The Reckoning Part 1

Patricia:

Mara had offered to sleep on the floor but Amber had refused to hear it, and moved downstairs for the night to sleep in Eddie and Fabian's room though I would've swapped places with her in a heartbeat.

The walls separating the girls' rooms were fairly thin but it wasn't that Eddie and Nina stayed up all night singing. From what I could tell they'd gone almost right to bed, the only disturbance falling around two in the morning when one of them ran into the bathroom to throw up. No, it was more that I didn't want to deal with Joy persistently trying to get me to talk to her for the hundredth time when she knew damn well why I had no interest in mending fences.

Mara's alarm started going off and I sat up at the sound, having already been awake for at least an hour. Mara's arm popped out from underneath the blankets and smacked the desk a few times before finding the off button. She raised her head to look at me. "Please tell me I had the weirdest dream last night and that Eddie and Nina didn't come home drunk."

I swung my legs over the side, far too awake for such a horrible hour. "I respect you too much to lie to you Mara."

She groaned. "They're going to get expelled."

This elicited an eye roll from me. "They're not going to get expelled, Sweetie's busy trying to get back on Eddie's good side at the moment."

"At any rate we know Nina will be fine," Joy chose this moment to grumble. "She's always fine."

I snapped my head around to level a glare at Joy. "Oh yes, Nina is so totally fine if you ignore how she's completely emotionally destroyed at the moment."

Joy scowled. I had a feeling she'd also been awake for a while now. When Nina and Eddie had been missing during dinner and then not shown up by lights out, Victor had dragged us all out of our beds and into the living room, convinced one of us knew where they were. His suspicions were not at all helped by Jerome and Alfie sniggering to themselves every time he turned around. Then Eddie and Nina had finally come back completely drunk out of their minds and I had transcended into a state of shock reached only a handful of times before. If it had only been Eddie, maybe I could've been used to the idea but Nina? Sweet, used to be nauseatingly innocent, never had so much as a pot brownie Nina? It was almost too much to wrap my head around.

The three of us got dressed in silence, Joy and I not speaking to each other and Mara too tired to say much of anything. I knew she stuck to her sleep schedule the way some people kept to religion. We passed Amber heading up on our way downstairs. "Is my door still blocked?" Her tone was well past exasperation.

I shrugged. "We didn't check."

Amber huffed and walked past us, muttering several uncomplimentary things about Americans as she did so. Jerome and Alfie were at the breakfast table already and beamed upon seeing us. "Good morning all," Jerome sang.

Mara made a shushing noise at him and he blew a kiss at her in response. "And why exactly are you so cheerful?" I demanded.

He mimed an expression of disbelief. "Did you not witness what I witnessed last night?"

Alfie tossed a grape in the air and caught it in his mouth. "After our lovely housemates little showing last night, Victor will be on the warpath to see them in detention–"

"–dismembered–"

"–deported–"

"–the usual suspects," chuckled Jerome.

"He'll be so focused on them, he won't even be worried about us." Alfie's grin was nothing short of maniacal. "We've practically been given a carte blanche on mischief."

Not having the energy to try and dissuade them I thumped down into a chair. "I'm surprised you even know what carte blanche means."

He looked offended. "I can be sophisticated." He stuck his nose in the air and thrust his shoulders back. "Posh. Adherence. Mosaics. Carpal tunnel."

I snorted into my orange juice and then all of our attention was diverted as the door at the top of the stairs banged open and voices came ringing out.

"This is the last time I ever listen to any of your advice ever again, acting like you're looking out for my best interests when you probably just wanted to get me drunk didn't you?"

"But were you unhappy while you were drunk?"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT."

Nina slammed to a stop in the doorway of the dining room, with red eyes and hastily brushed hair, but otherwise not too worse for wear. Eddie on the other hand, was standing right behind her and looked like he'd just walked through a tornado. "Someone please tell me my backpack is somewhere in the house."

Jerome was looking, if possible, even perkier. "I really couldn't tell you Nina dearest. Care for a croissant?"

She moaned and shook her head, walking over to check under couch cushions. "If I put anything in my mouth right now I'll just throw it back up, which is all your fault by the way." This last part she aimed at Eddie who was taking advantage of the bottle of Advil in the kitchen's First Aid kit.

"You make it sound like I forced the alcohol down your throat," he protested. "If memory serves you got drunk entirely of your own free will."

"Well how could my memory possibly serve to differ when I hardly remember any of last night? Oh my gosh. Oh, our backpacks are in my locker. Damn it."

"Purely out of curiosity, how much of last night do you remember exactly?" Jerome asked. Then he jerked forward hard enough to rattle the table as Mara elbowed him in the gut.

"What?" Nina was clearly distracted. "Um, there was lots of drinking, probably some singing, and I may have at one point danced on a table but I'm really hoping that last part was a hallucination."

"Oh no that part definitely happened," Eddie spoke up.

Nina's eyes narrowed as she pointed a determined finger at him. "You are skipping first period because my bag is in my locker which means my computer is in my locker, meaning it's dead by now which is not okay because I have to finish that government essay and you are going to help me." She rubbed at her temples. "The worst part of all this is I can't even yell at you properly because it feels like my skull is about to explode."

She spun on her heel and walked out the house, Eddie finished a glass of orange juice and came over to the table to grab a piece of toast. "Hey guys." He bent down to kiss my cheek but I leaned away. He frowned. "Does my breath still smell like tequila? Because I brushed my teeth for like five minutes." I pointedly ignored him as I twirled a fork between my fingers. "I feel like I'm getting the silent treatment but also don't want to step in that direction for fear that you have laryngitis again."

Alfie's hand shot up. "Oh, I know this one! She's mad you broke up with her."

Eddie spent the next half a minute choking on his bite of toast. When he finally managed to speak his eyes were streaming. "What?"

"Well you weren't the one to break up with me per say." I kept my tone light and airy as I continued to twirl my fork dangerously close to his hand. "It was a bit hard to understand since you guys were yelling on the other end of the phone, but basically Nina needed you to break up with me so you could both be miserable and heartbroken together, and so she broke up with me for you."

"Huh." Eddie was cautiously watching me, probably unable to tell if I was joking. "Does it help if I remember none of that?"

I gave him a dazzling smile. "It absolutely does not."

"Hmm." He promptly dropped down on one knee. "Patricia Williamson, love of my life, bane of my existence, do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend once more?"

I pretended to consider. "I want unlimited foot rubs and a cupcake."

He dropped his head into a bow. "Let it be done."

I laughed. "Well that's much more like it."

He stood and this time I let him kiss me. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to help out on that government essay?"

"I'm not the one who chose to go out and get wasted last night," I reminded him. "You've dug your own grave you can climb your way out."

"There's that caring spirit I remember. Speaking of graves, why isn't Victor here threatening to murder me?"

"That is a fantastic question," said Jerome. "If only we had an equally fantastic answer."

Eddie sighed. "I hate when he's missing. It means I have to start checking around corners and under my bed."

"If it makes you feel any better Alfie once tried to tie a bell around his neck," I said.

Alfie straightened up defensively. "Yeah, well Patricia used to think he was a vampire."

"He almost never goes outside, is like two thousand years old, and also Joy had just made me watch Twilight, what was I supposed to think?" I tried to grin but as soon as the words left my mouth a bitter taste coated my tongue. Part of me wanted those simple days back, before Nina and Eddie and magic and monsters, when all I had to worry about was science tests and movie marathons and whether or not Joy would ever tell Fabian she liked him.

"Both valid ideas," conceded Eddie. "But I will be spending time on exactly none of them as I have to go help a very annoyed Nina with an essay."

He crammed the rest of his toast in his mouth and began to head out. After a moment's hesitation I grabbed my bag and followed, catching him just outside the door. Eddie sketched an elaborate bow as he let me pass and I laughed. I loved how he could make me laugh.

We kept walking and the silence was companionable, but I felt a need to break it. But what the hell was I supposed to say? How does one even start a conversation like this? "Hey you know how I've got deep seated trust issues?"

Apparently you started it like that.

Eddie looked over at me with confusion, hands in his pockets. "I may have picked up on them."

Shit, we hadn't even really started talking about it yet and I was already regretting opening my mouth. "Yeah. So. I'm not saying I want you to stop being friends with Nina, she needs friends right now and I no longer qualify. I just need you to also spend time with me?" I ended up saying the last part like a question and grimaced, stealing a glance at him to see how he was taking it.

"Okay. Is there any chance you could expand on the trust issues though? Because they've been cropping up for a while and I feel like I'm missing something here."

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. Spit it out already, just get it over with. "So my dad cheats on my mom." I could see him open his mouth and quickly kept talking, knowing if he interrupted I'd never get the rest of this out. "It's been going on for years, since I was a kid. And my mom knows about it, and she lets it happen, okay I mean she doesn't let it happen, but she doesn't leave him either, she just cries about it. And I remember the first time I found out, I was eight years old and he was away for the night, working late or whatever excuse he gave that time. And it was raining really hard, there was thunder and I used to be terrified of thunderstorms, and Piper was sleeping over at a friend's house so I went into my mom's room. And she was lying in bed and she was just sobbing. Just these awful, shaking sobs, I was surprised I hadn't been able to hear them down the hall. I didn't know what else to do so I climbed up on the bed to give her a hug, and she told me boys would break my heart and to never trust them, and she told me that dad was cheating on her, and then she just sort of cried herself to sleep." My eyes were burning by the time I finished.

"Patricia." Eddie's voice was soft, I despaired he was going to pity me. His hands clasped around mine and he forced me to look at him. "That's never going to happen."

"You can't promise that." My voice was strained. "I mean, just look at Fabian and Nina – "

His grip tightened. "Watch me. I promise, I am never going to cheat on you. Cross my heart, hope to die and all that shit. And when you think about it," he added, "not cheating on someone is a really easy promise to keep. Like it's infinitely easier to not cheat on someone than to cheat on them. All you have to do is not make out with people you're not dating."

I shoved his shoulder, feeling as though a massive weight had been lifted off my chest. "God you're such a loser."

"Yes, but you love me anyway."

I didn't disagree.

Nina:

I shut my locker and pressed my head against the cool metal, trying to still the pounding in my temples. In retrospect I definitely should not have drank so much on my first night out, but it had been fun at the time. Not that I would ever tell Eddie that of course.

"Nina."

My eyes snapped open and I spun around. Fabian was standing right behind me and my breath caught at the sight of him. He was clearly a wreck, but still gorgeous even now. My chest started to ache and I quickly averted my eyes, focusing on his shoulders instead.

"Nina, can we please talk?"

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "I have to finish my essay," I managed to say. I tried to walk away but he stepped forward, catching me by the arm. I could feel the press of his fingers through my uniform. I couldn't breathe.

"Nina I think after everything we've been through you owe me five minutes." His voice was naked with desperation.

Robotically, I felt myself nod. "Five minutes."

Keeping his hand on my arm, he quickly steered me towards the computer room the sixth years used. They were on a field trip today so the room was empty when we arrived. He left the lights off.

Fabian took a deep breath and released my arm, and I immediately wished he hadn't. He stepped away from me and it took all my willpower not to follow. Instead I dropped my bag and leaned against one of the tables. "Five minutes," I reminded him, keeping my gaze focused on his shoulders. I couldn't bring myself to look at his face.

He shook his head, trying to get his bearings, and opened and closed his hands several times. "Nina, I don't know how to apologize for what happened with Joy, I just know that I'm sorry."

I frowned. "What?" This had not been what I was expecting.

"What do you mean what?" he demanded. "Of course I'm sorry, how could I not be? I spend every day, every minute wishing I could take it back, that it hadn't happened."

"Fabian I'm not angry at you for sleeping with Joy."

I saw him blink out of the corner of my eye, clearly thrown. "What?"

I wrapped my arms around myself. "How could I be? I mean right after I found out, yes, I was mad, but I made myself think it over and now I don't know how I could be angry about it, not when I know you weren't in control when it happened."

I could hear him take a step closer to me and I stiffened. "Then why–"

"It's just," I took a deep breath. "Even though I know you weren't thinking straight I don't know why you wouldn't have told me after if it really didn't mean anything. If it had been anyone but her–" I said the word with so much venom there was no doubt as to who I meant "–then I'd know it wouldn't have meant anything, but if it had been anyone else I also know you would've been able to tell me and I just…" Lost for words, I let the sentence trail off. I could feel something wet on my cheeks and realized I had started crying again.

Fabian had come closer to me now, I could feel him standing right in front of me. "Nina I'm sorry."

I opened my eyes and sure enough there he was. I looked to the left of where he was. "Don't be sorry, it makes it seem like you had a choice."

He raised a hand to brush my tears away. Willpower spent, I lifted my own hand to catch it and wove our fingers together. "What do you want me to be then?"

I could feel where every line of his palm, every guitar callus on his fingers pressed against my grip. I knew his hands but now I wanted to memorize them. "I want to forget any of this ever happened." My voice was soft and slightly hoarse. "I want to just move on but every time I look at you all I can see is you with her and it breaks my heart all over again."

"Nina," he whispered, and that was the last word he said before pressing his mouth to mine. I inhaled sharply, feeling our lips fit together. I knew this shouldn't be happening right now but no part of me cared about anything except for the fact that Fabian was kissing me, finally kissing me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pressing myself into him and felt him gasp into my mouth. I opened my lips against his, needing nothing more than to pull him closer and kiss him deeper.

I swept my tongue across his bottom lip and Fabian responded by placing his hands on my hips and lifting me onto one of the desks. Dizzy from sensation, my head tipped back and Fabian took that as a cue to start placing kisses on my neck, my throat. His hands traced up my body, mapping me out from my hips to my waist and then coming up to cup my breasts. "Nina," he muttered his voice ragged, "oh, Nina."

I wrapped my legs around him and kissed right next to his lips, before moving to his jaw. I didn't want to say the next words out of my mouth but I said them anyway. "Did she kiss you like this?" I felt him go still but I kept going, placing my hands on his shoulder blades to pull him into me further. "Did she know how to kiss you like I do?"

He shuddered beneath my touch as though he might come apart at the seams. "There's no one like you Nina."

And then Fabian's lips found mine once more and he was kissing me again, cutting off any more questions I might have asked and he pressed me down so that my back met the desk. He leaned over me, one hand braced above my head the other cupping my face. I brought mine up to trace the planes of his chest and he groaned quietly. I wrapped my legs around him tighter.

A locker door slammed shut just outside the room and a few people laughed loudly and I opened my eyes. Fabian was above me, blue eyes fixed intently on mine, and at the sight of him I could feel a thousand more questions I didn't want answers to crowding against my lips. Is this what it was like with her? Is this how it happened? Was she better at it than I am? He made as if to kiss me again but this time I put my hands on his shoulders and kept him off of me. "Don't."

I'd spoken softly, but the way he winced I thought I might have shouted. He straightened and I sat up, fighting the urge to run my fingers through his hair. Now that I'd finally looked him in the eyes I found I couldn't look away. "I love you," I said. "That hasn't changed." It's never going to change, the idea of my not loving you is as impossible as the sun going out. "You just need to give me some time to learn to look at you again without getting my heart ripped out of my chest."

His face was a portrait of longing as he looked at me. "Time. I can give you time."

I reached out to clasp his hand between mine, squeezing tightly. "It's not forever." There was a pleading note to my voice now, I needed him to understand. "I'm going to get past this, I just need…"

"Time," he finished for me.

I hated myself in that moment, for not being able to just get over it already. For seeing him and Joy in the back of my mind even now as I looked at him. I closed my eyes to block it out and leaned forward to rest my head on his shoulder. I really shouldn't have but I couldn't let him go any easier than I could cut my own hand off.

There was a sudden buzzing noise, and two seconds later I realized it was coming from my bag. I very badly wanted to ignore it, to instead live in this moment for as long as possible. But Fabian stepped back and reached down to pick up my bag and hand it to me.

Once more averting my gaze I fished around in my bag for the phone and pulled it out to see Eddie calling me. "Hello?"

"I need you to come open your locker."

I pressed a hand to my forehead. "What?"

"My backpack is in your locker and I don't remember the combination so you have to come open it."

"Oh for Christ's sake," I muttered, and hung up. I continued to stare at the phone in my hand as I said, "I have to go."

Fabian lifted a hand as though to place it on my shoulder, but dropped it at the last moment instead. "I'll see you around Nina."

He left the room and as the door clicked shut behind him I found myself furiously swiping at my eyes once more. God I was so sick of crying over this.

I slid off the desk and took a moment to straighten my clothes and run my fingers through my hair. When I was certain I looked at least relatively normal, I grabbed my bag and headed out. I'd barely made it out the door when someone from around the corner grabbed me by the shoulder.

I made a sound that could only be equated to a 'JYAH' as I jumped almost a foot in the air before processing that it was only Eddie.

He grinned. "Jumpy much?"

"I'm always jumpy," I snapped. "What are you doing over here?"

"Like I said, I need you to open your locker. So I used my super special tracking powers," he wiggled his fingers at me, "but when I got here you appeared to be in the middle of something so I waited a few minutes before calling instead of walking in."

I felt my cheeks catch on fire, said "Okay," and immediately headed back towards my locker.

"So are we going to talk about the fact that you and your ex-boyfriend almost had sex in an empty classroom just now?"

"We were not going to have sex," I said automatically, before kicking myself. "And no, we're not."

"We're not like at all, or we're not like right now?"

"Eddie."

He snickered. "Just checking."

I spun the combination in and opened my locker, stepping aside to let him grab his backpack. He glanced over at his dad's office. "Regretting the fact that we stole six hundred pounds from him last night?" I whispered.

He grinned and pulled the wallet out of his pocket. "Not in the slightest. I will however need you to sneak this back into his coat pocket at some point today."

An idea flared into existence, one so out of bounds I couldn't believe I was even considering it. I stuck the wallet in my bag. "No problem."

Eddie:

Nina and Fabian must have reached some sort of détente while trying to tear each other's clothes off, because over the next few days I noticed a shift. They weren't civil exactly, it was hard to be civil with someone you never interacted with. But Fabian was no longer haranguing me to get Nina to talk to him, and Nina no longer ran out of the room every time he entered. She still wouldn't tell me what had happened though, no matter how many times I asked.

"You know I could probably find out anyway if I wanted to," I said.

Nina raised her eyebrows. "Could you really?" she asked dryly.

"I already get flashes of your emotions, it can't be too much of a leap to read your mind," I reasoned.

She snorted. "Keep telling yourself that."

"Okay everyone, may I have your attention please?" Mr. Murphy clapped his hands together a few times, waiting until the last conversation died out. "We are beginning our performances today, I will be taking volunteers first and then picking on the rest of you as I see fit. Whatever ones we don't get through today, we will finish tomorrow. Who would like to go first?"

A few people raised their hands, but none as fast as Vanessa Sterling. "My group wants to go first!"

"Wonderful, I love the enthusiasm." Mr. Murphy stepped aside as she came over to get their song queued up. Vanessa was part of a group with Natalie Hollister, Genevieve Van Pelt, and Nina. When he'd given us the objective for our final assignment on Tuesday, to come up with any sort of performance – dancing, singing, dramatic – the three girls had immediately claimed Nina.

As Nina and the other girls walked up they pulled their hair back into high ponytails, and swapped out their school blazers. Natalie pulled on a red one, Genevieve a yellow one, and Nina a green one; Vanessa grabbed a blue one but merely laid it down on one of the couch arms. Instead of signaling the teacher to start playing the song, she faced the rest of the room. "Before we begin, I am going to ask for a volunteer."

Nina smiled, but it was unlike any smile I'd ever seen on her before. It was tight, and more than a little vindictive. "I think Joy should do it."

I glanced at Joy who did not look at all eager to participate. "No thanks."

"Assist your classmates Miss Mercer," Mr. Murphy chastised her. Looking as though she would rather chew glass Joy stood and walked up to join the group. Vanessa beamed at her. "It'll be totally fine Joy, all you have to do is stand riiight here." She positioned Joy in front of one of the chair arms, ahead and to the left of the group. "Okay! Let's go."

Natalie, Genevieve, and Nina arranged themselves into a triangle and Vanessa moved so she was next to Natalie, pulled on a determined face and began talking. "It just doesn't feel like something I should do, and definitely not to Martha."

Genevieve laughed. "Why not? It'll give her shower masturbation material for weeks."

"Shut up Heather!" Natalie yelled.

"Sorry Heather," she said.

Vanessa folded her arms. "Martha has had a thing for Ram for like twelve years now. This, this would kill her."

Natalie held up a hand. "Are we gonna have a problem?" she demanded. The music kicked in as she continued. "You got a bone to pick? You've come so far why now, are you pulling on my dick?"

A few girls in the audience started to become excited as they recognized the scene.

"I'd normally slap your face off, and everyone here could watch! But I'm feeling nice, here's some advice. Listen up beeyotch!"

The music began in earnest, as Natalie pushed Vanessa aside and began singing, backed up by Nina and Genevieve.

"I like

Lookin' hot,

Buying stuff

They cannot.

I like

Drinking hard,

Maxing dad's

Credit card."

In addition to the song they had also added some basic choreography that most of the guys were practically drooling over.

"I like

Skippin' gym,

Scarin her

Screwin' him.

I like

Killer clothes,

Kicking nerds in the nose."

They surrounded Vanessa and began singing at her.

"If you lack the balls

You can go play dolls,

Let your mommy fix you a snack.

Or you could come smoke

Pound some rum and coke,

In my Porsche with the quarterback."

They moved back into triangle formation, seeming to beckon at Vanessa. I'd never actually seen Heathers, but I knew the plot well enough. This was the part where they tempted the less popular girl to do them a favor with promises of high school power.

"Honey what you waitin' for?

Welcome to my candy store.

Time for you to prove you're not a loser,

Anymore.

And step into my candy store."

They switched positions so now Nina was in the front, and she took the lead for the second verse.

"Guys fall

At your feet.

Pay the check

Help you cheat.

All you

Need to know,

Some that weight

Has to go."

I felt a deep sense of foreboding as Nina moved over to Joy, gesturing at her dismissively.

"This freak's

Not your friend

I can tell

In the end

If she

Had your shot

She would leave you to rot!"

Nina sang the next part by herself, mockingly playing with Joy's hair.

"Course if you don't care

Fine come braid her hair

Maybe Sesame Street is on

Or forget the creep,"

I inhaled sharply as Nina shoved Joy for the last line, hard enough to knock her over the arm of the chair and into the seat.

"And get in my jeep

Let's go tear up

Someone's lawn!"

Joy looked mutinous, but after glancing at Mr. Murphy it was clear he didn't think anything was wrong as the girls began their chorus once more.

"Honey what you waitin' for?

Welcome to my candy store.

You just have to prove

You're not a pussy,

Anymore.

And step into my candy store."

Natalie and Genevieve switched off for the next part.

"You can join the team,

Or you can bitch and moan.

You can live the dream

Or you can die alone.

You can fly with eagles or if you prefer

Keep on testing me, and end up like her."

On the 'her' they all pointed at Joy.

As Vanessa pulled on the blue blazer Genevieve started to sing, "Honey what you waitin' for," but she was immediately cut off as Natalie shoved her and screamed, "Shut up Heather!" Half the class burst out laughing. The singing resumed with Natalie back in the center, but this time Vanessa had joined in and they were a group of four.

"Step into my candy store.

Time for you to prove

You're not a lame-ass,

Anymore.

And step into my candy store.

It's my candy store,

It's my candy.

It's my candy store,

It's my candy.

It's my candy store,

It's my candy store."

The music ended as they all dropped their hands and looked over their shoulders at the audience. The room burst into applause – Jerome and Alfie were especially vocal – and once it was over Vanessa called out, "And let's not forget our special guest star, Joy Mercer!"

There was another smattering of applause, and I thought Joy might catch fire in her seat. I was grateful when the group took their seats and I leaned over at Nina to hiss, "What the hell was that?"

She gave me an innocent look. "I don't know what you mean, I thought it went great."

Before I could question her further Mr. Murphy was calling up the next group.

We didn't finish everyone during class but we did get through a large number. Included in that group was Jerome and Alfie's performance, which I think was supposed to be intentionally bad ballet mashed up with some of Alfie's rapping. Fabian, Patricia, and Mara and I also went. It was a comedy routine where the girls and I had a dramatic soap opera conversation, and Fabian accompanied us with background music that did not at all match the tone. Mr. Murphy was almost in tears by the end.

Two minutes before school was due to end for the day, he announced Amber and Joy's groups would be going on Friday. We packed up our things and I cornered Nina. "I say again: what was your guys' performance?"

"Don't tell me you've never seen Heathers before," she said.

"I haven't, but I was referring more to the fact that you sort of threw down the gauntlet at Joy."

Nina scoffed. "Joy needs to learn to take a joke." She refused to say another word about it for the rest of the day, and then after dinner – where Jerome and Alfie expressed their newfound undying admiration for Nina's group – we all got an email that blew the performance clean out of my mind.

My disbelief only grew as my eyes scanned the lines of text, until I reached the attached photo at the end and I swore quietly. I walked over to where Nina was doing homework at the table and placed my my computer in front of her. "Nina dear," I smiled bracingly. "Care to explain why the school is receiving an email about a faculty member missing a wallet you were supposed to return two days ago?"

Nina gave my screen a passing glance. "Yeah I saw that already, I'm handling it."

"You're handling it?"

"Eddie." She placed a hand on my shoulder. "You need to chill. I have a plan."

"You have a plan? What plan? Actually," I shook my head, "don't tell me the plan. I don't want to know the plan. Just please get it back sometime tomorrow."

"Have you done it yet?"

Nina looked calmly at me. "I thought you didn't want to know the plan."

"I don't want to know the plan, I just want to know if the plan has been carried out."

She sighed. "Would it make you feel better if I did the plan now?"

I nodded eagerly. "So much better."

"Fine." She raised her hand. We were in fourth period literature, which was basically just analyzing way too much Shakespeare.

Ms. Hodgkins pointed at Nina. "Yes Miss Martin?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

She jerked her thumb at the door and Nina reached into her bag for a minute before standing and walking out of the room.

I drummed my fingers against the table, watching the door, already regretting what I was about to do. I raised my hand. "I also have to go to the bathroom," I said, not waiting to be called on.

Ms. Hodgkins' expression told me she did not believe this at all, but she pointed at the door regardless. I left the room and glanced down the hall, but I didn't see her anywhere. I concentrated, and felt a brief tugging flare up in my chest. It was like there was a hook right above my heart, and it was tied to a taut rope with Nina on the other end. Moving quickly I followed the sensation and found her in front of Joy's locker, pulling one of her hairpins out.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded.

She slid the pin into the bottom of the lock and started jimmying. "I'm not going to answer that."

The lock popped open and Nina swung the locker open, pulled Eric's wallet out of her sleeve, placed it carefully on the very top shelf and slammed the door shut. I pressed my hands together. "Please tell me you're not planting Eric's wallet in Joy's locker."

She put the lock back on and clicked it shut. "I am not planting Mr. Sweet's wallet in Joy's locker."

"Nina!"

She whirled on me, no longer irritatingly blasé but now practically shaking with rage. "Don't test me right now Eddie. You have absolutely no idea how much crap I have put up with from Joy for as long as I've known her, and I have just sat back and taken all of it. I have endured the snide taunts and the petty comments and her endlessly throwing herself at Fabian but she crossed a line and now she's going to pay for it."

Patricia:

Eddie had been on the edge of a nervous breakdown when he got back to class with Nina, so when the bell rang I followed them out and over to where Nina was digging around in her locker.

"Care to let me in on what's happening?"

Eddie glanced back and forth between me and Nina several times, a mildly panicked expression on his face. "No?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"Plausible deniability Patricia, you'll thank us in an hour or so," said Nina. As she spoke, Sweetie came out of his office and Nina waved him down. "Mr. Sweet!"

He blinked and looked around for the source of his name, before sighting Nina and walking over. "Hello Miss Martin, may I assist you someway?"

Nina held up a ten pound note. "Is there any chance you could make change for a ten? I want to use the vending machine but don't have anything smaller."

He looked uncomfortable. "Unfortunately I cannot, I have somehow misplaced my wallet."

Her eyes widened in what even I could tell was mock surprise. "You mean that email was about you?"

Sweetie nodded. "I don't suppose any of you have seen it?"

"Yeah actually, I think I saw a wallet like that in Joy's locker earlier." Oh, I had a very bad feeling about this.

His eyebrows shot up. "Joy Mercer?"

Nina nodded innocently. "Yes."

Looking disturbed he muttered an 'oh dear' and walked over to where Joy was on her phone outside her locker. "What is going on?" I asked, but Nina shushed me instead of answering.

"Don't shush me–"

"Shh!"

Although we couldn't quite make out what they were saying we could still see what happened perfectly well. Sweetie and Joy were talking as he gestured to her locker. Joy looked confused and defensive, but eventually swung the door open. Sweetie's face was immediately covered by a dark frown. He reached inside and pulled a brown leather wallet off the top shelf.

I gasped. Joy appeared thunderstruck as he put a hand on her back and steered her towards his office, shutting the door behind them both. I whipped back around to face Nina and Eddie; Eddie looked pained while Nina had a small smile on her face, which stayed there as she walked down the hall to talk to Amber.

"I can't believe Joy stole your dad's wallet," I said. "I'm not surprised Nina sold her out but why would she have taken it in the first place?"

Eddie was staring at his dad's office door. "She didn't sell her out."

I blinked. "What are you talking about? I just saw it happen."

Eddie turned to me. "Nina and I stole that wallet. We took it from Eric on Monday and used the cash to get drunk and pay for a cab ride back. She was supposed to give it back the next day, I didn't find out she hadn't until we got the email yesterday."

The ground was reeling. "What?"

He shook his head. "Not only is Joy about to go down for stealing the wallet, she's going to have to answer for the missing six hundred bucks."

I felt faint. "Eddie you have to help her."

"And what would you have me do exactly?" he asked.

I grabbed his hand. "Go in his office right now, say it wasn't Joy. Say it was you."

Eddie was already shaking his head. "No way, he'd kill me."

I tightened my grip. "You know as well as I do you're the only person who he'll let off for this. Please Eddie, Joy doesn't need this on top of everything else right now." He met my eyes and I knew he was thinking of the same thing I was. My selfless deed, the one that had gotten me cured of anger. After Sweetie had made the announcement I'd gone to his office and said that I'd been the student Duval had harassed to make sure he never found out it was Joy. Joy had given me permission to tell Eddie after the fact so he wouldn't worry about me.

"I'm going to regret this," he said, before pressing a quick kiss to my cheek and walking over to the office.

As he entered Nina came back over, looking suspicious. "What's he doing?"

I glared at her. "Eddie is going to tell his dad he took the wallet not Joy."

Her eyes narrowed into slits. "He's going to what?"

"Would you relax? It's not like he'll take you down with him."

"I don't care if he blames me or not, Joy was supposed to go down for this not Eddie."

The bell rang as she strode determinedly over to the office. Sweetie let her in and was closing the door behind her when he abruptly stopped and walked back around to his desk. Unable to help myself I tip toed over to the wall next to the door, hardly daring to breathe as I eavesdropped on the conversation happening inside.

"Care to repeat yourself Miss Martin?"

"I said I took your wallet."

"Nina did what?"

I whipped around to see Amber and Fabian standing right behind me, also eavesdropping. I put a finger to my lips and we returned our focus to the conversation as Eddie spoke up.

"Nina's lying dad, I took it."

"Granted it was Eddie's idea, but I'm the one who physically stole it. I picked your pocket when I bumped into you."

"If either of you two were the ones that took it, that still does not explain how it ended up in Miss Mercer's locker."

There was a beat of silence and then –

"I put it there."

I could see Fabian close his eyes in despair at Nina's confession.

"Why?" Sweetie demanded.

Nina laughed but it didn't sound like her usual laugh. "Because not only is she a bitch, she's a bitch who slept with my boyfriend."

"Excuse me?" Joy sounded outraged but Nina was not having it.

"Don't start with me Joy, we both know damn well the amount of crap you've done to me is enough to get you kicked out by itself."

"What has gotten into her lately?" I muttered.

"I can hazard a guess," said Amber.

"Miss Martin I confess I am at a loss as to what to do here," said Sweetie. "Were you any other student I would have you suspended at the very least and potentially expelled. I was willing to look past how you and my son returned to school inebriated earlier this week because I recognize that you have had a very trying semester and you weren't actually drinking on campus, but I don't see how I can possibly overlook this sort of behavior when it is purposely intended to sabotage another student."

"Well actually I think you should do absolutely nothing." Nina's tone was distinctly unimpressed.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I would also like to beg a pardon," I could hear Eddie say.

"It's very simple," Nina drawled. "I think you should take into consideration how you and Victor almost killed us a few years ago and give me a free pass."

"Miss Martin–"

"Oh come on Sweetie, I know you remember."

"Please tell me she's not saying what I think she's saying," said Fabian.

But she was. "Eddie I have no idea if Patricia filled you in on this bit but if she didn't you'll learn about it now. My first year here your dad and all his secret society pals were trying to make themselves immortal by drinking a potion and tipping some scales, the flow of life from the young to the old. Problem is you thought it was symbolic, and it wasn't. Mara, Jerome, Alfie, Fabian, Amber, and Joy and I all would've died so you could've lived forever, and even after Victor found this out you never even apologized or anything. So I think you should take that into consideration and just let the whole wallet thing slide."

Clearly this whole Fabian and Joy thing had sent Nina much further off the rails than I'd realized.

"Get out of my office," said Sweetie. And then he repeated himself, this time louder. "Get out of my office. NOW."

Fabian and Amber and I hurriedly moved away from the door as Joy and Eddie and Nina came out. Joy looked mutinous, Nina bored, and Eddie vaguely shell-shocked.

I pulled him aside as Nina began arguing with Joy and Amber. "Are you all right? I know that can't have been easy for you to hear."

Eddie blinked, as though trying to focus. "My expectations for him are so low you'd need an archeologist to find them, and yet he manages to disappoint me every time."

"Is that why you had Nina steal from him?" I turned in surprise. I hadn't realized Fabian had followed us over, and his voice was colder than I'd ever heard it before.

Eddie's brows creased in confusion. "What?"

"Well it's hardly something she would've come up with on her own."

He scowled. "How about you mind your own business and go back to class like a good little bookworm."

"When it comes to Nina it is my business," said Fabian. "And what you did was irresponsible, you shouldn't be going out and getting her drunk with stolen money just because you've got daddy issues."

Eddie's eyes turned hard. "And you shouldn't have slept with Joy Mercer and yet here we are."

There was a twitch in the corner of my eye and the next thing I knew Fabian had punched Eddie in the face.

Nina:

"Whose side are you on anyway?" I asked Amber, when there was a smacking sound behind us and Patricia yelled.

"Oh my God!"

We turned just in time to see Eddie straighten up and punch Fabian and I gasped as if I'd been struck in the chest; Amber and Joy clapped their hands over their mouths.

Fabian hit Eddie in the ribs and Eddie threw him up against the lockers in retaliation and I didn't even realize I was running over until I reached them. Patricia had a grip on Eddie and was trying to drag him away, I grabbed Fabian's arm and also tried to pull but they were apparently dead set on tearing each other to pieces because they both ignored us, continuing to take swings at each other.

I saw Eddie raise a fist and couldn't take it anymore.

"Stop it!"

Needing to get them away from each other I crossed my hands at the wrists and flung them apart and Eddie was thrown to the other side of the hall, hitting the lockers with a metallic crash. Patricia cried out and ran over to him as I turned back to Fabian. He didn't seem too banged up, but there was a cut next to his eye that was probably from one of Eddie's rings.

"Okay what the hell just happened?" asked Amber shrilly.

"That's what I'd like to know," came a cool voice.

We all spun around to see Ms. Abbott watching us with her arms folded. I felt my headache intensify at the scene she must be taking in. Fabian's face, Eddie's bloody nose, one of them having just been thrown about ten feet into a wall of lockers.

"Would anyone like to explain what's going on here?"

"Just some overtly intense masculinity," said Patricia, trying to keep her tone light.

Ms. Abbott raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating. Detention for all of you after school today in my classroom."

Joy tried to protest. "But we weren't even–"

"All of you, at three o'clock. Now go to class. Mr. Miller, stop at the nurse's office first."

When we entered the classroom Fabian got some surprised and impressed looks, Jerome called out 'what happened to the other guy'.

Amber sat down next to me and as soon as the teacher resumed talking, she turned to me. "What happened back there? How did Fabian do that to Eddie?"

I felt my fingers tingle. "Must've been the adrenaline."

"But he didn't even punch him or anything." Her face lit up. "Maybe he's psychic!" she exclaimed.

"If I could have your focus for a moment please Amber," the teacher called out.

Amber winced. "Sorry!"

Fabian:

Since we only had two performances left, music class ended early which meant I had time to hate myself before detention. It definitely didn't help that the left side of my face felt like it was on fire. I decided to go to the library to work on homework for the hour left before the bell rang, and so that's what I was doing when Joy sat down next to me.

"Hi, Fabes."

I ignored her. I'd once been fond of the nickname, but now I couldn't stand the sound of it.

"I just wanted to check in on you, that fight looked pretty bad."

I winced internally. I hadn't meant to be so awful to Eddie, but seeing him and Nina come back drunk on Monday had been shocking to witness. Nina didn't drink, and yet she'd been tap dancing on the dining room table drunk out of her mind and I'd known without either of them saying anything that it was Eddie's influence. When I'd heard that he'd also gotten her to steal from the headmaster, I may have gone a little crazy.

I continued to proofread my essay, hoping Joy would go away.

She leaned forward instead. "Are you really not going to talk to me? After what we did?"

Convinced I must've heard wrong I finally looked at her. "What we did?" I repeated, slowly.

Joy nodded, eyes drilling into me. "We shared something, and I feel like we should at least discuss it now that you and Nina aren't together anymore."

Eddie must've punched me harder than I'd thought. That was the only logical explanation for what was happening right now. "We shared something."

She placed a hand on mine and I immediately wanted to cut it off but couldn't move. "Please just talk to me?"

There was a tight feeling in my chest that made me want to scream, but instead I kept my words low and clear. "We didn't do anything Joy. You did."

Her gaze clouded with confusion. "What are you–"

"I couldn't say no Joy. Do you not understand that? Do you not understand how utterly incapable I was of giving consent? I may as well have been drugged."

She tightened her grip. "But I asked you, after it happened, I asked if you regretted it and you didn't say anything."

"I was a little busy trying to come to terms with what had just happened rather than worry about reassuring your fragile ego Joy," I snapped. "But just so we're clear I do regret it. I've never regretted anything more, and I don't know how you don't realize that. When it happened, maybe. Maybe. But after you got your own sin? Do you not remember just how little control you had?"

Joy shook her head. "I remember being out of it, but that's different, sex is different."

I stared at her, not knowing how one person could be so ignorant. "If you'd slept with Duval, would that have been sex?"

She snatched her hand off of mine and recoiled in her seat. "What?"

I answered my own question. "No, it would've been assault. Because he was your teacher, and he was threatening to fail you, and you couldn't say no. I couldn't say no Joy. It's the same thing."

"It's not the same thing," she whispered.

"You're right, it might actually be worse. Because you knew I wasn't in my right mind at the time and you did it anyway."

Her eyes went wide, but I wasn't done. "You took advantage of me Joy, destroyed my relationship with Nina, and now in addition to everything else you're acting like we shared something? Like I was actively a part of what happened, like I wanted it somehow? It was never going to be you and me Joy. Even if Nina had never come along I would've found her some other way. But it was never going to be you and me. And if I would've thought I had any chance of winning, I would've gone to the police about what happened by now."

Joy was trembling, and yet I felt no sympathy. I had given her absolutely no reason to think differently than anything I'd said, I'd just never laid it all out like this before.

Without another word, Joy stood and walked away. I didn't bother to watch her leave, and instead stared at the chair she had just vacated, wishing Nina was sitting in it. I badly wanted to talk to Nina about what had happened, which sucked because she was the one person I couldn't talk to about it. But Nina would have understood, if it had been anyone else, this urge to tear off my skin wherever Joy had touched me, the desire to cut off my ears so I couldn't hear her voice.

Last year when we'd broken up we'd at least stayed friends, but now we weren't even that. All I could do was give her the time she'd asked for and hope she came around.

Nina:

Detention was awful, a fitting end to an awful day. We were at least allowed to work on homework, but we weren't allowed to use our computers so I settled for going over my biology textbook. Unfortunately I was unable to focus and ended up rereading the same page for two hours.

Ms. Abbott had spaced us out around the room and so I hadn't been able to sit next to Amber or Eddie, who I could have at least passed notes with. The lack of any sort of mental simulation seemed to drain my will to live out through the beige walls.

By the time she finally dismissed us at five o'clock exactly I was ready to crawl into bed and never come out again. I'd had a headache ever since I woke up, been unable to find my shoes, failed a pop quiz in math, been forced to fess up to sticking Sweetie's wallet in Joy's locker – something I did not regret – and then bore witness as Eddie and Fabian tried to kill each other. And now that I was stuck in detention I'd missed the chance to say goodbye to Mara, who had left with Jerome immediately after school got out to catch a train to go visit her parents for winter break.

We gathered up our things and made for the door; Amber had just come up to my side and opened her mouth when Ms. Abbott called out, "Nina if I may see you for a moment."

I held in a sigh with great difficulty and waved Amber on. "Go ahead, I'll be right there."

I walked back to stand in front of Ms. Abbott's desk, and was surprised to see she was nervously chewing on her lower lip.

"I'm going to ask you a question and I fully understand if it sounds strange," she said. "Do you know a woman named Sarah? Elderly, short white hair?"

I fell back against a desk, feeling faint. "Yes, I know her." Had I actually spoken out loud? I wasn't sure.

"Well she came to see me last night, and was very intent on seeing you. She said she was a family friend, and I must say she was very convincing."

I gripped my locket tightly feeling it thud along with my pulse, the locket Sarah had given me, my thoughts whirling. Sarah, Sarah was back. Sarah was back and wanted to talk to me. I barely had time to wonder why she wouldn't have come to me directly before dismissing the thought. All that mattered was she was back; Sarah could help me, Sarah always knew how to help me. "Where is she?"

"She said she'd be arriving on campus right now, I can take you to where she asked to see you."

"Yes, yes please take me to her."

Ms. Abbott pulled on her jacket and left the classroom. By now all of the clubs had ended and so the school was mostly empty except for a few teachers. I was so focused on our destination as we left the school through a side exit and headed into the wooded area towards the edge of campus that I hardly noticed my phone buzzing.

It was a text from Amber. Where are you?

I opened the messaging app and realized I had absolutely no idea how to answer her. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I tried to think of something to say that wouldn't get me locked in a rubber room.

"She should be here any moment Nina."

I nodded, wondering if I should tell her now or later. Amber knew all about Sarah, including that her ghost had sometimes visited me before, surely she would understand. But she might have questions that I didn't have time to answer right now, not if I really wanted to talk to Sarah.

"Look at me Ms. Martin."

My blood turned to cold.

Her voice had shifted into one I knew. I must've heard it a thousand times in my nightmares.

I quickly typed out Pepper, barely having time to hit send before my phone suddenly flew out of my hands.

Shaking all over I looked up to see Ms. Abbott catch my phone and tear it in half like paper. She smiled wider than should've been humanly possible as her skin began to turn green, the color bleeding across her face, her hair turned a deeper shade of green and started growing into massive braids that hung down to her waist. Her clothes melted into armor and twin battle axes appeared at her waist.

Beset smiled at me. "I'm so pleased to see you again Chosen One."

AN: ooooookay so that is part one of The Reckoning, I'm not entirely sure when part two will be up BUT I can promise it will be awesome, I've been looking forward to this scene for a long time I have it all planned out. Part two will also be very plot heavy to make up for all the character drama of the last few chapters. Let me know what you guys think.