by April Marcom
“Hey!” We both stared at Mrs. Ringer. She had her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece, giving us hard looks. “No talking.” Then she went right back into her phone conversation. “Sorry about that. Go ahead and give me that fax number.” She scribbled the numbers on a little post-it, thanked whoever was on the other end of the line, and hung up.
Carsen got in a wink at me, making me want to gag, before I went back to ignoring him. I glanced at the clock every couple of minutes and imagined abstract shapes out of the speckled ceiling in between.
Seventeen minutes later, Principal Horawitz’s door opened. Nicole’s face was beat-red when she emerged. She looked MAD, but one sniffle and I knew she was on the verge of tears.
“Mrs. Ringer, would you pull up Nicole Hemming’s information and get me her parent’s numbers?” Principal Horawitz asked.
“Yes, of course.” She tapped rapidly on her computer. Principal Horawitz stood in his doorway, waiting.
Carsen popped his jacket collar so it fell loosely at his shoulders, trying to look cool. He nodded to Nicole. “Hey, Nico-liar, what are you in for?”
Principal Horawitz and Mrs. Ringer both opened their mouths, but Nicole got to him first. “Would you just SHUT UP?!” she screamed.
Everyone gaped at her for about two seconds. Even Carsen looked stunned.
“One more outburst like that, and I’ll add another day to your suspension, young lady,” Principal Horawitz said to Nicole.
I stared wide-eyed at her as she took the seat farthest from me. She sucked in a giant breath and stared at the floor.
“Here you are, Mr. Horawitz.” Mrs. Ringer held out a little post-it to him, then he went back into his office.
It was hard not to stare at Nicole. I kept thinking, She totally deserves it. She cost me Ty and called me a cow in front of everybody just yesterday. Not to mention that sign she’d stuck on my back two classes ago. She had no sympathy when it came to my suffering. Still, I couldn’t help but hate knowing she was struggling not to cry only a few chairs away from me.
I hardly noticed when Principal Horawitz came back into the office, until he said, “Come on, Hadley.”
I gripped my notebook way too tight as I stood and made my way into the principal’s office. The chairs inside had been pushed back against the side walls, all except for one. I took the seat dead center, right in front of his desk.
35
“Now,” Principal Horawitz began once he was seated behind his desk, “would you please tell me everything you know about the Clash of the Cheerleaders articles?”
“Can I show you something on my phone first?” I asked.
“Yes, as long as it’s relevant.”
I took out my phone and opened the texts from Underground. Shoot, I thought when I realized the one involving Brittany was at the bottom. I deleted the text she’d sent him from my phone as quickly as I could, then held my phone out to Principal Horawitz. “These are from last night. That’s seriously all I know, sir.”
He took off his glasses to study the texts, then handed back my phone. “What about the statement you made? You told someone if they knew Nicole’s secrets, yesterday’s story would have been about her. It certainly sounded like you had a hand in these articles.”
“No, sir.” It came out way too loud, but I was starting to panic, because what if I got suspended, too?! “I ran into Steve Larsen Sunday. He was asking me about that So Scandalous thing Nicole wrote, and I made that statement. But there were other people there, too, and I’m pretty sure he recorded what I said. He could have showed it to anyone, so, really, anyone could be writing those articles. I promise you I had nothing to do with them, though.”
Principal Horawitz leaned back in his chair.
My eyes teared up with all the fear he put into me. “Am I in trouble?”
“Not necessarily…What about those Team Hadley stickers? Do you know anything about those?”
Oh my gosh! I didn’t want to risk getting caught in a tangle of lies and ending up in more trouble, but I couldn’t sell out Brittany. “Yes, sir. My friends and I made them because of what Nicole put online about me. We thought it would help since everyone was so mean yesterday, but I didn’t think we were breaking any rules. I won’t do it again.”
Principal Horawitz tilted his head from side to side, narrowing his eyes. “Those stickers are borderline breaking a rule. There’s nothing that says you can’t wear a sticker promoting something or someone, but there are very strict rules about bullying. I would suggest you make them without Nicole’s name.”
“Yes, sir.” The whole mood of the room began to lighten with my anxiety diminishing.
“Brittany said you five would like to put on a presentation about bullying at Friday’s pep rally. The stickers would contradict that, I think, since they are a form of bullying.”
“So we can put on the presentation?”
“I think it’s a good idea to try and curb all this clash of the cheerleaders business. I’ll need an email regarding exactly what you five will be presenting, of course.” He drummed his hands softly on his desk as he studied me momentarily. “It’s been very interesting speaking with the ten of you. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but the entire Silver Wing High cheer squad is split down the middle in terms of honesty. I got five different stories, all obviously lies, from five of you, and five perfectly matching stories from the other five.
“I can tell you, however, of Nicole’s punishment. We caught her on camera sticking that sign to your back after fifth hour. She’s been suspended from school for tomorrow.”
“For sticking a paper to my back?” Not that I was complaining, but it seemed extreme.
“No, for lying right to my face throughout our entire conversation on more than one account. I have no proof of the other girls’ lies, but more than enough to suspend Nicole.”
“Oh… Well, I have a friend in middle school who said she’d help us with the techie stuff for our presentation. Would it be all right if she came to the pep rally Friday?”
“Sure, just have her check in as a visitor with Mrs. Ringer when she gets here.”
“Okay.”
“Why don’t you go on back to class? You can still catch part of your last hour.”
“Thank you, Principal Horawitz.” Wow—I felt SO much better on my way out the door.
“Hello, Hadley,” Mrs. Hemming said when I walked out of the principal’s office. She was sitting in the chair beside Nicole with her arm around her.
“Hi, Mrs. Hemming.”
“Mom! Don’t talk to her,” Nicole fussed at her mom.
“What are you doing here, Carsen?” I heard Principal Horawitz ask as the front office door shut behind me.
“Hey, Hadley,” someone called from down the hallway.
I saw Blaine jogging my way. “Hey, Blaine.” I was so crazy happy to see him!
He caught me off guard a little when he wrapped both his giant football-player arms around me right in front of the front office. “Brittany gave me the rundown. You okay?”
“I’m fine, but how’d you know when I would get out of interrogation?”
Blaine laughed. “I just told Ms. Yang I needed to go see Coach about something and I’ve been walking the halls ever since.”
“Aww.”
We both jumped when someone knocked on the glass wall beside us. “Get to class,” Mrs. Ringer half-shouted. I couldn’t believe how short she was. She always looked tall sitting behind her desk, and she rarely ever came out from behind it.
Blaine took my hand. “Come on. I’ll walk you to Mr. Pain’s.”
I squeezed his hand, and leaned against his arm. I couldn’t believe he’d risked getting into so much trouble cutting class just to check on me. It was so—so—unlike him. “Aren’t you worried about the cameras seeing you?” I asked him.
“Nah, nobody actually sits around and stares at them. They’re just there to record everything so teachers can go back and look at them if they
need proof someone did something wrong. I told Brittany I’d drive you five to tumbling after school.”
“But your Civic only has five seatbelts.”
“I think we can cram four cheerleaders in the backseat.”
“Thanks, Blaine.”
“Yep.” We stopped outside Mr. Pain’s door. “I’ll meet you at your locker in a few minutes, okay?”
“Is there really only a few minutes of school left?”
“I don’t know; probably.”
I took out my phone and saw that we only had fourteen minutes until the final bell rang.
Blaine surprised me when he gave me a quick kiss right on the lips. He turned to walk away in the opposite direction, so I was left to stare at his back. I must have kissed him a hundred times already. It shouldn’t have been any big deal, except that it pulled me a little bit in his direction on the tightrope I was walking back and forth between him and Ty.
Tumbling was tense with Nicole and her little sidekicks.
All my four girls and I wanted to do was talk, of course. There wasn’t nearly enough time during the car ride there to fill each other in on what we talked about individually with Principal Horawitz.
We didn’t want Nicole or the others to hear us. So we got in whatever whispering we could while waiting in line to use different equipment, and shared pieces of broken conversation during bathroom/drink breaks. We never really got the chance to sit down and chat like we wanted to, but by the time tumbling was over, all five of us were at least informed that:
1. Nicole was suspended tomorrow for lying to Principal Horawitz.
2. Brittany and I had both gotten the go ahead on Friday’s presentation.
3. Brittany was joining the debate team. I figured that was why she and Principal Horawitz were all buddy-buddy, like they must have had that in common.
Brittany’s mom was parked out front after tumbling.
Blaine’s Civic hugged the curb right behind her. He rose from one of the dark, padded chairs inside the waiting room as soon as I set foot out of the gym.
My feet came off the ground when he hugged me. “Bye, girls.” I waved at them on their way out the door.
Ice cream with Blaine was fun. We talked and laughed, but nothing serious was discussed or decided. It was more like hanging out with my really hot friend or something. Of course it would have been a lie to say there wasn’t still a major spark there.
Blaine reached for my hand when we got back in his car to go to my house.
I looked over at him, burning with a single question. “What is it that makes you love me so much, Blaine? After we broke up, and everything that’s happened…why me when you could have any girl in Silver Wing High or Silver Wing West?”
He looked at me and brought our hands to my face so he could rub a thumb across one of my cheekbones. “It’s everything about you, Hadley. Every hair on your head and everything you do—I love it. I have since you started high school last year. I can’t help it, and I can’t explain it. That’s just how it is.”
I grinned at him all cheesy. It was so super sweet that after I’d dumped him and gone out with somebody else, Blaine was still a hundred and ten percent hung up on me. In my defense, he was a pretty crummy boyfriend. But for how different he’d been acting lately, I truly started to believe that maybe he had changed. If I could just flip a switch on Ty and stop wanting him so bad, the choice would have been easy.
“I’ve got a ton of math homework,” I said when I crossed my legs and kicked my backpack. “You wanna come in and help me with it?” We’d just turned onto my street so my house was close.
Blaine laughed. “You know I’m no good at math.”
“Yeah, I know.” Why does every little thing have to make me miss Ty? I thought as we turned into my driveway.
“I’ll come in for moral support, though.”
We both stared down the road when we heard the distant sound of a motorcycle. Ty appeared at the edge of my street driving our way.
“Uh, no, that is not happening,” Blaine said. He rolled down his window, reached out an arm, and gave Ty the finger.
“What are you doing?!” I asked.
In a split-second decision, I leaned over hoping that at least Ty wouldn’t see me inside the car. I don’t know what happened next because I started digging mindlessly through my backpack so Blaine wouldn’t think I was being ridiculous hunched over like that. The motorcycle got louder and louder, drove past us, and then got quieter again.
I sat back up when I was sure it was gone. “That was mean.”
Blaine looked at me. “I have to make him understand.” He slid one hand behind my neck. “Now where were we?” he asked, and leaned forward.
“Blaine,” I said softly, shifting away from him. As much as I wanted that kiss, the sight of Ty riding past my house for sure this time made me stop.
Blaine kept his hand on my neck and stayed where he was for the kiss. “Do you believe in love at first sight, Hadley?”
“Ummm, yeah, I guess so.”
“You asked me why I love you so much. I’ve loved you since first sight, Hads, and I’d wait on you forever for just one kiss. But please—don’t make me do that.” His fingers on my neck snaked their way through my hair. It was something he did that I always loved, and he knew it.
I wasn’t sure what to do, but my body shifted back to its original position. I thought of how patient and wonderful Blaine had been lately, how I was technically single. And you know, what was the harm in just one little kiss?
So I leaned forward until our lips met. It was so familiar and felt so good. I won’t say my mind was made up, or that I knew exactly what I wanted, but I wondered in that kiss if maybe I could be happy again with Blaine, if that was how things ended.
36
I made sure to set my phone alarm for Wednesday morning, since my mom did occasionally—very rarely—forget to set hers.
A considerable amount of time was wasted checking all the texts I got about how today’s Clash of the Cheerleaders article had gone digital with the ban at school. I hadn’t read Underground’s post, because I wanted to make sure I got ready for school in time. It was a good thing, too, with the flood of texts coming in nonstop from football players, my cheerleaders, Blaine of course, and lots of other kids from school who had my number.
Obviously, Underground was on my mind, but I was thinking more of the text I’d gotten from Poppy the night before. I texted her to ask if Ty responded to what I said Monday night. She said he hadn’t, then texted back a few minutes later to say he thought I’d gotten back with Blaine, so she should quit wasting her time. She also said he’d been super depressed since the breakup, and I was probably the only one who could snap him out of it. I made sure she knew I absolutely wasn’t with Blaine.
It was true that I’d been letting him get way too close, though. It was a lot easier without the title of Ty’s girlfriend, and that was really what I wanted. I knew I needed to back off with Blaine. But what if Ty never spoke to me again? Sigh. So confusing.
I slung my purse and backpack over my shoulder and headed downstairs when I was done with all the morning stuff.
Almost there
Brit texted on my way down the stairs.
I grabbed a bagel, spread on some cream cheese, and bit into it on my way out the door.
“Have a great day, honey,” my mom called from somewhere inside the house.
“You too.”
I got on my phone to check out Underground’s article once I was sitting in the back of Brittany’s van.
“Morning, Hadley. Here’s today’s stickers.” Brittany reached into the brown paper bag beside her seat.
“Wait, Principal Horawitz said we can’t use stickers with Nicole’s name crossed out because it’s like bullying.”
“I know. He told me that, too.” She passed them back and I saw that today they only said TEAM HADLEY in big letters with a little silver star sticker next to my name.
“Than
ks, Brittany.” I stuck mine on and began reading the article.
* * *
UNDERGROUND
Clash of the Cheerleaders, Part III
* * *
With Principal Horawitz’s ban on hardcopies of Clash of the Cheerleaders, I’ve gone digital and dropped our school’s name from the title, so for the rest of the week you’ll have to find them here.
Since I started the website two nights ago, I’ve had an outpouring of people accusing me of showing favoritism to Hadley. From now on I’ll do my best to keep this article as non-biased as possible.
Today’s secret is what you’re all here for, though, so we’ll start with that. Anyone hear how somebody toilet papered Bryan Hobbs’s house recently? They used shaving cream to write LOSER all over his window and left rotting eggs smashed on his front porch. Yeah, that was Nicole. He’s also the same guy she was hardcore flirting with just days before it happened. First she likes him, then she defaces his house. She’s totally two-faced.
But since I’m trying to keep this fair, I will also reveal a secret about Hadley.
* * *
Oh my gosh! I paused to take in a deep breath, wondering what on earth Nicole might have told him about me. I considered myself pretty clean of major secrets. But she obviously didn’t need a true secret to give up the dirt on me.
Last night Nicole and the four cheerleaders on her side of The Clash of the Cheerleaders each sent me a message informing me that it was Hadley who spray-painted that giant fiery red cat on the school’s front doors last summer.
“What?!” I said, looking up in shock. “I did not paint that cat on the doors.”
“Just reading the article?” Brittany asked.
“Yeah, and this is crazy.”
Zaniah laughed. “Keep reading. It’ll make you feel better.” Brittany and Stephanie laughed with her.
So that’s Hadley’s secret. She painted the cat on the school doors. Of course I also happen to know who ACTUALLY painted the picture, because I’m the one who did it.