What's Your Status? (24 page)

“What is it exactly that you’re talking about?” he asked. “Or did you guys go through it before I got here?”

“No,” I said. “I just wanted to give everyone a chance to walk away first. Before anyone knows anything that might get them into trouble.”

“
Mon Dieu
, Mad,” Lisa said. She was sitting at the opposite end of the couch from Dave. I knew, seeing this, that they hadn’t worked things out. Usually, couches were the ultimate aphrodisiac for Lisa and Dave. “What is it?”

“I’m getting to it,” I said. “Anyone want to leave, first?”
I looked around at my friends. Lisa appeared tempted, but remained sitting, drumming her fingers on the arm of the couch. Nobody moved from their seats. “Okay,” I said before taking a deep breath. “Here goes. So this Saturday, on prom night, we need to get the Hayes crown back from Isabel Ryan, the Hartfield High prom chair.”

Ginger let out a laugh, but then stopped when she realized that she was the only one. “Wait,” she said, her smile fading. “Seriously, Mad?”

“I’m afraid so,” I said.

“How did she get the Hayes crown?” Mark asked, frowning.

“Well,” I stalled, not quite sure how to tackle that particular question.

“I gave it to her,” Schuyler said from her corner of the couch.

“You
gave
it to her?” Lisa asked, jaw dropping.

“Not voluntarily,” I jumped in. “She was blackmailed.”

“With what?” Dave asked, looking skeptical.

“Seriously,” Turtell said. “What’s she got on you?”

“We probably shouldn’t focus on that,” I said quickly. “The problem is, she has the crown. And we need to get it back, or I’m going to be in serious trouble.”

“But I told Mad that I was willing to take the blame,” Schuyler piped up in a shaky voice. “I have a plan. I can move to Switzerland.”

“OMG,” Sarah murmured. She looked from me to Ginger. “I knew this would happen.”

“You did?” I asked, stunned. If that was the case, I
would have appreciated a heads-up, or a text.

“Yes,” she breathed. “It’s the curse!”

“What curse?” Brian asked.

“The curse on the crown,” she said. “I told you not to try it on, Mad.”

“You tried it
on
?” Turtell asked, looking horrified. “The Hayes crown?” I couldn’t help but admire Kittson’s influence. A few months earlier, I would have bet money that Turtell hadn’t even heard of the Hayes crown, and that if he had, he couldn’t have cared less about it.

“Well, yes,” I said. “But there isn’t a curse.”

“There might be,” Sarah pointed out. “Look at what’s happened since you tried it on.”

“And if there is a curse,” Mark chimed in, “do we even want it back? I mean, wouldn’t it be better to leave the crown with this Isabel person so it can work its dark magic?”

“There isn’t a curse!” I yelled.

“We have to get it back,” Lisa said. “This is the
Hayes crown.
”

“Also, Mad’s totally screwed if we don’t,” Dave added. “Right?”

“Right,” I said, hoping we could get the focus on that detail, which was particularly troubling to me.

“So we get it back,” Dave said, as though this was a given.

“We’re doing this?” Brian asked, glancing to either side of him. “Whatever it is?”

I looked at my friends. Most were nodding, even Lisa, though she didn’t seem too happy about it. I looked over at Sarah, worried. Because of our history, she was the
one person I really wasn’t sure of. But even Sarah was nodding, and I was suddenly filled with relief and an overwhelming wave of affection for my friends. “You guys,” I said, my voice catching a little in my throat. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”

“So what’s the plan?” Mark asked. “You do have one, right?”

“Yes,” I said. “Well, it’s more like an idea. But I think it’s going to work. Here’s how it should go—” I was stopped by the doorbell chime. My first reaction was panic, since whenever I’d been at Brian’s house before, and the doorbell had rung, it meant that the cops had arrived to break the party up, and everyone was either fleeing the premises or running to find a hiding spot within the house. Personally, I always went for the closet in the upstairs laundry room. But then I realized that there was nothing to get in trouble for now—unless you counted faking a study group.

“I got it,” Brian said, hoisting himself up from the couch and heading for the door.

“So,” I said, trying to get back to the plan, “I think I’ve figured out something that will play to everyone’s strengths. And I can’t tell you guys how much I appreciate it.”

“Well.”
I turned around and, to my horror, saw Kittson standing in the doorway of the living room with a panicked-looking Brian. Her arms crossed, Kittson’s gaze lingered on Turtell before locking in on me. “Just what is going on here?”

CHAPTER 15

Song: The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance/Vampire Weekend

Quote: “Sweet is revenge—especially to women.”

—Lord Byron

“Is she going to be okay?” Schuyler asked me in a low voice.

“Um,” I said as I glanced at the sofa. I wasn’t exactly sure. Kittson was slumped forward, a hand over her eyes. Sitting next to her, Turtell stroked her hair and glared at me intermittently. We didn’t have any smelling salts, but Ginger was hovering nearby with hot pepper flakes, just in case. It turned out that, understandably, Kittson had found Turtell’s excuse of needing to go to the aquarium tonight somewhat suspect. It hadn’t helped that he’d updated his status when he’d arrived.

Glen
Look! Whales!

His real location—Brian’s house—had been embedded in his status, and she’d come to investigate. Once she’d gotten there, Turtell had spilled the beans immediately. As soon as Kittson had heard about the crown, she’d sunk onto the couch and hadn’t moved or spoken since.

“Kittson?” I asked, taking a step closer to her couch. “Are you okay?”

She lifted her head and glared at me, and I understood immediately why there had been so many movies made about murderous prom queens. Because you did
not
want to cross them. “Am I
okay
?” she repeated, rising slowly. “No, Madison, I am not okay. You had one job to do. One.”

That actually wasn’t true at all, but this didn’t seem to be the time to correct her. I nodded. “I know.”

“And not only did you not bring the crown to the hotel, you
gave it away.
You
gave it away
to the girl who has been trying to ruin our prom from the outset. Our prom has been wrecked. We no longer have our school’s most precious heirloom. My sworn enemy has it instead. Because you
gave
it to her. So no, I am
not
okay!”

“Actually, that was me,” Schuyler said, standing up. I looked at her, surprised, and saw that she was trembling, but she was facing Kittson head-on. “I gave Isabel the crown.”

Kittson turned her glare on Schuyler. “And why did you do that, again?”

“Because she was blackmailed,” Sarah piped up.

“We don’t know why,” Mark added.

“And what are all these people doing here?” Kittson asked, finally seeming to notice that there were eight others in the room, all watching the drama unfold. “Were you all getting together to laugh about how you managed to wreck the prom?” She turned back to me, shaking her head. “I should have known you would do something like this, Madison. Ever since you suggested
All About Prom
as a theme, I should have known you were trying to sabotage it.”

“I asked people here because we need to get the crown back,” I said.

“Oh, great idea,” Kittson scoffed. “Like Isabel’s ever going to give it back.”

“Well,” I said. This seemed as good a time as any to start going through my plan. Or idea. “I wasn’t thinking that we were going to ask for it back. I was thinking that we were just going to take it.”

Kittson became very still and looked across the room at me. “Steal it?” she asked.

“Steal it
back
,” I clarified. I looked around the room—everyone had gone very quiet. “On prom night. Without getting caught by Dr. Trent, or Isabel, or any of the hotel staff. This is why I gave you guys a chance to get out before you heard any details,” I said.

“I can’t steal anything,” Sarah said. “I’m going to be president of Thespians next year.”

That was news to me, since we hadn’t had elections yet. “You are?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. She glanced at me and Mark. “Well,
most likely. Anyway, I can’t have something like that on my record.”

Brian nodded. “Not that I don’t want to help, Mad,” he said. “Because I do. But seriously, I get caught doing one more thing and I’m going to military school. My dad showed me the brochures and everything.”

“And I really need to get a scholarship if I want to go to RISD,” Ginger said, setting down the pepper flakes and edging away from them as though she wanted to distance herself from the whole situation. “So…”

I nodded, swallowing hard. I should have known this would happen. It was very easy to agree to something before you knew what the risks were. It was much harder when it might actually cost something. “Right,” I said quietly. I glanced at Schuyler, who looked stricken. “I understand.”

“This is
complètement merde,
” Lisa said, surprising me. We all turned to look at her. “What, everyone was on board until it seemed like there might actually be consequences? Mad is our friend. And she and Schuyler need our help. And this is what friends do. They help each other when they need it most. So if you walk away from this, it’s basically admitting that you’re not a good friend. So if you want to do that,
d’accord.
There’s the door.” She gestured dramatically.

“It’s actually over there,” Brian murmured, pointing in the opposite direction.

“Whatever,” Lisa snapped. “The point is, I’m not leaving. But if you are, you should go. Now.” I looked at
Lisa, incredibly touched, but she refused to meet my eye. She was clearly still mad about the Dave conversation. I figured I would deal with that when things had calmed down. Maybe in the next millennium.

Ginger twisted her hands together but remained seated. Sarah stood up, shouldered her bag, then glanced at me and sat back down again.

“So you’re in?” I asked, not really able to believe it. “Really? Everyone?”

There was a collective silence; then Dave cleared his throat. “What’s the plan, Mad?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, pulling out my napkin, “here’s how I thought we could get the crown back—”

“No,” Kittson interrupted. She was sitting again, Glen’s arm around her. She no longer looked furious. Instead, she looked oddly calm, which actually frightened me even more.

“No?” Schuyler repeated, looking at her. “But…um…don’t you want the crown back?”

“I meant,” Kittson said, “that it’s not enough to get the crown. We’ll get it back—we’d better—but we need to get
her
back for this. She can’t be allowed to get away with it.”

“Well, she won’t,” I said, wondering if I hadn’t explained this clearly enough. “Because we’re going to take the crown back from her.”

“It’s not enough,” Kittson said. “She’s trying to ruin our prom. I say we do the same to hers.”

“Kittson,” I said, a little desperately, “I think we need to just concentrate on one thing at a time.”

“We get revenge on her or I’m going to Dr. Trent with all of this,” she said in the same calm, terrifying tone.

“Kittson’s right,” Schuyler said in a small voice. I turned to her, shocked. “No, I mean it,” she continued. “She shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. With any of the things that she’s done. She should pay.”

I could see that Kittson wasn’t about to back down. “Fine,” I said. I looked down at my napkin, at my vague idea, which now had to be rethought. “We’ll get back at Isabel, too. I promise.”

“Good,” said Kittson and Schuyler simultaneously.

“All right,” I said. I took a swig of Diet Coke to help clear my head. First, we needed to find out everything we could about Isabel. I turned to Brian. “Do you have your laptop?” I asked.

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