“Hi,” I replied, motioning for Chris to sit down. He offered me a flawless smile as he eased onto the seat. His cologne was a bit stronger than I preferred, but his adorable button-up shirt made up for that. I was trying really hard to notice the little things about people. The barista at Starbucks said it’d be good for me.
“So I was wondering,” he said quietly. “Would you come to my party Saturday after next? If not, it’s totally cool. I just—”
“Oh…” I hadn’t been expecting that. It wasn’t like I had plans, but—
“Party?” Izzie squealed, appearing suddenly and plopping down in the seat next to Chris. She looked positively elated. I knew I’d been out of the loop for while, but it seemed odd for her to be that pleased. Izzie didn’t really like jocks. “Is it a costume party?” She beamed. “I love those.”
“No…” he said slowly.
“Tessa will be there,” Leona said, walking over to sit across from us. Her lips were dark red, making her resemble a fifties pinup model. It was a fabulous look for her! I hoped this meant she’d worked things out with Marco.
“I will?” I darted a glance around the table just as Leona kicked my shoe.
“Yes,” she said through gritted teeth. “We’ll all be there.”
“Awesome.” Chris grinned, looking completely stoked that it’d been decided. I felt a little uneasy but forced back a tight smile. I liked to leave my weekends open in case Aiden came to town.
“Sounds great.”
I waited until he was gone and crossing the crowded lunchroom before turning to face Leona. “What was that about?”
Leona popped a stick of gum in her mouth, looking bored. “You’ll see,” she said with a wink.
Izzie giggled from next to me. They were definitely up to something, but it would have to wait. My phone vibrated in my pocket.
Holy Macintosh! It was Mary again. Before I could decide what to do, the ringing stopped. Had she hung up? Hm. Maybe she’d misdialed. I decided to wait to see if she’d call back. It could have been considered stalling, since I had no idea what I’d tell her about SOS or cheerleading, but I liked to think of it as proper etiquette. Oprah once pointed out that a person should plan what they’re going to say before speaking up. And Oprah was never wrong.
After lunch, Izzie and Leona went to the library for study hall as I slowly made my way to sociology class. I was halfway to my locker when I heard it—a new rumor. I only caught pieces of the story as I walked, but it still made me stop cold in my tracks.
SOS.
It was Robert Bullard. SOS (the real one) had caught him last year, cheating on his girlfriend with her cousin. It had been a really messy assignment. Lots of stakeouts, lots of…positions. Gross. Sometimes I hated thinking about those days.
I glided over to the right side of the hall and bent down, pretending to take a drink from the water fountain as I listened.
“Yeah,” he said, his nasally voice tinged with anger. “Apparently some bitches put together a website about cheating boyfriends.”
I choked on the water.
“No way.” Robert’s friend Shane rubbed at his pimply chin. “Wait. That would totally explain that break-in!”
“Yep.” Robert shook his head. “Heard about that. Some dude’s computer got fucked. Then there was this list of guys posted on the internet. Something called the ‘Naughty List.’ ” He scoffed.
“And no one knows who’s behind it?”
I gulped, my breath coming out in gasps. The copy-Kitten must have done something. A…website? I was about to hyperventilate.
“Nope,” Robert said. I sighed with relief. “But they call themselves SOS.”
“Oh, shit, man!” Shane said. “Do you think that’s how Melinda found out about you last year?”
“Probably,” Robert said, looking angry. As if SOS was the problem and not his cheating. “Like you said, it explains a lot. All I know is whoever it is, they’re going down.”
“I’m with you, bro.” Shane reached out to slap hands with him.
I straightened, my heart in my throat, and backed away from the fountain. Just as I was about to hurry down the hall, Robert called out to me.
“Hey, Tessa,” he said, his voice making goose bumps crawl across my flesh. (Once you’d heard someone talk dirty, even the most innocent remarks felt tainted.)
“Hi,” I replied, forcing a smile.
Robert grinned as Shane ogled me. “Heard about you and Aiden,” he said. “That’s too bad; he’s a real good guy.”
I couldn’t tell if he was being honest or checking to see if he had the go-ahead to ask me out. By the pervy smirk on his lips, I decided it was the latter.
“Thanks. I’ll tell him you said so.”
His smile faltered. “Cool,” he answered, nodding. “Well, see you around.”
My heart was still racing. They’d just been talking about SOS. They knew there was an SOS. And now it was just a matter of time until they found out the Smitten Kittens had started it! My fingers began to tremble, and I started to walk down the hall.
“By the way,” Robert called after me. “The squad sucks now. You were the best one.”
“And the hottest,” Shane added, and they both chuckled.
I swallowed hard and raised my hand in a gesture of acknowledgment, blinking back my tears. SOS was out. Now all of our tails were on the chopping block.
I wasn’t feeling emotionally stable enough to endure Mr. Rothstein’s latest sociology rant—probably a lesson on ethics again or the cruelty of popularity in today’s society. Instead of heading to class, I took out my phone and dialed Aiden’s dorm room.
“Please answer,” I murmured, feeling the flood of tears that was about to break through me.
“Hey, it’s Aiden. I’m not here, so leave a message.”
My heart nearly crumbled. I needed him. Right now. “Aiden, it’s me,” I said into the phone, my voice cracking. “When you get this, can you call me back? It’s an emergency.” He wasn’t answering. Seemed like lately, he was never there when I needed him.
“Hey, Tess.”
I jumped and spun around, clutching my phone like a weapon. “Joel!”
He laughed, holding up his hands as he stepped back. “Um… have you been taking a lot of self-defense classes lately? Because you’re starting to scare me. You’re like Master Tessa with the kung fu phone.”
I smiled, breathing deeply to calm myself down. At least my back spasm had temporarily disappeared. “More grasshopper than master.”
“Naw. You’re a total black belt.” Joel checked his watch and glanced back at me. “You’re late,” he said. “Were you calling for a ride or something?”
I knitted my eyebrows. “Ride? Oh, no. I was desperately trying to get a hold of Aiden.” Suddenly the worry came back over me. SOS. People knew.
“Kira told me you and Aiden broke up,” Joel said.
“Sort of.” I really wished people would stop pointing that out. I mean, did I go around making verbal observations about anyone else’s love life? Or “sort of” love life?
“Sounds complicated,” Joel said, making a face. “And I think complicated”—he leaned toward me—“kinda bites.”
I nodded. “Believe me, it does.”
We both sighed at the same time and looked at each other. “Jinx?” he asked.
“No, I think we have to say the same thing for it to be a jinx. Sighs don’t count—”
“Don’t count—” He broke in to finish my sentence.
We both paused. “Jinx.” We laughed.
“Okay,” he said. “Don’t talk yet. What were you desperately in need of? Now, I’m no Aiden Wilder—mostly because I suck at sports—but maybe I can be of service in another way. I’m a good listener.…”
My smile faded. I needed Aiden. I had major life drama to deal with. First, Principal Pelli’s ultimatum with the squad and then the SOS outing—which would most certainly lead to a Smitten Kittens outing, eventually ending i
n social upheaval. It was almost too much. I wanted to talk to someone, but I didn’t think Kira’s boyfriend was the obvious choice.
“Sorry, Joel,” I said. “It’s a secret.”
He smiled deviously, and his offset tooth looked extra-adorable under his curved lip. “Secret, huh?” he whispered, leaning closer to me. “You know that only makes me want to know more, right?”
Hm. He had a good point. “It’s not important,” I said, in an attempt to dismiss it. But when he rubbed his palms together excitedly, I knew I’d said too much.
“Okay.” I took his arm to pull him closer. “But you can’t say anything. Not a word.”
“Um…” He looked around the hallway, swinging his head back and forth dramatically. “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” He paused, crinkling his nose. “Not really. Not the needle thing—it sounds much too painful.”
I stared at him for a second, then laughed. Even though Joel and I hadn’t known each other that long, I liked him. He seemed completely trustworthy. And right now, I couldn’t say that about a lot of people.
“So Principal Pelli called me into his office,” I whispered.
“Troublemaker,” Joel teased.
I gave him a mock glare before continuing. “He…” I swallowed hard. “He wants me to take back the captainship of the Smitten Kittens.”
Joel straightened up and ran his hand through his brown hair. “Whoa. That’s bad.”
“I know. Kira would die. I have no idea how to tell—”
“Hey!” Kira called, jogging down the hall, her cheer skirt flopping up as she came to stand next to Joel. She hooked her arm in his. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said to him, smiling.
“Right. Sorry.” Joel stared at the ground, looking worried. I regretted telling him anything, because it would surely put him in an awkward position. He looked at me. “I was…helping Tessa with something.”
Kira glanced between me and Joel. She furrowed her brow. “With what?”
“K, I need to talk to you,” I said firmly. I didn’t want Joel to be the one to tell her first. Once Kira heard that the principal and coach didn’t believe in her cheerleading ability, her self-esteem would be blown. But I had to say something. Right? I mean, how else would it look if I started coming to all the practices and telling her what to do?
Joel cleared his throat and shook his head slightly. “I have to go,” he said loudly. “But Tessa, I’ll get in touch with you later about that physics assignment.”
“Ugh,” Kira said. “I hate fortune-tellers.”
Both Joel and I turned to her and then back to each other. He smiled. “Don’t start on it without me, okay?” he asked.
Obviously he didn’t want me to tell Kira about the squad stuff, and maybe he was right. I was ready to take any excuse to get out of what would be an uncomfortable conversation with Kira. And besides, I had bigger pom-poms to shake.
“Okay,” I agreed.
Joel mimed wiping sweat from his forehead and then leaned down to give Kira a quick kiss on the nose. “I’ll catch up with you after school,” he said, untangling his arm from hers.
“But I thought…” Kira looked confused, a pout pulling at her well-glossed lips. “Never mind. I’ll see you then.”
Joel gave her hand a quick squeeze before walking away and down the hall. When I looked back at Kira, she was crying.
I widened my eyes and reached out to touch her arm. “Weeping willow, K! What’s wrong?”
“I think he’s breaking up with me,” she sobbed. “You know what I realized, Tess? He said space, as in needing space! He doesn’t like me anymore.”
“My word, no!” I immediately wrapped my arm around her in a hug, her blonde curls tickling my face. I couldn’t believe she was thinking so negatively. “Hey,” I said, pressing my lips into a smile as I pulled back to look her in the eyes. “He’s totally smitten with you, K. He practically told me so earlier.”
“Earlier?” she squeaked, blinking quickly. She dabbed at her black mascara, which had begun to pool under her eyes. “What did he say?”
I rotated my torso a few times as I spoke, stretching out my back. “I saw him in the hall after the meeting and mentioned the space thing. Sorry, K. It just slipped out. Anyway, he said that he thought maybe you wanted a break, but I assured him that you didn’t. And he was completely relieved.” I smiled, but Kira didn’t look happy.
“You guys were talking about our relationship?”
“Not really, we just…” I exhaled. I’d really thought it would cheer her up, knowing that he still adored her. But now she was getting upset instead. “Look, he loves you, K. That was all he said.”
Her jaw clenched just a little before she finally smiled. Kira had been stressed lately, and I didn’t need to make it worse by bringing up her boyfriend or mentioning cheerleading. No, I would have to go about this differently. Carefully.
Just as I was about to apologize again, Leona came running down the hall with Izzie in tow. “Bathroom,” she called. “Now!”
My stomach twisted at the urgency in her voice. Kira and I darted ahead of them into the girls’ room, exchanging a nervous glance.
Then the bathroom door swung open, banging against the wall with a loud clang. Leona was standing there with her cell phone in hand, her brown hair wild around her face.
“Holy crap, where have you two been?” she demanded, letting go of Izzie’s sleeve.
“I was looking for Joel,” Kira said, splashing cold water on her face. “And Tessa…was talking to him. To Joel, I mean.” She paused, water dripping down her cheeks before she reached over to crank out a paper towel.
“Look,” I said toward the girls, making my tone very serious. “Before you say anything, I need to tell you . . . I heard something awful in the hallway.”
Leona narrowed her eyes and looked me over. “What kind of awful? Spill.”
I took a deep breath. “I overheard Robert Bullard talking about SOS. He knew the name.” My heart was pounding in my chest, but Leona didn’t look nearly as stunned as I’d thought she should. “Did you hear me?” I asked.
“Tell her,” Izzie said, nudging Leona with her elbow. My breath caught in my chest. The floral smell in the bathroom mixed with my newly perspiring underarms was making me nauseous.
“Don’t get your bloomers in a bunch,” Leona warned. “But you have to look at this.” She held out her cell, and I leaned over its tiny display. I squinted. It showed a new message from the SOS e-mail account.
“They have a blog?” Well, it wasn’t a website, but close enough. And just as bad.
Kira pushed in next to me. “Really? That’s awesome. Why didn’t we think of that?”
“Because we were top secret, stupid,” Leona snapped.
“Or maybe you didn’t know how to set up a blog,” Kira shot back.
Leona scoffed, brushing her bangs away from her face. “Please, blogs are so easy to set up, even you could do it. And we both know how hopeless you are with technology. Hello, Facebook disaster of sophomore year.”
“I’ve been working on it!” Kira shouted back.
My brain was going fuzzy with tension overload when the bathroom door swung open, nailing Leona on the shoulder.
“What the hell?” she screamed. The culprit behind the swinging door was Chloe Ferril.
Chloe’s red mouth spread into a sarcastic grin as she looked from face to face. “Did they relocate cheer practice to the bathroom now?” She laughed to herself and waltzed in, her boots echoing through the tiled room. “Probably a good idea, since your routines are shit.”
Kira growled under her breath as Chloe elbowed past us into the handicapped stall and closed the door. Leona came to stand next to me, rubbing her shoulder. “Are you setting up the surveillance?” she whispered in my ear, nodding toward the closed metal door. “I just know it’s her. Bitch hit me with a door.”
“And my routines rock,” Kira hissed quietly, biting a
t her nail and sidling up next to me. “We just need more practice. God, I hate her. You should totally fight her again, Tess. Only this time, kick her ass.”
I darted a glance at her. I felt a hand on my shoulder as Izzie joined us. “I can’t believe she’s using the handicap stall,” she whispered. “That’s so tacky. She’s not even disabled.”
The toilet flushed with a loud whoosh, and we scattered to our respective sinks, as though we hadn’t been loitering.
“Ready for homecoming?” Chloe asked, stepping up behind Kira and me to run her hands under the water.
“I’m not a cheerleader, remember?” I answered, holding her stare.
She turned off the faucet before shaking out her hands into the sink. “That’s right.” She winked. “Forgot.”
She moved back, studying her reflection as she brushed her hands through her long blonde hair—the only evidence of the old Chloe, the schemer who’d tried to steal Aiden. She sighed. “Well, good luck with that,” she said, shooting a glance at Kira.
“Thanks, wench,” Kira returned, turning away from her.
I half expected Leona to trip Chloe as she walked out, but instead she held open the door for her. Once Chloe was gone, Leona pushed the door closed and turned back to us, her mouth hanging open.
“Did you see that?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Kira said, bending toward the mirror to reapply her lip gloss. “Black is so not her color.”
“Not that,” Leona said. “She didn’t even use soap to wash her hands! That’s completely unsanitary.”
“And totally nasty,” Izzie echoed.
Although I fully agreed that hygiene was important, we needed to focus. I’d been hoping that Robert had been mistaken about SOS breaking into someone’s house to wipe their computer files. I mean, SOS had hacked plenty of computers, but to clear the hard drive? That was harsh. Still it was obvious after the latest message—and now the news of the blog—that this faux Kitten meant business.
I rested my shaking hands on the cold porcelain of the sink. I’d never thought the copy-Kitten’s ruse would get this far. Saying you’re the Society of Smitten Kittens was one thing, but actually performing missions? That was appalling!