Page 72 of The Lookback

Meanwhile, I’ve lost my lead. Denise is being helped up onto the skittish sorrel, which is clearly looking around for whatever spooked my buckskin, when I see it.

A small blue sticker flutters down from Denise’s elbow.

“Wait,” I shout. “Denise is dead.”

“What?” Jed asks.

Everyone in the arena has frozen.

I point at the tiny sticker. “That fell off her elbow.”

“What do we do now?” Tommy asks.

“Jerry will have to take over,” Principal Lyons says. “But we’ll postpone the vote until the end of the obstacle course.”

That’s a stroke of luck for Jed—but then I realize, it’s not. Jed killed his own teammate because she was a liability. I’m annoyed, but also a little impressed. Too bad it didn’t really help him much.

I swing back up and manage to get the jump on Jerry. My buckskin doesn’t mind the tarps, but he hates the tree branches, whereas Jerry’s sorrel just tromps right across all of it.

They’re ahead ofuswhen I finally charge through and toward where Jed and Tommy are waiting. They’re arguing when I pull up, but they both shut up as we approach.

I don’t wait for a complete stop before I swing off, and I practically throw the reins at Tommy. “Go, go, go! We need that broom!”

But Jed’s smiling at Tommy. He doesn’t care whether Tommy gets the broom. Because he knows Tommy’s the stepmother. I close my eyes and exhale. I’m pretty sure I’ve just been played.

I watch as Tommy ropes the sheep in half the time it takes Jed, and Principal Lyons awards him a broomstick with a flourish. Then Tommy wheels our cute little buckskin around, rides over to my side, dirt clods spraying, and tosses me the broom.

His horse, predictably, freaks out. You really shouldn’t ever throw things around a horse, even one you know. But Tommy calms him down, and I catch the broom. Before they can push for another stupid vote, I shout, “Jedediah Brooks, I know you’re the witch.” I start running across the arena. “And as Gretel, I’m here to slay you and save my brother.”

Jed looks utterly floored.

I jab him with the end of the broom, and even though he’s sitting on a horse, I manage to strike his stomach.

“Wow,” Principal Lyons says. “That was even more exciting than we had hoped it might be.”

Mrs. Lyons nods. “I suppose we have a winner. Gretel has saved her brother Hansel, and she has vanquished both the stepmother and the witch.”

The audience cheers.

Even more surprisingly, they all vote, and the audience, Principal and Mrs. Lyons all vote me in as prom queen. It happens so fast that it feels like I’m reeling. “But I got dead last in everything.” I blink.

“But you managed to convince Tommy to betray his own best interests,” Mrs. Lyons says. “That shows an impressive amount of team building. Your showing in the horse was admirable, too. But, because Jed beat Tommy each time, and because Tommy turned on his own teammate, he loses. For the second year in a row, Amanda Saddler and Jedediah Brooks are our prom king and queen,” Mrs. Lyons says. “Congratulations to them both!”

Technically last year, we were just the prince and princess, and Jed skipped out on prom, so I think he should forfeit his title. I don’t point any of that out, and when I look around to joke about it with Tommy, I’m alarmed to realize that he’s gone.

But they’ve released Clyde from his cage, and he’s now strolling across the arena toward me and Jed. “Nice work, little brother. You didn’t embarrass the Brooks family name.”

Jed looks like he might snatch the broomstick away from me and impale his brother with the very blunt end. I grab Jed’s hand and wave with my free hand as I tug him toward the edge of the arena. “We need to talk.”

He’s resisting, but not nearly as much as he would have been a few months—heck, even a week ago. We do manage to jog nearly to the opposite end of where the audience is now spreading across the arena dirt.

“You are going to talk to me for once,” I say. “Because if we’re supposed to be prom queen and king together, you’re going to have to.” I drop my hands to my hips, releasing him.

“What would I even say?” Jed asks.

“You could tell me how you’re feeling, having Clyde here.”

He shrugs.

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