Page 113 of And They Were Roommates

“Nothing’s really changed since she started here. I doubt she’d create and implement the rules we have, but it also seems like she’s complicit with the status quo.”

“Oh,” I say.

“Too harsh?”

“No, you’re right.” But it’s nice, knowing I’m not alone in the feeling. I take another look around the ballroom. A few girls and boys have begun to mingle instead of avoiding contact at all costs from opposite walls. Matt St. Paul, in particular, stands one tableaway with a girl who holds a striped, lopsided candy wrapper that I remember folding one of my own blackout poems into, her face beet red and her grin wide.

It’s working.

A scream cuts through the ballroom, high and shrill. Blaze, who’s collapsed in front of the giant plastic cup spider dangling from the ceiling. The letters wrapped in candy foil are spilled across the floor.

“Today’s the day,” he mumbles beneath his white sheet.

A few chaperones peek over, even with Xavier’s massive back blocking their view.

“Need help?” Ms. Nallos calls. She’s already walking over. If she picks up just one piece of candy, it’ll feel too light to her.

My heart rate skyrockets. I look for Delilah and spot her; she’s as wide-eyed as I must be. Gradually, she reaches into her handbag and pulls out three sticks. Three sparklers.

Leaning toward the nearest taper candle on a table, she lights the tips with the flame, then chucks them toward the opposite side of the ballroom. They skitter across the floor as red-and-gold sparks crackle, pulling everyone’s attention.

Robby and I use the distraction to rush over to Blaze. As Robby scrambles to shove the candy back into the trick-or-treat bucket, I shake Blaze’s shoulders.

“The arachnids’ weaponry?” Blaze says, trading frantic looks between the sparklers and the spider behind me.

“Blaze.” I snap in front of his eyes. He barely peels his gaze off the spider. “Blaze, give me the trick-or-treat bucket.”

“But I must aid STRIP.”

“We made a promise—you helped with my love letters, so I assist you on the fated day. Okay? I can handle this spider.” I checkover Blaze’s shoulder. Ms. Nallos is circumventing the chaperone circle inspecting the sparklers in confusion, and Robby has at least half the letters to still pick up.

We’re out of time. We need to buy some.

“You know what you can do to aid STRIP, Blaze?” I ask.

“What ho?”

“You got your slingshot with you?”

“Everlastingly.”

“Get out that slingshot and knock down that spider.”

I reach under Blaze’s white sheet and into his tracksuit pants pocket. Once I find the slingshot and marble, I pull them out and shove them into his tiny twelve-year-old hands.

A fire rushes to his eyes. Gripping my shoulder, he rises shakily to his feet and aims at one of the two wires. He shoots, and the marble goes soaring.

The spider shakes, tilts, and comes crashing down. The plastic cups explode, knocking into cocktail tables and classmates’ heads.

Every instructor rushes to the cups next, shouting if everyone is safe. Robby and I race to toss the remaining candy into the bucket.

“Mr. Charlie?”

I spring to my feet and spin around, tucking the bucket behind my back. Principal Grimes stands before me in all her glory. Between her usual high-quality pantsuit and blond hair clipped out of the way, she must’ve stepped out of her office right before the mixer began.

“H-hello, Principal Grimes,” I say.

A tug comes at the bucket behind my back. Robby.

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