-11

Another grueling school day.

Kate slumped through the hallway thinking about Arnold, the thin and wiry blond boy with a face full of zits and an intellect the size of the moon. Unknown to most kids, Arnold was the salutatorian of the junior class, even higher up on the class rank. He had been the valedictorian until that suave, green-eyed kid Alejandro had showed up.

Thinking about him filled Kate with rage. He thought he was soo kewl just because half the school's female population had a crush on him and he was obviously going to be dethroning Justin soon. Kate saw the way that the glimmer in Arnold's eyes went out when Alejandro was around. Alejandro already had everything, so did he really need the valedictorian rank, too? Arnold had been working his way up the ladder for years, working his butt off to get that rank and then Mr. Perfect swoops in out of nowhere and picks it up in under a month.

Thank God the school day was over. Kate clenched her fists, gritted her teeth. She wanted to go home and punch everything in sight...

Life was so unfair. She'd had a crush on Arnold ever since ninth grade; she thought he was the sexiest guy in school, didn't care about his zits, loved everything about him. Yet he had a huge crush on Courtney. He was so obsessed with the brunette he couldn't see straight. Of course he didn't even know that Kate existed. And she'd been as good a friend to him as Harold for the past two years.

Even Harold knew about her crush on Arnold. It was so obvious, yet Arnold was so cluelessly oblivious.

She sighed heavily, looking at the blissfully empty hallways. Today she'd had to stay late since she had to ask the Spanish teacher for help. Gritting her teeth, she tried to forget that he'd tried to get her to ask Alejandro to tutor her since another student he was tutoring had improved phenomenally in her Spanish because of it...

As she walked towards her locker, Kate's eyes popped to the size of bowling balls.

She'd thought that she was the only one skulking the halls, but apparently not: Alejandro had Heather pressed against the lockers and was full-on making out with her. It was such an unexpected sight, Kate found herself frozen to the spot, watching for several seconds. Her gag reflex activated when she thought she saw someone's tongue poking through.

To make matters worse, the couple was right in front of her locker. Feeling her heart pound in her chest, Kate thought despairingly of the geography text book she'd left in there and the fact that there was a test tomorrow. Her mind locked as she tried to determine whether or not she really needed it.

Fear escalated through Kate's system, making her brain and heart rocket from the toes of her boots, to her fingers and everywhere inside. One more minute passed and Kate was stuck as Heather and Alejandro pulled away from their embrace and were looking at her, both had narrowed eyes. As soon as Heather turned to whisper in Alejandro's ear, Kate's adrenaline kicked in.

She turned on her heel and took off running, hearing the heels of her shoes reverberating through the halls. Seconds later, she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. Quickly she looked over her shoulder and she saw that she was being pursued: Alejandro.

Sick with fear, Kate took off even faster, making a quick turn. Images flared through her mind and she vividly remembered the AV club meeting that morning:

Mrs. Smith's small, whitewashed classroom. Harold and Arnold, president and vice-president of the AV club, stood at the front of the room. All of the members were present and waiting eagerly for what top secret project Vice President Arnold had in store for them all.

Her own stomach had been full of butterflies and Kate could remember smiling so brightly, how proud she was of Arnold and how much she loved the benign smile on his face. The meeting had progressed with Arnold raising his fancy camcorder for everyone to see, hooking it up to a lap top, then projecting the video footage onto the nearest wall. As each clip played, Kate could remember how many times her stomach had clenched and turned over.

The first one was of Alejandro's and Heather's private meeting in the janitor's closet, a.k.a. the "make-out room". How they whispered to each other, how close they'd been to kissing. Then the next clip was of a bunch of girls tackling Alejandro at his locker, the next of Alejandro and Heather kissing in a truck, the two of them going out to eat. Then there was one more with a fake, tearful and "heartfelt" confession from the king of the school himself, Justin. When Arnold was done showing the clips, Kate was gripping the bottom of her plastic chair, shaking her head.

That's such an invasion of privacy and it's obviously a scandal she thought to herself. Oh Arnold...my dear sweet Arnold, why? I don't like Alejandro or Heather, but I wouldn't do this to them...

She gripped the chair harder as a realization hit her. Courtney...

The rest of the scene blurred in her head: Arnold talking about the AV club making Courtney's campaign video, that it needed to be top secret, explaining how it was going to be set up...

Then Arnold's hand touching her shoulder, the shivers that ran down her spine when he did.

"Hey Kate," he said when he pressed the camera into her hands. "You're the best photographer in AV, so...could you get one more vid of Alejandro and Heather. A really...steamy one?"

Kate had looked at him, her morals shaken up. The look on his face, the way his brown eyes were sparkling and the quirk of his grin. Her heart swelled and despite her screaming, protesting conscience, she'd said: "Yeah."

In the rush of the moment, Arnold had kissed her cheek: a wet, sloppy kiss. That was exactly what'd fueled her determination and made her anxious all day, made her heavily pine for Arnold, made her think bitter thoughts about Alejandro when she was actually furious at herself.

Kate snapped back to reality. The bulky shape of Arnold's camcorder was in her jeans pocket and she could see the video that she'd captured on it play in her mind's eye. She'd done Arnold's dirty work; she was guilty and she knew it.

After so desperately tearing through the halls, Kate found herself backed against a wall. Her stomach clenched into a fist as she turned around and found both Alejandro and Heather advancing on her, looking angry and like a pair of hungry lions that had successfully cornered their prey.

"I know that Courtney likes to employ nerds to do her dirty work..." Heather said nastily, walking towards Kate and easily towering over her since she was easily a foot taller. "I saw you lurking around earlier today. Hand it over."

A lump formed in Kate's throat and her eye twitched when she saw Heather open and close her hand like a claw. Kate couldn't breathe when she noticed a trash can nearby in the corner of her eye. Memories of freshman year played through her mind and she started hyperventilating as she saw herself covered in trash, paper towels, chewed gum...

She could feel her cheek burning like fire where Arnold had kissed it. Her eyes widened as her ethics finally kicked in. All of Arnold's footage was on the stupid video camera in her pocket...She could still make things right and silence her writhing conscience!

Turning away from Heather, Kate took a deep breath and pulled the camcorder out of her pocket. With Arnold filling her mind's eye, Kate raised the camcorder, high above her head. "Forgive me," she whispered.

"Hand it over!" Heather growled, taking a step towards Kate.

Without hesitating any longer, Kate chucked the camcorder towards the ground with every ounce of her strength. A rush of emotion and energy flooded her veins as she watched the camcorder explode into lots of little pieces. Angrily, she stomped at the remaining pieces, pressing at them and crunching them until she was satisfied with the wreckage.

Breathing hard, Kate looked down at the pieces, then turned to see the shocked and confused expressions on Alejandro's and Heather's faces. Absently, Kate reached up and felt moisture on her face.

She was crying.

Without waiting any longer, Kate took off running, taking Alejandro's and Heather's hesitation as a chance to escape. But she knew she was probably going to be smelling like rotten banana peels tomorrow.

Kate ran and ran, several blocks, down streets, past a bunch of houses, not at all sure of where she was going. Everything was a giant blur and she was so confused. Her entire body felt like an electric current, driving her forward, making her run as fast as her legs allowed her to.

Life came back to her in a rush when the loud honk of a car horn blared in her ears. It was a bright red convertible and the driver was glaring at her. A pair of mean, angry green eyes.

"What the hell-" The driver stopped mid-sentence.

Confused, Kate kept looking at him, blinked. He kept looking at her. Their gazes were locked; Kate couldn't look away.

Drivers behind the red convertible started honking their horns and cussing at the top of their lungs. Weirdly enough, Kate felt herself floating as she walked over to the side of the road. The red convertible followed her and the driver parked his car, got out, and walked around it.

Their gazes locked again and Kate had a faint thought trickle into her mind: He kinda looks like Alejandro...

Surprise flooded into Kate when the driver gently took her hand and squeezed it. His hand was big and soft; his arms were muscular and he wore a sleeveless black shirt. His hair was brown and short and his mean expression had been replaced by a soft, amicable one. With her hand in his, Kate leaped a little involuntarily when she felt a bunch of sparks. Electricity.

"I'm Jose," he said in a soft voice.

"K-kate," she replied, blushing.

Her body was in revolt once she realized what was happening, yet she loved how he was looking at her. Jose was looking at her, mesmerized, as if under a spell. He, a complete stranger, was looking at her the way Kate had always longed for Arnold to look at her.

"You're the most beautiful chica I've ever seen," Jose said, leaning in and cupping her chin. "You're so smoking hot. It's a shame we've never met before. I'll bet all the guys at parties tell you that, don't they? Hey, do you have a boyfriend?"

He was being so forward, showering her with so much attention that Kate became quickly flustered. With her heart hammering in her chest, Kate could feel herself breathing hard, hot all over. Instead of answering his questions, Kate pulled his hand from under her chin, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.

The kiss was so electric and Kate felt shivers race down her spine when Jose wrapped his own arms around her, leaned towards her. He was receptive and that shocked Kate. An entire minute passed and then Kate pulled away, feeling intensely embarrassed and confused. Yet the stranger was smiling and thrilled, his eyes as wide as his grin.

"I like you already," he said, obviously not as fazed by the kiss as Kate was. "Wanna go out to dinner? Let's get to know each other better or...it's up to you."

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Kate couldn't help smiling and laughing.

-Alejandro-

Tuesday was strange, yet wonderful. Every spare moment, I grabbed Heather and hugged her, kissed her, made her know how much I loved her.

After Monday night, I'm grounded. Dad understands, but he has the wrong idea about what happened. Though it doesn't really matter since he's going to use his charms to convince Mom to get rid of the punishment. And, surprisingly, Heather didn't get any punishment at all. Her parents are scared of her...

To be honest, I can understand why, but that's what I absolutely love about this mujer. How relentless and powerful she is, just everything about her overall.

Heather wasn't the most interesting part of my day, surprisingly. We overheard a nerd at lunch bragging about carrying out a plan for Courtney and how that was going to get him in her favor. Then, when the two of us had shuffled off to a supposedly deserted hallway to make out between fifth and sixth period, I saw a short brunette lumbering around behind a trash can and I could make out the distinct red light of a camera.

I seduced a nerd from the AV club to tell me where the brunette's, Kate's, locker. Then Heather and I set up a trap and she fell right into it: The girl looked at us with deer-in-headlights eyes as we staged a make-out session right in front of her locker. That's the only time we'll publicly kiss in front of someone, especially a little twerp like that. She turned and ran away, like the guilty little swine that she was.

We cornered Kate and then, in a very bizarre twist, she destroyed the camcorder, stomped on it, then ran away, weeping.

Today, Wednesday, I've discovered a possible accomplice in the overall struggle to take Courtney and that dolt Justin down. Between second and third periods, I made sure to lurk around the janitor's closet; I'm very observant, so there's not much that I don't know about this high school by now. Just as predicted, Duncan and his new flame come walking out, both of them smiling as if they're sharing a secret. I'm more than familiar with that feeling right now.

The Goth girl walks away, waving and smiling, Duncan smiling and winking back. As soon as she's gone, I come out of my hiding place and make my presence known.

"Hello Duncan."

He looks at me, blinks, then smirks. "Hey, I heard what you did to Justin at Heather's party! Niceee!" He nods, as if approving of me.

"I heard that you have a particular talent for...defacing school property?" I'm just going to go straight to the point with this. From what I've observed, there's no need to beat around the bush to obtain Duncan's assistance in the tasks I want to perform.

His eyes dart around, then he leans in closer. "Yeah?"

I've piqued his interest now. "Do you know where Courtney's locker is?"

Duncan raises an eyebrow. "Yeah. Why-?"

I whisper my plan in his ear. Then he smirks and gives me a thumbs up, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I like the way you think," he says. "Count me in!"

Duncan and I meet up again, toting backpacks, once everyone else has wandered off to lunch.

Locker A1is Courtney's locker. I smirk, folding my arms behind my back, waiting as Duncan easily puts in the combination and opens it with the comment: "She forgot she told me her locker combo."

Courtney's locker is bare and organized, one singular "Vote for Courtney" poster hanging on her locker door. There's several plastic buttons on the top shelf and all of her binders and text books are arranged...alphabetically. I walk over, scoop up the buttons and stick them in my pants pocket.

"You got the surveillance cameras, right?" Duncan asks as he pulls a permanent marker out of his backpack.

"I deactivated them as soon as I got to school this morning," I reply, smirking to myself as I recall my successful handiwork.

"Nicee."

I watch as Duncan uncaps the permanent marker and promptly draws a mustache and goatee on Courtney's face on her poster.

"That'll drive her nuts," he replies when I raise an eyebrow.

I go about putting her binders in a random order, throw her buttons in a nearby trash can. Of course Duncan gives me the same expression I just gave him, but little disruptions are just the beginning. Grinning, I reach into my own backpack and pull out the cou de gras. Duncan's eyes widen and he shakes his head.

"Holy shit," he says as I walk towards Courtney's locker. "You are bad."

"Plug your nose," I reply simply, pulling a nose plug out of my own pants pocket.

I put my own nose plug on as I lower the jar towards Courtney's locker. It cost me a Tuesday evening at Owen's house, patience, and leftover pizza from Heather's party to get it-an experience I'd like to forget as soon as I can and never ever recount-to get a jar full of Owen's most toxic, pungent farts. It's as unpleasant as it sounds. Quickly, I unscrewed the jar lid and watched as the green fumes poured out of the jar, quickly filling Courtney's locker.

There was a large rush of air and I could feel my eyes watering. I screwed the lid of the jar back on and Duncan rushed over, slamming the locker door shut. Both of us run away from the locker with teary eyes, coughing.

When we're far enough away, I can still smell the odor, but not as strong as before. We both plug our noses anyway.

"That was awesome!" Duncan says, punching the air.

"I have many other schemes in mind..." I say, hating the way my voice sounds with my nose plugged. "Are you interested?"

"Duh."

Lunch is over and Duncan and I are peering around the corner.

Courtney's surrounded by a group of unfamiliar girls, a blond boy straggling beside her, looking lovestruck. He's the only boy and...I can't help smirking when I notice that Kate's in the group as well. So far, my day just keeps looking up more and more. I'm hitting two proverbial birds with one stone!

"What smells like...rotten eggs?" Courtney's plugging her nose and looks repulsed.

"Owen's around here somewhere," another girl says. Several girls start discussing Owen at length. Groaning, Courtney walks towards her locker and my apprehension starts to grow as she turns the combination on her locker door. Her eyes are watering and her lips are puckered like a fish's as she does this.

Then she pulls open the locker door and all hell breaks loose. A huge green cloud oozes out with a rush of air, as if Owen himself were right there and this was the collection of an entire day's farting. Everybody takes one whiff, their eyes widen and water.

Two girls scream. Kate faints. Then Courtney faints and the starstruck nerd following her like a lovesick puppy falls to his knees and tries to perform CPR on her. Disgusted, Courtney slaps him, breathes in again, then faints. Again.

Next to me, Duncan's fallen on his back and is rolling back and forth, laughing. I stand there for a few seconds, unsure how to react, then I collapse into a tide of laughter.

I roll back and forth, laughing like I haven't laughed in years. I laugh until tears start rolling out of my eyes and my sides start to ache. Even then, I'm still laughing. Eventually, somebody's leaning over me and I instantly stop laughing. She pulls me to my feet and then kisses my cheek, touches my hand and squeezes it.

"Good job," Heather whispers, making my heart glow. "It was pretty funny, seeing Courtney's hair sticking up like that..."

We both laugh at the image.

"That's just the beginning," I tell her. "It's your turn next."

"I know," Heather says with an evil smile. "I'm more than ready."