What's Your Status? (31 page)

“Hey, Mad,” she said. “What’s up? Shouldn’t you be at your drive-thru right now?”

“Drive-in,” I corrected automatically. “And yes. But listen. We have a problem.”

“What is it?” Schuyler asked, frowning.

“Isabel stole my dress.”

“What?”

“Isabel,” I said with a renewed sense of rage, along with the feeling that I might burst into tears. “She stole my prom dress.”

“Oh my God,” Schuyler said, looking stricken. “Why would she do that?”

“She’s mad about the Sarah date-stealing,” I said.

“But why is she going after you?” Schuyler asked.

“My thoughts exactly.” I looked at Schuyler and saw that she was wearing a white tank, her hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. “Shy, aren’t you going out with Connor tonight?”

“Oh,” she said, looking down. “No. I told him that I was sick.”

“Schuyler,” I said, “have you been avoiding him this whole time?”

“No,” she protested. “I e-mailed him last night. To tell him I was sick.”

“Shy,” I said, “you can’t keep doing this to him. You have to…hold on,” I said as my iChat dinged with an invitation from Kittson. I clicked over to her.

“We have a problem,” Kittson said from inside her very pink bedroom. Behind her, I could see Turtell pacing back and forth.

“I do, too,” I said. “Listen—”

“Me first,” she interrupted me. “Have you heard about some new prom website?”

“Kind of,” I said. “But nobody will tell me what it’s about.”

“Did you know about this, Mad?” Turtell asked, sticking his head into the camera’s view.

“No!” I said. “I don’t even know what this website is!”

“It’s trouble,” Kittson said, frowning.

“Yes, but what is the content?” I asked as my computer dinged with another chat invitation—from Sarah Donner, of all people. “Hold on,” I said, switching over to Sarah.

“Madison,” Sarah said as soon as she appeared on my screen. “We have a problem.”

I closed my eyes for a second and hoped that I would never have to hear those words again. “Oh?” I asked, bracing myself for the bad news.

“Yeah,” she said, looking worried. “Did you know that the Hartfield prom is eighties themed?”

Well, that threw a big neon wrench into our plan. “No,” I said, trying not to panic. “No, I didn’t.”

“I only found out because Zach wanted to make sure
I had the right kind of dress to wear. Which is totally sweet, and so like him, but I
don’t,
and I don’t know where I’m going to find an eighties dress by tomorrow.”

“Hold on a second, Sarah,” I said. I brought up Kittson and Schuyler as well, and looked at them all. “Okay. So there are some problems,” I said, going for understatement.

“We need to contain this. Now,” Kittson said, and Turtell, behind her, nodded.

“I agree,” I said. I looked at everyone looking to me for answers and knew what I had to do. “I hope nobody had ironclad plans tonight. Schuyler, would you see if Ginger’s free tonight? We’re going to need her. And Dave, too.”

“Sure,” Schuyler said, looking confused. “But what about your date?”

I sighed. “That’s not going to happen,” I said.

“In war, there are casualties,” Kittson said.

“Thanks,” I said, picking up my phone to call Nate. “That’s very comforting right now.”

An hour later, I was back at school. I pulled into the junior parking lot and parked next to Schuyler’s SUV. The back hatch was up, and Schuyler sat inside, her legs dangling over the edge. I got out of my car, locked it, and headed over to her.

“Did Nate understand?” Schuyler asked as soon as I was in earshot.

“He said he did,” I said with a shrug, “but I don’t think he was happy about it.”

I’d called Nate as soon as I’d closed out the chats. “Hey, you,” he’d said when he picked up. Making matters worse, he’d sounded really happy to hear from me. “I was just out the door to get you.”

“Right,” I’d said heavily, hating that I was doing this, and at the last minute, too. “About that…”

When Nate had spoken again, his tone was much more subdued. “You can’t make it,” he’d said, like he’d been expecting this.

“I’m so sorry,” I’d said in a rush. “There’s just a prom thing that’s come up at the last minute, and I need to take care of it.”

“It’s okay,” he’d said, but his voice was a little flat. “I understand, Mad.”

“I hate to cancel our date night, and I really wanted to see you. It’s just…I have to take care of this.”

“It’s fine,” he’d said. “I promise. Go take care of whatever you need to take care of, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I’d said. I suddenly didn’t want to get off the phone with him. I was worried that things were changing between us, and canceling this date was just making things worse. “I just…” My voice had trailed off. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say.

“Mad, it’s
fine,
” Nate had said, his voice a little gentler now. “Look, want me to call you later?”

“Yes,” I’d said. The promise of a conversation raised my spirits a little. And then tomorrow we’d go to the prom together, and then after tomorrow, the prom would be over, thank God. We’d said our goodbyes and I hung
up, wondering when all the constants in my life had started to get so shaky.

“Anyway,” I said, focusing back on Schuyler. “Let’s get this figured out. Where is everyone else?”

“En route,” she said, looking at her phone. “If their GPS locations are anything to go by, that is.”

Sure enough, as she said this, three cars careened into the parking lot, followed by the Putnam Pizza van. Sarah got out of one, Ginger out of the second, and Kittson and Turtell out of the third car. Dave got out of the Putnam Pizza van, looking stressed.

“I can’t be here long,” Dave said as he got close to Schuyler’s SUV, where everyone was congregating. “I’m going to have to go out on deliveries soon.”

“If you need to, you can take my car,” I said. “But we’re going to need the van to transport the clothes.” I noticed Kittson’s outfit for the first time, and saw that it consisted of black leggings and a black tank top. “What are you wearing?” I asked.

“We’re breaking in,” Kittson said. She pulled a thin silver laptop out of her purse. “This is what you wear for that.”

“We’re breaking in?” Schuyler asked, turning pale.

“No,” I said quickly. “Not really. We have keys.”

“How many people need outfits?” Ginger asked. Out of all of us, she looked the least stressed. She was slipping into her professional-costumer mode, and I was happy to see it.

“Well,” I said. I paused and thought about it. “Me, Sarah…”

“Mark,” Kittson added.

“Mark?” Schuyler asked, frowning. A moment later, her expression cleared. “Oh! Right. I keep forgetting about him.”

“So three,” Ginger said, making notes on a piece of paper and nodding. “That should be doable.”

“Isabel stole my prom dress,” I said, hoping that if I said it enough times, it wouldn’t keep threatening to make me cry. “So I might need two dresses, if we can find something.”

“We will,” Ginger said, with such confidence that I believed her. “Don’t worry.”

“How’d she do that?” Sarah asked.

“Because she’s a liar and a cheat,” Kittson said angrily. “Oh, I am so looking forward to taking her down.”

“She knew where it was because I had it on my Q,” I said. “She’s following mine. She’s probably following Kittson, and who knows who else. Also, we know Dr. Trent is following Glen—”

“Damn the Man!” Turtell muttered.

“Right. But he’s following me, too,” I said. “So we’re not going to be able to use the updates like we thought. We don’t want to give stuff away.”

“But isn’t that a huge part of it?” Dave asked, frowning. “I mean, how are we supposed to communicate?”

“We’re going to have to figure out some codes,” I said. “I’ll work on that tonight. But for the moment, just be careful what you say.”

“You never know who’s listening,” Turtell said darkly.

“It’s true,” I admitted, still not quite able to believe that he’d been right about this.

“So there’s one more thing,” Kittson said. She gestured for Schuyler to move, and Schuyler immediately jumped up and walked to the side of her car. Kittson placed her laptop down where Schuyler had been sitting and opened it. “There’s a website,” she said.

“Oh, I’ve heard something about this,” Dave said. “I think.”

“What is it for?” I asked, thrilled to finally get an answer to this mystery.

“It’s a betting site,” Kittson said, leaning over her computer and typing in an address.

“Betting on what?” Ginger asked.

“On who’s going to win prom king and queen,” Kittson said grimly. “Look.”

“Okay,” I said, straightening up. “Is it just me, or is that really weird?”

“Super weird,” Ginger said. “Who would even bet on this?”

“A bunch of people, apparently,” Sarah said, pointing to the bottom of the screen. “There’s twelve hundred dollars already in play.” She looked up at me, then back at the screen again. “Mads, your odds are really bad. Like, shockingly bad.”

“Dave’s, too,” Ginger pointed out.

“Thanks,” Dave muttered.

“This has to be illegal, right?” I asked, trying not to focus on the fact that I had terrible odds. Which seemed, actually, kind of odd. I mean, it wasn’t like I was a social
pariah or anything. How were these being calculated, anyway? “I mean, can you just bet on people like this?”

Race to the Crown

Putnam High School “A Night to Remember” Saturday, May 25th

Welcome to Race to the Crown—your opportunity to get in on the action of one of the most hotly contested Prom Royalty elections!

Adding to the drama are Putnam’s new voting rules, which PROHIBIT nominations! The field is wide open, and anyone could walk away a queen, with the famous Hayes crown!

How it works:

$100 minimum bet. Use PayBuddy link at bottom.

Choices for King AND Queen must be correct to win.

Play the favorites or go for a dark horse candidate! Either way, if you win, you win big! Good luck, and good betting!

FAVORED CANDIDATES

QUEEN

KITTSON PEARSON

Odds: 2 to 1

ROBERTA BRIGGS

Odds: 6 to 1

LIZ FRANKLIN

Odds: 12 to 1

MADISON MACDONALD

Odds: 100 to 1

KING

JUSTIN WILLIAMSON

Odds: 3 to 1

BRIAN MCMAHON

Odds: 8 to 1

JIMMY ARNETT

Odds: 15 to 1

DAVE GOLD

Odds: 60 to 1

“I want to know who’s behind this,” Turtell growled. “I mean, someone is betting on my girlfriend? Not cool.”

“Not at all,” I said, frowning at the screen. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand these candidates.”

“You mean you?” Sarah asked.

“No,” I said. “Well, yes, that’s part of it.” I could understand why Roberta Briggs had made the cut; she’d been considered the hottest girl in our class since approximately fourth grade. “But they just seem so random. And why even put me and Dave down if our odds are so bad?”

“Lisa isn’t going to like this,” Dave said in a small voice, shaking his head.

“
I
don’t like it,” Turtell said. “Someone is going to be making money off of my girlfriend.”

“But I don’t understand how anyone
is
going to make money off this,” I said, bending down and looking at the screen again. I tried to remember everything my father had told me about sports betting sites. None of the factors that made those profitable—point spread, buy money, return rate—were in place here. Whoever was running this stood to lose a huge amount of money, unless…“It’s like they already know who’s going to win,” I said slowly.

Kittson wrinkled her nose. “But that’s impossible,” she said. “Nobody’s even voted yet.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s what worries me.”

“Well, nobody can get to the voting program,” she said. “The codes are going to be texted to us ten minutes
before the crowning. And they’ve been secured on Dr. Trent’s computer.”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “But something’s off about it.”

“Can we get this going?” Dave asked. “I might need to leave soon.”

“Right,” I said, trying to focus on the task at hand. I looked at Ginger, then Turtell. “You guys ready?” They nodded.

“Dave, you should probably drive the van around to the theater door,” Ginger said. “And it might be a good idea to kill your lights.”

“I’ll meet you guys over there,” Dave said, getting into the van.

The rest of us followed Turtell around the back of the school, to an entrance I’d never paid any attention to before, a single unmarked door near the back gym. “How did you find out about this?” Schuyler whispered, looking around nervously.

“You’d be amazed at how much wisdom janitors are willing to share,” Turtell said with a smile. He rubbed his hands together and took a huge key ring out of his pocket. He selected a key and moved toward the door.

“Wait!” Sarah yelped before he could put the key in. We all turned to look at her. “You’re sure this door isn’t alarmed, right?”

Turtell lowered the key. “I’m sure,” he said. “They missed this door when they updated the security system a few years ago. It’s our only way in.”

“And there aren’t any cameras, right?” she asked.

“I can answer that,” I said. “And the answer’s no. We asked Dr. Trent about it a few months ago, when my locker was broken into.”

“Are we doing this?” Turtell asked, sounding impatient.

“Yes,” Kittson said. “Go for it, baby.”

I held my breath as Turtell put the key into the lock and turned it. He pushed the door open and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for an alarm to start wailing and the cops to descend on us. But nothing happened. The door just swung open silently. I let out a breath and saw Schuyler and Sarah doing the same.

“We don’t want to attract attention to ourselves,” Turtell said in a low voice. “Just in case. So I’d say silence unless absolutely necessary. Don’t turn on any lights. And let’s do this as fast as possible. Get in and get out. Okay?”