by Beth Vrabel
This just got really interesting. Lilith’s eyes narrow. Is Wes on team TBN now? Lilith is to Wes’s back, so she can’t tell for certain, but she imagines the smile that spreads at last across Wes’s face at TBN’s words. She imagines it looks a lot like what someone would do when they see a friend.
What she can’t quite imagine is how quickly that face morphs into something else all together—guilt, maybe? Or horror, even?—a half second later when Rex barrels around the corner just in time to see Wes thanking TBN for her advice.
Lilith can see Rex, though. She sees Rex’s whole body go statue still. Sees the blood leave her face. Then Ally bumps into Rex from behind, followed closely by… Wait a second! Who is the hottie? Lilith rubs her eyes. The hottie is Jason!
And then a spatula leaves Rex’s hand. It twirls through the air. To Lilith, it seems to be arcing in slow motion as it zeroes in on its target.
Clunk! The spatula hits Wes squarely in the head.
(Technically, it didn’t make a clunking noise. But it should’ve.)
11:58 a.m.
JASON “The Nobody”
A little tuna casserole sticks to the middle of Wes’s forehead as the spatula bounces to the floor.
“Rex,” Jason says, “you can’t throw spatulas at people.”
But of course Rex doesn’t respond. She’s standing still as if freeze-frozen, throwing arm still raised.
Ally, however, laughs.
Jason nudges her with his elbow. She presses her lips together, her cheeks puffing out as she tries to lock in another laugh. It erupts out of her anyway. “Yeah,” Ally manages to huff out between laughs. “You can’t throw spatulas”—pause to snort—“at people.”
“This really isn’t a good time to laugh,” Jason whispers. He can’t see Rex’s face, just the back of her head. But her ears are red. Really, really red. Like if her ears were alarm bells, they’d be on nuclear level. Her hands are balled into fists so tightly her knuckles look like pure bone. If he were sketching her, Jason would put crackling waves of electricity pulsating out of and around her. Rex is about to explode. He’d heard rumors of past Rexplosions. Word had it that when Rex got angry, teachers had to take her into a special soundproof, padded room behind the teacher’s lounge until she calmed down.
Ally giggling right next to Rex was not going to defuse this bomb.
“Are you crazy?” Wes yelps at Rex.
Rex leans forward, a bull about to charge. “I trusted you!”
Next, the elevator doors across from Wes and TBN open with a swoosh to reveal Mr. Hardy and Mrs. Mitchell.
And then the tree in the hallway rustles. Lilith tumbles out from behind it like a hedgehog. The ficus tree stands up on purple pantsuit legs and scurries down the hall.
“Judith!” Mrs. Mitchell yells, and sprints after the plant.
Mr. Hardy’s head swivels from his sister chasing the tree to Wes and TBN facing off an about-to-explode Rex to the spatula on the ground to where Ally is giggling next to Jason. “What is going on here?” Mr. Hardy booms. But the doors close before he can exit the elevator. Ally sucks in her breath; she’s leaning against Jason but he can’t look away from the clump of tuna casserole as it slides down Wes’s forehead to land with a plop on Wes’s shoes.
And suddenly Ally’s laughing again so hard she slides to the floor.
Lilith jumps up, shakes out the skirt of the vintage dress that exactly matched the one Jason’s mom had bought at Target a week earlier, and steps forward with her head high in the air. She points to TBN and says, “Where is my family heirloom?”
“Ah, give it a rest,” Wes says. “She didn’t do it. She’s cool.”
At the same time, TBN throws back her head and groans. “What are we on? An after-school special drama?”
And then…
Rexplosion.
11:59 a.m.
LILITH “The Drama Queen”
Control is everything.
Yes, Judith shoving Lilith out from behind the ficus wasn’t an ideal way to seize control of this situation. But if Marilyn Monroe could turn stinky sewer vent steam into an iconic Hollywood glitz moment, Lilith Bhat could take the lead before Rex stole the stage.
Too late.
Rex charges toward Wes and TBN. Wes jumps in front of the nurse, his hands up to clutch Rex around the shoulders. “It’s not what you think,” he says.
“What I think,” Rex growls as she pivots and rams her now-free shoulder into Wes’s chest, “is that you’re a pathetic, lying fraud.”
“Hey.” Wes yelps. He rubs at his chest as Rex rams forward again. “You’ve got this wrong. You’ve got this all wrong.”
TBN turns, her hand in the air like she’s dismissing all of them. “I have work to do.”
“No!” Rex screams. “You’re not getting away this time!”
“Hey, knock it off,” Jason bellows, rushing toward the trio. “Everyone, just calm down!” Ally, who had been rolling on the floor laughing, pushes up to her feet.
Rex reaches over Wes’s shoulder and grabs TBN’s ponytail. She curls it around her fist and yanks backward, making the nurse stumble. “Where is it? What did you do with it?” Rex is feral—her eyes bulging and face pale as she clutches the nurse’s hair. “Where’s my locket?”
TBN’s arm darts back. She grabs Rex’s wrist where it has hold of her hair and twists it so hard and fast that Rex’s fingers contract. But even though she’s free, TBN doesn’t let go; she keeps twisting Rex’s wrist until she crumples to the floor.
At the same time, Wes drops to his knees beside Rex. “Stop! Stop!” he cries. He pulls back TBN’s fingers from Rex’s wrist, but Rex shoves him away with her free hand. And suddenly Mrs. Mitchell is barreling down the hall toward them; the elevator door opens with Mr. Hardy inside and everyone in all directions is yelling the same thing: “Stop!”
“Get away from me!” Rex screeches in one long word. “Don’t touch me!”
But before anyone else can get to them, TBN lets go of Rex’s wrist. She leans toward her and hisses: “I’ve had enough of you, little girl.” TBN straightens. “I pitied you for a while, but that’s over. Come after me or mine once more and I will crush you, kid. I’ll make it so you can never step foot on the third floor again.”
“Christi!” Mrs. Mitchell yells at the same moment Mr. Hardy yells, “Rex!” Mrs. Mitchell points to the left and tells TBN to follow her.
“Rex, this way.” Mr. Hardy points down the hall to the right.
Rex springs up from where she was heaped on the floor. For a moment, she turns toward the left. But Wes wedges himself in front of her. “Stop, Rex,” he pleads. “Trust me, you don’t know—”
“Trust you?” Rex cries. “You’re just as much a liar and a thief as that piece of trash!”
TBN whips around again. “Who are you calling trash?”
“Hey!” Mr. Hardy yells to TBN. “Do not speak to my student that way.”
“You need to control your students,” Mrs. Mitchell says to the principal.
“My students?” Mr. Hardy snaps back. “Your employee is threatening Rex!”
“Oh, come on!” Mrs. Mitchell throws back.
Jason moves forward so he is beside Rex. Ally moves to her other side.
Mrs. Mitchell stomps toward Mr. Hardy and pokes him in the chest with her finger. “I’ll deal with mine. You deal with yours!” She stomps back to where TBN waits in the hall, her back to the students.
Mr. Hardy crosses his arms, turning to Rex. His voice is much softer now. “You know, I didn’t have to let you participate today, but I thought it’d be good for you to spend time with friends who—”
“They’re not my friends,” Rex growls.
Mr. Hardy shakes his head. “Wait for me here.” Then he turns to the other four. “Follow me,” he says. He leads them down the hall to a conference room. The backpacks and lunch bags they had given to Mrs. Mitchell were piled on top of the long table. With a glance back at Rex, he gestures them inside.
Standing in front of the door, Mr. Hardy crosses his arms and cocks an eyebrow. All softness is gone from his voice when he says, “You’ve been up to something. All of you. I want to know what. I want names.”
Cue Lilith. “Yes, sir.”
“Lilith!” Wes hisses. Ally groans. Lilith ignores them.
“We have been up to something,” she continues.
Jason sighs out of his nose and shakes his head. Lilith squelches the need to roll her eyes.
“Okay, Ms. Bhat,” Mr. Hardy says. “What have you all been doing?”
Lilith straightens. Her chin pops up. “We wanted to keep it quiet. But I guess that’s not going to happen now. The truth is, sir, we’ve been working on our skit.”
“Your what?” Mr. Hardy’s jaw grinds as Rex’s muffled yell filters through the closed door.
“Our skit,” Lilith says. Her eyes go round, giving her a wounded puppy dog look. “The one you told us to write. The one Mrs. Mitchell said all the old people were excited about watching. You are excited about the skit, right, Mr. Hardy?”
He closes his eyes and his chest rises and falls slowly. “Yes, of course I’m excited about the skit.”
“I feel, sir, that you’re not being sincere.”
Mr. Hardy’s jaw clenches again.
“We’ve been prepping here in the hall, but maybe we could continue to work on it in this room? And have our lunches, too?”
“Yes, sir,” Jason adds. “We’re really hungry.”
Lines pop out on Mr. Hardy’s face as he scowls at Jason. “What happened to your hair?”
Lilith clears her throat. When did Jason decide it’s okay to speak? “Yes, so if we could have this meeting space? And our lunches? I’m feeling dehydrated and famished.”
Mr. Hardy just stares at them.
“I’ve seen her dehydrated, sir,” Wes says. “It’s gross.”
Lilith glares at him. Nothing about me is gross.
Ally hiccups again.
Mr. Hardy’s nostrils flare but he waves them toward the seats around the long conference table. Ally sits next to Jason toward the middle of the table. Lilith sits at the head. Wes sits across from Jason. Wes and Ally grab their bags and pull out packed lunches. Jason and Lilith, who’ve been holding on to theirs, unzip their bags and do the same.
“I’m going to be dealing with Rex for a little while. I want this door open the whole time. No more of running around through the building. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” the four of them say in unison.
12:01 p.m.
JASON “The Nobody”
“What are we supposed to do now?” Wes quietly says after Mr. Hardy leaves.
No one answers. One by one, they unpack their food. Jason’s lunch is in a brown paper bag. Peanut butter and jelly with no crusts, applesauce, chips in a plastic baggie, and a juice box. Mom always removes the crusts, even though crusts have never bothered him. He would’ve packed his own lunch, but there it was, waiting for him on the countertop that morning. He knew why: it was a consolation prize for the fight he and Dad had the night before. She always did this—some little gesture to make up for never standing up for him. A pack of charcoal pencils on his bed after school. A trip through the Starbucks drive-thru before church. An already packed lunch. He wondered if she knew how it always made him feel like a baby, needing a kiss over a boo-boo like he did when we was a toddler.
“What’s wrong?” Ally whispers.
Jason follows her gaze to his ribs and realizes he has been rubbing them while thinking about his parents. Dad had been hounding him to go out in the backyard and “throw the ball around” with him all night. Finally he had given in. His dad whooped and slapped him on the back like it’d be the greatest time ever. Like maybe this time Jason could actually catch the football instead of having it slip through his hands like it was buttered. “Alter your stance,” Dad had called then demonstrated, squatting a little with his hands out. Jason had tossed the ball back, wincing along with Dad when it wobbled instead of sliced through the air.
“Like this,” Dad had said, arcing the ball back over his shoulder before throwing.
“Like this,” he had said a moment later when Jason missed the ball again.
Toss by toss, just like always, Dad’s enthusiasm had leaked away. Finally, just like always, he had called out, “Are you even trying?”
Jason had thrown the ball back too hard after that, and Dad had returned it even harder, pelting him in the ribs and finally ending the game. “Should’ve had your hands up,” he said as Jason held an icepack to the growing bruise.
“Nothing,” Jason says as Ally pulls out plastic container after plastic container from her bag. Almonds, carrots, cheese cubes, diced-up turkey, cucumber slices, a hard-boiled egg, and finally a Gatorade.
“What?” she says.
“You’re going to eat all of that?” asks Lilith. She has fruit snacks and a Diet Coke placed before her.
“You’re only going to eat that?” Ally responds. “That’s not even actual food.” She pushes the container of almonds to Lilith. “Eat something. I’d be a jerk too if I were hungry all the time.”
“I am not a jerk.” Lilith crunches down on an almond.
Ally shrugs.
Across from them, Wes unzips his lunchbox. On top of the sandwich baggie is a note. Even upside down, Jason can read it: Remember who you are. Xoxo, Mom.
What did that mean? Remember who you are?
Wes sees Jason reading the note and crumples it in his fist before shoving it into his pocket. “We have to fix this,” Wes says. “Rex doesn’t know why TBN has all that jewelry. She’s not stealing it, she’s—”
“Covering for Opal,” Jason cuts in.
“Who’s Opal?” Wes asks.
Jason and Ally both start talking at once. Lilith throws up her arm. “Stop. As your leader, I demand you fill me in here. One at a time.”
Ally rolls her eyes. “Okay, leader. Here’s my theory: that old lady I’m paired with—Opal—for whatever reason, she keeps thinking she’s at a jewelry store. I think it’s because that’s where her partner died. So she just helps herself to whatever jewelry she sees.”
Wes gasps. “You know what? I think TBN is her niece. She’s covering for her by putting everything back after Opal nabs it.”
Jason points to him. “That’s right! Mike said his daughter works here!”
Lilith sips her soda, then says, “Something doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t TBN just tell Mrs. Mitchell that Opal’s stealing stuff?”
Jason rubs the back of his neck. The hair feels funny now that it’s so short there. To get it right, Agnes had used an electric razor she had dumped a bunch of peroxide over. (“This is how I sanitized things when I helped in triage during Woodstock.”) Jason says, “Because if TBN lets Mrs. Mitchell know that Opal is losing it, she’ll have to go to a different floor and TBN won’t be able to take care of her anymore.”
“Yeah,” Lilith says. “Mrs. Mitchell told me she moves patients as soon as their symptoms change.” She shrugs. “TBN needs to come clean. Opal can’t go stealing family heirlooms.”
“TBN has it under control,” Wes says without looking up. “What we’ve got to figure out is how to keep her from getting fired.”
“And how to give Rex this.” Ally pulls the locket out of her pocket and drops it on the table.
“That’s what we’ve been getting in trouble over?” Lilith groans. The locket is a little bigger than a quarter. The silver on it is tarnishing; at one point, it must’ve had a gemstone chip in a star-shaped spot at the top, but now it just has the divot from where the stone had been. Lilith had been expecting something precious, like the jewelry she keeps tucked away in the box on top of her dresser. She slides the locket closer and opens it with her thumbnail. Inside is a picture of a boy with a thick mop of black hair and wide brown eyes. He isn’t smiling. On the other side is a little girl with the same thick hair and eyes, but she’s flashing a huge grin revealing missing
top front teeth.
The three crowd behind Lilith to look at the pictures. No one says anything for a long moment. Finally, Jason clears his throat. “I’ve never seen Rex smile like that.”
“Are you sure that’s even her?” asks Ally.
“Yeah,” Wes says. “That’s her.” He closes the locket but leaves it on the table. “We’ve got to get it back to her.”
“Or,” Lilith says, “we could focus on what’s really important here. The skit.”
The others groan.
Lilith pulls out a notebook from her backpack and clicks the top of a pen. “I’m fine with taking on multiple speaking roles.”
“Of course you are,” Ally mutters.
Lilith continues as if Ally hasn’t spoken. “Rather than each of us playing the role of students, I’ll assume the role of all of us. That opens up the rest of you to take on the supporting roles.”
“And we need to do something about TBN,” says Wes as if Lilith hasn’t spoken.
“Why?” Jason and Ally say together.
“She’s getting in a lot of trouble. She might even get fired. All Hardy and Mitchell saw was her attacking Rex. They don’t know that Rex attacked her first. It isn’t right.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that,” Ally says. “But we can go down the hall to Rex. Give her the locket. I mean, obviously, it’s important to her. That’s something, at least.”
Wes shakes his head. “No, we’ve got to help both of them.”
“Okay,” Jason says. “Then we need to split up. Ally, you get the locket to Rex. Wes, you talk to Mrs. Mitchell about TBN. Lilith and I will make sure Mr. Hardy doesn’t come after either of you.”
Lilith tilts her head at Jason. New haircut and suddenly he thinks he’s in charge. “That won’t work.”
