Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Well. That was embarrassing. What is going on with Callie lately?
Text message from Shannon Moore to Hana Hayashi.
I sit at the cafeteria table, chowing down on my chicken salad sandwich. Stress eating, if I’m being honest. Brielle is up to four hundred and twenty votes, and I’m down even more—two hundred and eighty.
Suzy is at my left, then Dana, then Troy whispering something to her that makes her laugh. He asked Dana to Homecoming last night after the party, and she was bouncing up and down with joy when she told me this morning.
Our table has become less crowded ever since I invited Zeke to sit with us. Kayla and Arjun started sitting with Tom Sheppard and his crew. I glance around the lunchroom for Chelsea, but I don’t see her.
It's very telling.
I catch Emma’s eye at a table to our left, and she smiles before turning away, so at least there’s that. And Nicole still sits with us and frequently chats with Zeke about Vulcans and Klingons.
Zeke sits next to Troy and sets his bagged lunch on the table. I catch Zeke’s eye and we share a tiny smile. He helped me with something huge over the weekend, something I never thought I’d be able to do.
And I had the realization that never should’ve crossed my brain.
I like Zeke.
I blush and hurry to return to my sandwich.
“Did Callie tell you we got the filming done for her campaign video?” Suzy asks Zeke, high ponytail swinging. Her hair is tied back with a lavender ribbon today, and it matches her adorable sandals and lacy cream top.
Zeke grins. “You got it done? Is it going to play on the school news today?”
“We finished.” I let out a relieved breath.
We worked late into the night on Saturday after the party to finalize the script and then filmed all day Sunday.
“We, of course, did it to Dynamite by BTS, and the lyrics Suzy came up with are super creative. We were able to tweak them to showcase all the reasons people should vote for me. Suzy’s a genius. ”
Suzy grins. “It’s not going to play today, though. Dana’s going to do some editing on it and then we can submit it to the school news.”
Dana lifts her head from her conversation with Troy at the mention of her name, her eyes shining.
“That’s awesome, Dana,” Zeke says. “I can’t wait to see how it turns out after all the hard work you guys have done.”
Suzy beams. “We’ll get Callie back on top, easy.”
Suddenly, the lunchroom goes quiet, and the background noise of the news casters grows louder. Everyone’s heads turn to the screens on the wall.
“Today we have a special treat for you,” Brian says from the screen. “It is so slap.” His hair is wild as usual, thick glasses slightly askew and his electric yellow bowtie crooked.
“We are so excited about this,” Cassidy chimes in, her posture perfect and her manicured nails clasped together in front of her. The gold bangles on her forearms sparkle.
Brian grins. “One of our candidates for Homecoming Queen has prepared something to help you get on board with voting for her. It be bussin’.”
Cassidy elbows him but keeps her smile pasted to her face. “This candidate is an incredible force for good in our school.”
“And she’s come up with something that slays,” Brian adds.
I turn to Dana, confused. “Did you already finish the video?”
Dana’s eyes go wide as she slowly shakes her head. Suzy’s gaze is glued to Cassidy and Brian.
I swivel my head back to the screen, feeling a sinking dread in my stomach. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Zeke stare at me, worry in his eyes.
“Let’s take a look at what she’s come up with,” Brian says, and the shot pops from them to Brielle.
Brielle beams on the screen, a bright yellow background behind her, and the opening chords to Dynamite by BTS start to play.
Brielle sings along, but she’s changed the words slightly so that now the lyrics promote her campaign.
She backs away from the camera, dancing, and Katrina and Angela slide on screen.
They start dancing and singing, and it makes me slightly sick how good they look.
The glint in Brielle’s eyes is pure evil, like she knows exactly what she’s doing.
“The song,” Suzy says. “It’s the song we used.”
Their lyrics are slightly different than what we planned, but Brielle has stolen our idea.
Noah spins on screen and drops Brielle into a low hold, their lips breaths away from touching.
Katrina and Angela dance in the background.
Angela’s dancing looks more like flailing compared to Brielle and Katrina, who are used to dancing on the cheer team, but no one seems to notice.
The girls in the lunchroom collectively sigh. Someone whoops and claps.
My mouth drops open. “She can’t . . . she can’t do this.”
Suzy’s cream skin is flushed red, her lips pressed into a thin line. She stands, her chair scraping back against the lunchroom floor, like she can stop the video playing by sheer will. Dana stares in horror at the screen, her enormous brown eyes blinking slowly.
“We did . . . we did it first,” I say, in denial. There has to be a mistake. There has to be something we can do.
We spent hours on that, planning every lyric and dance move, not to mention the dozens of filming takes. We worked so hard . . .
“I didn’t know,” Troy says. “I swear I didn’t know they were going to do this.”
I realize I’m squishing my sandwich so hard that gloppy bits of chicken and celery are dropping out of the bottom.
“Callie,” Zeke says. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Tears prick the corners of my eyes, but I blink them away. Nausea swirls through my stomach.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I want to just ignore it, but I pull it out, if only for a distraction.
In the video, Brielle and the others strike a finishing pose, and people in the lunchroom clap and cheer.
Some tables even give them a standing ovation, and several people hurry across the cafeteria to Brielle and Noah’s table to congratulate them in person.
Cassidy and Brian pop back on screen, all smiles.
“Mom?” I answer.
“Callie,” her voice is breathless and tight. My stomach sinks even further.
“Get your things. I’m waiting for you outside.” Her voice is the sickeningly cold tone she gets when she’s holding onto her patience by a thread.
Suzy gives me a concerned look.
“It’s my mom,” I mouth.
Mom lets out a tight breath of air. “You need to come home right now.”