Vigilante by Kady Cross

Author:Kady Cross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Thursday afternoon there was an assembly. The teachers didn’t seemed surprised by the announcement that we were to go to the auditorium, but the students were.

I heard Zoe call my name when I entered the auditorium. I found her sitting with Anna and Caitlin about six rows back from the stage. They had saved me a seat.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I sat down. “You know why we’re here?”

They all shook their heads. “No clue,” Caitlin said.

We sat there, looking around as the auditorium filled up around us.

Anna, who sat between Zoe and Caitlin, chuckled. I followed her gaze and saw Drew, Adam and Brody sitting down. “I heard Adam’s car needs to be repainted. He’s been coming to school with Drew.”

“Do you think it was her who keyed it?” Caitlin asked.

“It had to have been,” Zoe said. She looked at me. “What do you think, Hadley?”

Did she suspect me? I wasn’t going to admit to anything—not there. Not anywhere. If she didn’t know for sure, she couldn’t tell. And she wouldn’t have to lie.

So I shrugged. “Probably. She’s been stirring up a lot of shit.”

Anna glanced around at the students filling the room. “She could be here right now.” There was an element of wonder to her voice that surprised me. I wasn’t a hero. In fact, it was really hard for me not to humiliate them as thoroughly as they had my friend. I wanted to debase and hurt them. I wanted to ruin them, and completely lose myself in it.

Maybe I wanted to ruin myself too. Punish myself.

The others looked around as well, and I made myself take a look. I had to keep reminding myself that I needed to act as though I didn’t know who the vigilante was, either.

Once everyone was in the auditorium, teachers closed the doors and stood sentry beside them. A few moments later the principal walked across the stage to the microphone in the center. She was dressed in a black suit, and she wasn’t smiling. “Thank you all for coming.” Chatter in the room died down, but only because we were all so curious. “I called this assembly because I feel there needs to be a discussion of recent events. Over the next month, we’re going to have periodic assemblies during which we will hear from different people on the topic of bullying, stalking, violence and sexual assault.”

Some idiot in the back of the room actually cried, “Woot!”

The principal arched an eyebrow. “Today we have our first guest who will be talking to you about sexual assault and how to prevent it.”

“Close your legs!” another voice shouted. Laughter followed this. I looked over my shoulder at the same time as everyone else. A few rows back, a junior I didn’t know sat surrounded by laughing friends. What a dick.

“Mr. Matthews,” the principal said, “would you please escort that young man to my office and have him wait there until I can return?”

Suddenly the kid’s expression went from smug to scared.

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