Page 74 of I Hope This Doesn't Find
“Where are the teachers when you need them?”
“I heard they all have food poisoning—”
“This is exactly how all horror movies start—”
There’s an ache building in the back of my skull. I want to join them. I want to yell and complain and wait for someone else to clean up the mess. But the water is spreading rapidly, and I know the rot will set in if we don’t do something fast. There was a storm just like this a few years ago, and our bakery barely survived it.
I force myself to clench my fingers and unfurl them again. Deep breaths.
One.
Two.
Three.
“Someone go get Dave,” I speak up, my voice ringing out in the room. Everyone falls quiet. “Does anyone know where he is?”
“I, uh, think he’s asleep,” someone offers. “Pretty sure I heard him snoring on my way over here.”
“Go wake him up,” I instruct. “There should be mops in the cleaning cabinet, but only he’ll have the keys. In the meantime, everyone go grab buckets or containers from the kitchen or anything you can find to collect the water—”
An audible snort cuts through my sentence.
I swivel around and my stomach turns. Danny is hovering in the back corner, his arms crossed over his chest. I can see those awful words again, as if written in burning red:Sadie Wen is a bitch.“Seriously?” he asks. “Even when we leave the school, you’re bossing us around?”
Ice crawls through my veins. “I’m not—”
“What, just because you’re the captain? Or because you’re a good student or whatever?” He rolls his eyes. “You think you’resoimportant, but honestly, we’re all sick of you, Sadie. We don’t have to do anything you say.”
I can hear my heart pounding, detonating inside my chest. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in this room could hear it too.
“This really,reallyisn’t the time,” I manage. “I know you hate me, and that’s fine, but the cabin is literally leaking as we speak—”
“Don’t change the topic.”
“You’re the one changing the topic,” I say, incredulous. “I’m just saying that there’s a much more pressing issue at hand. If you have a solution, I’m always happy to hear it, but if not, you could at least cooperate—”
“Stop acting like you’re better than us,” Danny snaps. “You’re the type to write shady emails about people behind their backs.”
“And you’re the type to writeSadie Wen is a bitchon a bike shed,” I shoot back.
There’s a collective, sharp inhalation from the crowd. “Damn,” somebody mutters.
I can’t even believe the words coming out of my own mouth, but it feels good. I’m so tired of playing nice, of smiling as people walk over me. What I’m realizing is that if you’re quiet about the things that hurt you, people are only going to mistake your tolerance for permission. And they’re going to hurt you again and again. “Yeah, I know it was you,” I say coldly, folding my arms across my chest.
Danny stares at me. “You know? Soyouwere the one who sent Julius to punch me?”
The whole room screeches to a stop. The world freezes on its axis.
Now it’s my turn to stare. “Julius punched you?”
“Julius punched him?” someone else whispers in the background. “But I thought he and Sadie hated each other.”
“But they kissed each other,” someone says. “At that party, remember?”
“Wait, Julius and Sadiekissed each other?” someone asks. “Why am I so behind on the gossip? How did I miss this?”
“Yeah, well, seeing as she sent him a bunch of emails—”
