Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(17)

I nodded. “I’ll tell you the whole story at lunch, promise.”

We both stepped out of the car and into the bright spring morning. The smell of flowers hung in the air, and the grass sparkled with dew. It was a gorgeous day, and I took a deep breath, feeling a little better. On a morning like this, it seemed impossible to believe that anything bad could happen. I had my best friend back, a new pair of ballet flats on my feet, and a boyfriend heading toward me with a smile on his face and . . . what appeared to be bowling shoes on his feet.

“Where did you even get those?” I asked as he came up to stand beside me, and he held one foot out, turning his ankle.

“Salvation Army. They’re cool, right?”

They did kind of match his shirt, which I guessed I should consider a win.

I turned to say something to Bee, but she was already heading off toward the school, shoulders held back.

Following my gaze, David nodded toward Bee. “She okay?”

I thought about Bee’s bright smile, how fake it had seemed, and I gave an uneasy shrug. “She’s not not okay, I guess,” I finally settled on, and David nodded.

“Kind of the status quo around here.”

I couldn’t argue with that.

Bee wasn’t in any of my classes that day, which wasn’t a surprise since technically she wasn’t registered for spring semester. Ryan had said he’d meet her at the main office to do the best he could, Mage-wise, to help out with that, but by the time lunch rolled around, I was getting a little worried about Bee. Stepping outside, I scanned the courtyard for her bright hair, but there was no sign of her. Ryan was out there, though, already sitting at one of the picnic tables with Mary Beth and the twins, but there was no sign of Brandon, Ryan’s best friend and Bee’s boyfriend.

Catching Ryan’s eye, I mouthed, “Bee?”

He gave me a thumbs-up, then a little wave, inviting me to sit at his table. Mary Beth glanced behind her, and while she didn’t, like, hiss or anything, I could see her eyes narrow. So, yeah, sitting with them was out.

I thought about going back into the building to look for Bee, but she was a big girl, and if she wanted to handle this on her own, I needed to respect that.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced around the courtyard again, and saw David waving to me, so I joined him and his friends from the newspaper, Michael and Chie. The three of them were sitting underneath the big oak tree on the edge of the courtyard, and when I walked over, David jumped up to pull a jacket out of his bag for me to sit on.

“Thanks,” I told him, arranging myself on his tweed. Chie and Michael, who’d been laughing when I came over, now sat in silence, paying a lot of attention to their lunch.

Apparently I wasn’t going to escape weirdness no matter where I sat.

“I like your necklace, Chie,” I said, figuring flattery was always a good tactic. And seeing as how she was wearing a battered army jacket, an oversized black T-shirt, and a pair of leggings that I was pretty sure violated dress code, the necklace was about the only thing I could compliment.

But as Chie’s fingers trailed over the gold chain, her dark eyes regarded me suspiciously. “I got it at Walmart,” she said, almost like a challenge.

I nodded. “They have pretty stuff. Sometimes.”

David shot me a look that was part exasperation, part amusement, and I gave a little shrug in response. I was all for making an effort to be nice, but I wasn’t going to gush over Walmart. Come on, now.

After clearing his throat, David pulled an apple out of his bag, tossing it back and forth between his hands. “We were talking about what story the newspaper should tackle next.” He nodded at his friends. “Chie has this great idea about how few people in Pine Grove actually recycle, and then Michael wanted to investigate allegations that the cafeteria is still using foods with MSG even after the school board told them they couldn’t.”

I took a long swallow of Diet Coke, hoping that would give me time to think of some reply. In the end, all I came up with was “Okay.”

Chie flicked her bangs out of her eyes. She wasn’t exactly glaring at me, but I was clearly not her favorite person right now. “What, you don’t think those are valid stories?”

Next to her, Michael tugged his sleeves over his hands, his right foot jiggling. He was taller and skinnier than David, something that hardly seemed possible, and his dark hair was thick and shaggy, lying over his collar. In the few months I’d been working in the newspaper room, I wasn’t sure he’d said more than a dozen words to me. I got the sense that I might have scared him a bit.

“It’s not that,” I said to Chie, tucking my hair behind my ears. “But . . . both of those stories seem depressing.”

And boring, I thought.

David frowned and drew his knees up to his chest, circling them with his arms. “The news isn’t always cheerful, Pres.”

“I get that, but . . .” I looked around at the three of them, all regarding me seriously. “This is a tiny school paper read by a few hundred kids. If that. Gotta be honest, when y’all hand those things out, most of them end up in the trash can. Or the recycling bin,” I hastily added when Chie’s shoulders went up. “But my point is, maybe more people would read The Grove News if it were, like, cheerier. Funnier. When the SGA was doing a newsletter—”

“Maybe we should print it on pink paper,” Chie muttered under her breath, and David sat up straighter.