Chapter 52 – A Tentative Alliance – Holly Hayfield

As per my request, Val summoned our student council election group to the library. I summoned Naomi. However, since this was during the middle of lunch, Naomi didn’t come alone. She came with her entire gang. They entered the library like a pack of wolves. Val was against this, but she wasn’t the only one. Lilith had qualms about these girls eating in the library after seeing how messy they were with food over the previous weekend.

“You there, watch where you’re spilling those chips! I just vacuumed this floor earlier!” Lilith shouted at one of Naomi’s girlfriends nearly twice her size. “And you! Get your dirty feet off the table! Just because this room has a carpet doesn’t mean you can kick off your stinky shoes and make yourself at home!”

Lilith was in full containment mode. Meanwhile, Val looked like she wanted to growl like a guard dog as Naomi waltzed into her territory.

“Did you have to bring all of them?” Val asked.

“It’s lunchtime. We always have lunch together. Let’s not forget that you called me here. Show a little respect.” Naomi said haughtily.

Val laughed half-heartedly.

“You can respect my fist in your face!” Val said.

Upon hearing this all of Naomi’s girlfriends sprung up from the library tables they were sitting at. Naomi waved them down to get them to chill out. I stood between Naomi and Val to try to restart things off right.

“Actually, I’m the one that called for this meeting.” I said. “This is about Megan and her student council group.”

“Aha!” Naomi said, “I knew this was going to be about the election. I saw her in the cafeteria just now being worshipped like a goddess.”

“This is also about Black Brittney.” I said.

“Black Brittney…?” Val asked, “What’s she got to do with this?”

“I’ll tell you, but let’s talk more privately in the student council room. Your girlfriends can have lunch out here in the library while we talk.” I said.

“That’s fine by me.” Naomi said and looked at Val.

Val crossed her arms and walked away towards the student council room.

“Fine,” Val said.

Val, Jay, Lilith, Sam, Naomi and I gathered into the student council room. We all had our ‘usual’ seats by now with me sitting next to Lilith on the side of the room in front of the couch. Jay and Val were sitting on the opposite side of the table, close to the window. Sam’s seat was on the far end of the table, opposite of the door. She had me on one side and Val on the other. Naomi took the same spot in the couch as she did before.

Val pointed at Naomi whose legs were kicked up comfortably on the couch.

“Is this going to be a regular thing now?” Val asked me.

“We need Naomi’s help if my plan is going to work.” I said.

Naomi stuck her tongue out at Val. Val rolled her eyes.

“What plan is that, exactly?” Jay asked.

“We’re going to disqualify Megan from the race.” I said.

“How?” Lilith asked immediately, “It’s not like she’d easily forgo her shot at becoming student council president. She already acts like she is princess of this school.”

I smiled at Lilith.

“Do you remember what I did before we left the school basement Friday night?”

“I remember.” Sam said. “You painted the URL of the Immortal Diary website onto the lockers. I was wondering why you did that where no one could see it.”

“Someone’s going to see it.” I said. “Megan is going to see it.”

The room was completely silent. It sounded like I was talking madness.

“Let me explain some things first.” I said. “Black Brittney is working as Megan’s vice president.”

“What?” Val and Naomi asked at the same time.

“Megan didn’t announce her other candidates yet though.” Jay said.

“Why would Black Brittney be working with someone like Megan?” Naomi asked. “They don’t suit each other’s styles.”

“How would you know this?” Val asked.

“I found out the hard way.” I said. “Remember that day when Sam taught us how to use ChatCat? I was late that day, remember?”

“Where were you?” Val asked.

I cleared my throat before continuing.

“Megan intercepted me when I was on my way to the student council room. I talked with her for a bit hoping that I could learn something about her that would help us. It turned out that Megan had the upper hand. She had Candace capture me and they took me to a room in one of the unused wings of the school.”

“She did what?!” Val said furiously.

“Black Brittney and some of her gang were waiting for me. They threatened me that if I didn’t convince our group to drop out of the election then I’d pay the consequences. Black Brittney shocked me a few times with her taser and hit me a few times so that I got her message.”

Val immediately stood up.

“I’m going to go kill her.” Val said. “I’ll kill them both.”

Sam stood up too.

“I’ll go with you!”

“Wait!” I said.

I got up to block Val from leaving the room. She wanted to go right through me to get to the door. I put my arms around her and slowed her down like an anchor.

“Wait!” I said again, “I had a good reason for not telling you! It all comes up to this moment.”

Val stopped to hear me out. She was waiting for me to say something that could change her mind. I had exactly that.

“This is how I plan to lure them to the basement. I’m going to arrange a fake meeting with Megan and Black Brittney to talk to them about dropping out of the race. When I reveal to them that we have no intentions of doing so she’ll turn on me. That’s when I’ll lead them to the basement door. There, I’ll have some of Naomi’s girlfriends waiting to intercept me.”

“That could work!” Lilith said. “That’ll blow open the secret of the basement and get Megan to drop out of the race.”

Val stood down from her plan to go and attack them directly. She went back over to her seat and sat down. She looked back at me.

“Why would you have Naomi’s girlfriends help you with this? Why shouldn’t I be the one to do it?”

“If you’re there too then the sudden ambush looks too suspicious.” I said. “We need to make it look spontaneous. We’ll ‘warn’ them about going into the basement.”

“Besides, we have a truce with them.” Naomi said. “If they attack any of us then it’ll become a brawl.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Black Brittney might have a group behind her but she’s a coward. We’ll be relying on the fact that they’re more interested in the basement than exacting revenge on me.”

“And if they don’t go into the basement?” Val asked.

“They will.” I said. “The temptation is too great. As long as they go into the first room and see the shrine there they’ll be interested in looking around.”

“After all we’re talking about Megan Schwinn here.” Jay said. “A girl with the attention span of a caffeinated mouse. She’ll peek inside even if for a moment.”

Val huffed.

“You’re playing with fire, you know that right?” She asked. “If you can’t reach the ambush spot in time before they catch you…”

“I’ll make it.” I said. “I’ve been spending some more time jogging on the weekdays after school to try to get back into better shape. I wanted to get back into track-and-field in college. I can outrun them if it comes to it.”

Val looked over at Naomi.

“And you think your girls can keep her safe?” Val asked.

“I know we can!” Naomi said. “Sam will be there with us. Isn’t that right Sam?”

“That’s right!” Sam said.

“Fine,” Val said. “Tell me the details of how you’re going to start this plan.”

When the plan went into action that meant I had to leave the safety of the student council room and library. No one in our group wanted to give the student council room up to Megan of all people, least of all Lilith. Lilith was just as dead set on getting rid of Megan as Val was. At the start of the race I would’ve preferred defeating her in a good old-fashioned democratic vote. I retracted that opinion when they took the initiative to threaten me.

I found Megan still in the cafeteria. When she and her groupies saw me approaching they opened up their elitist circle to allow me in. Megan was standing there with a smug grin, waiting for me to grovel and surrender my pathetic campaign against her. This girl was far too full of herself to win anything that wasn’t rigged in her favor. Instead, I didn’t need to throw myself to her feet in order to get my message through.

“I’d like to talk to you and your vice president about Val’s response to your earlier request. Meet me at the Taft Memorial in five minutes or less.” I said.

Before she could even open her mouth to respond I was already walking away. I could hear whispers from behind me as the girls questioned my behavior. No one dared treat their queen with such disrespect, especially not a low caste outsider like me. This type of snide insult was just the sort of slight I needed to make Megan jump into action. Trying to convince her any other way would’ve been an uphill battle. Pinching her overinflated ego would cause her to give chase.

It was no surprise to me when she showed up to the Taft Memorial just on time. She didn’t come alone, either. She was with Black Brittney and several of her girls. As usual they went for their encircling maneuver. This was where I had to be sneaky. As they walked up to me I backed away. From their perspective it probably looked like fear, but this wasn’t like when they surrounded me outside the gym.

I was positioning myself against a tree that I could use as a barrier for my escape. There were lines of bushes around this tree that an athletic body could leap over given enough speed. Most of Black Brittney’s goons rested somewhere between a suburban comfortably plump body type and a genetically fortunate high-metabolism body type. None of them, not even Candace who was grinning at me, her cast removed, could be described as athletically exceptional.

These girls were naturally stronger than me and bigger than me, but that was where their advantage ended. In terms of speed and stamina I had an advantage given my years of training. The only time I leveraged it against them before was to hide from Candace and Leigha. To the rest of these girls the possibility of my escape over the bushes behind me would be seen as unlikely or impossible. Candace was the only one that could know and she was too stupid to block the exit.

“Well, well,” Black Brittney said gloatingly, “You’ve finally come to your senses and decided to do as you were told?”

Megan put her hands on her hip.

“It’s about time that you drop out.” She said. “Your stupid group never had a snowball’s chance in hell anyways. I’m too loved by everyone to lose to a gang of losers.”

If that were true she wouldn’t have needed to threaten me to win. If that were true she wouldn’t have needed to group up with a low-life scoundrel like Black Brittney.

“Actually, that’s not why I’m here.” I said frankly. “Val wanted me to give you all a message.”

“What did she say?” Megan said.

“She said she wouldn’t hand you the student council presidency even if she knew she had no chance of winning. She said she’d rather split the vote between Megan and Erica than allow Megan to win without a fight.”

“Then what the hell was the point of coming out here to tell us this!” Megan shouted, “You could’ve told me that back in the cafeteria.”

“Well, you looked really full of yourself earlier in the cafeteria.” I said mockingly. “It’s important that you know that not everyone thinks you’re a precious little angel. Some of us see you as the spoiled little shit that you are.”

Megan was red with rage. She stomped up towards me.

“Oh?!” She shouted, “Is that what Val thinks of me?”

“Huh?” I asked, “No, Val didn’t say that. That’s what I think of you.”

This spun the girls into a rage. They all tried to talk at once but Candace’s voice was the loudest.

“I say we send Val a message of our own! Let’s send her back with a black eye!”

They all shouted in agreement, despite Black Brittney trying to control them. All at once they began to charge at me. I turned sharply on my heels, launched off and sprinted in the direction behind me. When I came to the line of bushes that surrounded the tree nearest to me I leaped over them without an issue. I kept running, but turned to look back on a concert of surprised faces. They weren’t expecting that. None of them tried to replicate my jump. Instead, they all ran around the bushes, giving me a massive head start.

This little head start would be enough to make the difference. Those bushes weren’t the only reason I chose the Taft Memorial as the meeting spot. It was a fair distance from the cellar door. It was far enough that I could tire them out on a chase. It was still close enough that they likely wouldn’t give up the chase before I made it there. It was the perfect middle distance.

Candace was leading the pack of girls chasing after me. We were closing in on my target location and half the girls chasing had dropped out due to exhaustion. Candace’s face was red and I could see she was panting heavily, but her lust for blood was carrying her beyond her body’s normal limits. I could see the same look in her eyes as I had seen before. She had some violent, primal creature inside her that wouldn’t be satisfied until she had her hands on me. Luckily for her I was about to give up the jig.

I stopped just in front of the storm cellar door to let Candace catch up with me. I could see that the locks on the cellar door were already undone, just as planned. That meant Naomi and her girlfriends were hiding somewhere in the woods. They were hidden well enough that I couldn’t see them. Candace couldn’t see them either. Candace caught up with me, but didn’t stop running. Instead, she launched herself into me like a missile. Her tackle sent both of us to the ground.

“Finally!” She shouted, “I thought you were going to run all day! You surprised me for such a nerdy girl. Here I thought you were a little pipsqueak weakling. It seems I was only partially wrong.”

She sat on top of me and hoisted me towards her by the collar of my school uniform.

“Now, then…” She said, still panting, “How about we have a little private session before the other girls catch up, huh?”

She pulled her fist back to hit me when she was stopped by someone catching the corner of her arm. It was Jin. Jin was so much larger than Candace that it was nothing for her to pick her up and toss her on the ground in front of me.

“Looks like I’m interrupting on something,” Jin said, “How about you have your private session with me, huh Candace?”

“YOU!” Candace hissed.

They seemed to have some history with each other. Candace picked herself up off the ground and started to square up with Jin when she looked around to see that she was being slowly surrounded by girls wearing black surgical masks. When she realized what was happening she started slowly backing away.

“What is it?” Naomi asked, “Scared of a real fight?”

“I’m not alone!” Candace shouted. “I have back up right behind me!”

“Is that your back up over there?” Casper asked.

Casper was pointing to the worn out girls that had been reduced to walking over to our position. When they saw Naomi and crew they hesitated to come any closer. Megan was the only one who wasn’t familiar with the situation between these two groups. She marched right over, her face still boiling with anger. She had put up with my insults and went on a lengthy chase after me. Now she wanted to exact her revenge. She marched up to Naomi’s girlfriends who formed a wall in front of me.

“Get out of my way.” She demanded. “I have business with Holly that doesn’t concern you.”

“Actually, it does.” Naomi said. “Holly’s one of us, rather if she wears the mask or not. You’d be smart to back off.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” Megan said. “Don’t you know who my father is? This stupid school owes my dad money. I could have you all in trouble with a single call.”

“Oh?” Sam asked. “You’ll be the one in trouble. Do you think you can just threaten another student and get away with it? Forget suspension, if anyone finds out that you were all trying to gang up on Holly to force her out of the student council race you’ll be permanently expelled!”

“No one’s going to find out about that.” Megan said. “Don’t get involved in this or you’ll regret it!”

“Holly’s coming with us.” Naomi said. “You shouldn’t stay here, either. You’ll end up being cursed.”

Megan let out a half-hearted laugh.

“Cursed…?” Megan asked. “What are you, 12?”

This was a twist on my plan created by Lilith. This would be the lure that we used to get them to go where we wanted.

“In there,” I said, pointing at the cellar door. “That leads to the underground section of the school. It’s cursed. No one is allowed to go inside. It’s strictly off limits.”

“What…?” Candace asked as she got up. “Are you an idiot? This school doesn’t have an underground section.”

Candace waved Black Brittney over. Black Brittney and her gang cautiously came forward to hear what we were saying. Naomi’s group and I started to walk away.

“Stay here if you want, but I’m warning you.” I said. “No one is supposed to be here. The school’s basement is said to house the spirit of the real Killing Cat. You shouldn’t go near it.”

“What’s this all about?” Black Brittney asked Candace.

We were walking away as Black Brittney’s group took our place near the cellar door. We could see them talking about it from a distance. They were completely surrounding the door as we walked away. Just like the Killing Cat was the lure that brought us to the basement, it would do the same for them. The school legend was too fascinating to be ignored.

It would be especially haunting for them to walk into that very first room where Malorie’s shrine was. If they explored the other rooms and figured out how to turn on the lights then they would have a lot to talk about. The hope was that Megan would publicize this knowledge in a way that would incriminate her. She had a blog of her own that was visited by some of the student population. She often wrote about her school experiences and so it wouldn’t be a leap in literary content for her to write about this also.

As long as she gave us any proof that she went down into the basement then we could use that against her. They didn’t realize just how off-limits the underground was, despite me telling them. That part was kept vague enough that they didn’t think twice about peeking inside as we walked away. Just before we turned the corner I could see the excited expression on Megan’s face as she looked into the cellar door to see that there really was an underground. They were taking the bait.

Naomi’s group escorted me back into the school. They brought me to their hangout to help me clean up before going anywhere else. Naomi used a wet wipe to clean the dirt off of my hands. Mercedes was brushing the dirt out of my hair. Casper had a wash cloth to wipe the dirt from my uniform. Silver was doing my nails for whatever reason. One other girl whose name I couldn’t recall was going as far as cleaning my shoes.

“I feel like I’m a car at a carwash.” I said.

“You deserve it after all that hard work.” Naomi said.

“Well I have you girls to thank for that as well.”

“You’re welcome!” She said. “So what’s the next phase of this plan?”

“The next phase will depend on Megan.” I said. “It will depend on how much information about the basement she makes available and how. If she’s smart she won’t say a word about it. If she’s an idiot then this will turn into a clown show.”