A Whole New Crowd(19)

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…”
One of the girls snorted. “And because he’s your boyfriend.” She fixed me with a hard stare. “Or are you not allowed to have your boyfriend around with this…sister...in the house? Is there some weird rule about that or something?”
Mandy hadn’t told them. Her head dropped down and I knew what she wanted now. “I’ll stick around.”
Her petite shoulders moved in a relieved sigh and her head lifted back up. I saw the thanks from her, though she didn’t say it.
“What time is your student council meeting?”
“At 2:30.”
Nodding, I murmured, “I’ll be back down later.” I wouldn’t go far.
After doing homework, I put my earbuds in, laid in bed, and listened to music. I needed something to silence the shrieks, giggles, and ‘no ways’ from downstairs. It was much later when I sat back up and realized that I had fallen asleep. I sat up and listened. The annoying chatter was gone, but I still heard voices downstairs. When I got down there, Mandy was in the kitchen alone. She was pressed against the sink, her face glued to the window.
“He’s here?”
She jumped around. Blood drained from her face and her hand jumped to her chest. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry.” I grinned.
She shook her head, shooting me a rueful look. “You enjoy scaring people, don’t you?”
“Kind of.” I laughed then grew serious. “Is he here?”
She nodded. The slight humor fled from her, and she turned back to the window. “He’s out there with Tray and the guys.”
“They aren’t saying anything?”
“He hasn’t said anything. He’s acting like everything is fine.”
“Is she here?”
“No,” she hissed, turning back to me. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if she had showed up. I want to scratch her eyeballs out and pull her hair and then fling her body in front of a moving car.” She shuddered. “I’d like to do all of that without going to jail.”