JULIET
It’s funny what lessons stick in your mind. The ones school seems to deem important always seem to slip away the second test results are handed out. It’s never mathematics, rarely science, not geography, or geology that leave the longest impression. At least, not for me.
The lessons that cling to my mind are almost always historical or philosophical. Machiavelli once said, “If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared,” and I’ve never heard a truer statement, never read one that reached the same level.
So, when my punishment is finalized and I’m sentenced to two weeks of out-of-school suspension, plus an online course in anger management, I accept it willingly and without complaint. I spend them dutifully filling out each and every form and online quiz for the anger management requirements. I turn in projects. I write papers. I work on my grades.
I study—but not just for school.No.I realize my first mistake was not handling Megan’s disrespect early on. Letting it go never got me anywhere. So, instead of moving on and trying to forget the attack, I study my target and I plan.
After all, some people only learn when they realize that the people they think are their friends will abandon them to save their own skin.
The chance doesn’t come until a week after my return to school.
“Practice is canceled,” Nolan announces, his eyes on his phone screen as he stops by my locker.
Gio whoops and swings an arm around my shoulders, snatching me away from the row of textbooks I’ve carefully lined up inside the locker. The door slams shut a second later as Gio laughs and nuzzles against my throat. “You know what that means, don’t you, Prep Girl?”
Megan’s familiar scowling face hovers in my peripheral vision where she stands against her own locker with her friends. A grin rises to my lips as I reach back, cupping his neck and holding him to me when normally I would push him off.
He pauses at the affectionate touch, but then just as quickly leans into the petting. “No,” I say. “What does that mean?”
“Party time!” he announces.
My brow furrows. “Just because practice is canceled?” I look at Nolan. “It’s only Thursday.”
Stuffing his cell back into his pocket, Nolan shrugs. “Coach never cancels,” he explains. “In the last four years, it’s only ever happened two other times—once because of a death in his family and the second time because he’d been in a car accident that morning. Rain or shine, we always attend practice. Because of that, we made a pact with the team that whenever he does cancel, we throw a party behind Lex’s house.”
“Lex’s?” Surprise spins through me. “He’s okay with that?”
Nolan chuckles. “Where do you think he is right now?” he asks instead of answering. “He left early to get prepped.”
“Besides,” Gio says, squeezing me around the waist once more before releasing me and turning to drop his back againstthe row of lockers. “It’s not like his aunt really gives a shit. She’s a hermit—doesn’t ever leave her own house. Lex is the one who takes care of the property. It’d be overrun with weeds and shit if he didn’t mow and maintain it.”
“He does?” Months knowing them and still, I continue to find things that surprise me.
“Yup.” Nolan’s gaze moves over my shoulder as he stares at something down the hall. I turn and realize he’s glaring at Megan. “Don’t worry,” he says, directing the words to me. “She won’t be coming.”
I consider those words. The original plan had been for this weekend, but it almost seems as if the universe is giving me the green light for my revenge. A smile spreads across my face before I can help it.
“No,” I say, my own lips quirking up and sticking into a smile. “Let her come.”
“What?” Gio gapes at me. “After the shit she pulled?” He shakes his head vehemently. “Fuck no.”
“Trust me,” I murmur, turning to face the girl in question. “I know exactly how to deal with her.” I’m already reaching for my phone and typing out a quick text to Lex. He knows what I want. Our timeline has moved up a bit.
“People know the two of you have issues,” Nolan warns me. “Don’t kill her.”
I roll my eyes, shoving my cell back into my pocket as I face him. “Please,” I say. “I’m not that stupid. I won’t kill her.”
He subjects me to a narrow-eyed suspicious look that lasts approximately fifteen seconds before he sighs and moves away. “Fine, but if you need us, you tell us, deal?”
“Deal,” I agree. “But I think so long as you lend me Lex for a few hours before the party this evening, I’ll be good.”
Nolan’s suspicion doesn’t diminish, but at my words, he huffs out a breath as he, too, straightens away from the lockers. “As if he can say no to you for anything.”
Together, the three of us head out and crowd into Gio’s Firebird for the ride to Lex’s house. Gio tosses me his phone and directs me to send out a mass text to several of his friends while Nolan informs the football team of their plans for the party.
By the time night rolls around, there are several cars pulling down the long drive, their headlights flashing over the tree line and the massive bonfire that the guys have built. Their football friends are the first ones to arrive, jumping out of rusted-out sedans and off the back of pickup trucks that look halfway ready to be sentenced to the junkyard.
