Chapter 6

Everyone was still eating when Li and I headed to the school’s main office. Voting for freshman student representative had happened that morning in homeroom and they’d told us the results would be posted in the office at the end of lunch.

Li had been nervous all day and, apparently, had not been paying attention in class, which for Li, was tantamount to being seriously ill.

I’d made her sit through lunch and eat her food instead of spending the entire lunch period camped outside the office, which had been torture for her, but we still had the rest of the school day and she also had basketball practice after, so she needed to eat.

And they’d specifically said the end of lunch, so just sitting outside of the office for thirty minutes seemed like a waste of time.

And boring.

When we turned the corner, however, I saw that Brandy and Patricia Strong, Melissa’s friend, were both already standing in the hallway, waiting. Li shot me an ‘I told you so’ look, but I ignored her.

I leaned up against a wall to wait, while she kind of paced back and forth like a nervous house cat.

Even with that, the three girls had about as much distance between each other as possible. Brandy was shooting daggers at me, which I guess was just her way of letting me know she still absolutely hated me, while Patricia was hugging her backpack close, not really making eye contact with anyone.

The silence stretched uncomfortably until Principal Hargrove poked his head out of the office door with that tired and harried expression teachers all seemed to get by mid-afternoon.

“Mrs. Pierson is running a few minutes late with the election results,” he announced. “She’ll be here soon.”

He disappeared back into his office before any of us could respond, which was probably a good call.

“See, no reason to rush,” I said when Li finally stopped pacing and slumped back against the wall.

“Shut up,” she said, which got a chuckle out of me.

I guess the silence finally got to Patricia, because she asked, “Did you finish the thing on reconstruction for APUSH?”

Brandy and I both looked up, but we also knew that had to be a question for Li. Brandy and I had not been good students in middle school and, while I was working on fixing that, neither of us was anywhere close to an AP history class. Patricia and Li, however, had a lot of the same classes and if things kept going the way they were, they’d probably end up neck and neck to be valedictorian.

“Yeah, I finished it last night, except I need to ask him about question thirteen. I think the answer he’s expecting is wrong.”

“The one about Johnson?”

“Yeah. I’m sure he means impeachment, but the way it’s worded, it is actually asking about him being kicked out of office and I don’t think that’s what he meant.”

“You think? I saw that it said convicted, but...”

“For the love of God,” Brandy said. “Will you two shut up?”

Patricia all but sank into herself, but Li actually said, “Some of us care about our grades. What are you even running for if you don’t care about school?”

I was honestly shocked and impressed by Li. Five months ago, she would have done exactly what Patricia did. I don’t even think she realized how ready she was to push back at someone now, and how much less scared she was of everything.

Brandy, of course, took it as a personal affront. She probably would have no matter what Li’s response had been, considering Li was my friend and she really hated me, but she was also one of those types of people who were all about saving face and her public image.

A nerd like Li feeling comfortable telling her off was bound to get under Brandy’s skin.

She didn’t get a chance to respond, however, because Mrs. Pierson turned the corner and hurried toward us, a manila folder tucked under her arm.

“I’m so sorry to keep you all waiting,” she said, slightly out of breath. “The student government volunteers needed extra time to count all the ballots twice. We had an unusually high turnout for a mid-year election.”

Mrs. Pierson opened the folder and adjusted her glasses. “Well, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. This was one of the closest three-way races we’ve had at Wheaton High in years.”