Burn for Burn

ACCORDING TO LILLIA, COACH CHRISTY KEEPS HER office locked at all times. Ten minutes and thirty-three seconds ago, she entered her office with the box of homecoming ballots. Her door is open a crack. She’s been typing on her computer for the past seven minutes and ten seconds. I know because I’ve been watching the clock at the end of the hallway the whole time. I’m leaned up against some lockers, and Kat is pretending to text on her phone by the water fountain.

At exactly four o’clock Lillia comes flying past Kat and me, her ponytail swishing from side to side. “Coach Christy!” she calls out frantically. “You have to come right now! There’s a cheer-mergency in the girls’ locker room!”

“What’s going on, Lillia?” Coach Christy asks, stepping out of her office.

“Please just hurry!” she says, tugging on Coach Christy’s arm. “I think one of the freshman girls is having a breakdown or something. She’s totally freaking out!”

The two of them disappear down the hallway.

Kat and I grin at each other, and after a quick glance around to make sure no one’s watching us, we slip inside. I stay crouched by the door while Kat makes a beeline for the ballot box. She said Pat taught her how to pick locks when she was a kid. All you needed was a piece of a soda can. It seemed crazy to me, but she opens it in almost five seconds. She dumps the contents out on Coach Christy’s desk.

“Looks like Reeve won without our help,” Kat grunts as she sifts through the piles.

“I’m not surprised,” I say. “He’s definitely the best-looking guy in the senior class.” Kat gives me a weird look, but it’s true. She stuffs some slips of paper into her messenger bag. Votes for Rennie, I assume. Rennie won’t get to stand up there on that stage with him now. Too bad for her. Maybe she shouldn’t be such a bully.

I train my eyes back on the hallway. Lillia and the coach could be back any minute. “Are you almost done?” I whisper.

“I’m just counting to make sure Ashlin has enough votes,” she says, her head down.

That’s when I hear Lillia’s voice coming down the hallway, high and hyper. “Oh, my gosh. I thought she was crying, but I guess she was just laughing!”

“Kat!”

Kat’s head snaps up. “I’m not done counting!”

I shake my head. “We have to hide!”

Kat stuffs the ballots back into the box and then looks around the room frantically before she sees the supply cubby. She gestures at me to follow, but when she opens the door, we see that it’s way too small for both of us.

Lillia is babbling, and now they’re right outside the door. “It’s so weird! I mean, I think I even heard rumors she was a cutter or something, but I guess not! Maybe it’s just multiple personality disorder.” She giggles nervously. “We’ve all been kind of crazed, with all the stress of homecoming.”

I dart behind the office door, and peek out to the hallway through a tiny sliver between the door hinges.

“Well, I appreciate you keeping me in the loop, Lillia. It’s important that I know what’s going on with my squad.”

“Oh, totally.”

“Is there anything else?”

Through the crack Lillia’s and my eyes meet. Hers go huge. And then the phone sitting on Coach Christy’s desk rings.

“I’ve got to get that,” she says. Coach Christy grabs a hold of the door. I see her fingers curl around it. She’s going to close it, take the phone call in private. If she does, I’m done for. I am trying so hard not to breathe. I curl my feet in as tightly as I can and close my eyes. We’re going to get caught, and it will be my fault.

“Wait!” Lillia cries out.

“Just a minute, Lillia,” Coach Christy says. “I’ll be right with you.”

Coach Christy stops talking suddenly, and my heart almost stops. I open my eyes. But Coach Christy hasn’t seen me after all. She shouts, “Lillia!” and rushes out.

I peek through the crack again. Lillia has fainted. She is a small heap on the floor of the hallway. Coach Christy is shaking her, trying to wake her up. Lillia flutters her lids. “I don’t feel so good,” she whispers. “Can you take me to the nurse’s office?”

Coach Christy practically sweeps her off the floor, throwing one of Lillia’s arms around her shoulders. And then they’re gone.

“They’re gone!” I whisper loudly to Kat.

She crawls out of the cubby. “That was way too close.” I figure she’ll go back to the ballots, but instead she runs into the hallway. I follow her.

“Boo-yah!” Kat yells when we get outside.

“I thought she saw me for sure.”

“Well, obviously she didn’t!” Kat pumps her fist in the air. “I just wish I could’ve seen Lillia’s performance.” She mimics, “‘I don’t feel so good.’”

I try to smile, but something doesn’t seem right. “Did you make sure there were enough votes for Ashlin to win?” I ask.

Kat brushes me off. “I’m sure it’s fine. There were plenty of votes for her, and I grabbed, like, twenty of Rennie’s votes.” She sticks both her hands into her bag and pulls out two big fistfuls of ballots. “We got this. Trust me.”