Page 63 of Ask No Questions

“I know what she did was wrong and immature, but it’s not a big deal. I don’t think drawing me into a devil is going to convince the student body I am in fact evil.”

“We’re going to get back at her I promise.”

She and the other two were already talking strategy. I was trying to ignore them hoping they would lose interest, but when Mckayla shrieked, my eyes shot to her.

“I’ve got it! We are going to spend the next few yearbook periods following her, and we will get embarrassing shots of her and put them in the weekly newspaper!”

“Doesn’t that come out every Wednesday?”

“Yeah so?”

“Mckayla, today is Wednesday. Doing it next week won’t really change anything for the dance if that’s your goal.”

“This week is the special Winter Formal edition. It’s coming out on Friday instead. I’m not dumb, Aubrey, I’ve thought this out.” Clearly, she had lost it. “The newspaper staff asked the yearbook staff for help with pictures of the nominees. I have some connections over there that like Sydney even less than we do. We can totally ruin her.”

“By getting a shot or two of her picking something out of her teeth? I don’t think this is the right thing to do. The girl lives for attention…”

“Exactly, she’s the type to think there’s no such thing as bad press.”

“But doing this is putting us down on her level. We’ll be just as sad and desperate as her.” I really thought that would get to them, but I could see the fire in their eyes.

Mckayla sighed and shook her head. “You just don’t get it, Aubrey.”

I looked at Alexis, the only one who hasn’t said anything, pleading with my eyes for her to back me up. She looked guilty for a moment then shook her head.

“They’re right, Aubrey. You can’t let her get away with this. You can’t let her push you around.”

Well, there went my chance of another voice of reason.

“Fine. Whatever, guys.”

We set our things down in the yearbook room, and Mckayla took off to ask Mrs. Gonzalez for permission to take pictures. I stood back, praying for the first time that she would refuse and make us stay in class. Of course not. Irresponsible, lazy, enabling teacher.

Mckayla grabbed a camera and pushed me out of the class.

“What exactly are you hoping to find, Nancy Drew?”

She shot me a stern look and continued walking. “Sydney has dance this period, and I have it on good authority that she is always fifteen minutes late and sneaks in when the teacher is starting stretches. I want to know what she’s doing during that time.”

Horrible images assaulted my mind of things we could find. We reached the gym and walked around the back to where the dance room and lifting room were. Mckayla signaled me to stop behind her and put a finger to her lips. She had completely lost it. I’d witnessed the final straw snap in my cousin’s mind. I shook my head hoping we could hurry this up.

Mckayla leaned forward to peek in the back doors and paused while she looked around.

“She’s not in there, and she’s had plenty of time to change into her dance clothes. Let’s go around to the weight room.” She tiptoed her way past the glass doors that looked into the dance room. As I followed her, I waved to a girl from my English class. She looked back and glared at me.

“What are you doing? We need to keep a low profile!” I think she was trying to whisper, but her volume was too high and her tone too harsh. I laughed and shrugged.

“Emily saw me, so I waved. We’re walking around campus during class-we kind of stand out right now.”

“Hush!”

She kept her back to me and crept forward to look into the weight room’s window. The last thing I wanted to see were sweaty boys acting like Neanderthals, so I pretended to keep watch while she scanned the room.

“Oh my gosh! That little cheater! This is so much better than anything I could have imagined!”

I hated myself for being interested, but that sucked me in. I turned and looked through the window and saw Sydney wrapped around a guy I didn’t know, but it certainly wasn’t Ryan.

Before I could stop her, Mckayla had the camera up and was snapping pictures of the compromising situation. She looked down at the screen of the camera for a few moments, then smiled at me.