The Class Reject: A Pariah in Purgatory (Book II)

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

"Do you think our plan is risky?" Wallace pondered as he tapped his fingertips on Jeno's desk.

"The real question is when your girlfriend is going to get here so we can even consider implementing it," Jeno replied, folding his arms. "The dance is supposed to start in three hours. She said she cracked the code, right?"

"Yeah," Wallace said, flipping through his phone messages. "But she's probably getting dressed or something before she heads over. Girls."

"I don't know, maybe it's a sign," Jeno considered, rubbing his chin. Miren still wasn't back from Rosemunde either. "Everyone thinks Soren is responsible for everything. If we try something, we'll risk casting suspicion away from him."

"No risk, no reward," Wallace offered. "Plus, if the box contains something as incriminating as we think it does, then that'll hardly be a problem."

"Fair enough."

"The real problem is that you're still humoring Theodora when you and Miren have the feels for each other." Jeno rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what she told you, but our relationship is just that, ours." Jeno moved to his computer, turned his attention to the encrypted voice files. "So please worry about your own. And tell your girlfriend to stop wasting time."

"You're the only one wasting time," Wallace practically taunted. "Why else do you think Miren hasn't gotten closer to you? Sure, she has idiotic feelings for Parker, but if you pushed Theodora to the side, she'd be able to take you seriously, you know," he reasoned, stretching his arms. "Seriously, the way you continue to look at her without doing anything is sickening."

"Everything is sickening," Jeno said, closing his eyes. "I keep having this dream of the two of us making out in my bedroom." He shook his head. "And every time I see her, I just want to kiss her. But I know I can't  do that because she's even more emotionally unavailable than I am. And I know what we're doing is supposed to help her, but I can't help but wonder if we're making things worse. I told her not to go back. I told her she'd be able to get revenge on Penelope. Now I'm not so sure."

"We can take her down," Wallace said firmly. "We just need to agree to how far we're willing to go. Somehow everyone seems reluctant to just get her expelled. We have to stop playing nice."

"How is trying to put her in rehab nice?"

"The problem is that we keep making her look like a victim. That's why you wanted to do the voice-recording thing, right? So that she'd implicate herself. But maybe I should just go in her file and make something up. Make her look guilty as fuck." Jeno shook his head.

"Let's not forget that Penelope is rich as fuck, and has a shark for a mother. Either way we work it, we lose."

"So you think that if you confess your love to Miren that we'll win?" The two boys glared at each other until Jeno sighed. He was right. But instead of relishing in his victory, Wallace just appeared more impatient. "We need the box. I'm going to go find Chara so we can get this over with. Be back in twenty." Then he was gone.

***

The dance began with a BANG. Okay, so not a literal bang, but it was the name of Axel and Cliff's indie-rock band. And contrary to anyone's suspicions, they were actually pretty good, with lyrics that were so mild in profanity that most of it went over the faculties' heads.