TO: GWEN
It says you read my last text.
Take me to Prom, Gwen. Who cares what people say?
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
Say something.
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
You can’t understand. Camelot is the only place where people still believe in me.
Please, Lance. Art is who I’m meant to be with.
Let me and him go to Prom.
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
You got it. See ya
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
Thank you, Lance. It means a lot.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Hey Art, looks like Lance is fine with it!! Says he’d be happy for you and me to go together. So . . . what time are you picking me up? :) We can just go in your car instead of some cheesy limo FROM: DAD
TO: GWEN
Guinevere, please give Cara the keys to the storage unit when she comes for them. They’re doing the appraisal of your mother’s clothes and jewelry today.
FROM: MORGAN
TO: GWEN
Hiiiii lovely, still no sign of your limo $??
FROM: GWEN
TO: MORGAN
Omg meant to write you—my date wants me to go in his car. Ugh :( Btw, if my first payment somehow goes through, mind sending it back to me?
FROM: ASSISTANT GIRL
TO: GWEN
Hello, Guinevere, it’s Cara Dos Santos. Your father said you’d be expecting me.
I’m outside Lioncelle Storage with the appraiser. Do you have the keys?
FROM: GWEN
TO: ASSISTANT GIRL
No.
FROM: ASSISTANT GIRL
TO: GWEN
He didn’t leave them with you?
FROM: GWEN
TO: ASSISTANT GIRL
Nope.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
You’re being quiet :)
Wait till you see my brand-new Prom dress
Would be fun if we could get you a tie to match!
** LIONCELLE STORAGE **
SECURITY ALERT—Dear Guinevere, Our records indicate the removal of one vintage gown from your storage unit early this morning. Please confirm . . .
FROM: GWEN
TO: MORGAN
Hey . . . you seen Art around?
FROM: MORGAN
TO: GWEN
He’s probably with Lance.
Lance lives near me and Art’s always there FROM: GWEN
TO: MORGAN
Since when??
FROM: MORGAN
TO: GWEN
Since forever. Why do you think the Knights leave Lance alone even tho he’s a loser He’s Art’s BFF
FROM: GWEN
TO: ELAINE
911 Are Lance and Art still in the gym? Art isn’t answering my texts.
FROM: ELAINE
TO: GWEN
Been in the gym all morning. Haven’t seen either of them.
FROM: DAD
TO: GWEN
Guinevere, Cara says you just told her you don’t have the key! And yet the storage unit informed me you stopped by to take one of your mother’s gowns early this morning—a gown that was to be appraised and sold TODAY. Call me IMMEDIATELY.
FROM: GWEN
TO: DAD
Let’s have this conversation when we’re on the same continent.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Didn’t you say you were at the gym with Lance?
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Hey! What’s up?
Lance and I blew off first couple periods so we could study FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Um. Okay. You said you were at the gym. But we’re all cool for Prom, right?
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Actually Lance thinks it’d be funny if he and I just went together We hate Prom and we want everyone in that bet pool to lose Ha ha FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Ha ha
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
You just unleashed the fires of hell.
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
Not even sweating.
Friday
FROM: ELAINE
TO: GWEN
TELL ME YOU’VE SEEN IT.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ELAINE
? Went for a run when I got up. Haven’t been near phone.
FROM: ELAINE
TO: GWEN
Someone started a Joust account for @Excalibur and posted a bunch of pics of Art side by side with limp noodles. Everyone’s saying Art has “issues.” That’s why he’s never been with a girl. That’s why he’s never asked you out!
FROM: GWEN
TO: ELAINE
Oh how rude! Poor Art.
FROM: LANCE
TO: GWEN
Pick up your phone. NOW.
FROM: GWEN
TO: LANCE
Getting warm, isn’t it?
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Lance is saying you started @Excalibur.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
ME? I’m the one trying to take it down! Lance is just mad I wouldn’t go to Prom with him—that’s why he’s being cruel.
Art, whoever did this to you is a real cockroach. My cousin works at Joust. I’m texting her to see if she can delete the account. Ask Nadia Croes. She’s on the cheer team and in your homeroom and will tell you how hard I’ve been working to fix this.
FROM: GWEN
TO: NADIA
Listen—whatever Art Pendragon asks you about me in homeroom, say yes, otherwise I’ll tell the girls you were in the bathroom with Boris Polanski at halftime instead of helping us sell Popsicles FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Ok I asked Nadia and she backed you up.
Sorry I doubted you. Thanks for your help.
It’s just weird coming to school where I used to have fun and now I’m being bullied by someone I don’t even know.
Lance still swears it’s you.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Lance and I have very different definitions of what it means to be your friend.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
All the Knights are on my case.
Saying I’m a virgin and all that.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
They’re pissed that I like you instead of them. Besides, I think it’s romantic if you’re saving yourself.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Who I hook up with isn’t anyone’s business.
But I don’t hook up to get off or to tell people or to feel better about myself or because I feel lonely on a Friday night.
I want real love.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
That’s . . . amazing.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
People are sticking wet noodles to my backpack Wtf
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Mmm, probably isn’t the best time for you to be going to Prom with Lance, is it FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Ha
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
For all we know, he’s the one who started @Excalibur FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Don’t be stupid
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
I’m serious.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Lance du Lac is my boy.
He’d take a bullet for me.
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Maybe he’s in love with you. Maybe he thinks if he can’t have you no one else will. Or that humiliating you in front of the whole school means he can be there to comfort you. Or all of the above.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
And here I thought you two were hooking up ha ha FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
WHAT??? DID HE SAY THAT????
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
No ha ha chill out
It’s just you two avoid each other at school but then hang out secretly Usually means you’re hooking up
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
One could say the same thing about you and Lance.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
That’s low
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
Like you said, who you hook up with is none of my business :) FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
I’m just not gonna show up to Prom at all
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART
That won’t solve anything. Look, think of it like the story from Merlin’s: I’m Persephone, you’re Persephone’s mother, and Lance is Hades. You need to fight for me.
FROM: ART
TO: GWEN
Huh? Doesn’t Persephone end up being Hades’s queen?
FROM: GWEN
TO: ART