Keep Your Friends Close

by Elsie Vandevere

  “What?” Mazy asked.

  “Nothing. Thanks.”

  Mazy shrugged it off as the others sat down. Two things hit her like a splash of cold water. First, that her mother, Cassidy Brennan, was an absolute genius. Second, Maggie had just made real, true friends with Mazy. Who might be a psycho killer.

  Maggie tried to be as peppy as her companions. Becca didn’t even chat about the investigation. But Maggie couldn’t care less about the pep rally. She just kept replaying the rumor of her ripping apart the poster, the humiliation of everyone staring at her and her defaced locker, the way she had made a fool of herself at try-outs, and the way she had thrown Mark under the bus.

  Now her brain chose to replay the moments of their date that had not been terrifying: talking, eating nachos at his uncle’s place, beating him at darts. The only part of being a cheerleader Maggie had down was smiling when she didn’t necessarily mean it.

  You know your life is too complicated when history is a relief, Maggie thought. Watching the clips of families being separated, priced like cattle, bearing long scars down dark, muscular backs, she was not the only one who had a hard time swallowing or keeping her eyes dry.

  When the bell rang before the elective period that was not to be, the history teacher flipped on the light and commented, “Looks like we could actually use some pep now.”

  This rally would take place in the gym. Maggie caught some glances from her friends in cheer uniforms and ribbons as she entered. She avoided their looks, not wanting sympathy at the moment. She didn’t deserve it. She got a text.

  On your right, near the top. -Tommy.

  Not making the team was suddenly looking much better. She found him in the crowd climbing to him without bothering to fight her smile.

  “I heard you talked to the police.” He said immediately.

  She sat down. “Boy, that was fast.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “I told them about the letter?”

  “You what?!”

  “Come on, I couldn’t keep it a secret from police, Tommy.”

  He did not seem happy with her. “You could have told me about it first.”

  “We didn’t exactly have time to consult before they questioned me. Besides, I got another one.” His face was shocked, and he said something she could not hear over the air horn blaring.

  The girls bounded about and shouted into the bleachers as they all clapped.

  “Another note!” He hissed into her ear, lips brushing her hair. She nodded, eyes forward. “What did it say?”

  The team ran in, jerseys on, hooting like wildmen. She laughed at Tyler’s crazy ape face as he shook it. Girls squealed at a painful pitch. Tommy stood and clapped for them, shouting Tyler’s name. Not Marks.

  “Okay, so first things first.” Sarah announced as the team took their seats. “As you know, we have an open spot on the team, and this past week we held tryouts for that spot.”

  “You don’t think it's Ashley, do you?” Maggie made a face as the school cheered for no reason.

  “Margaret, the note.” He reminded her.

  But Sarah was speaking again, “And we considered a lot of hard working girls for this spot, but can only take one of you. We went with a girl who had a constant resilient attitude, showed courage, and made a real effort to learn and get along well with the squad. Those are the most important parts of being a cheerleader.”

  It was impossible to tell if the smiles the girls were wearing, lined up behind their captain, were legitimate or not.

  “So welcome our newest addition, Maggie Brennan!”

  She nearly fell off her seat when the crowd erupted. Apart from that, Maggie did not move.

  Tommy was no help, staring at her as if he didn’t recognize her, shaking his head back and forth. She thought about hiding behind people, but they were looking—God, they were balking at her. She wasn’t even in a cheer outfit. She didn’t have a ponytail or a single ribbon. But Sarah was waving her down impatiently, and somehow it was impossible not to obey Sarah.

  Maggie felt very tall standing on the bleachers. She felt awkward and heavy taking big steps down to the gym floor. At first, the room rang with polite applause, but as she made her way down, like a dead man walking, the applause weakened. The whispers returned.

  “That’s her. The girl who tore up her poster took her spot!” they were saying. She knew that even if she couldn’t make it out. And because she couldn’t flip them off, she turned and smiled instead, waving once, showing every tooth and dimple she had. The team was standing, cheering. Mark applauded, giving her a nod of acknowledgement. Her stomach fell. She still smiled.

  Tyler leapt forward, lifting her on his shoulder and spinning in a tight circle to the amusement of many. She kept smiling.

  Then came the hugs. She was not much of a hugger. To be honest, she wasn’t sure where her arms were supposed to go or how avoid boob-bumping. She got face full after face full of hairspray as each member of the squad hugged her. Sarah pointed to the bench where she could wait since she wasn’t changed. All the while, she smiled through the chemical fumes.

  Despite the fact that everyone’s eyes were on her, her name flittering among the crowd like a hummingbird, she had finally learned how to fight her humiliation tear-jerk response. She kept smiling.

  And as the pep rally ensued, her heart hammering nervously, she spied Tommy’s figure slink off the bleachers in the far end of the gym. She watched him walk out of the gym without a glance back. She couldn’t cry, though. All she could do was smile.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Fight

  “Sarah, what were you thinking?” Maggie asked her with a breathless smile the second the rally ended.

  “Are you kidding? Maggie, you’re helpful. You helped with the dance, the poster.” Sarah did not forget. “You went out on a limb to even try out, went to conditioning, even trained extra—and you didn’t even do poorly in the try-outs as you think. You’re humble, you’re friends with us already, and I know you made up with Mazy this morning.” She winked. “Just stay out of detention and you’re on the squad.”

  “No, it’s your smile. The dimples,” one girl joked who Maggie did not know yet. She seemed okay. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.

  As they all got ready, the pressure mounted. Her hands trembled as she tried to change into the uniform they got her. She had trouble typing the text to her mom.

  I somehow made the squad. Game tonight at 7.”-Maggie

  Are you freaking kidding ME?!

  Maggie gave a little snort of laughter.

  Stretching helped relax her for a minute. Maggie focused on controlling her breathing and memorizing the girls’ names. She knew Sarah, Becca, and Mazy. Rachel was the nice girl who complimented her smile and she had a twin named Rowan (not identical). Becky was quiet and had braces, and Abby was the tiniest blondest one—the top of the pyramid and medal-winning gymnast. She offered to help Maggie learn some new stuff. Maggie was very willing.

  Sarah kept calling for hydration, and it seemed they had to drink. Maggie had to relieve her bladder before they went through the cheers and routine for that evening. She struggled to keep up with others’ perfect time.

  “Okay, now who is up for grabbing a bite together to welcome our new member?”

  “Oh, you guys don’t have to do that.”

  “Do you have other plans?” Becca asked bluntly.

  “No.”

  “Then let’s do it!” The others cheered their approval.

  “The boys will be at Jake’s.” Great. Mark would be there. At his uncle’s place.

  “Let’s go there.”

  “Okay, but everyone be back here at six, no later, and if you drink I will crucify you at halftime,” Sarah warned. She did not seem to be joking.

  Maggie was already tired. She could not imagine running through all that again through an entire football game. The one she had gone to before lasted longer than a movie. The game she went to with To
mmy.

  Mazy and Mags piled into Becca’s car and they headed in the direction Maggie assumed was Jake’s.

  “I was dying to tell you!” Mazy squealed. “I can’t believe I didn’t!”

  Maggie laughed nervously. Becca gave her a sideways, knowing glance. But they couldn’t talk.

  Maggie had a feeling try-outs were rigged as much as the Homecoming Court had been. But that was the thing about high school; mostly it was all rigged. At least her friends had looked out for her. Her friends.

  They pulled up to the familiar place, and Maggie tried to think of something to say to get them all to go elsewhere. They probably would have gone anywhere she wanted since it was for her, but unfortunately she did not know of anywhere else in town.

  The moment they walked in, the noise was thunderous. Crammed inside was an entire football team and a few other people watching sports which blared loudly from multiple screens. The kitchen rang with the clatter of pots and pans, and even the phone was ringing. Everyone was so excited. Maggie wondered why she was not.

  The girls got their own table at the back, the boys staring at they pranced past. Maggie could feel Mark’s eyes on her. She turned and sure enough found him watching her. She looked away and pulled at her sleeves, trying to force her dimples out of hiding.

  “Don’t be nervous, Maggie. It won’t be too hard,” Sarah comforted.

  “People are rarely watching us anyway. They are gossiping or watching the game,” Mazy commented, which seemed to irk Sarah, though she said nothing.

  “If anything goes wrong, the whole squad backs you up and acts like it was planned that way,” Becca added. That part was a little comforting. At least she wouldn’t be alone out there. Her stomach grumbled, and she shameless ordered nachos to celebrate.

  “The carbs!” the thin Rachel murmured as if she were saying something obscene.

  Maggie rolled her eyes and ordered them. “Hi Jake, can I get some of those pieces of heaven you call nachos?”

  Jake let out a bark of laughter. “Sure, Maggie was it? You bet. Couldn’t keep away, huh?”

  “No, sir,” she shook her head.

  The football team was talking with the squad, so Maggie lingered at the bar to wait for her food, awkwardly looking above and around the bar, feigning interest in sports memorabilia on the walls. It was better than talking to Mark.

  She spied the pinball machine, recalling Mark’s understanding way of brushing over her father in conversation, his playfulness about squeezing his potato arm. Poor Mark.

  A steaming plate of nachos slid along the wood toward her. She handed him the money and went back to her seat. They tasted just as amazing as last time, but each molten bite of queso filled her with guilt. These were Mark’s nachos. Here she was with a squad celebrating her joining a team she did not belong with, buddies with someone she had pretty much accused of murder to the police. And she had not even told her friends what she had done.

  A large hand pulled away one her best nachos and devoured the monstrous piece in a single munch. Tyler.

  “Hey, that was mine.”

  Tyler shrugged, unbothered. “You weren’t eating it anyway. What’s eating you?”

  Maggie told a half-truth. It was more true than her fib about cheerleading and less true than telling Tyler she’d ratted on his best friend. “I think Tommy is mad at me.”

  “Why?” he seemed puzzled.

  “Cheer,” she mumbled.

  Tyler shook his head. “No way. If Tommy’s upset, it’s something else. You should talk to him.”

  She half-grinned. “How come you want to set us up?”

  The question seemed to take more thought than Maggie expected. Tyler chewed his smooth bottom lip, watching her. He glanced around, still not answering. She leaned forward, intrigued.

  Then, looking somewhere behind her, he froze. “What the hell?”

  Tyler’s face altered, his body rigid as he watched the door intently. She turned and saw before the others had noticed: Officer Cox and Officer Latchley walked in the glass door in their uniforms. The bell tinkling overhead couldn’t be heard through the din. The pair surveyed the room, as if looking for someone. Cox looked determined, a little red, but Latchley’s face and movements were forced.

  Maggie gulped audibly, but thankfully Tyler had not noticed. His rage grew, making him somehow more attractive, as he watched his father approach the students. More specifically, the football team. Then, he zeroed in on Mark.

  Mark was grinning widely down at two females fawning over him, his back to the door and the two men standing expectantly behind him. Maggie could see his face. She watched the moment when everything was fine slowly turn as he noticed his friends had stopped moving, stopped chatting. They were staring at him. No behind him.

  Mark’s uncle Jake had eyed the cops when they came in and had hushed everyone at the bar. Now his furrowed look of concern creased into full-on anger. He hopped over the bar through the mass of stiff bodies towards his nephew just as Mark turned where Maggie couldn’t see his face.

  Maggie was not sure who grabbed who first, if Tyler had reached for her hand or if she had clung to him without thinking, but she held onto it all the same. In that moment, their perspective was the same for once: trapped on the sidelines, unable to move yet forced to watch.

  Even in the unnatural silence, they couldn’t make out what the three at the center of the room were saying, their voices low.

  “What’s going on here?” Jake demanded. They heard that clearly.

  “We need to ask Mark some questions.” Cox’s full midriff was puffed out.

  “Right before the game?” Jake’s voice hit a much higher pitch than usual, his arms moving with his eyebrows, struggling to make sense of what must have seemed absolutely ridiculous. Who would suspect Mark? They had no reason to think that. Anna had said no one believed Ashley about Mark and Amanda, so why would they? Who would have said anything to implicate him?

  Slowly, it dawned on Maggie what Ashley meant by her warning. Soon, they would figure out who would have said something about Mark, and they would turn on her like they had Ashley. She would have to quit cheer like Ashley, lose her friends like Ashley, maybe even go nuts like Ashley. Who wouldn’t, if everyone thought you were lying and you were telling the truth?

  Cox didn’t respond, just led Mark away toward the door. He wasn’t in handcuffs at least. That was a good sign. Latchley looked back to his son. Tyler went forward, tugging Maggie along with him; he did not seem to notice or care that they were still attached. “Dad?” His voice sounded so much younger, Maggie felt, like a lost kid.

  Latchley’s handsome eyes were serious; he gave one shake of his head. Tyler froze. Maggie looked in between them.

  “But, but this is nuts!” Jake sputtered.

  Mark turned and gave them all a confident smile. “Don’t worry, everyone. I’ll be back in time to play!”

  Some laughed, relaxing the group somewhat. Mark’s face was boyish and handsome and beaming, but his eyes were cold. And they were fixed directly on Maggie.

  Latchley made to follow his partner, throwing one farewell look to his son He acknowledged Maggie. He nodded, surveying her uniform. “Guess you didn’t do as badly as you thought.”

  Becca. She had to find Becca.

  Becca stood in shock, Mazy watching her. Sarah rubbed her arms, watching the door anxiously as if any of them might be dragged out at any second. Maybe she was worried for Mark, or maybe she was worried about Mark.

  “Becca?” Mazy asked tentatively.

  Becca shook her head, bringing herself out of her stupor. Her tan face flooded with color. She grabbed her purse, throwing her phone into it. “This is bullshit!” She was headed for the door.

  “Wait, where are you going?” Mazy scrambled after her, legs much shorter.

  “To the station.”

  “How will Maggie and I get back?”

  “I’ll take them.” Sarah gave a solemn nod to Becca which she returned.
She left alone.

  People tried to return to normal, but it was quieter than before. Then again, Mark did have the loudest voice. Regardless, the energy wasn’t the same. It was trying to be, but it wasn’t. No one was eating, so no one noticed Maggie had lost her appetite.

  She caught Mazy looking at her with something resembling sympathy. “What?” Maggie asked her frankly.

  “What a horrible first game. We can’t even celebrate you.” She knew what Mazy meant: we can’t even celebrate your first game cheering without it becoming about Amanda. If Mazy had killed the girl, Maggie bet she regretted it.

  “That’s okay,” Maggie said.

  “You’re nicer than me,” Mazy said, switching her chin to rest in her other hand.

  For a moment, she almost laughed. That, after all, was not a high mark to hit. But then she remembered how she had just betrayed her friends, jeopardized the whole game and season on a suspicion. Kept it all a secret, another one that was going to blow up in her face. She probably only made the team for this—her punishment. And it started when she had dared to like someone else’s boyfriend. It couldn’t have been planned more perfectly, and it couldn’t have been planned, could it? By Amanda?

  Maybe that’s how Tommy felt when he said he was not as nice as she thought. Tommy. She pulled out her phone to text him. She paused. What she wanted to say was: “Are you mad at me?” Possibly including a sad face. What she should probably tell him was: “The cops took Mark to talk to him.”

  She twitched her nose, chewed the inside of her mouth, but the answer still eluded her. She put the phone away. Tyler had probably told his brother everything he needed to know anyway.

  “There’s no point in sitting here.” Sarah seized her sweater off the back of her chair. She also had seen no point in pretending to enjoy herself, brooding at the back table for the half hour since Becca stormed out, constantly jiggling her leg. It was now 5:30.

  Mazy and Mags followed their captain. She reminded everyone to be on time and at the field. Sarah drove a plain black four door. It did not smell anything like the perfume. It smelled like books, actually, maybe laundry, though a different detergent from the one Tommy’s mom used, and maybe a hint of cat. It was not as clean and organized as Maggie had pictured, a little messy but not dirty, but Sarah did drive as smooth and carefully as Mags had predicted.