by Mae Doyle
Kelly was waiting there for her, and when she caught my gaze, she shot me an evil look.
That was fine. She could look at me like that all she wanted. Her time was coming, and then I was going to take Amelia down.
I knew that Jackie, Kaleb, and I needed to talk about what we heard Amelia say on the phone, but I also knew that just then wasn’t the right time. We needed to eat and then get down to the auditorium so we could get good seats for the math competition.
“Are you sure that you want to do this today?” Turning to Jackie, I was surprised at how pale he was. He took my hand and rubbed his thumb across it. “We could just go back to the dorm and hide out from everyone if you wanted.”
I wanted that. I wanted that more than almost anything in this world, but I had to get justice for Brett. Giving his hand a squeeze, I tried to smile at him.
I’d forgotten how much the boys missed Brett. Even though we knew that he was alive, hearing Amelia talk about him like that was enough to make me sick.
“We’re doing it,” I told them both. “We’re taking care of Kelly today and then we can spend all day tomorrow in bed if you want. I have to do this today, and then, I promise, I’m yours, okay?”
“You better be ours.” Kaleb cupped my chin in his hand and tilted my face up to look at him. His green eyes were dark with shadows and he looked exhausted. “I don’t want to lose you, Rose. I’m not sure that either one of us could survive it, okay? So you have to be very, very careful.”
“I am. I promise,” I told them, but even as the words left my mouth, I felt a little bit of fear.
I could be as careful as possible, but that didn’t mean that things would end up okay for me. If nothing else, though, I reminded myself, I had to protect my boys. Amelia obviously wanted to keep Jackie safe from harm, but I wasn’t sure if she was willing to sacrifice him to take me down.
I just hoped that we wouldn’t have to find out.
Chapter 4
Honestly? I didn’t know that math competitions were a big thing. When we walked into the auditorium, I half expected it to be mostly empty, but it was more than half-full, with students and professors from other schools coming in all the time.
This was, apparently, a huge event, and I wished that we had brought snacks.
We’d been checked at the door for any electronics and had to walk through metal detectors. “Did you guys know that Taylor Prep took math this seriously?” I joked as the three of us slid into our seats. “This seems a little over the top, right?”
Kaleb pinned me in place with his green eyes. “This is why we want to help you, Amelia. They take this incredibly seriously. Once you come into the auditorium, you can’t leave and then come back. They lock the doors to anyone who hasn’t been through the metal detector. No phones, no notebooks, nothing that may help with cheating. It’s a big freaking deal.”
“Are you sure that we can’t help you?” Jackie squeezed my leg just above my knee to get my attention. It got me to look at him, but it also caused a flare of longing to spring up in my core. This was not the place or the time to get turned on by my boys, and I shook my head to clear it.
“Okay, look.” I’d been adamant about taking our seats in the back, even when there were better ones a bit closer to the stage. In all honesty, I didn’t give a shit about seeing Kelly perform. I just knew that right now was the best way to take her down. Leaning forward, I reached under my seat and tugged on something.
It came loose with a rip of tape, and I sat back up, looking around to make sure that nobody heard me. Everyone else in the seats was still chatting away and nobody turned in our direction. Sighing with relief, I pulled the bag the rest of the way out from under my seat and opened it, pulling out a notebook.
“What the hell?” Jackie snatched the notebook from me and flipped through it. I’d taken weeks to write down formulas, expressions, and examples of problems. It was packed with all of the information that a student could need to win the competition.
“What are you planning on doing with that?” Kaleb asked, his eyes locked on the notebook. He knew that we could get into major trouble with that in here. We all knew it.
“I made it and taped it in here because I knew we’d be searched for any contraband,” I explained, grabbing the notebook from Jackie and slipping it between my legs out of sight. “When they dismiss teams to go to the bathroom, I’ll have already been in there to leave it. They check after everyone uses it to make sure there isn’t any cheating.”
My boys stared at me. “How in the world do you know this?” Kaleb finally asked, his jaw hanging open.
I shrugged and gave him a kiss. “I read the rules. They published the handbook online so that all of the students would know what to expect. When I saw that, I knew that this was my best way to ruin everything for her.”
“But what if she gets eliminated before they get to the bathroom breaks? You’re kinda banking on something that may not even happen,” Jackie said, sounding a bit worried.
But I wasn’t worried. “You’re kidding, right? You guys know as well as I do that she’s easily the best at math in the entire school. Everyone is talking about her walking away with the grand prize. She’s basically a shoo-in for 100k. That’s insane, right?”
“You’re going to ruin her chance at that much money? You know that she will kill you if she even suspects that you were the one who did this to her, right?” Kaleb frowned, a crease appearing between his gorgeous eyes.
“I don’t care. The harpies can’t keep running the school like this. You guys know as well as I do that they’re evil, and I bet that they or their families had something to do with Brett being taken out of school and everyone pretending like he’s dead. This has to be done, and you all know it.”
“We know, Rosita,” Jackie said, taking my hand and lacing his fingers through it. “We just wish that you would let us take on the risk.”
“Not a chance.” I shook my head and looked down to the stage. Kelly stood out since she was the only girl competing from the surrounding schools. She was brilliant, that was for sure. It was just a damn shame that she was so stupid that she thought that being friends with Amelia was enough to protect her.
When the competition really started going, I slipped out of my seat and walked to the bathroom. The auditorium was mostly silent as people watched the competition, but in the halls there were some people talking.
Turning the corner to the bathroom, I stopped short. Outside the door was an official, who looked bored. She saw me coming and turned to me. “Can I help you?”
“I just…need to use the bathroom,” I explained. I’d rolled the notebook and slid it up my pant leg, pinning it in place with a long sock. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, sure,” she responded, gesturing at the door. “I just need to pat you down to make sure that you don’t leave anything in the bathroom for the competitor, okay?” It was obvious that she was waiting for me to walk up to her, so I took a deep breath and did just that.
“That’s fine,” I told her, holding my arms out. She started at my wrists, patting through my jacket, then moved to my torso. When she worked her way down my legs, I held my breath. My right leg was fine, but there was a slight crinkle when she patted my left, and her eyes narrowed.
Standing up, she tilted her head a little. “Do you have something in your pant leg, miss?” Her hand rested on her radio, and I took a deep breath to keep from panicking. If she realized that I had the notebook not only would I be kicked out the auditorium, but I was pretty sure that I would have hell to pay with the headmaster.
Leaning forward, I acted like I was embarrassed. “It’s that time,” I told her, then bent down and pulled a tampon from inside my pant leg. I’d tucked it in with the notebook on the off chance that something like this would happen.
To my relief, she visibly relaxed, removing her hand from her radio and smiling at me. “That’s fine, then dear. You go on ahead and then get back so you don’t miss any of
the action.”
I managed to whisper a thank you at her and then scurried past her into the bathroom, bending over to grab my thighs and take a deep breaths.
I couldn’t believe that I got away with it.
I thought for sure that I was going to get caught.
Before I could ditch the notebook and run back to my seat, though, I pretended to use the bathroom and wash up. I then took out my notebook and slipped it between the toilet and the wall.
They were going to sweep the bathroom after Kelly used it and they’d find it there. It was perfect.
By the time I got back to my seat, she had eliminated over half of the competition without breaking a sweat. Out of all of the students on the stage, she looked the most calm and put together. I could admire her if I wasn’t focused on taking her down.
“Everything okay?” Kaleb whispered as I slid past him.
I nodded and sat down. “Now we just have to wait for a few minutes, okay?”
◆◆◆
Actually, we didn’t have to wait that long. Almost as soon as I sat down, one of the competitors called for a break. He looked exhausted and wanted water, but the math teacher, Mr. Gessler, ran out onto the stage to say something to Kelly. She nodded and followed him off the stage, where she was met by a security guard.
“I think she’s going to take a bathroom break while everyone else is getting water,” Jackie whispered. “But it’s going to look super suspicious since Mr. Gessler just told her to go do it.”
He was right. I gripped my hands together, digging my fingernails into my palms while we waited. In my mind, I imagined the walk down the hall that Kelly was now doing. She’d be frisked, just like I was, and they wouldn’t find anything.
Then she’d use the bathroom.
Then they’d check it and find the notebook.
It didn’t matter how they thought she got it in there. This was too big of a competition for the people running it to allow for any doubt in people’s minds. Once they found the notebook and knew that she was the last person in the bathroom, then they’d suspect her.
I just knew it.
We sat for ten minutes before I started to get antsy. “What do you guys think is taking so long?” I asked them, turning around in my seat to look for her. “Do you think that everything is okay?”
It was obvious that I wasn’t the only person wondering this. More and more spectators were starting to turn around in their seats, obviously wondering what the delay was. Kelly was the only competitor who wasn’t back from break.
As we watched, an official walked over to Mr. Gessler and started to talk to him. The math teacher looked calm at first, but as we watched, his face began to turn red.
“They must have found it,” I breathed. I had my boys next to me, but I was honestly so focused on what was going on with Kelly that I might have been alone. This was something that I had to do, not just for me, like I originally thought, but for Brett, as well.
“I’d say so,” Jackie responded when Mr. Gessler was marched off stage. The official had his hand on the teacher’s elbow, like he was afraid that Mr. Gessler was going to make a run for it. “I wonder if they’ll announce anything.”
“They have to, right?” Asked Kaleb. “I mean, there’s no way that they’re just going to remove her from the competition without saying anything about it. This is a really big deal and for them to just sweep it under the rug is – ”
But we didn’t get to hear what Kaleb thought it was, because the crowd suddenly fell silent as the person in charge walked to the center of the stage. He looked like you would expect a lifelong mathematician to look. His glasses sat perched on the end of his nose and he kept running his hand through his hair like he was nervous.
“I have a very unfortunate announcement to make,” he said, his voice carrying thanks to the microphone clipped to his lapel. “It has come to our attention that one of the contestants has been caught cheating and has been removed from the competition.”
A murmur rose in the crowd and he held his hands up, obviously wanting silence. When people quieted down, he continued. “We will continue the math competition without her and she will be dealt with appropriately by her headmaster.”
With that, he turned and stalked off of the stage.
I grinned. He hadn’t mentioned Kelly by name, which would have been the only thing to make my victory even sweeter, but she was gone. I had taken something that she loved and ripped it out from under her.
It was great. Glee ran through my body and I felt light-headed with it. For the first time since the accident, I actually felt really happy.
Things were starting to go my way for once, and I was going to give the harpies at Taylor Prep what they deserved.
“You guys ready to go?” There wasn’t any reason for us to sit and watch the rest of the competition. Not when I finally got what I wanted and Kelly got what was coming to her. The three of us stood and walked out, but we weren’t the only ones.
Most of the Taylor Prep students walked out with us. They’d all come to see Kelly. She was supposed to be the winner, but now that everything had fallen apart for her, there was no reason for her to stay.
The three of us stayed as quiet as possible as we wound through the crowd. Amelia was in the crowd somewhere, and I really didn’t want to meet up with her.
Like all good things, though, my luck came to an end.
We turned the corner away from the auditorium to cut through the quad. Mr. Gessler and Mr. Taylor were in a heated argument with each other. Standing near them, sobbing, was Kelly. Two adults, who I assumed must be her parents, were talking near her, but not looking at her.
None of them saw us, and I grinned, turning around to say something to my boys.
That’s when I saw Amelia stalking straight at us.
Chapter 5
“What the fuck is your problem, Rose?” Amelia walked right up to me and slapped me across the face before I could move. My cheek stung and I instinctively reached up to hold it. The heat radiated into my hand and I bit back a sob.
Even though I wanted to scream about how bad it hurt, I swallowed hard and dropped my hand to my side. “That the best you got, Amelia? It was pretty weak.” Jackie and Kaleb were at my sides, and I could feel the rage pouring off of them.
Rather than let them get involved, though I wanted handle this on my own. Jackie took a step forward, but I reached out, putting my hand on his arm and squeezing it.
“I’m surprised you don’t want your little boyfriends to do your dirty work for you, Rose,” Amelia spat. Her eyes were flashing and she had bright spots of pink in her cheeks. If given the chance, I had a pretty good feeling that she would lunge at me, but there were too many people around.
Correction. Too many adults. She didn’t give a shit about attacking me in front of students.
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Sucks that Kelly is a cheater, though. Guess she won’t be able to compete for Taylor Prep anymore, huh?” Glancing over Amelia’s shoulder, I saw Kelly bend forward, crying. She was getting bad news, that was for sure, but I’d have to wait and find out exactly what happened.
“You fucked her over, you know that? First Sara, then Kelly. And you killed Brett, so let’s not forget that.” Amelia had her fingers up and was ticking off my sins as she listed them.
“First of all,” I said, holding up my own fingers in response, “Sara choked cause she sucked, so I have no idea why you’re trying to pin that on me.” I touched the next finger. “Kelly is a cheating bitch, so that’s her fault, not mine.” The last finger I had up was my middle one, and I waved it at her. “And Brett didn’t die.”
Her eyes grew wide, but I couldn’t tell if she was angry or scared. “Fucking liar,” she whispered, taking a step back from me. “He’s dead. He paid the price for you being too stubborn and fucking stupid to leave Taylor Prep when you obviously weren’t wanted here.”
Shrugging, I turned away from her. It wasn’
t smart to turn my back on her, especially when she was so pissed, but we were done here. All I wanted to do now was go spend time with my rogues and wait until we heard about the fallout from Kelly’s scandal.
I honestly had no idea what Taylor Prep would do to someone they caught cheating like that, but I couldn’t imagine that it was good.
◆◆◆
It was better than I expected. The boys and I spent the rest of the day in my room working on projects and trying to stay focused.
I knew that I needed to be putting in some time working on my solo piece for the competition, but the last thing I wanted to do was be away from them right then. Not only was spending time with them a great way for me to stay sane, it was also a great way for me to stay safe.
Getting cornered by Amelia when I was by myself would be terrible. I just…I wasn’t prepared for her. Not yet.
Rolling over in bed, I leaned my head on Kaleb’s chest. His heard pounded out a steady rhythm and I felt my eyes closing, but before I could relax enough to fall asleep, Jackie shook me awake.
“We really should go get some dinner before the dining hall closes, Rosita.” His hand was warm on my shoulder, but when I didn’t respond right away, he dropped it down to my side, running his fingers up my ribs.
“Ahh!” I shrieked, rolling away from the two boys and jumping off of the edge of the bed. “Fine! Let’s go get something to eat, but you guys have to promise to stay with me. I don’t want to be caught alone by Amelia, okay?”
They agreed and the three of us headed out into the hall and down the three flights of stairs before cutting across the quad to the dining hall.
“It’s really empty, isn’t it?” I asked as we walked. Usually, when there was really nice weather like this, there were plenty of people out in the quad relaxing, but today everyone was inside. I only hoped that they weren’t all waiting for us in the dining hall.
I wasn’t that lucky. The boys held the doors for me and I walked in, making everyone turn to look at me. It seemed like the entire senior class was in the cafeteria.