Pwned (13 page)

“Ouch,” he said involuntarily, clutching at his arm and laughing. “You’re strong.”

“I’m a cheerleader.” I shrugged modestly. “Have to be strong.”

“So, what do you say? Do you want to go meet her?” he asked, as if he even needed to.

“Let’s go,” I replied excitedly, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the crowd.

I quickly released Parker when we reached our destination, although it wasn’t because I wanted to. It was because I’d reminded myself that I’d probably have to hurt Parker in order to exact my revenge on Tawny, and getting close to him now wouldn’t do me any favors. It would make hurting him that much more difficult when it came time to do what needed to be done.

We could hear fans talking to Lights about different video games and giving her nerd gifts
, and suddenly I wished I could unzip my hoodie and show her the shirt I had worn just for the concert. Of course, that would be like shrugging off the cheerleader disguise I’d been wearing for three years right before completing my quest. I couldn’t get the experience points if I didn’t finish the quest and knock Tawny off her pedestal.

I had to keep the disguise on for at least a little
while longer.

When we finally made our way t
o the front of the crowd and I got myself to stop gushing over Lights like the fangirl I was, I asked Parker to take a picture, wanting to remember this night forever.

“I can take the picture so you and you
r boyfriend can both be in it,” one of the fans said, grabbing my phone from Parker’s hand and shoving him over to where Lights and I stood.

Parker and I both opened our mouths to protest but were instan
tly cut off by the girl’s countdown. Instead, I glanced over at Parker and shrugged before smiling at the camera as the flash went off.

“Thanks,” I said to the girl. “And thank you, you’re amazing!” I said over my shoulder to Lights as we were moved through the small crowd of people to the back of the group once more.

“Sorry I’m in your picture,” Parker said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Apparently that was his go
-to gesture when he was uncomfortable.

“It’s fine. We didn’t really have a choice anyway,” I said with a shrug as I typed my mom’s number into my phone. “Hold on
, I need to call my mom to come pick me up,” I told him, feeling completely lame even as I said it.

“I can give you a ride if you need me to,” he offered
, just as my mom picked up.

“Reagan? Are you ready to go?” she asked.

I was silent as I thought about Parker’s offer. It would be nice to spend more time with him, but I knew he’d try to bring up our kiss again and I couldn’t have that. Not if I was going to go back to being mean to him on Monday.

“Yeah
, I’m ready,” I told her. “See you soon, Mom,” I said before hanging up. “Thanks for the offer, but my mom is kind of weird about me being in the city alone, so she insisted she come get me.”

“That’s understandable,” he said. “I can hang out here until she comes if you want
so you’re not in a dark parking lot in the city at night . . . you know . . . alone?”

“Thanks. That’s really nice
, considering how awful I am to you,” I said, a certain amount of resignation in my voice.

“You’re not that bad. Just
kind of
awful,” he joked.

“Thanks a lot,” I replied with a roll of my eyes.

“Hey, can you send me a copy of that picture?” he asked suddenly.

I looked over at him hesitantly. What if he showed his friends and the word somehow got back to Tawny that I had spent my Saturday night with the boy she was trying to ruin? That definitely wouldn’t go over too well.

“I’m not going to go around telling people we’re dating or something; it was just exciting to meet Lights,” he said, looking slightly annoyed that I apparently thought so highly of myself.

“I didn’t think you would,” I answered. “I just don’t want Tawny to know we hung out.”

“Right, because that would be the worst thing you could possibly do, right?” he asked. “Hanging out with me is worse than death.”

“You don’t get it
, Parker. If I don’t have The Squad, then I don’t have anything. You think it’s bad for you? Imagine being their target after being one of them. They wouldn’t come after me like I was some normal loser—they’d come after me with a vengeance because I turned my back on them,” I said adamantly.

“What are you even talking about?” he asked incredulously. “If you don’t like them
, why do you hang out with them?”

“I just told you,” I said, annoyed that he
apparently wasn’t listening. “And I never said I didn’t like them,” I quickly amended, realizing we were treading on some very “real” ground. I didn’t want to let Parker in on my hate of The Squad.

“Honestly Reagan? That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard. What could they possibly do to you that would be so horrible?”

Frame me and get me arrested for something I didn’t do
, I thought, wishing I had never voiced my idea for the junior varsity hazing. I didn’t think I could live with myself if Parker got arrested for something
I
had thought of.

“That’s what I thought,” he said when I didn’t answer.

He was mistaking my silence for a lack of an answer when really, I didn’t want to tell him exactly how awful The Squad could really be.

Scratch that.
It wasn’t The Squad. It was Tawny. And I had to stop her.

“What’s your number?” I asked sullenly, wanting a good reason to change the
subject.

“What?” he asked, surprised by my question.

“So I can send you the picture?” I said, holding up my phone that now displayed a picture of Parker and me on either side of Lights, grinning like crazy people.

“Oh, right,” he said, grabbing my phone and typing the number in.

“Sent,” I said dully.

“Sorry if I upset you,” Parker offered. “I just think you’re better than them.”

“I appreciate that, but I’m really not.”

“You’re actually talking to me. That’s way more than any one of those airheads would ever do.”

I had to admit, he did have a point. Of course, if he really knew the extent of how “different” I was, he’d be shocked.

My mom
pulled up before I could respond to his statement, and so I stood from the bench we were seated on and headed for the car.

“Thanks for tonight,” I said over my shoulder, throwing him a quick, slightly sad smile as I walked away.

“Thanks for not being one of
them
,” he answered.

13.
A Leaf Out of Captain Hammer’s Book

Monday brought with it an interesting turn of events that completely caught me off guard. Though I had been naïve about Tawny’s dedication to me as a friend, nothing could have quite
prepare me for the sight of my “best friend” sitting on my ex-boyfriend’s lap during lunch.

Tawny’s permanently tanned legs were crossed, her perfect dark hair fell across her bare shoulders, and she threw her head back and laughed her beautiful melodic laugh as I walked up. It felt like she was laughing at my mistaken belief about her actually having a heart, but in reality she was just laughing at something Zane had said.

“Hey Rae!” she said happily as I walked over.

There was no, “
I’m sorry that I’m with Zane now, but I really like him.” No, “This might be weird since you guys dated.” Not even a, “Hey do you see that I’m with your ex-boyfriend.”

Oh no, there wasn’t even a hint of acknowledgement of the current awful situation I had walked into. Taw
ny simply sat there on her new Zane throne acting like life was perfect and nothing was weird.

I took a deep, steadying breath and put on my best plastic smile, knowing that I had to play by Tawny’s rules if I wanted to win her game.

“Hey guys! Sorry I had to be lame this weekend and ditch you. My mom grounded me,” I said dramatically, trying to sound like it was the worst thing in the world that I couldn’t hang out with my former best friend while she put the moves on my former boyfriend.

I had really missed out on a fun weekend
, hadn’t I?

“That’s fine, we found ways to stay busy,” she replied with a wicked grin at Zane that made me want to throw up.

Yes, I had broken up with him, and yes, he had the IQ of a tree stump and was kind of a jerk to me, but none of those things gave Tawny permission to dangle her kill in front of me.

Too bad you couldn’t
permaban someone from your life.

I could feel my smile faltering and I tried anxiously to keep up the façade of a popular girl who was happy to be single, but all that did was p
oint out to me how pathetic the whole high school hierarchy really was.

“Good, I’m glad,” I said, tightening my high ponytail until it hurt and gritting my teeth that were still sensitive from a recent
mandatory Squad bleaching.

“You can sit next to me
, Rae,” Tawny offered sweetly, knowing full well that sitting next to her was actually sitting next to Zane with Tawny on his lap.

Zane didn’t look at me, though that may have had something to do with the fact that he was staring at Tawny’s full lips. I highly doubted his actions were
motivated by some sort of remorse for his abhorrent behavior.

“I’m feeling kind of fat today, I think I’ll stand,” I said, pulling the self-deprecation card
, since Tawny loved someone who hated their body.

“Good move,” she said, giving me a conspiratorial wink.

Gosh, I wanted to punch her.

As she and Zane went back to being perfect for each other and completely ignoring me, I let my eyes wander (involuntarily
, in my defense) over to Parker’s table.

He was sitting with his normal nerd squad, laughing about something
, and I had to pretend I didn’t notice the pang of longing that watching him brought on. As much as I hated to admit it, I wanted to be over there with them, not caring what the popular crowd thought and talking about things I was actually interested in; things that didn’t have to do with bleached teeth or fake tans. I’d much rather talk about dailies and epic armor.

Parker pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose just like a stereotypical geek from a movie and a grin crept onto my face.

He really was kind of cute.

As if he could hear my thoughts
, he suddenly glanced over in my direction, meeting my eyes and letting his laugh die off quickly.

My mouth twitched in the corner just slightly
, and had he not been watching me so intently, he might have missed the almost non-existent smile I gave him. He smiled back at me, making the pit of my stomach go warm once more, and gave me the smallest of waves, barely lifting a finger in my direction so that his friends wouldn’t see.

“
Ew. I think that nerd has a crush on you or something,” Tawny said, trailing her finger down Zane’s cheek possessively as she spoke. “That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Hey
, he looks like that guy on Spiderman. Not the dorky one. The one that gets to hook up with Emma Stone,” Zane said, adding his brilliant commentary to the conversation.

How had I ever dated him?

“Yeah, that doesn’t make him any cooler,” Tawny droned, picking at her non-existent split ends as if she’d forgotten that she was supposed to be taunting me with Zane.

“I don’t care who he looks like,” I began, trying to play my best version of Tawny, “I haven’t had my nerd vaccination yet
, so I hope he doesn’t come over here.”

“I could go dump him in the trash can if you want him to stop looking at you
Rae,” Zane offered, giving me a painful mental image of my guild mate’s legs kicking in the air as he tried to climb out of a trash can. “I bet I could lift him. He’s a skinny little guy.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Tawny interjected quickly. She didn’t seem too pleased that Zane had sort of stood up for me. “I’ll take car
e of this,” she finished darkly.

Her words instantly made
me wish I’d agreed to Zane’s trash can dumping. It would have been more humane than anything Tawny would do.

She glanced over at Parker and his table full of dorks
, and then motioned for him to come over to our table. He looked over his shoulder for a moment to make sure there wasn’t someone popular standing behind him before he stood and began cautiously walking over—infiltrating the ranks of The Squad. The cheerleaders, who could sense that something was up, closed in around us, trapping Parker in a ring of bleach-blondes and lip gloss.

The quick, nervous glance he gave me broke my heart
, but I tried to remain neutral, keeping my eyes trained straight ahead and not looking at him.

“Hey,” he said to Tawny
, in the manner of someone who had just had the ground below them blasted away.

“What’s with your shirt?” Tawny asked.

The obvious disgust in her voice was incredibly annoying and I gave Parker a sympathetic look. I guess I wasn’t doing the best job of keeping up my snobby appearance.

“It’s from a game called
Voyager’s Quest
,” he stated simply.

I was actually quite impressed. Instead of looking like he was terrified of what might come next (which I totally would have been
, with the stare Tawny was giving him), he just looked . . . bored.

“Are we done here?” he asked. “Or were you hoping I’d s
how you how to play? It requires some brain power to succeed in this game, and I’m not sure you’d  be up to it.”

My mouth dropped
open in a display of very unattractive shock.

Had Parker se
riously just called Tawny dumb? I was pretty sure that was like asking for her to take it upon herself to personally ruin your high school years.

“
Excuse  me?” Tawny spat, now standing up from Zane’s lap, fuming. “What did you say to me, you loser?”

“You know what I said. I don’t need to repeat it,” he answered, still sounding bored even though I was about to have a heart attack from the suspense of waiting to see what Tawny would do.

“Zane, did you hear what he said to me?” Tawny asked in shock.

“Sorry
babe, one sec,” he said in her general direction as he continued to type on his phone.

Tawny let out a furious growl before turning her attention back to Parker. This wasn’t going to end well
, and I had to ask myself—if it came down to a fight between the two of them, whose side would I pick?

“Listen to me, you little reject,” she began slowly. “You don’t belong here, and if you don’t hurry up and figure that out soon, I’ll be forced to remind you in the most inconvenient way possible.”

“Tawny,” I said quietly, hoping I could stop the inevitable oncoming rampage. Parker shot me a silencing look.

I didn’t quite know why he didn’t want me standing up for him when only days before
, he’d told my character that I (cheerleader Reagan) didn’t have a backbone. The boy was a walking contradiction.

“Shut it Reagan,” Tawny shot at me
.

“Whoa, hey
, remember who the real enemy is,” I said with my hands up in surrender.

I looked over at Parker and shrugged when he gave me an indigna
nt look that very clearly said “You’re such a coward.”

If he wanted me to stop standing up for him
, I could do that. Not standing up for people (including myself) had been my entire high school experience. It was my comfort zone.

“
He
,” Tawny said, gesturing to Parker, “must be the real enemy since
you’ve
been completely lame ever since he showed up.”

“Seriously?
You're turning this from hazing the nerd into a personal attack on your best friend?” I asked, not sure where her anger was coming from . . . and also using the term “best friend” loosely.

“Oh
, don’t act like you haven’t been a complete loser ever since we accosted this dork at the café.”

Accosted.

Good word.

I didn’t think Tawny knew what that meant. She must have been studying behind my back.

“I haven’t been different at all,” I said defensively, mad that all of my hard work to appear “normal” wasn’t exactly paying off.

How
did she know how to push my buttons so well?

“Ugh, whatever.
I don’t even know why I bother defending you,” she said slowly, her dark eyes burning a hole through my head as she spoke. “Maybe it’s a good thing the dork has a crush on you, since you can’t hold onto an acceptable boyfriend, huh?”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, rage beginning to build up inside of me.

Oh yeah, I was about to do some massive DPS here if she didn’t watch it.

“Tawny
, I know about you and Zane, all right? I never said anything because I’m such a good friend,” I told her, wondering how it made me a good friend to turn the other cheek while my best friend cheated with my boyfriend.

It was backward
logic, but in The Squad, it made sense, as was evident by the sea of blonde heads nodding in solemn agreement to my statement. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tawny had taken all of their boyfriends too and just “forgotten” to tell me about that charming personality trait of hers.

“Oh please
, Reagan. You didn’t say anything because you knew there was no way you could get Zane to pick second-rate
you
when he could have perfect me,” she said with a smile.

Parker looked over at me apologe
tically, obviously feeling as though he had started this whole thing.

I guess in a way he had, but right in that moment
, before I did something
way
dumber than kissing a nerd in a closet, I was glad he’d started something by showing up to my school.

I let out a guttural noise as I launched myself at Tawny, tackling her to the ground and landing a pretty impressive punch at the same time.

“I hate you!” I yelled, trying desperately to hit her again but finding that almost all of my energy was spent trying to stave off her hits. She was surprisingly strong and fast for someone who spent a great deal of her time posing.

“Regan!”
I heard Parker yell. He tried to pull me off of her, but I was determined not to let her go. She was a life-ruiner! It was my job to show her that she didn’t have power over everyone.

“Get off of me
, you psycho!” she yelled.

I could hear Zane and some voices I didn’t recognize from the quickly amassing crowd chanting, “Fight, fight, fight,” but I tried to ignore them, holding Tawny’s skinny wrists and trying to avoid the head butts she was now
attempting to strike me with.

Oddly enough
, it kind of felt like being in the game. I was like the tank, taking the hits for the rest of the guild.

Though
, unlike the game, it actually hurt when I felt Tawny’s forehead make contact with my cheekbone with a sickening thud.

Stars sprang to life in front of my eyes and the world suddenly went sideways for a moment before I heard the voice of our principal over the shouts of the cheering students saying, “Ms. West and Ms. Perez, I’d like to see you both in my office.
Now.”