Chapter Nineteen

Delaney

"Hey, did you see that vid last night?"

"The one about the Superiors? Yeah, it was so weird. I was on Chatterbox, and all of a sudden the page just blanked over and switched to that vid."

"Do you buy it?"

"Of course not; total lies. Why? Do you?"

"...I don't know. It kind of makes sense, though, don't you think?"

Smiling I grabbed one last book and turned away from my locker, slamming the door behind me. The girl from my science class was standing to my left and talking to Samantha Markowitz, her green eyes wildly eager.

"No," Samantha was saying, "I think it's a total load of crap."

Leaning back against the wall of lockers, I watched the two argue. "I, for one, believe them," I said nonchalantly. Samantha's eyes glazed over me, her nose wrinkling in disgust, but the girl from science grinned.

"You get it!" she gushed. "I mean, why would anyone go to all that trouble if it wasn't true?"

I smiled inwardly. "That's what I'm saying!" We needed more people like her, who weren't afraid to believe the unbelievable.

I turned to the other girl. "What's your name?" I asked her.

"Naia," she said brightly, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Nice to meet you, Naia," I replied with equal animation. "I'm Delaney." As she sidled away, mumbling something about seeing me in science, I pulled out my phone and looked her up. Naia Modere. Rank of five, just as I'd expected.

Throughout the day, I caught more and more similar conversations. As far as I could tell, most people were skeptical, but there was a curious minority that seemed open to the idea. During our fifteen minute snack break, Trai, Abby, Caleb, and I met up to compare notes. In their circle of friends, everyone seemed doubtful, but, like me, they'd heard a few interested comments.

"Everyone's been talking about this," Abby murmured. "It's not going to be long before it gets around to the administrators."

Trai shook his head. "I wouldn't be surprised if they've heard about all ready, or even seen the video themselves."

They all looked worried, so I smiled. "So?" I demanded confidently. "What's the big deal? No one's ever going to know that we were behind it; I took major precautions to make sure of that. All the coding is thoroughly scrambled. There's no chance of tracing whatsoever."

"We shouldn't be wasting time on that, anyway," Caleb interjected. "What's really important is what we do next. We can't let people lose interest in this, or nothing will change!"

Abby raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think you can change anything?"

Before anyone could respond, a pointed cough interrupted our thoughts. We whirled around in unison. Lizzy was standing by herself a few feet away, her feet planted solidly on the ground and her arms crossed across her chest.

"Delaney?" she asked quietly. "Can I, like, talk to you?" Flashing a confused glance back at the others, I stood up and walked over to her. She gestured for me to follow her farther away from the group. When we were around the corner and out of earshot, she sighed, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"I saw that video last night," she informed me.

"I'm not surprised," I replied calmly. "It's been all over school today. Totally intense." I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, I know." She tugged at her cardigan and bit her lip. I knew that expression; she was holding something back from me.

"Liz," I said slowly, "is everything okay?"

Her mouth opened slowly. I watched her blue eyes widen until her mascara-covered eyelashes brushed her eyebrows. "I can't believe you'd do something like that!" she blurted.

I blinked in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, Delaney," she snarled. "I've known you forever; don't you think I'd recognize your voice on that stupid tape?"

I'm such an idiot, I thought. I'd grown up watching spy movies; how hadn't I thought to distort my voice when I'd recorded it? Still, I couldn't let her know that she was right.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I assured, frowning. "Do you really think I'd do something like that?"

"Probably!" Lizzy hissed. "I mean, who knows how far you'd go to get your Rank up? I knew you were desperate, but I didn't realize it was that bad."

Her words stung. I stepped away from her, trying to blink away the tears that sprung to my eyes. "Desperate?" I screeched. "Do you even know me? If anyone's desperate, it's you!"

Lizzy bristled. In a dangerously low voice, she said, "I'm not the home-wrecker. I would never even dream of doing something as trashy as that."

"Oh, okay!" I was shouting now. "So you'd never do that, but you'd abandon your best friend at the first sign that her Rank might be surpassing yours, and then you accuse her of lying? Just so you know, Lizzy, I would never even dream of doing something like that."

She ignored me completely. "But you lied! I know you made that damned video, Delaney, and I'll bet you dragged Caleb Payne into the mess, too! You're just ruining everyone's lives, because you can't have a perfect one! You're such a—a—a—"

"I'm a what?" I bellowed.

"You're such a Loser!"

I narrowed my eyes and dropped my voice as a curious student edged past. "I know you're jealous, Lizzy. You're jealous because I'm friends with Caleb Payne, and you're not. Me, a Loser. And on top of that, earlier this week my Rank was a seven. You've never been that high in your life. So I'm sorry you can't be me, but you're just going to have to live with your pathetic self."

"Why would I even want to be you?" she screamed. "You're nothing!"

I had to swallow hard before I could respond, but I didn't let her see that she'd fazed me. "Oh, shut up, Lizzy. All you're doing, at this point, is flapping your big mouth just to hear your own voice."

Lizzy's pale face turned a tomato red, matching her strawberry-shaped earrings. As she opened her mouth to start yelling again, Caleb stalked around the corner. He froze next to Lizzy with one eyebrow raised calmly.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked me. I knew he was trying to get Lizzy to leave, which only served to annoy me. I could take care of myself.

"No," I snapped, just as Lizzy breathed, "Caleb Payne?"

"If nothing's wrong, don't let me interrupt," Caleb drawled. "What were you saying, Lizzy?"

"Nothing!" She straightened up quickly and stepped back, regarding me with frightened eyes.

"No, Liz, tell Caleb what you were telling me!" I urged. "A moment ago, you seemed to have quite a bit to say."

After glancing around her frantically for a few moments, Lizzy made an angry, frustrated sound. "God damn you, Delaney," she muttered. "I know it was you. I know it was you. You and your freaking desperation."

"Are we back on that topic?" I asked wearily. "Try to find importance in something besides Popularity, Liz. There are other things that matter, I promise."

I looked at my ex-best friend, at the stricken look on her face, and the emotion in her eyes that I couldn't quite place. Regret? Before she could respond, I pushed between her and Caleb, ignoring looks from both of them as I walked away.

○●○●○●○

Once again, Ms. Shea's class had a sub. This one was a large, lazy-looking man with graying hair and glasses that seemed too small for his face.

"Your teacher is out again," he informed us in a deep, gravelly voice. "I'm Mr. Rayburn, and I will be your substitute for the day."

He was the kind of teacher that people don't bother paying attention to, because they know he won't lash out at them. So as Mr. Rayburn scratched his backside and attempted to interest us with various shading techniques, a dozen other conversations darted around the classroom. I wasn't a part of any of them, of course, but from what I could hear, most of them were about the video. Excellent.

One conversation was of particular interest to me, because it happened to be led by none other than Carlie Heights. I strained my ears to hear her ranting to her friends a few seats in front of me. Which, in all honesty, wasn't hard; Carlie was pretty loud.

"Whoever made that video is such a Loser," she droned. Her group murmured their agreement. "I don't know what they were trying to prove, but it just made them seem like an idiot. Anyone with a brain knows that the Superiors are good. I mean, duh."

It was difficult not to laugh at her stupidity.

"I'm seriously wondering if they'll find out who made it," another girl, Reba Simmons, added. "I wonder where the person is even from!"

Carlie rolled her eyes. "Probably some bitter reject from, like, the middle of nowhere. They probably thinks they can get away with it from some little small town, but I guarantee, they'll be caught and all over the news by tomorrow." She examined her bright pink nails with a smug expression.

I frowned, trying to determine how much of her bubbly stupidity was fake. No matter how smart Carlie was, I doubted she could pinpoint me as being behind the vid. Still, I couldn't be sure. Like Lizzy, she might have recognized my voice, though it was unlikely.

Carlie continued to complain and Mr. Rayburn went on with his lecture, but just as I began to drift off, a sudden bang jolted me out of my thoughts. The door had been pushed open, and had slammed against the wall.

"Delaney Escott?" someone announced. I recognized it to be Tristan Carper, a senior office aide. My eyebrows knit in consternation, I raised my hand. Tristan nodded to acknowledge me. "You're wanted in the principal's office."

~~~

A/N: This was actually going to be about twice as long, but I wanted to post a chapter before going to sleep, so I figured I'd stop it here xD.