“How do we make Carver and Denton pay?” Harry asked.
“First we have to make them think about Goldilocks,” I said.
“We can’t off another girl to jog their memory,” Viv said.
“No. But we can copy another aspect of the crime,” Graham pointed out.
She earmuffed her hands to her ears. “I don’t even want to know what gruesomeness you’re suggesting. Not tonight. Let’s just celebrate that we’re getting revenge.”
Harry raised his water bottle to the ceiling. “To taking down Carver and Denton.”
Viv twiddled her fingers evilly together. “Revenge is ours—hers.”
“To the all-powerful Order of IV,” Graham exclaimed.
I leaped up to grab the Mistress of Rebellion and Secrets and held her high. “To rebellions and secrets and revenge and justice and cutting down all the villains in Seven Hills.”
We were four knights marching into battle against evil. It wasn’t quite justice or revenge we were after, but their unnamed stepsister. I crowned us brave.
14
It was the day after Conner had texted me the first time, and Jess chatted up Viv. We were on our usual square of grass for lunch. I brooded over the text chain I had going with Conner. Four more messages had arrived today, all of them follow-ups to the “Heard your friends had blowout on Saturday. My invite get lost?” of the day before.
Amirite you forgot to send my invite?
Okay. Don’t beg. You’re forgiven.
If I’m invited to the next blowout.
Gotta be naked though.
Harry was restless, chewing a bite of sandwich with lazy agitation. “Conner used to have his buddies hold me on the ball wall so he could hammer balls at me,” he said. “If I fought, he’d threaten to tell his dad I kicked his ass. He said if his dad thought I was beating on him, he’d kick my family out and we’d be homeless.”
My hand went to my mouth. “Oh, Har.”
Graham tilted his head in a dubious manner and said, “Not homeless. Your family would have found another home.”
“My point is why would that dick expect an invite to our party?” Harry said. “Why did he slap me on the back last period and ask me what’s up?”
“I think technically it’s a naked party with Izzie he’s interested in,” Graham said. I hurled my unopened bag of pretzels at his head. He laughed as they collided with his chin.
“Conner gets invited to every party,” Viv said with a shrug.
“That, right there, that’s the attitude that creates the environment of impunity that spawns teenage tyrants like Amanda and Conner,” Graham said.
“You think you drooling over Jess sends the message that what’s hot is kindness?” I said.
“What’s hot is red lipstick,” Graham said, slyly grinning at Viv, who was reapplying gloss in her cell screen. Viv blew him a kiss. He turned to regard me steadily. “If you give less than a flying fuck about what Conner thinks of you, why don’t you tell him to shut up next time he texts you about nakedness and parties?”
I held up my cell. The screen was dark and it would have been more significant a gesture if the text that I sent in reply to Conner’s fifth message was displayed. It had been my only response.
“I think her unsubscribe was badass,” Harry said.
Graham munched on my pretzels. Harry offered me half of his cookie. I took a bite—snickerdoodle. Viv’s watchful silence made the cookie go dry. I coughed into my hand. I still hadn’t told her about homecoming. I was increasingly nauseated at the prospect.
Viv said, “Amanda and Conner have treated us like underlings for ages. I don’t see that finally having something they want is such a fail.”
“Neither do I,” Graham said. With his mouth full of pretzels, he added, “Can we talk about Denton and Carver rather than these mediocre excuses for villains now?”
I shushed him.
As if Graham had conjured them, there was Jess and Amanda. They ambled at an unhurried pace, lunch circles going quiet under their slow shadows. Just out for a stroll. But I knew they were headed to us. They dropped their backpacks upside down on the grass and sat next to us, royalty a head above the rest.
“Hi, Fantastic Four,” Amanda said with exaggerated friendliness. She was wearing a unicorn hoodie, its horn shimmery and wilting to one side. I tried sending Graham a mental message to call it a limp dick to send her scurrying away.
Viv lounged back on one elbow and lazily shielded the sun with her hand. “Hey, yourselves,” she said after a feigned yawn.
“What were you guys talking about?” Amanda asked.
“Nothing,” Harry said, as close to a snap as I’d ever heard from him. He put his headphones on.
“You looked pretty into nothing,” Amanda countered. Too late, he was bobbing his head to music.
She gave a nervous titter and looked out over the groups eating on the grass. “I get why you guys lunch here. It’s all picnic-y.”
Jess took her lollipop from its place in her cheek. “Super chill.”
“Anyways.” Amanda’s attention went to Viv. “I felt weird telling Jess to ask you about your bonfire rather than just asking myself. I thought, Vivian and I are so past all that middle school drama.”
Graham let out a bark of laughter. “Middle school? Seriously? I overheard you saying we have orgies with barnyard animals last week.”
“Hmmm,” said Amanda with a note of disbelief. “I mean, if someone said that, they probably don’t really believe you have actual sex with animals.” Her eyes lingered over Graham in a way that suggested he was the exception. Her icy blue stare returned to Viv. “My cousin is in college and she has a fake ID and people are always mistaking us for twins. I borrow her ID to buy kegs. All the time. I brought the keg last week, you know, to Slumber Fest. Anyway, I could get one for your next party. If you want people to have fun.”
Viv’s expression stayed remote. “Maybe. I’ll try to remember,” she said. I wondered at how she was hiding her satisfaction; she had finally gotten what she wanted: Amanda, sitting beside her, wanting her approval and an invitation. Normal things to want. Despite this, I frowned.
“Okay. Amazing. And congrats on getting cast as Antigone.” She waited for Viv to congratulate her back; we knew from Viv that Amanda had been cast as Antigone’s sister, Ismene. “Later,” Amanda finally said, popping up and needing to take a backstep to catch her balance. Viv’s indifference had caught her off guard.
They were about to leave when Jess, wielding the lollipop, said, “Oh, hey. I asked the others and we have two free spots in our limo.” She was looking at Viv and then her eyes cut to Graham and her smile became a touch less lifeless. “You should bring Viv to homecoming. You guys can ride with us.”
Graham balked at her, then at his palms, and finally at me. School dances were an amalgamation of many of the things Graham loathed about high school—social hierarchies, popular music, adult supervision, our classmates, and the school gym.