Rebel Girls by Elizabeth Keenan

Author:Elizabeth Keenan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: 2019-06-26T16:08:37+00:00

21

After a week, our campaign had halfway worked with the lowest strata of the school. The So What? buttons popped up among the freshmen, and they had a strong appeal with the stoners. But no one seemed interested in the patches, which had our real message.

“Give it time,” Melissa said. From the sound of her voice, she was reassuring herself as much as the rest of us. She liked being our de facto leader, but that meant she had more to lose if we failed. Not as much as Helen, obviously, but enough to make her nervous.

Jennifer, Sara, and Helen stared down at their sandwiches. We were going to need a miracle to make this work.

I looked at my own sandwich with defeat. Not only had I lost faith in our ability to get the right kind of attention on Helen, I’d had that huge fight with Sean at Denny’s. I couldn’t even put words to what happened. I kept trying to tell Helen about it, and had even reached for the phone to call Melissa, but somehow the whole episode embarrassed me so much that I didn’t want to talk about it. I’d meant to come off as strong, to stand up for what I believed in. Instead, everyone had looked at me like I’d set the Denny’s on fire while vowing to destroy Leah.

I couldn’t tell them. At least not yet.

“Good afternoon, girls.”

Oh, God. Mrs. Breaux towered above us in a paisley polyester dress that flowed around her pantyhose-covered calves. She smiled pleasantly and said, “Melissa, Helen, Athena, could you please come with me?”

We hadn’t done anything. I could see her seeking us out if our campaign had been successful, but it wasn’t. Still, the self-satisfied expression on her face didn’t bode well for us.

I put my sandwich back in my bag, hoping I’d have the chance to eat it before the bell rang for my next class. My stomach rumbled, a complaint at the unfairness of Mrs. Breaux interrupting us during our free time, especially when Melissa and I had just come from her class right before lunch. If she was going to “catch” us at something, she should have done it fifteen minutes ago.

But whatever she wanted to catch us at remained a mystery for now. Melissa shrugged as she got up from her spot, while Helen’s mouth was a thin line of consternation. I was sure I’d complained about the physics teacher in front of Helen before, but since she was only a freshman, she hadn’t yet fully experienced the wrath of Mrs. Breaux.

The three of us followed Mrs. Breaux through the empty corridors toward what I thought was our final destination—the principal’s office. But when she got near Melissa’s locker, Mrs. Breaux stopped. She rubbed her hands together, satisfied that she had uncovered some secret wrongdoing.

“Please open your locker, Miss Lemoine,” she ordered.

“Why?” Melissa asked. She crossed her arms and stood in front of her locker, blocking access.

“You know why.” Mrs. Breaux crossed her arms, matching Melissa in defiance.

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