Chapter 27
If someone had told me at the beginning of my senior year that Homecoming Week would pass by in the blink of an eye and I only participated in one spirit day, I would’ve called them crazy.
I was in the Top Tier, after all. Of course I had to participate in every single spirit day.
Of course I had to lead Brentwood by example.
But here I was, Thursday morning, walking down the hallways wearing a pink sweater while everyone else was dressed up for Mathlete vs. Athlete Day.
I wondered what Maisie thought of the spirit day.
When I turned the corner heading to my locker, I found Jade leaning up against it with her books hugged to her chest. Her gaze was flat as she stared straight ahead, not caring to soften her RBF as people walked past her.
I tightened my grip on my backpack strap and continued toward her. “Good morning.”
She lifted her head, gaze connecting with mine.
She was definitely dressed for Athletes, wearing Connor’s away football jersey, one that was mostly gold with pops of blue.
Her white shorts were barely long enough for school policy, and she had blue and gold pawprints painted on her cheeks.
I wondered if she did them herself or if Riley helped her.
“Hey.” Jade’s eyes dropped to my outfit, but she said nothing.
It wasn’t the first time we’d talked since last Friday, but it’d been one of the few times. All the others had happened at cheer practice, where we had to communicate to lead the girls. I found it hard to look at her after Monday—I found it hard to look at anyone in the Top Tier. Even Landon.
I pressed my lips together as I twisted my lock. “Isn’t it crazy homecoming is tomorrow?” I asked her. “Are you coming to school?”
“No,” she said, as if the question was ridiculous. “It’s a half day, anyway, and my hair appointment for the parade is at ten. I’m just skipping.” She paused. “Are you?”
I nodded. “Mom’s letting me take the day off, too.” Being on homecoming court meant that Jade and I had to be ready and beautified for the pep rally at noon, and the parade that followed. “I’m excited to see your dress.”
“You were with me when we picked it out.”
“I know. I’m still excited.”
Before I had a chance to add anything else, she asked, “You’re coming to the party tonight, right?”
“Party?”
Jade seemed to consider something. “Ashton’s have a pre-homecoming party. We’ve been talking about it all week, but you haven’t been at the lunch table.”
“Oh.” I had nothing else to fiddle with, so grabbing my first period textbook, I shut my locker door. “My mom wanted me to stop by the gallery tonight for—”
“Are you really going to keep being like this?”
I blinked. “Like this?”
“A crap friend.” Jade kept her voice relatively low, but a few heads swiveled in our direction. “It’s getting old now.”
This time, I was the one reaching for Jade’s wrist, and on the first tug, she didn’t budge. “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”
At first, it looked like Jade was going to refuse. She stared me down, feet rooted in place. Not here, I thought, anticipating her fire-breathing reaction. Not now.
“Fine,” she relented, pulling her wrist from my grip and starting forward first. I followed behind, clutching my books to my chest as if it would keep my heart from bursting free.
Jade swung into the closest restroom, where a few other girls were washing their hands or checking their makeup in the mirror.
Jade put on a sweet voice. “Can we have a moment, girls?”
Of course, they all jumped to appease the Queen Bee. One girl just wiped her dripping hands on her pants before dashing from the bathroom, leaving the two of us alone.
Jade turned to me, planting her hands on her hips. “Well?”
Are you really going to keep on being like this? A crap friend. “I’ve just been having a lot going on—”
“Like what?” Jade demanded, cutting me off. “What could be so impossible on your plate that you’ve become a terrible friend?”
Something sharp poked me behind the ribs. “I haven’t been a terrible friend.”
“No?” She looked me up and down. “You’ve been so busy that you couldn’t talk to Coach, right?”
“We already talked about that. You said she was waiting til after—”
“Yeah, and then you go and bring your A-game every practice. Of course she wouldn’t pull you from co-captain if you do a good job.”
“You want me to sabotage myself? She’d see through—”
“I think you don’t want to be pulled from co-captain. Riley said you didn’t sell your story to Coach good enough.”
“What, was she eavesdropping?” Irritation brewed within me. “I didn’t realize Riley had become your little lackey—”
“Riley has been there for me lately more than you have.”
“Just because I’m not hanging off your arm 24/7 doesn’t make me a bad friend—”
“That’s what you think I’m talking about?”
I snapped. “Gosh, would you let me speak?”
All at once, Jade’s expression changed. It’d been scrunched into a frown, brows drawn together as her anger manifested, but all at once, it cleared. Like a surface wiped clean, all trace of emotion vanished from her features. “Oh,” she said emphatically. “Go ahead.”
Old Madison would’ve backed down immediately, dropping to her knees with her tail between her legs.
She wouldn’t have looked Jade in the eye, either.
Now, though, I couldn’t look away. “I know things have been different lately,” I began slowly.
“Like we’re not on the same page. I feel it too.
I’m not… trying to be a bad friend. I know I haven’t been there as much lately, but you haven’t texted me, either. ”
I hadn’t really meant to point the finger at her, and I watched as her eyes narrowed.
“I just kind of feel like I need to figure out a few things for myself, I guess,” I rushed on, clutching my books tighter. “I’m still on the field, just… on the sidelines.”
“Is there anything you want to say to me?”
I could hear the leading question in her voice, but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t figure out what answer she wanted me to give. Before, it’d been so easy to guess her thoughts. Now, standing before her, they were as foreign to me as another language.
But as I stared at her perfect blonde hair draped over Connor’s football jersey, my mind latched onto one thing. One thing I definitely shouldn’t have brought up, but the one thing I hadn’t been able to get out of my head. “I saw Connor on Monday.”
Jade’s eyes flashed. “Oh?”
“At Expresso’s.”
“What was he doing there?”
I drew a slow breath in. “He was getting coffee with Reed.”
“Reed?”
I held Jade’s gaze throughout it all, forcing myself to stop shaking through the lie. “That guy from before was at the coffee shop. Jefferson’s quarterback last year. Noah.”
I watched Jade sort through the information I gave her, and could visibly see the way she tried to get to my point before I did. “Noah,” she echoed. “What does this have—”
“He brought up the game last year,” I cut her off. “The rivalry game. He said that Brentwood broke his leg on purpose.”
It was a huge risk to mention it. Admittedly stupid, especially when there were other players involved.
Jade could just fact check with Connor, but I hoped that since I left the tutoring and Maisie out of the equation, he’d go along with it.
And if he didn’t… I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
Jade put her hand on her hip. “And I’m assuming you’re asking if that’s true?”
“I—I never heard anything about it. It’s probably not true, that they did it on purpose, but—”
“It’s true.”
Ice water rushed over me. “What?”
“Brentwood needed to win the game last year. So, when Jefferson had the ball, they went after their star player.”
Jade spoke so matter of fact—so calm, uncaring. Like ending the football career of an innocent high schooler meant nothing to her. “Did—did last year’s Top Tier know about it?”
“Who do you think put the boys up to it?” Jade wrinkled her nose. “And, jeez, why do you think Ashton and Kyle are in the Top Tier? Just because they were on the football team? No,” she huffed. “It’s because they did the Top Tier’s dirty work for them.”
“They broke someone’s leg,” I whispered, stomach roiling. “Ended someone’s career. On purpose?”
Jade walked up to me, dipping her head down.
“You and I are in the Top Tier because we’re co-captains.
Connor’s on it because everyone loves him.
Landon, because he’s the quarterback. Reed…
well. The last Top Tier girls had a thing for him.
” She shook her head, as if she couldn’t fathom it.
“And Ashton and Kyle, because they were willing to do what’s best for Brentwood. ”
“And Riley?”
“Because I needed a lackey.” She echoed the word I’d used with venom. “A backup for when you went rogue.”
“I’m rogue?” I echoed, voice shaking—with anger. “The Top Tier is supposed to be better than this. We don’t hurt people—”
“I don’t know who ‘we’ is.” Jade turned around to head back to the bathroom door, bored of the conversation. “But you’re one of us, aren’t you?”
“I’m not—”
Jade left the bathroom before I could finish.
I stood still, frozen, suspended in my horror.
So Noah and Logan had been telling the truth.
Ashton and Kyle had hurt Noah on purpose last year.
To win a stupid game, the Top Tier had conspired to break the quarterback’s bones.
No remorse, no compassion. When bribery didn’t work, they’d decided to take the win by force, and to hell with any consequences.
A wave of nausea gripped me, enough that I actually closed myself inside a bathroom stall, sure I was about to throw up. The walls were tighter around me, echoing my racing heartbeat back in my ears.
I hadn’t known any of it. Did Connor know? Did Reed? Did Landon? What else had happened that I didn’t know about? Who else had they hurt while I stood back, oblivious? Complicit.