Resisting the Rebel

by Lisa Brown Roberts

  Mr. Spriggs narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. “Yes.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “I’m convinced that she read the book.” He glanced at her. “As for the rest of our discussion, I will take it under advisement.”

  Mandy glanced at Caleb, who shrugged, then winked, making her heart beat wildly against her rib cage.

  “So…I still get a B minus?” she asked.

  Mr. Spriggs sniffed. “Yes, Ms. Pennington. You’re cleared for dance team participation. I’m sure the whole school will be delighted to see you at the helm of the pep rally this Friday.”

  Caleb shot across the room, grabbing her hand before she realized what was happening. “Thanks, Mr. Spriggs,” he called over his shoulder, tugging Mandy out of the classroom.

  She stumbled after him, thrilled at the sparks shooting up her arm from his warm touch. He tugged her down the hallway and into the dusty alcove, the same one where he’d kissed her senseless.

  “You did it,” he whispered, wrapping his arms around her waist. “You got a B minus, but even better you stood up to him.” He pulled her in close. “And you didn’t go all shit-storm on him like I would’ve.”

  “Firestorm,” she corrected. “You would’ve lit him on fire.”

  He grinned down at her, and she held her breath, waiting, her eyes locked on his, her heart beating so fast he must be able to hear it. She watched his expression change, from happy to anxious to…something else. He released her and stepped back.

  “Do you need a ride home?” he asked, but he kept glancing at the guys’ restroom, like he had some sort of emergency she didn’t want to know about.

  She frowned. “Uh…no. Reg drove today so I can catch a ride with him.” Reg had taken Gran to the doctor this morning, and reported back with a list of to-dos Gran wasn’t happy about. Mandy had been so thrilled that Reg had followed through on his word, she’d ignored Gran’s grumbling voicemail about idiot doctors.

  He glanced at her, surprised. “Yeah? Okay, cool.” He took a step back. “I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow, Disco.” Then he turned and rushed across the hall into the restroom.

  Okay, that was weird. Totally weird.

  Her mind still reeling from the meeting with Spriggs, and the hot and cold way Caleb was acting, Mandy texted her brother.

  Be right there. She hesitated, then typed, Got a B– from Spriggs. Off probation.

  Awesome. Fraps on me.

  The universe continued to surprise her.

  …

  Where’s the Travolta suit? It’s not in the bathroom.

  Simmer down, Red Ranger. I’ve got it.

  Good. I need it for tomorrow.

  You’re gonna do it? Pull off the most epic prom-posal in history?

  Yeah. But you’d better be there, Blue Ranger.

  Never fear, Red Ranger. I live to serve. But I will need more M&M’s.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  You’re the One that I Want

  Wednesday, October 5

  “You need to do it before school, in the parking lot,” Cammie insisted.

  “No,” J.T. argued. “Lunch in the caf. Bigger audience because of the trivia contest today. Better acoustics for the music.”

  “We can do our cheer anywhere,” Leticia said as Tonia and Amber bobbed their heads in agreement.

  Caleb groaned, tilting his head back against his seat. The six of them were crammed in his car in the Starbucks parking lot. J.T. had rallied the troops last night, organizing everyone to meet before school and plan the prom-posal execution.

  Not for the first time, Caleb wondered how the hell he’d gone from avoiding everyone to being the center of attention in this crazy posse. And why a freaking cheer was now part of the ridiculous plan.

  “Did you text her last night?” J.T. asked, and Caleb shrank against his seat as the girls laser-focused their heavily mascaraed eyes on him.

  “Uh, no.”

  All of the eyes widened in shock, then narrowed suspiciously.

  “Why the hell not?” Cammie demanded.

  “Well…I…” Because there was so much he wanted to say, but he was waiting until today, until after she said yes. If she said yes…

  “It’s okay,” J.T. said. “You showed up for her yesterday with Spriggs. I’m sure she’s still feeling all gooey about that, so you should be good to go.”

  The cheerleaders side-eyed each other.

  “What?” Caleb demanded, wondering what stupid rule he’d accidentally broken now.

  Amber shrugged. “I strongly recommend daily communication with your girlfriend. In person, calls, texts, Snapchat, whatever.” She narrowed her eyes again. “Don’t ever skip a day.”

  Tonia and Leticia nodded. “Going dark is the same as breaking up,” Tonia admonished.

  Caleb glanced at J.T., who shrugged. “You know me. I’ve never skipped a day with Liam. Not even an hour.”

  “She’s not my…” His words trailed away. She had been his girlfriend. Whether either of them acknowledged it or not, she had been. And this time he wanted to make it official. Real, not fake.

  “Not at the moment,” J.T. said, glancing at his phone. “But if all goes as planned, in exactly four hours she will be.”

  “I still say he should do it this morning,” Cammie said. “Seal the deal and make it real.”

  “Aren’t you the little poet?” J.T. smirked, and Cammie knocked him on the back of his head.

  J.T. angled himself in the passenger seat to face Caleb, then he grinned and shot his hands out, making a weird crossing and swirling motion with his arms that looked vaguely familiar, and yelled, “Dino Thunder! Power up! Ha!”

  The girls collapsed into hysterical giggles while Caleb glared at him, trying not to smile. “You did not just—”

  “Yeah, I did. Let’s go, Red Ranger. Time to do this.”

  …

  Mandy yawned as she approached her locker. She’d tossed and turned last night, replaying her confrontation with Spriggs and her interaction with Caleb. When he’d dragged her to the trophy case, she’d thought maybe he was going to kiss her. That maybe they were going to pick up where they’d left off…only this time, it wouldn’t be fake. But that hadn’t happened.

  As she approached her locker, she noticed people smiling and watching her curiously. Something was on her locker. Was that a poster? Her heart skipped a beat as she stepped closer and took in the block printing and the single red rose taped on the white cardboard.

  “Will you go? Yes or No?”

  Her pulse rate zoomed. Maybe Caleb had…she squinted her eyes, looking for a signature, something to indicate who this was from.

  “Well, will you, Mandy? Yes or no?”

  She spun around and came face-to-face with Gus.

  “I…wow.” She bit her lip and glanced at the poster again, her brain reluctantly processing that the poster was from Gus, not Caleb. It looked like he’d spent maybe five seconds making it. She thought of J.T.’s over-the-top nerdy prom-posal for Liam, and Jiro’s super-romantic one for Cammie, where he’d made a trail of rose petals from his car to hers in the parking lot.

  But that was different; they were in love, and she and Gus definitely weren’t. Not yet, anyway. Then again, what was wrong with going together as friends? They were both recovering from breakups so there wouldn’t be any weird sexpectations, especially not from a nice guy like Gus, no matter what Kay said. They could have dinner together, maybe even at the Silk Lamp, then have fun at the dance. And who knew what might happen under the shimmering light of the disco balls?

  “Okay,” she said, straightening her spine. It was time to forget about Tall, Dark, and Broody, especially when a nice guy she’d crushed on forever had just asked her to homecoming. “Yes.” She smiled tentatively, and Gus grinned in return, like he was genuinely happy she’d said yes. A few people standing around clapped and cheered, and she glanced down the hallway…and her heart stuttered.

  Caleb and J.T. stood just a few feet away, staring at her, looki
ng shell-shocked, along with Cammie and a group of her cheer friends, all of them looking like they wanted to kill Gus.

  And maybe her, too.

  She glanced at Gus and blinked, because for a second there he looked like a different person, his face briefly twisting in a smug, self-satisfied expression she didn’t recognize. She blinked again and his normal smile was back; she must have imagined the other face.

  “Cool. We’ll finalize the deets later.” He tilted his chin and swaggered away, leaving her feeling sort of…empty.

  Not at all like a girl should feel after a prom-posal.

  …

  “Son of a bitch!” J.T. exclaimed as the girls burst into animated chatter. Caleb just stared. He couldn’t take his eyes off Mandy, who stood looking at that pathetic poster, not moving.

  “I will kill him,” Cammie said. “Before the day’s over, I’ll wrap his—”

  “No,” J.T interrupted. “We need a plan B.”

  Caleb finally snapped out of his daze. “There is no plan B. She said yes. She got…what she wanted, I guess.” Even though it all felt wrong and ugly and black inside him, he had to let this go. In a crazy way, they’d both ended up with what they wanted: Elle had stopped stalking him, and Mandy was going to the dance with Gus.

  “You can’t give up,” J.T. protested. “She just said yes because of karma, and she’s still got this ridiculous idea that poor Gus is being judged unfairly.”

  “No,” Caleb growled. He glared at the posse. “Drop it. All of you.”

  Then he turned and stalked down the hall, wishing he’d never, ever given the redhead a ride home from that stupid party.

  …

  J.T. and Cammie cornered Mandy outside her first period classroom.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” Cammie demanded while J.T. tugged fingers through his crazy hair.

  “Worst prom-posal I’ve ever seen,” J.T. crabbed. “Generic. Totally rejectable.” He glared at her. “I’m disappointed in you, Mandy.”

  Frustration shot through her. “Easy for you guys to say! You’re going with your boyfriends and you’ll have an awesome time. I was either stuck going by myself, or fifth-wheeling with you or—”

  “Or holding out for an awesome prom-posal,” J.T. said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Mandy snorted. “Yeah, right. It’s Wednesday, guys. The dance is in three days. I’m lucky to have a date at all. Lucky I even got a prom-posal.”

  Cammie cocked an eyebrow. “Better to go dateless with friends than on a date with an asshole.”

  Mandy put a hand up. “Stop. I don’t want to hear any more about Gus or about us going to the dance together.” She sighed. “Just give me a break, okay? I need to focus my energy on the trivia contest at lunch. We’re ready to go, right?” She pinned J.T. with a stare, since he was in charge of the AV setup.

  He glared at her, then blinked, his eyes widening, suddenly looking like he was hiding a smile. “Yep. We are ready.” He nudged Cammie with his elbow. “I think it’s going to be the best trivia contest ever. Full of surprises.”

  Cammie frowned at him, then mirrored his smirk. “Yeah. Possibly epic.”

  “See you at lunch, Mandy,” J.T. said, dragging Cammie with him.

  She watched them go, wondering what the heck they were up to. She sighed and walked into her classroom.

  What a weird day, and it had hardly even begun.

  …

  “I’m not.”

  “You are.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll all be there, dude. Don’t panic.”

  Caleb clenched his pencil and stared straight ahead. Breaking up with an entire posse was gonna be tough, even tougher than getting rid of a stalker. It would be weird to sit by himself again at lunch, but it had to be that way. He didn’t belong with them.

  He turned toward J.T. and scowled. “Just forget the whole thing. I don’t need backup anymore, dude. You’re released from Ranger duty.”

  J.T. frowned, looking five years old again. “You’re breaking up with me?”

  Caleb rolled his eyes as a couple of girls glanced at them, tittering.

  “Don’t be dramatic. I’m just… I need a break. From everyone.” He tried to listen to Spriggs, who kept darting him suspicious looks, but honestly he didn’t care about whatever book Spriggs was rambling out.

  He didn’t care about anything. Or anyone.

  He was full of crap.

  …

  Mandy ran through the trivia contest plan in her head instead of listening to her history lecture. She and J.T. were going to take turns calling out questions. Some of the spirit committee members were in charge of patrolling the caf and making sure no one was cheating by looking up answers on cells.

  She’d hoped Caleb would be the main enforcer, but after they’d split, she hadn’t asked him. Maybe she should’ve, since he’d helped with the scavenger hunt. He’d be a kick-ass enforcer, since he’d just have to glare at people and they’d drop their phones. She smiled at the image, then told herself she needed to stop imagining anything with Caleb.

  She should focus on her homecoming date, now that she had one. She’d have to find out what Gus planned to wear. Hopefully he could still find something seventies-related. She’d take him to the thrift store tonight or tomorrow; they’d have to work fast.

  Flipping to a blank page in her notebook, she drew a disco ball shooting out sparkling light in a darkened room. Her drawing wasn’t great because of her dysgraphia, but she didn’t care. She tried drawing herself in her mom’s awesome green dress, but she ended up looking like a Q-tip with red flames for hair.

  Trivia contest. Focus. She jotted notes on the page: Five questions each, from her and J.T. Tally the votes. Grand prize of That ’70s Show on DVD for the winner. Small prizes of seventies candy like Pop Rocks and Laffy Taffy for the second-and third-place winners. Cammie was supposed to take photos since she was documenting Spirit Week for photojournalism class. She’d already taken a million pics of different prom-posals.

  Mandy frowned, thinking of Gus’s plain white poster that was so generic it could’ve been for anyone. Then she shook her head, telling herself that it actually had been sweet. When Gus had taken her to Burger King, he’d been sort of feeling her out to see if she was open to an invitation. Then he’d followed through.

  Her phone buzzed with a text, and she sneaked it out of her pocket to read it.

  Can I talk to U B4 lunch?

  Gus. She really didn’t have time since she had to get ready for the trivia contest, but he was her date, after all.

  Sure.

  Meet me at the north doors.

  That was weird. Why couldn’t he just meet her in the caf?

  Okay.

  …

  If ever there was a day to ditch, today was it. Caleb headed to his car, not giving a crap who saw him leave. He’d drive up the highway, straight to the mountains. Hike some trail and maybe get lost. Get eaten by coyotes and leave his skeleton behind.

  Okay, he needed to get a grip. Just because Mandy was going to homecoming with Gus, he didn’t need to go all James Franco like in that movie where the guy had to cut his arm off to survive. It was just a stupid dance. Three weeks ago, he couldn’t have cared less, but now after all the work they’d put in, it felt like a big deal. Caleb hated that. He was not supposed to be the type of guy who cared about a freaking school dance.

  He was almost to his car when Elle appeared like a creepy ghost, swishing out from behind a stand of trees. The universe pretty much hated him today. He wondered what Mandy would have to say about his karma.

  “Caleb, hold up.”

  He couldn’t deal with this right now. “I’m in a hurry,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Elle hurried up to him, brushing her dark hair off her face. She didn’t look as emo today. She almost looked…normal. “I bet you’ve had a shitty day. I heard about Mandy and Gus.”

  He glared at her. “Look,
I know you’re still mad at me, but you don’t have to—”

  “Stop right there.” She put up her hand and met his glare with her own determined gaze. “I told you I’m working on closure, right? And I’m mostly there. One of my assignments is to do something that proves I’m over you. So that’s what I’m doing.”

  He had no clue what she was talking about. He just knew he had to get away. He moved toward his car, but she blocked his way as he tried to open his door.

  “You need to know something. Gus has a…a plan. He’s renting a hotel room. For homecoming night.”

  What the hell? Why was she telling him this? Octo-Gus. The word echoed in his mind like an echoing villain name from the Power Rangers show.

  His fingers clenched around his key chain. “So?”

  She blinked in surprise. “So I thought you’d want to know that he plans on spending the night with Mandy. Whether she wants to or not.”

  Fire ignited inside him, pulsing through his veins like hot lava. “What do you mean?”

  Elle glanced around nervously, but they were the only ones in the parking lot. “He was bragging to some of the guys on the lacrosse team that he’s going to get her drunk. Really drunk. So he can…you know…”

  Caleb’s fist slammed into the hood of his car, making a perfect fist-sized crater. The angry lava still scorched through his veins. He needed somewhere to erupt, and he knew exactly where. He turned back to the school, stalking across the parking lot. He didn’t care if he got detention. Expelled. Whatever. The Octo-Gus was going down.

  He cut around to the north doors, so he could sneak in without attracting attention from the security guards. He was almost running, fueled by his rage, and something else…something underneath the anger.

  He’d think about that later.

  …

  Mandy hurried to the north doors, pushing her way through the lunch crowd. She’d texted J.T. and Cammie that she’d be there ASAP, and they’d given her major text grief but whatever.