Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(40)

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The rest of the day was kind of a blur. The fire had everything all discombobulated, so classes were meeting in different locations. I had English in the gym, and Mrs. Laurent had sent all of us an e-mail that newspaper would now meet in the computer lab near the math hall. I hadn’t seen David all day, and assumed he was avoiding me. That was . . . good. I wasn’t ready to face him, not yet.

But when I got to the temporary newspaper lab and realized he wasn’t there, I got worried. Even if David was lying low between classes and at lunch, he’d never miss newspaper.

Chie and Michael were working on computers in the back, and I tried to keep my voice as casual as I could. “Have either of you seen David?”

Chie shook her head, dark hair swinging around her jaw. “He’s not in school today.” She looked over her shoulder at me, the light from the computer monitor glowing in her eyes. “Did it take you this long to notice your boyfriend’s missing?”

Okay, so David hadn’t told his friends we’d broken up. I hadn’t told mine either, except Bee.

Nodding, I gave a little shrug and backed up from them. “Sure, but I thought he might still show up for this class.”

Neither Chie nor Michael replied, and I went over to one of the empty desks, sitting down with my bag. I had no idea what to do here without David. I usually worked with him, going over articles, suggesting layouts, throwing away any unflattering pictures—yearbooks are forever, and no one deserves to have certain shots preserved for eternity—but without him I felt sort of . . . lost.

And still worried.

Mrs. Laurent was nowhere to be seen, so I pulled out my cell phone and moved to the very back corner of the room. It smelled like dry-erase marker back there, and weird as it seemed, I kind of missed the hot ink smell of the old newspaper lab.

Ducking my head down, I dialed David’s number quickly, and when he picked up after the third ring, I turned to face the wall.

“Pres,” he said, and I closed my eyes for a second, willing myself not to sound all shaky and teary.

“Hi,” I said as brightly as I could manage. “Skipping school today?”

On the other end of the phone, I could hear him blow out a long breath. “Thought it was a good idea, yeah,” he replied. “And I’ve been meaning to spend some extra time with Saylor’s books.”

Frowning, I tried to decide how I felt about that. On the one hand, I was glad he was getting some research done. Saylor had tons of old books, and we’d barely scratched the surface of Oracle/Paladin knowledge. On the other, there was something about the image of him in that house, going through Saylor’s things, that twisted my heart.

“Have you found anything?” I asked, and he sighed again. I pictured him with his phone jammed between his shoulder and his ear, an enormous tome spread out before him. I could hear the rattle of pages, and figured my mental image wasn’t too far off.

“A few things,” he said. “Not much, but at this point, I guess anything is better than nothing.”

“Right,” I agreed, and then, before I could stop myself, added, “You could bring some of the books by my house later if you wanted. We should, um, make sure we’re both prepared for whatever comes next. Especially since that first trial was so intense.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone, but only for a few heartbeats.

“Sure,” he said at last. “After school?”

I glanced around. Chie was still facing her computer, but she wasn’t typing anymore, and I got the feeling she was trying to listen.

Lowering my voice, I said, “I have pageant sign-ups, but after that, yeah. If my parents aren’t home, you can use the extra key to let yourself in. It’s—”

“I remember where it is,” he said, and in the ensuing pause, I imagined him tugging at his hair.

Could we do this? Still act as Oracle and Paladin and pretend our hearts weren’t breaking every time we talked? Sitting there in the computer lab, surrounded by people who were David’s friends, I wanted to wish we’d never even tried to be together. That we’d made a mature decision that things were too complicated as it was, and that dating would make it worse.

But that would mean wishing he’d never kissed me the night of Cotillion. Wishing we’d never laughed together and held hands and all the other things that I already missed.

I wondered if David was thinking that, too, but in the end, he murmured, “See you then,” and hung up.





Chapter 19


THE AUDITORIUM at the rec center smelled like floor polish, upholstery cleaner, and that indefinable old-building smell. In this case, I thought the smell might be the bitter tinge of humiliation. So many major events in town happened at the Community Center, and I wondered how many lives had been ruined on that stage? In Leigh-Anne’s grade, there had been a girl named Sydney Linnet who’d puked during her eighth-grade graduation. And at least one kindergartner wet his or her pants every year during the Christmas pageant. I’d suffered the sting of defeat on that stage in sixth grade when David had beaten me in the spelling bee.

And now I was about to be humiliated all over again.

“You know we’re not walking to a guillotine,” Bee said, linking her arm with mine. “Besides, you like being in front of people.”