Page 90 of And They Were Roommates

All our letters, dumped in the trash.

We’re back at the start.

“THOSE DIRTY ARACHNIDS,” Blaze shouts, standing atop the fountain ledge in the Halo.

Robby yanks Blaze down and slaps a palm against his mouth. Now that it’s November, the water has been sucked out of the basin, and the ugly cupid statue at the center has stopped shooting a steady stream from his bow and arrow.

Beside the two, Jasper’s and Xavier’s eyes are wide, too shocked to speak.

I shove my hands into my coat pockets as I stand before them, unsure what else to say after conveying the bad news from Delilah and the letters beyond a wall we can’t cross. A poster pole next to us advertises the Halloween in November mixer date, cruelly reminding us of its impending arrival in ten days.

“What’s Delilah’s punishment?” Xavier asks, his deep bro-voice in its frailest state yet. Even his muscles look deflated in his knit sweater.

“Detention,” I say, the shame from our call still eating away at me.

“Milady needed your lucky spoon,” Blaze says, patting Xavier’s chest.

Xavier covers his face in his palms. “I’m the ex from hell.”

I take in the dejected faces I’ve caused. If only I’d never screwed up the equestrian center gate and ruined STRIP’s safe delivery method. IfonlyI’d never fought with Jasper and torn the bags. An Excellence Scholar is expected to be perfect, yet all I am is the opposite.

I have to fix this for them.

“How convenient; you’re all in one place,” an abrasive voice shouts our way. Foot Cody, walking alongside the quiet, shy Eli and five others I vaguely remember from past one-on-ones. Witnessing such social-food-chain opposites hanging out together spikes my nerves.

There’s only one reason why they would approach us like this. They figured out what happened to the letters.

How? This fast?

“How can we be of service, patrons?” Jaspers says, rising off the fountain ledge. There’s a rare cautiousness to his voice. He came to the same conclusion.

Cody smirks. Unlike everyone else, he only wears a flimsy dress shirt despite today’s temperature being the coldest so far all season, probably in an attempt to prove something. “You can stop calling us your patrons. Especially now that you’ve screwed us over.”

“You have no evidence this was our blunder—” Blaze shouts—a seemingly default monologue of his—but that’s all he gets out before Robby covers his mouth again.

“It was, though,” Eli says, wringing his gloved hands. “Our residential retainer heard about someone at the sister academy getting caught with tons of letters. The academies can read them now, right? Our names?”

“Incorrect, Eli,” Jasper responds, smiling. There’s no dimple. “You’re safe.”

“How do you know?”

“The student who picked up your letters took the blame. Isn’t she kind? She says the sister academy never read your letters as well.”

“We’re just supposed to believe you?” Eli says. “We’ve been compromising so much after you obviously lied about these letters only being written by you.” He flashes a cold look my way. “It’s obvious Charlie is helping you.”

Jasper’s mouth opens as he looks to the rest of the STRIP members, but he finds no rebuttal. He remains silent.

Cody sneers way too happily. “Bro’s right. What’s stopping us from visiting your aunt right now and telling her about STRIP’s true business?”

Unspoken Guideline 16: Jasper was right. Classmates simultaneously want to befriend the top five and want them gone—and even the shyest and meanest will team up to make that happen.

There must be some way to convince them to hold off from ratting out STRIP and everything it brings into an otherwise stressful academic environment.

“So, you don’t want to keep your dates to the mixer?” I ask the crowd, an idea coming to me. I walk toward the poster pole, gesturing at the mixer advertisement drowning in cheesy Halloween-themed clip art.

Eli crosses his arms. “Of course we do.”

“Then I’ll make this up to you. I’ll rewrite and redeliver your letters.”

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