Unfriendly Competition
Read Unfriendly Competition Online
Authors: Jessica Burkhart
CONTENTS
Chapter 3: Party Planners, Inc.
Chapter 10: Legendary For . . . Canterwood?
Chapter 11: Epic Party . . . ?
Chapter 12: Happy Birthday, Heather!
Chapter 14: Blast From the Past
Chapter 15: The Only One Who Understands
To everyone who helped Sasha make the journey from the first book to now. I can't express how grateful I am.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A huge thanks to the Simon & Schuster team including Fiona Simpson, Bethany Buck, Mara Anastas, Liesa Abrams, Jessica Handelman, Venessa Williams, and Bess Braswell (miss you both!), Lucille Rettino, Katherine Devendorf, Alyson Heller, Ellen Chan, Karin Paprocki, Russell Gordon, Dayna Evans, and super editor Kate Angelella.
Kate, your wonderful ideas and thoughtful edits made Sasha's end-of-reign at Canterwood an amazing one. Canterwood would not have made it to this book without youâno doubt. You're the dream editor that authors wish they had. (But I'm totally territorial, fellow authors, ahem . . .) I can't even begin to thank you enough for being there for Sasha's final moments as narrator.
Ross Angelella, thank you for being a source of support though writing this book and much more.
Bonne Belle, it wasn't hard to mention lip gloss, oh, at least a zillion times throughout the book.
Team Canterwood, you are the heart of these books. I can't begin to thank you enough for all you do! xo
While writing this book, I learned a lot about what priorities really are and what is important. My perspectives on a lot of things have changed.
Kate, by the time you're reading this in book format, a new year will have just begun. We'll be signing a new pop song that will annoy everyone around us, have enough Silly Bandz to fill a small closet, and will have outfitted ourselves with everything possible from Hello Kitty. ^_^ LYSSM. < 33
1
TWO WEEKS NOTICE
“WILL THE FOLLOWING STUDENTS PLEASE
report to the headmistress' office: Heather Fox, Alison Robb, Julia Myer, and Sasha Silver.”
The loudspeaker silenced and I jerked up my head. Why was
I
being called to the office? My palms instantly started to sweat and my pink, sparkly Bic pen became slick in my fingers as I kept scribbling in my math notebook, hoping I'd imagined the announcement.
“Sasha, go ahead,” Ms. Utz said. “I'll be sure one of your classmates fills you in about the weekend's homework.”
Um, guess not.
“I'll get your homework,” Brit whispered, leaning toward me. Her almond-shaped eyes were framed by
nervous, pushed-together eyebrows, but I could tell she was trying to hide her worry. Probably to help me from getting more scared than I already was. “Text me when you're out of Drake's officeâI know you'll be fine.”
I nodded, gathering my notebook, pen, textbook, and butter-soft brown messenger bag that I'd borrowed from Brit. As my BFF and roomie, she had calmed me a little.
But note: only a
little.
I slung my bag over my shoulder, stepping around desks, and walked out of the math classroom, closing the door behind me. The second I got outside, my phone buzzed.
It was a BlackBerry Messenger conversation. And Alison, Julia, and Heather were already talking. The Trio wasn't wasting a second dissecting the sitch before we got to Headmistress Drake's. I opened the talk.
Alison Robb:
Why r we being called?
Julia Myer:
Who knows. We didn't do ANYTHING. Don't worry.
Heather Fox:
'Course we didn't. Silver? Where r u? Were u wearing earplugs when the impossibly-loud announcement was made?
Geez! I started typing.
Sasha Silver:
I heard it, H. I'm in math and on the way 2 the admin bldg. Where r u guys? Wanna meet up and go 2gether?
Heather Fox:
We def should. Let's all meet at the courtyard ASAP.
Alison Robb:
K. Glad 2 go w u guys. Nervous.
Julia Myer:
BRT.
I closed the conversation and shoved my cotton-candy-pink BlackBerry into my bag. I pushed open the glass door of the math building and hurried out into the early November air. It was already cold outside, but anxiety made me even chillier. I tugged down my scarlet-colored cable-knit sweater and buttoned my black wool coat, shoving my hands in the pockets.
I made my way across the empty campus and hurried to the courtyard. The cobblestone circle with its fountain and stone benches was only a couple of minutes from the admin building.
Boots clicked on the cobblestones, arms looped together, Heather and Alison walked up to me.
“Any idea what this is about?” I asked, assuming that if anyone knew anything it would be Heather Fox.
She shook her soft blond hair. “Nope. But I'm not worried. At least, not for myself.” She shifted her blue eyes to me, then to Alison. “
I
didn't do anything.”
“Me either!” Alison's normally soft voice was loud. She ran her fingers through her sandy brown hair like she always did when she was worried. “I just want to go and get it over with. Where's Julia?”
Alison started to pull her phone out of her camel-colored Burberry coat. But just as she did, Julia came around the corner a few yards away and walked up to us.
Her angled blond bob had two pieces twisted back with tiny purple flower clips with rhinestones (actually, probably diamonds) in the centers.
“We've been waiting for, like, five minutes,” Heather snapped.
“Sorry.” Julia shrank for a second, then recovered. “I was in the middle of a history pop quiz. I had to finish before I left.”
Heather waved off the excuse with her butter yellow leather-gloved hand. “Whatever. Let's go.”
The four of us left the courtyard and our boots crunched on the grass, dried by the weeks of cold air. The administration building loomed in front of us, looking imposing like the rest of campus. Even though
I'd been at Canterwood Crest Academy over a year, there hadn't been a time when I didn't notice the prestigious, gorgeous campus.
Until now. My nerves wouldn't allow me to do anything but look straight ahead.
We reached the administration building waaay too soon. Even Heather, the fearless Canterwood Queen Bee, paused for a second before stepping up the stairs flanked by spiky black iron railings.
Alison, Julia, and I followed her inside, and I sighed to myself, glad for the heat that blasted us when we walked inside. We followed the gold plaques pointing to the headmistress's office and stopped in front of her secretary's desk.
Mrs. Kratz, who might have been here when Canterwood was started in the eighteen hundreds, looked up at us through horn-rimmed glasses.
“I'm Heather Fox, and we're here to see Headmistress Drake.”
There wasn't a waver in Heather's voice. She sounded as if she was ordering movie tickets.
“Ah, yes. Ms. Drake is expecting all of you now. Go right in.”
Julia turned first, and Heather, Alison, and I followed
her across the room to the headmistress's glossy wooden door. Without pause, Julia knocked on the door. The sound seemed to echo in the tiny hallway.
“Come in.”
The headmistress's voice came from behind the closed door. My mouth was so dry, I couldn't even swallow. The headmistress was
scary.
Julia turned the brass knob and we filed inside behind her. Headmistress Drake, seated in a large, leather office chair behind her desk finished writing on her notepad before glancing up at us. With minimal makeup, a buttoned black blouse and half-carat diamond studs, she looked every bit the headmistress of an elite East Coast boarding school.
Her black hair was pulled into a tight bun, and she was sleek, but looked like she could take somebody down. Ms. Drake's pale skin looked even more delicate against her red lipstick.
She didn't offer any of us a chair and none of us moved to sit. We stood in front of herâwaiting.
Headmistress Drake looked at us for what felt like hours. “I know one of you created the gossip blog.”
I tried not to let my knees shake.
“The school's technology department did some research and narrowed it down to a certain buildingâOrchard
Hall. With even further investigation, we were able to find Internet protocol addresses that matched two rooms.”