Chapter 4
Back in his bedroom, Victor took out Jane's art and marveled at it again. She'd packed each drawing with so much character, and with draftsmanship worthy of the greatest cartoonists (and if he could have thought of any great cartoonists, he'd have named them). This was throwaway art for her—and her throwaways beat most people's best efforts.
Where was he going to put it?
His desk, where homework assignments competed for space with an old computer still running Windows 95? On his dresser, next to the photo of his father?
With his army!
Victor walked over to the shelf—really, just a length of plywood placed on metal supports—where the miniatures of the Cadian 15th stood in all their tan-and-green glory. It wasn't much of an army: some basic squads (and one Kasrkin elite squad) with a few command units and a single precious Chimera transport. But it was his army, the one he'd spent three years collecting and painting.
Carefully, he placed the paper against the wall, pushing the transport against it to keep it in place. Stepping back, he looked at the art and smiled.
He knew that she'd just given it to him as a friendly gesture. But it had been a long time since anyone had made a friendly gesture. So even if it didn't mean anything to her, it meant something to him.
Maybe someday Jane would be doing artwork for Games Workshop. Now that would be cool.
Victor turned his attentions to his homework. Getting about halfway through, he took a break to cook some lasagna. He put his mom's portion in the fridge for when she came home, and then supped on his own, the small house's quiet a blessing after the day's rigors. The lasagna was soft and the meat well-seasoned. One of his better efforts.
As he ate in silence, he thought again about the petition. No question that it hadn't gone well. But he was optimistic. Maybe he was still riding the thrill of talking to Jane, but Kelly's plan had merit. Assuming she succeeded in bringing together the Lawndale High notables, he and Priscilla might have a chance to fix this problem.
Finishing dinner, he cleaned the dishes and did the remainder of his homework, struggling a bit when it came to the chapter on ionic bonding and finally just slogging through without worrying too much about getting every detail. They only ever judged you on whether you not you finished chemistry homework anyway, not if you got every question right.
Tests, of course, were another matter.
Finishing that, he turned on his computer. The house's sputtering 28.8k modem made online gaming impossible, so he ran a single-player Starcraft skirmish map before finally taking a shower and turning in. Mom worked late on Mondays, so he wouldn't see her until the next day.
Lying in bed, the house still and silent all around him, he felt the same vague tension he usually felt on the night before a hard test. Except this time, the tension didn't come from dreading the future—instead, it came from an intense curiosity as to what would happen next.
Victor arrived at school early the next day to find Priscilla waiting at the front gate, arms crossed and lips downturned as usual.
"Any sign of Kelly?" Victor asked.
"Not yet."
He nodded in acknowledgement. "We might want to talk about our approach. I didn't see how you introduced yourself, but according to Kelly, you were pretty aggressive?"
Priscilla seemed to retreat into herself a bit. "I don't really like talking to people and prefer to get to the point."
"No, aggression's good!" Victor said. "I was thinking of strategies last night. Maybe the best way to do this is for you to use that aggression to get people's attention. Once you do that, I explain things. Because if I open up, they'll just talk over me."
A bit like how the Imperial Guard might open an assault with artillery (Priscilla), and then send in the troops (Victor). Though he didn't say this.
"Okay, we can do that. I was in kind of a bad mood yesterday, and yeah, didn't try as hard as I should have," Priscilla admitted.
"We all were, I think—oh, here's Kelly!"
Victor pointed over to the bright red cap bobbing amidst the student body's bare heads. Kelly's freckled face came into sight a few moments later, her pale lips turned up in a smile.
"All right, I have the goods," she said, reaching into her pocket and taking out a folded piece of paper which she handed to Priscilla.
Priscilla unfolded it, and Victor craned his neck to see the contents, which read:
Kevin – This is obvious.
Brittany – Also obvious.
Jodie – Her direct connection with Li isn't as useful as you might think—but her influence with the rest of the ASB Council will help.
Quinn – The junior year boys will sign whatever she puts in front of him, and so will a lot of the girls. The rest of the Fashion Club doesn't matter, but she does!
Dawn – Dawn runs the AV Club and is involved in a bunch of other extracurriculars.
Rebecca – The holy rollers like her.
Bob – Can't tell how much the other alternative students really listen to him, but he's more approachable than most. Worth a shot, maybe?
Josh – He's in with the nerds, geeks, and gamers? Not 100% sure about this one.
"Get these people, and you'll have signatures from most of the school," Kelly said.
Victor puzzled over the last name on the list. Wasn't Josh one of the cool skater kids?
"Thanks," Priscilla finally said, and almost sounded like she meant it.
"And hey, looks like you can start at the top right now!" Kelly pointed over to where Kevin, Brittany, and Jodie were walking toward school.
Victor looked to Priscilla and raised his eyebrows. "I suppose we have our marching orders."
"Good luck and keep me posted!" Kelly said, quickly disappearing through the front door.
Victor let Priscilla take the lead. As she walked, the tightness in her frame loosened and she held her head high, the expression on her face no longer an obvious grimace but a grimace that could be mistaken as a look of determination when seen from a good angle.
Kevin was telling some kind of story to Brittany, one with plenty of gestures and punctuated by his own laughter. She listened raptly, while Jodie, who walked alongside them, occasionally said "mm" or "uh huh" while obviously thinking about something else.
"So anyway, there I was—"
"Hey!" Priscilla said, her voice not quite a shout, but close. "Could we talk for a minute?" She phrased it like a question but spoke it like an order.
Kevin blanched. "Whoa! Uh, I don't know you," he said, speaking way too quickly.
Priscilla frowned. "Considering we haven't met, I don't know why you would."
He pointed at her. "Yeah, that's right! We haven't met! And you said you'd keep what happened at the party a secret, right?"
"What? What party?"
Kevin scratched his head. "Wait… didn't we make out at Zack's party?"
"Eep!" Brittany squeaked.
The sharp intake of Priscilla's breath sounded like the hiss of some particularly monstrous serpent. "No. We did not," she said, her voice deadly cold.
Kevin exhaled. "Oh, man! Ha ha, you freaked me out for a second. See, babe? I didn't make out with this chick. I must have made out with some other girl who looks like—oops…"
"Ooh!" Brittany growled, stamping her foot and thrusting her face toward Kevin. "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
"But babe! It was one of those parties, you know?"
"That's no excuse!"
Brittany shoved Kevin hard enough to make him fall butt-first onto the lawn, and then stormed toward the front door.
"Aw, man!" Kevin lamented.
Victor kept the ball rolling. "Actually, Priscilla and I are just getting signatures for a petition to end the new cafeteria rule."
"That's a really good idea," Jodie said. "There's no way it's safe to cram that many people in there."
"We agree. Do you think you could pass some of these petitions around for us?" He offered her a stack of papers.
Jodie smile and nodded, walking past Kevin to take the stack. "I can definitely do that."
"Huh? What are we signing?" Kevin asked.
"A petition so that we don't all have to eat lunch in the cafeteria."
"Huh. Hey, I know! We could eat it on the football field instead! That'd be like, good for morale and stuff."
"No," Priscilla said. "We just think students should be able to eat where they want. Ask around the football team—I'm sure some will agree."
She handed him some blank petitions. Kevin took them, squinting as he tried to understand the contents. "I dunno. I'd rather eat lunch on the football field."
"Yeah, an outdoors lunch is great. Until it rains," Priscilla said.
"Oh yeah, huh. Wait, I know! You can all just wear helmets! Yeah, I'm going to run this by the team."
Kevin got up and hurried off to the front door, leaving them with Jodie.
"Sometimes, Kevin gets confused," Jodie said. "Anyway, it's really nice to see students making an effort to improve Lawndale High."
"Sure thing," Victor said.
Once Jodie was out of earshot, Priscilla buried her face into her hands and groaned. "That idiot!"
"Kevin?"
"Yes, Kevin! I haven't even been to a party since sophomore year, and he mistakes me for some skank or whatever!"
It was hard for Victor to imagine Priscilla going to any party at any age. "I see. Sorry that Kevin embarrassed you."
She raised her face from her hands. "People like him are why I hate this place. Well, one reason why. Also, I'm pretty sure we lost Brittany."
"True. But at least we got Jodie and, by extension, the ASB."
The bell signaling the start of the day rang. They'd have to get the rest of the people on Kelly's list whenever time allowed.