“Your dad cares about the environment just as much as we do!” Shawn shouted. “You keep painting him to be some villain but he isn’t. You can’t hide this from him. There are going to be consequences.”
“Please, like what? He owns people like your family, Shawn. He might care more about his little projects than he does about me, but whatever. After this, that’ll change. The only thing that could have stopped this project were those stupid mice of yours, and now they are gone for sure. Just, you know, a little early.”
“He’ll think you’re a monster, which is exactly what you are,” Shawn shouted.
With a resounding crack, Jessica slapped Shawn across the face.
“Shawn!” Leila shouted.
“What the hell, Jessica?” Shawn yelled, glaring at her. “You can’t—”
“I can do whatever I want,” Jessica spat. “You don’t get to talk to me like that.”
“People are going to look into it all,” Leila said, pointing at finger at Jessica. “You cheated.”
“So?” Jessica scoffed. “No one’s gonna know. Yes, I killed your little mice and probably everything else in that forest, but my dad’s project gets to move forward. Maybe one day I’ll tell him, and he’ll actually appreciate me for once.”
Leila sighed, her chest grew heavy, and she shook her head.
“What?” Jessica snarled.
“It’s just sad, is all.” Leila shrugged. “I actually feel kind of sorry for you. I . . . I know what it’s like to have questions about your family, to feel a little different. You know?”
“No, I don’t know, and I don’t need people like you feeling sorry for me,” Jessica said. “I have everything, and you have—”
Leila banged on the locker by Gwen.
“Did you get all that, Sarika?”
The locker squeaked open, and Sarika squeezed out of the space sideways. Her phone was in her hand, and she pressed a button on it.
“Sure did.” She waved the phone in Jessica’s face. “You’re going down.”
Jessica reached out and swatted the phone out of her hand, sending it crashing to the ground in a shattering of glass and plastic, bits splintering all along the cold, hard hallway.
“Aw, what the—” Sarika started.
“It was a nice try,” Jessica said, walking over to the phone. She stomped on it and promptly kicked the broken pieces down the hallway. “I swear, every time some idiot tries to trap somebody in movies with a recording, I always think they should have just broken the thing. But—”
“What kind of idiot do you think I am?” Sarika shouted. She glared at Rebekah. “You should really get out of here.” She turned back to Jessica as Rebekah bolted down the hall. “I had that recording saving to my Dropbox and my cloud drive. You really thinking breaking my phone is going to stop me? Please. I’m not some dumb supervillain in a cartoon.”
Jessica stared.
“But you are,” Sarika said coldly.
“What are . . . what are you even going to do with that?” Jessica groaned, leaning against the row of lockers. “Construction starts tonight. Tonight. No one’s going to stop everything from getting torn down. Your precious little park belongs to my family. My dad controls the rights to—”
“Well that’s just it, isn’t it?” Leila asked, breathing hard and trying to smile at Jessica. “It would be terribly easy to stop the construction and demolition if the rights to develop there no longer belonged to him.”
“What are you even talking about?” Jessica asked, her eyes full of panic.
“Here’s the thing,” Leila continued. “What you did, poisoning public land in a city park? That’s a serious crime. Killing an endangered species? That’s a federal crime. Double the time, no doubt. And poisoning them maliciously and on purpose, contaminating, what, acres of land? What do you think, Sarika?”
“Sounds like serious jail time to me, never mind the fines.” Sarika crossed her arms, and Leila fought the urge to smile. She made an excellent bad cop in this situation. “Any scholarships you were hoping to get this year? Bye.”
“Colleges in general?” Leila added. “Forget it. Who wants the girl that was splattered all over the news for murdering endangered animals in an historic section of a national park?”
“No one?” Sarika asked.
“No one,” Leila said, staring at Jessica hard. “And a powerful man like your father will be really disappointed. I mean, incredibly disappointed. How would he recover? People might even think he had something to do with all of it. Might shut him out.”
“Maybe he did have something to do with it!” Sarika exclaimed. “Who says he didn’t?”
“Okay!” Jessica shouted, tears streaming down her face. Her pale skin had turned bright red. “Okay. What can I do? What do you want me to do?”
“Oh, we just want you to squirm and be miserable,” Sarika replied. “Leila’s dad, who sits on that board with your dad, already has the photo of you poisoning the park and running away. He should also have the recording we just made, so . . .”
Sarika shrugged.
Jessica took a step forward. She balled her fists and shook them at Leila and Sarika.
“This isn’t over,” she snarled. “And you!” She pointed at Gwen. “How could you? I made you in this school. People only know you because of me.”
“Maybe I don’t want them to anymore,” Gwen said, crossing her arms. “You’re a bad person.”
“Shawn?” Jessica said, her voice weak and sad.
“I’ve got nothing to say to you,” he said, staring at her hard. “You manipulated me. Threatened me. Made it seem like your family would shut mine down if . . . I broke up with you. I’m my own person.”
“Whatever. Fuck all you.” Jessica turned on her heel and stormed away, her shoes smacking hard against the floor as she disappeared down the empty hall. “This isn’t over!” she shouted, her voice echoing in the hallway.
“Yeah, it is,” Leila said. She leaned back against the lockers, the metal surface cold against her back, and slid down to the floor. Sarika knelt down and threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly. Shawn edged up cautiously to join in, his embrace soft and barely noticeable.
“Hey,” Leila said to Gwen while Sarika and Shawn hugged her. Gwen looked pensively at them, offering a small smile. “Get in here.”
They hugged in the hallway until the bell rang.
THREAD: CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION (SATURDAY!)
SUBFORUM: PHILADELPHIA
CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION (SATURDAY!)
Posted by WithouttheY
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2017 | 1:02PM
Hey everyone!
After the accidental poisoning of the grounds around the Thomas Mansion, Philadelphia’s GRID Magazine, that local mag that talks about the environment and sustainability and all that, is organizing a clean-up crew to fix what’s happened in the now-preserved and donated area.
If you’re coming, please bring protective gloves that won’t absorb too much liquid. Those weird yellow ones your grandparents have under their kitchen sinks will work just fine. You know the kind.
Also, if you have buckets, brushes, and tear-free shampoo, that would be very welcome. While we haven’t found too many poisoned animals in the area, we will be expanding the search beyond the grounds to look for sick animals that wandered away from the area after being poisoned.
So protective gloves are key, because as cute as squirrels and chipmunks and rabbits might be, when they are delusional and poisoned they’re mad and will bite. Wouldn’t you?
We’ll meet at the grounds at noon on Saturday, and bagged lunches will be provided as well as snacks, thanks to GRID. We’ll be cleaning until dark, and into the weekend. Questions? You can DM me for my cell number.
Thanks so much!
RE: CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION
Posted by DontCallMeGwenifer
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2017 | 1:16PM
See you soon!
RE: CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION
Posted by Dr. Cordova
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2017 | 2:02PM
Check your DMs / texts. I’ll be by with a crew from the Academy of Natural Sciences this afternoon, as well as through the weekend with whoever we can spare.
We’re all very proud of you girls.
RE: CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION
Posted by Toothless
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2017 | 2:17PM
HEY.
RE: CLEAN UP DAY AT THE THOMAS MANSION
Posted by A Dash of Paprika
SEPTEMBER 1st, 2017 | 2:23PM