Spellbound - Cara Lynn Shultz [106]
“I’ll give you two losers a minute to figure it out. Brendan, I have a feeling you’ll need to talk extra…slowly…to…her,” she drawled dramatically before sashaying away to join her blond date.
“Brendan, you’re on probation.” I turned my back to the dance floor and kept my voice low, even though I knew no one could hear me over the bass. “You don’t need any more issues with Principal Casey.”
“If you give in to Kristin now, that’s it,” he pointed out angrily. “She’ll know she can blackmail us, extort us, whatever, to get what she wants.”
“Brendan, it’s just moving a box,” I promised. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine, Emma,” Brendan argued. “I’ll go move it before I let you deal with this.”
“Look, she just wants to be bossy and feel superior,” I reasoned. “We know she’s pathetic. Besides, I’m not going to let you get into trouble, again, for me.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, then how about this? How horrible will things be for me if you get kicked out, huh?” I folded my arms and stared up with him with my best “so there” face.
Brendan began protesting but I ignored him, and turned around to see Kristin striding back across the dance floor. From the smug look on her orange face, you could tell she knew she had won.
“So where the hell is this stupid box?” I asked, my voice dripping with contempt.
Her grimace turned into a smile. “It’s in the basement by the lockers. I’ll show you the way. Just go get it and bring it up to the raffle table.”
I grabbed my clutch from the shelf underneath the desk, figuring I’d call Ashley and see where she was while I was away from the music.
Brendan slid his hand around the side of my neck. “Emma, you don’t have to take care of me.”
“Let me do this for you?” I asked, stretching up to kiss him.
“I don’t have all night,” Kristin yelled, tapping her crystal-encrusted sandal impatiently.
“I know where the basement is,” I said scornfully as I fell into step next to Kristin. “You don’t have to walk me there.”
“Oh, this is my absolute pleasure,” she gloated, strutting through the dance floor. I pretended to be oblivious to the confused stares from my classmates who caught us walking together. It would have been less probable to see the Loch Ness Monster do a conga line through the dance floor than it would have been to ever see the two of us peacefully together.
We walked right past Jenn, whose jaw dropped, mouthing “What the eff?” to me when she saw me with my mortal enemy. I just shrugged, figuring I could give her all the gory details on Monday. Then at least I could find out why she was holding Austin’s hand.
We passed the raffle table—where a full box of tickets sat at Kendall’s feet. When she saw us walking by, Kendall stood up, a disgusted look on her pretty face.
“Kristin, I don’t think—” she shouted over the music, but Kristin told her just exactly what she could go do with her thoughts.
So this is just a power play like I thought. Kendall doesn’t need the tickets. She doesn’t need the box moved. Kristin just wants to let me know who is in charge.
Kristin strutted down the hallway to the basement door.
“After you,” she sneered, twisting the doorknob and kicking it open with her strappy sandal.
“So this box is right by the lockers?” I asked.
“I said that already. All the unwanted and unnecessary stuff goes in the basement.” I let her dig about my locker location roll off my back and I stepped into the chilly stairwell.
“What, do they turn the heat off after school?” I wondered aloud, wrapping my arms around me as I quickly ran down the stairs, hearing the bass echo in the concrete stairwell. My breath was coming out in smoke. I just wanted this over with.
As soon as I was on the bottom step, I turned to the right to face the row of lockers—and that’s it. No boxes. I turned around and looked up the stairs to see Kristin peeking out from the top of the stairs, laughing.
“That’s what you get, bitch!” she yelled, and pulled the door shut.
I ran back up the stairs, feeling my ankle starting to throb. I grabbed the doorknob, twisting it and shaking it, but it was no use—she’d locked