It was kind of amazing how much thought went into the next few seconds of my life.
Kill her? Kill her with what, kindness? Start a nasty rumor? Get good at softball and strike her out? Those were my first few thoughts. Cokie looked pissed, scared, and hurt, but not murderous. We don't kill people. Regular high school kids don't do that, that's the stuff you see...
Well, on the news.
Okay, so it happens. And by human standards, it happens a lot. People kill people. High school people get so jaded, so screwed up in the head, that they kill their peers. But killing Kristy? She couldn't mean it. Not literally. To kill Kristy socially, now that would make sense. To say, start a rumor about a lesbian affair with her gym teacher. But that hadn't worked. Not well. A few people had run with it, but most knew it was stupid. Kill her reputation? How, hack into the computers, change her grades? Graffitti the bathroom walls with her phone number? Suggest she was in favor of a socialist health care system?
I continued to look into those hurt, scared eyes and saw blood. Not physical, but the need for it. "Cokie, what do you..." was all I could get before trailing off.
"I hate her." Cokie spoke low but passionately. "I hate her so much. She's always been so much better, so much greater, and she knows it. I'm done. This ends."
"Cokie, Kristy gets under my skin just as much, but this isn't Heathers, this is real life," Sweet, reasonable Mary Anne spoke up.
"She has to be stopped. Do you know what will happen if she's not? She'll go on to become some politician or CEO or something and dictate our lives. Wouldn't you have shot Hitler in high school if you'd had the chance?"
"Hitler? Jesus, Cokie, she's not-" I tried. I did.
"But she IS! Do you not see that? Have you not seen that since you were a child? She's like..." Cokie thought. "She's like Hilary Clinton. Only pure fucking evil."Cokie took her breath. "We can't let it happen. We can't let her rise to power. We have to stop her. It's our responsibility as Americans."
"Are you insane?" Mary Anne hissed. "If anyone hears you talking like this you'll be thrown in a cell."
"Okay. Okay. We don't have to kill her. But she has to be stopped. She has to see. They all have to see."
I relaxed a little. Okay. Not physical violence. Cokie meant to humiliate her. To hurt her. But how?
"Whatever it is, it goes on YouTube." Mary Anne added.
I stared at her, surprised she would even be on board with something like this. But her eyes... in her eyes I glimpsed the girl in the bathroom that rainy day. The Mary Anne people rarely see. The vengeful, spiteful one.
Cokie looked surprised. "Really? You are really going to help me do this?"
"Not only will I help, I'll hold the camera."
Cokie raised her eyebrows. "Mary Anne's evil twin Annmarie?"
I laughed so hard chocolate milk shot out my nose. Mary Anne, (or Annmarie) ducked out of the way just in time. Cokie laughed at both of us, and within second all three of us were rolling. I looked around the lunchroom and saw nearly everyone was staring at us. Including Her.
"Hey guys! We're being watched!" I giggled, gesturing to Kristy.
Cokie and Mary Anne turned to look at her, and she quickly looked away. That got us all going again.
This could be fun. Because, as little as it may be, the flash of red on Kristy's cheeks when we all laughed at her was satisfying.
We spent the rest of the period plotting. The basic idea, Cokie said, was to get her on video badmouthing everyone. It shouldn't be too hard to do, that's practically Kristy's trademark. I had some pictures and maybe a few videos from the old days we could use in the compilation.
"Not just students, teachers!" Mary Anne said gleefully. "Or the school! The country! Can you imagine if the future president was on tape badmouthing the country?"
I shook my head. "High school kids don't care about that. We want people to really hate her."
"How about the special kids?" Cokie piped up.
"No." Mary Anne said right away.
Suddenly, it hit me. "Guys?" I said. "What about Stacey?"
Cokie stared at me. So did Mary Anne.
"The cheerleaders." Cokie said thoughtfully.
"The football team." Mary Anne added. "She's dating King."
"The Mathletes." I pointed out.
"And everybody else who thought Kristy only hung out with you and Stacey to be cool by association." Cokie said. "It's pretty brilliant. Jocks, nerds, cynics... that covers almost everyone."
"But how do we do it? She doesn't trust us." Mary Anne worried.
Cokie shook her head. "Baiting her should be easy enough. It'll have to be you, Claud. If you tell her Stacey did or said something, she may believe you."
Hmmm. I sat back in my chair, thinking. And... poof. Brilliance.
"I"ve got it." I said with a smile. "Sheila MacGregor."
And Mary Anne's eye lit up.