A Whole New Crowd(18)

And then he ripped himself away from me.

“What…?” I murmured, dazed.

Tray ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”

A flash of headlights filled the room, illuminating him a moment. It cast a shadow over him. He looked so gorgeous in that moment. Then the door slammed shut and I hurried out of there. When the front door opened, Mandy was there. I grabbed her arm and pulled her with me. “We’re getting out of here.”





CHAPTER FIVE


Mandy cried the entire ride back to our house. After she showered, she curled up on my bed and cried herself to sleep. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I slept on the couch in my room. I figured Mandy didn’t want to be alone. The next morning, she cried again—through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She didn’t once ask about getting revenge. After she went to bed early that night, around eight, I dressed in some black work-out clothes and slipped outside to my car.

I needed to do something to help take the heat off her tomorrow.

Driving to school, I parked on the road by the football field. It was far enough away from the normal parking lots that no one would look at it suspiciously and, if need be, I could run through the football stadium and evade anyone in the trees that outlined the perimeter if I got caught.

When I got to the school, I circled around to the janitor’s office and hooked a leg onto the fire escape. Darting up, I pulled myself onto the roof and crossed to one of the heating fans. Seeing it had been turned off, I unscrewed the shaft, lifting it clear off. Then I went to work on the fan—wedging a rock between the blades, just in case it turned on—I slipped my hands through the blades and found the bolts. After they had been unscrewed, I lifted the fan up and then slipped through. My feet touched the ceiling, and I ran my hands around the flooring until I found the hatch that led to the venting shafts. I lowered myself down and then began crawling, counting until I thought I was over the main office. My estimation had been correct—I was in the main office.

The P.A. system was located in the principal’s office. I turned it off and changed the alarm settings. When I was done, school tomorrow wouldn’t be filled with their daily announcements or warning bells. Rap music would be playing instead, and when they tried to shut it off, a bunch of firewalls and requests for passwords would pop up. I wasn’t dumb. They’d get it shut off, but it would take most of the morning and by then, most people wouldn’t be paying attention to the love scandal of Devon and Jennica. Mandy would be free and clear to be miserable all alone amidst the chaos.

As I climbed back up through the shafts and headed back to my car, I made a mental note to bring earplugs. My hair would have to be done to cover them, though. It wasn’t revenge against Devon, but it would happen. I would wait until an opportunity presented itself. Then Mandy would have her justice.

*

They canceled school. They couldn’t get around my passwords, which surprised me. Pedlam blasted through my walls within an hour. The house was empty when I got there, but that wasn’t surprising. Shelly and Kevin had left a message the night before to tell us they wouldn’t be home till the following week, but the neighbor would be checking in daily. When I played it for Austin the next morning, he let out a whoop of joy and said he was headed back to his friend’s house. Mandy burst back into tears.

It was hours later when I heard people downstairs. As I left my bedroom, I heard Mandy giggling. “We can get so much done now that we have the whole day off. I heard it was Mark Jenkins and his gang.”

“I heard it was Tyler Guerros.”

I paused on the stairs.

“Whatever. We all know who was behind it. He might not have done it, but I bet he knows who did. Tray Evans.”

My frown grew. Another stranger.

“Ooh, did you see him today? Tray Evans is seriously hot.”

Then it clicked. The entire cheerleading squad was in our living room. That meant that I was out of there. I turned around, but Mandy spotted me. “Taryn!”

I plastered a fake smile on my face, but it dropped as soon as I saw hers. There were no traces of the sobbing mess I had forced fed this morning. She looked ready to take the world by storm. “What’s going on?”

“We’re going to have practice here since school and all,” she paused, “and I’m going to have our student council meeting this afternoon too.”

Okay. Message received. I started back up the stairs.

She stopped me. “Are you staying or...” She frowned. “What are you going to do today?”

“I thought that was code for me to stay in my room?”

“Oh.” Her eyes got big. “Um…well, Devon is coming because, you know, he’s on student council. So…”