His Dark Words

22 | My Best, My Worst

 "You are a certifiable bad-ass." Vanessa says with awed respect.

"That or a lunatic." I smile weakly.

I printed out the photos of the exam papers and taped them up all over my room. The yellow wall behind my desk is almost hidden by them. Vanessa is staring at it all, standing in the middle of my room, eyes and mouth wide open. I'm lying, exhausted on my bed after a full day of school on exactly zero hours of sleep. 

The entire senior class was pulled into an assembly after my little escapade. They knew it must've been a student. They figured it was just another prank, but the perpetrator or perpetrators had been foiled by the security guard before they could actually do anything. Ms. Wexler, the Principal, was apoplectic with rage, according to Derrick. She went on a rant about how this year's senior class was the worst behaved she'd ever encountered. She said she only wished they had revealed themselves sooner, so she could've cancelled Prom. She promised that anyone caught making the slightest misstep would be expelled, never mind that they only had a week left of school. It would go on their permanent record and good luck getting into college after that.

No one even dreamed it could be a junior who pulled that kind of a stunt. Even the seniors were sure it was one of them. Macie was hounded by her friends, desperate to know who she was getting revenge on now. She kept quiet and coy, refusing to say if it was her or not, which of course made everyone certain it had been her. It secured her legend status at Mont Michel and I was more than happy not to be implicated at all. 

Maybe it's something about Austin Loew that turns all his ex-girlfriends into vigilantes.

"I only wish you'd told me so I could've come with you!" Vanessa sighs, her tone reproachful. 

I want to laugh. I can't think of anyone less suited to covert operations than Vanessa. 

"Do you really think he was in the play with me?" She adds, looking over the highlighted playbill crumpled on my desk.

"Yes." I yawn. "I believe it because I have no other leads and I just have to find him."

There's a knock at the door.

"Come in!" I call out, fighting back another yawn.

"Hey..." Alex walks in, then stares dumbly at the paper on the walls. "Jeez... What the hell is this?"

"It was Harlow who broke into school!" Vanessa replies in a rush.

There's still just a hint of coldness in her voice. She hasn't actually forgiven Alex for not telling us about Macie and Austin. Vanessa is never one to hold back on saying how she feels. She was quick to tell Alex that, in no uncertain terms, he is a horrible friend for letting me date Austin. Up until then he hadn't known about what happened on the night of Prom... The night my Dad died... And, before I could stop her, Vanessa recounted the whole ugly story to him in excruciating detail. Alex has been distant ever since; whether from disgust or shame I'm not sure.

"Wait... That was you?" He slowly approaches the paper taped up all over the walls. "Why did you do it? And... What is this stuff?"

I shuffle up into a sitting position and run a hand over my tousled waves. "Handwriting samples."

"These are exam papers..." He brushes the paper with the tips of his fingers, then stands back in a jolt. "Are you cheating?"

I laugh, the thought had never crossed my mind.

"Don't be stupid. Our exams are over, what would be the point of having exam papers after the fact?" Vanessa sits down at my desk chair and stares up at Alex, her arms folded.