“Too what?” Cat said. “Moral? Good? He was all those things before you. Before he became a mini Tad. And now he’s not just hurting you, he’s hurting me. If you don’t belong at the school, neither do I.”
Angeline stiffened. “We both belong there. We didn’t do anything wrong. Our application will show—”
“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter what’s true or not, it matters what someone makes someone believe is the truth. Haven’t you been paying attention to anything that’s been going on for the past few years? Ms. Lute said Acedia was a microcosm, and she’s one hundred percent right.”
Everything Cat had done, everything that was finally on the verge of paying off, all right before her, and now, because of her sister, she might lose it. Lose the award, lose Northwestern, and then what? Everything she’d worked for would be replaced by the deep dark hole of everything she’d given up to get it: fun and friends and bonfires and boys—yes, boys—a love life, any kind of life outside the newsroom.
Angeline sighed. “What would you have me do, Cat? Quit?”
“What if I said yes?”
Her sister’s eyes shifted away from Cat’s. “The thing is, I’ve already sent Evelyn the deposit and signed the confidentiality agreement.”
“Then why even ask?”
Cat stormed out and straight into the bathroom. At the sink, her pulse raced as she washed off what she imagined the regurgitated supper of a seal felt like.
She dried her fingers with a towel, refusing on principle to acknowledge the softness of her skin.
18
When Cat Watches Grady
11 DAYS TO THE ELECTION
Grady: Video’s uploaded to server.
Cat: I’ll watch soon.
Grady: Now soon?
Grady:
At the desk in her bedroom, Cat rolled her eyes. But she set aside her essay for government on protest marches and opened the shortcut to The Red and Blue’s server.
* * *
“Testing, one, two, three, testing. And action . . .
“I’m standing outside the entrance to the boys’ bathroom in the west corridor where the first images of the Frankengirls were seen at the start of the school year. In that short time, while the climate outside these walls gradually transitions from summer to fall, inside has been experiencing a glacial shift. The question is, how did we enter this AF era—that’s ‘After Frankengirls,’ by the way. A question I hope to answer.
“Welcome, I’m Grady Booker, Red and Blue staff reporter and your trusted guide for this special online video report. Come with me as we venture forth from this iconic spot and travel through the halls of Acedia. Our journey chronicles the student council election, from its first sign-up sheet at this bulletin board outside Ms. Lute’s classroom to the primary election that kicked off our Battle of the Exes in the auditorium, which we’ll visit in a bit.
“That battle has become an all-out war in the weeks since. It started small, with cheeky campaign posters and messages on marquees. The all-in-good-fun feel continued when Quinn pulled her car sporting a three-foot-tall halo into the parking lot, only to be overshadowed, literally, by six-foot-high devil horns on half the cars of the football team, including Tad Marcus’s. Then there were the pink cozies snuggling over every football, basketball, and baseball bat in the equipment room. That was soon followed by the text messaged ’round the school with photos only Torres had access to take of the expensive wardrobe in Quinn’s closet, completely at odds with her dress code promise; the dozens of Finding Nemo stuffies strangled with plastic straws creepily dangling in unsuspecting corners of the school, challenging Torres’s ‘stop telling us what to do’ platform; and the corridors covered in bubble wrap, mocking the ‘safe space’ Quinn advocated for.
“But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, with less than two weeks before the election, let’s center on Angeline Quinn. As many voters know, Quinn’s eligibility to run was called into question by The Shrieking Violet. After a visit from Quinn’s mother and an unearthing of her student file, she was given the all-clear. The confidentiality terms that prevent us from showing the evidence may be the reason skepticism remains.
“Exhibit A.”
“As you can see, Quinn’s campaign poster has been vandalized by someone in need of a grammar check, but that unfortunately doesn’t narrow down the suspect pool. But look closer as I zoom in . . . is this the zoom? I don’t know how to use this thing, which is old AF, and not in the After Frankengirls way . . . cheese and crackers . . . where’s the . . . okay, okay, there we go . . . note to self: edit here . . . and . . . action.
“I hope you can see that all over Quinn’s poster are words of support like this one, ‘Ash for Ang 4Ever,’ as well as the outline of lips. Girls have been coming by and planting kisses. Wait, here comes someone now . . . And zoom back out . . . ooh, ooh, here she comes. Sonya Robins. God, she’s hot. I mean, not hot, I mean attractive. She’s a lovely girl. Lady. Person. Who I’d give my left pinkie to plant my own lipstick kiss on . . . And note to self, cut.”
Grady landed the camera on Sonya just as Riley met up with her. “Here we have Riley Donovan and”—Grady swallowed—“and Sonya Robins. Sonya, can you tell us what you are doing and why?”
Sonya started to respond, but Riley interrupted. “This for The Shrieking Violet?”
The camera swung back and forth.
“Good, that rag has a vendetta against our Angeline.” Riley unspooled a lipstick. “Which is why we’re here.”
Sonya took the lipstick and circled her lips three times. She kissed Angeline’s poster, leaving behind a perfect imprint.
“We’re showing Angeline our support,” Sonya said.
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“The girls,” Riley said, edging her way into the frame.
“The girls?”
“In the school,” Sonya said. “We’re all behind her.”
“Fluttering our wings!” Riley said.
The camera angle widened but remained squarely focused on Sonya as she and Riley walked down the hall.
Sounds of a throat clearing.
“All the girls may not be entirely accurate, but a hefty portion of them . . . don’t say ‘hefty,’ that’s not right . . . large . . . a large portion . . . uh, not all the girls but many of them . . . yes! . . . many of them are behind her. This sign with both the anti-Angeline comment and the lipstick smooches is representative of what we’ll see during our tour on at least half a dozen of her individual posters, incidentally painted by the uber-talented Sonya Robins, and even on what remains of the half-stolen mural, which is printed with images from her Ask an Angel YouTube channel. A channel that some say she’s using to unfair advantage. A Reddit post in particular has accused Quinn of offering freebies and promo spots to voters. Scratch that, allegedly offering.