Wrath

Chapter 3

They’d decided to go old school.

E-mail would have been more efficient, and a Web site might have been snazzier, but after serious consideration, Beth and Miranda had decided that neither had the technical prowess to put something like that together undetected. And plausible deniability was key.

E-mails could be traced. Circuits always led back to their source. But paper was untraceable-and as editor in chief of the school paper, Beth had access to all the printing equipment she needed.

She pulled the stack of flyers out of the printer as Miranda ejected their disk and wiped their work from the computer’s memory.

“Behold,” said Beth, holding up the crimson sheet crammed with dirty little secrets. “Our masterpiece.”

Miranda grabbed a copy and quickly scanned the elegantly designed layout.

“Unbelievable, isn’t it, that they were able to accomplish so much in their short, sordid lives?”

“I’m not sure ‘accomplish’ is the right word,” Beth said, reading out a few of her favorites. “‘HG used to steal money from the collection plate. AM is impotent. KG is afraid of the dark.’ I’m not sure what it is they’ve accomplished.”

“Other than making asses of themselves,” Miranda said, and laughed. “Well, thanks to us.”

They’d included some gossip about a bunch of randoms, too, just for cover. But that was a diversion. Soon everyone would know that KG was so desperate, he had to trick girls into sleeping with him; that sometimes HG still stuffed her bra. Neither Miranda nor Beth knew much about the mysterious new girl from the East Coast, but before everything came down, Harper had passed along a bit of juicy info about Kaia and Haven High’s resident pothead that was too weird not to be true.

“Are we really doing this?” Beth asked, as she split the pile in half and handed one stack to Miranda. It was almost 6 A.M., which meant there’d be plenty of time to spread them all over school before even the most diligent early bird appeared for his worm.

“Definitely.” Miranda swung her long, reddish hair over her shoulder and looked defiantly up at Beth. “It’s exactly what they deserve.”

“I guess…”

“No second thoughts,” Miranda ordered. “They screwed us. Both of us. Because they thought we’d put up with it.”

And Beth remembered the surprise in Kane’s eyes when she’d pushed him away for the last time. The mocking look in Harper’s every time Beth dared confront her, as if knowing that sweet, quiet Beth would always be the one to back down first. And she remembered the way Adam had treated her when he’d thought she was the cheater, his cold, unrelenting cruelty, the unwillingness to bend, to trust, to forgive.

Now she was supposed to just get over it? Because betraying Beth, well, that didn’t really count? “You take the science wing, I’ll hit the lockers by the cafeteria,” Beth said determinedly. Forget moving on. Forget backing down.

“That’s better,” Miranda cheered, locking up behind them. “Let’s get this done.”

Did you hear?

Is it true?

I heard he was a virgin when he slept with Kaia.

And when she blew him off, he cried.

Well, I heard Kane wanted Beth so much he posed naked with Harper and they doctored the photos.

They didn’t just pose-he and Harper totally did it on the locker room floor.

No, I heard it was on the soccer field, and Kaia was in it too. Threesome, baby.

So who was taking the pictures?

Could Kaia really be hooking up with that skeezy stoner?

Didn’t you hear? She’s a total nympho.

Why do you think they threw her out of her last school?

Did he really-?

And then she-?

How could they-?

I don’t believe it, but…

You won’t believe it, but…

It doesn’t make any sense, but…

Trust me.

It’s true.

“Oooh, Harper, you must be soooo humiliated!”

Harper rolled her eyes. She’d been (barely) tolerating her lame sophomore wannabe-clone for months now, but the Mini-Me act was getting old. Especially now that the girl had dug up the nerve to speak to her in public. As if Harper was going to dent her own reputation by acknowledging Mini-Me’s existence-or, worse, giving people the impression that they were actually friends.

“We just want you to know we’re there for you,” Mini-Me’s best friend gushed. Harper couldn’t be bothered to remember her name, either, and since the girl was decked out in the same faux BCBG skirt and sweater set that Harper had ditched last season, MiniShe would suffice.

“What are you talking about?” she hissed, through gritted teeth. Under normal circumstances she would have just closed her locker and walked away. But something strange was going on today. She’d been getting weird looks all morning, and once, difficult as it was to believe, it had almost seemed like someone was laughing-at her.

“Oh, Harper, we don’t believe any of it,” Mini-Me assured her.

“Of course not,” Mini-She simpered, her head bouncing up and down like a bobblehead doll. “Well, except that thing about-”

“None of it,” Mini-Me said firmly, giving Mini-She an obvious shut your mouth glare.

“None of what?” Harper was getting increasingly irritated by the twin twits-and by the sensation that something very bad was about to happen. Or had already happened, without her knowing it, which was worse. Harper owned this school, and nothing happened without her say-so.

“You mean you haven’t…” Mini-Me’s eyes lit up. She tried to force a concerned look, but her eagerness was painfully clear. “Oh, I hate to be the one to show you this, but…” She pulled a folded red flyer out of her back pocket. Harper had seen them floating around that morning, but assumed it was just another lame announcement about the next chess club tournament or some charity drive for the community service club. “Maybe I shouldn’t show it to you,” Mini-Me said, waving the folded flyer out of Harper’s reach.

“But at least we can be there for her, when she sees it.” Mini-She patted Harper’s shoulder, and Harper squirmed away with a grimace. “We’ll always be there for you, Harper, no matter what anyone else says.”

“You’ve always got us,” Mini-Me agreed. “I mean, we don’t care if you wet your pants or slept with a million guys or-”

“Give me that,” Harper snarled, snatching the flyer out of Mini-Me’s hand. She unfolded it slowly, forcing her hands not to shake.

The words leaped off the page.

All her darkest secrets, all her most embarrassing moments, her deepest fears, all laid out in black print, stretching across the page for anyone to see. It had been published anonymously-the cowards way-but Harper didn’t need a byline to know whom to blame. There was only one person who knew all her secrets-the one person she had trusted never to betray her.

Harper smiled, though it felt more like a grimace of horror. Hopefully the Minis would be too dim to tell the difference. Then she shrugged. “Is this all?”

“All?” Mini-Me squealed. “Don’t you get it? ‘HG’-Harper Grace. That’s you.”