the bathrooms and locker rooms.”

“That’s cool,” Nicole says.

“Did you get the ladder?” James asks Danny. He had this epiphany at Westville that we should hang a bunch of copies really high up so teachers won’t be able to rip them down. I said how no one would be able to read them that high up, but Danny said it would make a statement. He’s all fired up about how this whole thing’s making a major statement. That and the karma thing. Because Danny knows what Gloria said when Nicole was trying to do that problem in math. And how she humiliated me in front of everyone at lunch. So those fiascos plus skanking around with Steve equals Danny’s unwavering determination to expose the truth.

“No,” Danny tells him. “The janitors were already gone.”

“What about doing classrooms?” James says.

“Bad idea. The teachers will be pissed.”

“Like they’re not gonna be pissed anyway?”

“Yeah, but that’ll make it worse. I like Rhiannon’s idea.”

Nicole gives everyone two rolls of tape. Then we each take a pile of copies.

“Wait!” Danny yells. “Group huddle!”

We scrunch together in a circle. Danny puts his hand out. We take turns slapping our hands, one on top of the other. Then Danny goes, “One, two, three—
break
!” And we’re off.

I’m in charge of lockers. I tape one copy to every locker, mixing the colors randomly. I was going to alternate the colors in order, but I’ve decided to live a little.

When I get back to my room, I take down every single picture of Steve from around my mirror. I don’t cry. I don’t think about the good times we had when each picture was taken. I just take them down, rip them up, and throw them away.

FURIOUS
IS NOT
the word to describe Gloria.

Rabid dog foaming at mouth seeking death as vengeance
is a slightly more accurate description.

We all knew she would come after me. And probably turn me in. So when the main office secretary comes on the PA and announces that I have to report to the principal’s office, I’m not exactly the most surprised person in the room.

“Sit down, Rhiannon,” Mr. Pearlman orders. He’s into the dictatorial approach to being a principal. Because, you know. Being friendly just wouldn’t be more effective.

He indicates a chair.

I sit.

“Now, as you’re probably aware, we seem to have a problem today.”

I wait.

“It seems that someone hung copies of a note Gloria wrote . . .” He rustles through some papers. “Two years ago? All around the building.”

He stares at me for a response. So I say, “I’ve noticed.”

“It also seems that this someone had access to the building after school was officially closed for the night.”

He stares again. What, does he expect me to crack just because he’s staring? Is he trying to make me nervous with his beady eyes and spooky moustache?

“It’s come to my attention,” he continues, “that you might have had a hand in this. Is that true?”

Okay. The plan was that if they came after me, I would deny everything. There’s no way they can prove I did it. It could have been any one of Gloria’s enemies. But what if he knows something else and he’s not telling? And if I say I didn’t do it and he busts out with evidence, I’ll be screwed worse than if I admitted it right away. And if I lie and he finds out, he’ll be wicked pissed and might suspend me. And if anything gets in the way of me eventually getting into Parsons School of Design, I won’t be a happy unit.

“Is that true, Rhiannon?”

I open my mouth to say it. And that’s when James comes bursting through the door.

And he says, “I did it.”