“You’re wrong,” I said, closing the one notebook at the table that Carla hadn’t stolen from me. “You just don’t care about it the way I care about it, so you’re not pushing as hard as you can to make it a success. That finale has a lot of potential, but not if the one person backing it doesn’t care if it’s successful or not. Quite honestly, I know you don’t care. I think you want it to fail because it was my idea. I tried telling you this last week. If you couldn’t do it all on your own, or you just needed some extra hands, I was happy to help.”
“Seriously, just shut up!” She dropped her head back and looked up to the ceiling. “If you’d just stop talking for two seconds and listen, then you’d remember that I’ve already offered to give it back.” She snapped her head back down and looked at me, sliding the notebook across the table. I started to reach for it, but her hand fell on the front with a loud thud. “But only on one condition.”
“And what’s that?” I asked. “You just said you don’t believe in the project. You don’t have time or energy to devote to it. So why is this suddenly conditional?”
“Because I’m not stupid enough to just hand it over without getting something in return.”
“And what it is that you want?” I asked, and then her right eyebrow arched. “What do I have to do?”
“I already told you that my main concern is that you’re going to blow this competition for our entire team,” she said. “And with two weeks left, I have no doubt that you’ll find a way to do that yet. So I want to ensure that that won’t happen before I have a chance to collect my check.”
“Okay?”
“I want your promise that you’ll stay away from Gabe,” she said, lowering her face even closer. “Don’t look at him, don’t talk to him, don’t even acknowledge his existence when he comes around. If he talks to you, walk away. If he looks at you, turn around. I want your promise that you’ll leave him alone, and then I’ll back off. The dance is yours to keep, and the reading night is yours to plan.”
“Simple as that?”
“Yeah.”
“And you’re still aware that Gabe’s our team leader, right?”
“Of course.”
“So then how am I supposed to shut him out? If he talks to me or needs information about something, then I have to answer him. I can’t ignore him; I can’t be rude. I wouldn’t want a bad attitude to be the reason that I lose the competition.”
“Oh, honey,” she said, shaking her head, “your attitude will be the last thing that loses this for you. I already told you the dance isn’t worth the time it’s been given, and the library night is just a joke. But if it makes you feel better having control again, then by all means. Agree to what I’m asking for, and it’s all yours.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“This is my demand for the benefit of the entire team. You’re not just putting yourself at risk with Gabe, but you’re sacrificing the potential for our whole district. We could lose because of your selfishness. Stay away from Gabe, promise that you won’t do anything else to hinder our progress, and then you and I will have nothing left to talk about.”
“Yeah, here’s the thing, Carla,” I said, looking down at my hands. “Ever since that day at the park, I have been staying away from Gabe. I don’t talk to him at the functions. He doesn’t come anywhere near me. I saw him over at the bookstore the other day, and I went out of my way to make sure we didn’t run into one another. I’m already keeping my distance, so I don’t know why you want a promise from me when I’m already doing what you want me to do.”
“I just want to hear it. If you’re already avoiding him, if there’s really nothing secretly going on, then you should have no problem making that commitment out loud. So do we have a deal or not? What do you want more . . . Gabe or your events?”
“Oh, well . . . when you put it like that, you’re right. There’s really no question about it.”
“So then we have a deal?”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, I choose Gabe.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I was barely on board when you started making demands,” I said, “but you sealed your fate pretty quickly with that request.” She stared at me breathlessly, and I shrugged my shoulder in the same careless manner she’d shrugged hers when she had the upper hand last week. “I don’t have some wicked plan to chase Gabe down. I’m not breaking my neck to get his attention. I’m not gonna go out of my way to ruin anything for this team. Gabe and I will be around one another, and we will be in the same room. He’s our district leader, Carla. It’s inevitable for him to look at me and talk to me, and I won’t be an infant and push him away just so that I can get ahead. I will remain kind and professional, but I won’t cross that line. This team is—”
“Oh my God, I don’t care about the stupid team!” she said, her face flushing redder. “I’ve never cared about it. I want you to leave Gabe alone— ”
“Because you like him,” I said, nodding. “Yeah, I know. Everyone knows. It’s not some super-huge secret, Carla. I already know you don’t care about the team. That wasn’t a big secret either. If you ever cared, then you wouldn’t have treated me the way you have for the last two weeks. You wouldn’t have taken my dance plans and refused to give them back, you wouldn’t have gone behind my back and scheduled functions without telling me, you wouldn’t have stolen from me, and you wouldn’t have just asked me to sacrifice something I love just so you could swoop in and take what you want for yourself. You called me selfish, and sure, maybe I can be. Where Gabe’s concerned, I’ve been nothing but selfish. But I would’ve never done to one of my teammates what you did to me…and to Fletcher! You made Fletcher suffer just because he’s my friend. How’s that fair?”
“You’re so pathetic, Mandy,” she said. “And you’re so stupid to waste your time. You know that Gabe’s never going to fall for someone like you, right?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t know that.”
“Then let me take a moment to clear this up,” she said. “You may have his eye now, and he may even be blinded enough to think you’re somehow special, but your emotional baggage will prove itself to be too much work for him in the long-run. You’re just another project, something to keep his hands busy.”
“That’s not true . . . ”
“Oh, but it is. Boo, you’re sad. Ouch, you need fixed. And oh! Here comes Gabe to save the day.” She stared at me deadpan. “You can’t tell me that’s never happened.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I do,” she said, raising her chest with a confident breath. “He’s the do-gooder, and you’re the project. His only interest in you is fixing you. He doesn’t care about you. His priority is fixing every broken thing in his path. You just happened to be the project of interest this month.”
“How can you say that?”
“Here’s the golden part, Mandy,” she continued, ignoring me. “Here’s the big kicker. The main difference between you and the thousands of other projects he takes on, is that you’re one that’s just a little beyond repair. You—can’t—be—fixed. At the end of the day, you will always be selfish, superficial, and patronizing, and Gabe won’t be able to help but see you for what you really are.” I looked down to the table. “Someday he’ll look through you, and he’ll see what everybody else sees. And then he’ll be overcome with the realization that there are other girls right in front of him— pretty, successful, determined girls, who aren’t so weighed down with all of that…” She smeared her hands in the air in front of my face. “All of that emotional angst you lug around.”
“Carla, you don’t know me,” I said, finally looking back up to her. “You know nothing about me.”
“I don’t need to know anything more than what’s on the surface,” she said. “You’re too much work. And someone as perfect as Gabe deserves someone as equally perfect.”
“No.”
“What do you mean no? That wasn’t a que
stion.”
“It means you’re wrong. If you think that, if you really have him so high on a pedestal that you can think that unclearly, then you don’t know anything at all,” I said. “Gabe’s not perfect.”
“But he deserves someone who thinks he is.”
“No, he doesn’t,” I said. “He needs to be with someone who’s going to accept him as he is, not fawn over him as this angel-like creature the world sees him as. He has struggles, Carla. He has a history. He has scars. Why would he ever want someone who’s going to ignore those things? You can’t look past someone’s imperfections just to see the silver-lining. Those scars—and everything that’s happened to cause every one—that’s who he is. He deserves someone who’s going to embrace those things about him and treat the wounds delicately. He doesn’t need someone who’s going to disregard every imperfection. Caring about someone means embracing them—all of them, the good and the bad.” I shook my head. “I came into this project ready to work with you to get to the place where we both needed to be. But, Carla, I don’t know how to talk to you anymore. You turned everything into a war, and it didn’t have to be this way.”
“You know what I want,” she said, still adamant to get what she’d come in for. “Walk away from Gabe, and the events are yours. Otherwise, I’ll go to Lashell tomorrow and tell her that you’ve given up. We’ll have no choice but to pull the plug on all of your precious, little ideas.”
“Then go ahead,” I said, pushing the two notebooks back to her. “Do what you have to do. Just leave me alone from now on, okay? I am done fighting with you.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Does anybody have a clue what this is all about?”
It was Monday afternoon, and the eleven of us who made up the Sugar Creek RI team had been sitting on the bleachers in the high school gymnasium for fifteen minutes. Mr. Davies made an announcement at the beginning of the day that we’d have a mandatory meeting immediately after school. It wasn’t uncommon to get together, to talk and hash out new ideas, but the whole idea of meeting so quickly and unexpectedly had left all of us a little curious. The last time they’d called such a fast meeting had resulted in a long-winded discussion about how to deal with the press if approached with questions about what happened at the park.
“Hello? Anyone?” Carla spoke louder. She was the only one of us who hadn’t taken a seat in the first row. She was two rows above us, her choice of seating speaking volumes about how she viewed her position on the team. “I had to call into work to make sure I didn’t miss this meeting. My manager was not happy.”
“I passed Mr. Davies’s room on the way in,” Fletcher answered. “He and Lashell were huddled over talking about something. It looked intense.”
“Do you think maybe we’ve already won by a landslide, so they’re just calling it quits and awarding the scholarship today?” she asked, perking up.
“Fat chance,” Fletcher turned over his shoulder to glare at her. “The program’s only two-thirds over. Anything could change. The leading school right now may not be the leading school two weeks from now. ”
Everybody groaned. The anticipation and aggravation in the room was growing thicker by the second. The longer we waited, the more impatient we became. I, like Carla, had to call in to work to announce my late arrival. Jones was stuck covering for me until I could get to the bakery.
School had let out fifteen minutes ago, and there we sat. No teacher. No RI leaders. Just eleven students with no clue as to what was going on.
I almost wondered if Carla had stuck to the promise she’d made yesterday and told the RI leaders that I’d given up and backed out. I wasn’t convinced that that information would call for any kind of panic, but with the way Carla had been acting lately, there was no telling what she might’ve said.
“What do you think this is all about?” Fletcher asked.
“No idea,” I said, checking my phone for the time. Jones was gonna kill me if he was late for his evening classes. I turned back to Carla, managed the best smile I could muster, and asked, “Any chance this has something to do with what we talked about yesterday?”
“Not possible,” she said, throwing back an equally fake smile. “I’ve been so busy winning the competition that I haven’t had a moment to spare.”
I looked back to Fletcher, and his eyes widened with curiosity. I waved my hand as if to say I’ll tell you later, but I no intention of doing so at all.
We continued to wait in silence, all of us still wondering what in the world could’ve made Lashell and Mr. Davies keep us waiting for so long. Neither of them had ever been late for any of our meetings, let alone after they made a point to stress the mandatory issue of the matter.
“I say we wait five more minutes and, if no one shows, we just leave,” senior Katie Merlot said. “This is ridiculous. What is taking them so long?”
“We just need to be patient, guys,” Carla said. “Maybe that’s all this is: a test of our patience. I’m not going anywhere until we’re specifically told we can leave.”
“Me neither.”
“Same,” I said, echoing Fletcher. “They’ll show up. They wouldn’t leave us waiting for nothing.”
“No one asked for your opinion, Parker,” Carla mumbled under her breath, and yet half the group turned to look at her as they’d heard her clear as day.
The doors snapped open.
“So sorry to keep you waiting,” Lashell said, pushing through the set of doors that connected the gym to the school’s main hallway. She was soon followed by Gabe and Mr. Davies—none of the three looking the slightest bit pleased.
“I’m sure you’re all wondering what you’re doing here,” Mr. Davies said as the three team leaders stopped just a few feet away from where most of us sat in the first row. “We’ll make this as fast as we can, and we promise not to keep you long.”
“Yes, we debated on whether or not to call the meeting on such short notice,” Lashell said. “But we feared that if we didn’t get this out of the way now, then there was a good chance that we could run out of time.”
“Not—to—mention,” Gabe said, his voice commanding the room, “I’m not going to let another second go by before we address this problem.” His eyes swept over the group, a seething anger etched in his stare. Oh, he was not happy.
“Problem?” I asked, looking between the three leaders. My gaze stopped on Gabe, and for a moment, he watched me. And in that look, just for a second, I saw it happen; the anger receded. For that one, small moment, anger turned to remorse. And then his eyes shifted to the floor. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“The program comes to an end in only two short weeks,” Lashell said, her maternal instincts kicking in as her hand fell gently on Gabe’s back. He shook it off immediately, and I couldn’t help but smirk. His reaction reminded me of the way Bailey and I squirmed when Dad used to drop us off at school: a kiss every morning until we reached the eighth grade, right in front of our friends. It was so humiliating. Still, the same way Dad ignored our pleas to stop, Lashell ignored Gabe’s evident hint to cease the public display of affection. This time, she wrapped her arm around his waist. “The eighteenth is just around the corner, and our final day will end with Mandy’s fundraiser.”
“Actually,” Carla raised her hand, “Mandy gave up the dance. She passed it over to me two weeks ago, so I’ve been doing all of the heavy lifting.”
“So nice of you to point out,” Gabe said stoically. He glared at her before turning back to the rest of us.
“We’ve talked about how we want to approach this. There are too many avenues to consider,” Lashell continued, “so it’s best to just jump in and say what needs to be said. No sugar-coating necessary.”
“It should come as no surprise to any of you that Sugar Creek has a zero tolerance policy against bullying,” Mr. Davies interrupted. “Apparently there are some students in this school who need a refresher course. Big time.”
“It’s the foundation’s mission t
o positively impact every community we are a part of,” Lashell said. “And that doesn’t mean we’re limited to what we can achieve environmentally or financially. We’re here to make a difference however we can, so we don’t feel that we’re overstepping our mission as a foundation by calling this meeting today.”
“It’s been brought to our attention that there’s been some serious bullying happening right here amongst the eleven of you,” Mr. Davies added. “We won’t stand for that.”
I caught a few heads turn to Carla from the corner of my eye, but I kept staring straightforward.
I didn’t know what Gabe, Lashell, or Mr. Davies knew, but I was certain that whatever it was had something to do with her. After the way she’d treated me over the last two weeks, I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that she’d been pushing everyone else around, too. Maybe someone else didn’t appreciate the taunting. Maybe someone else actually had the nerve to speak up. Maybe someone else wasn’t as much a coward as me . . .
“This project may mean something different to each one of you,” Lashell said. “But in the end, there’s one thing you must all remember: this is about collaboration and teamwork. It’s about supporting one another, about building each other up—”
“Not tearing them down,” Gabe stepped in to add. Lashell tried to speak up again, but Gabe didn’t give her even a slight chance to interrupt. “Every single one of you has played an intricate part of this district’s success over the last month. You’re right where you need to be to pull this out, but make no mistake when I tell you that I will have no problem pulling the plug on Sugar Creek if the attitudes in this room don’t change.”
“Well,” Lashell said, easing back in, “I think what Gabe means is that—”
“I meant what I said,” he said louder, shooting a look to her. He slowly turned his gaze back to us. “If you can’t come together and work as a team—every single one of you—then you’re done. Understood?”
Breaking Walls Page 12
