Pwned

  I followed behind, curious to see where he hid away while I was talking to him for hours on end.

  “There’s a whole train coming now!” Kaydinn shouted once more as Parker quickly plugged in his headphones to dampen the sound.

  “Sorry about that,” he said again, though I was hardly listening to him.

  His room was a nerd mecca.

  I mean, he had everything any nerd could ever want! It was like a room from my dreams. He had a Portal Gun on display next to a lightsaber, a Dr. Who poster next to a Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog poster, and he pretty much had every season of The Guild on DVD. To anyone else, the room would have been a huge embarrassment, but to me, it was like heaven.

  “I’ll go out on a limb here and say this place is way too nerdy for you to handle,” he joked.

  “I love Felicia Day,” I said enthusiastically, thumbing through the various seasons of The Guild and wondering how I could get one of the DFTBA pins he had stuck on his Domo plush.

  “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?” he said, sounding slightly awed. “First you know who Lights is, and then you know about Felicia Day. Are you secretly a nerd and you just haven’t been telling me?” he asked.

  I knew he was joking but I couldn’t stop the nervous laugh that bubbled up inside of me at his comment. I needed to keep my cool.

  “I live with a nine-year-old genius. I have to be well versed in all things nerd if I want to be able to communicate with him,” I lied.

  Cannon wasn’t into nerd things. He was into actual smart people things like math and science, I just hoped Parker wouldn’t question my lie.

  “Well, your brother sounds like an awesome kid,” he said, sitting on his bed and looking around at all of his nerd paraphernalia fondly.

  I took a seat next to him, our shoulders touching, and wondered if I would decorate my room with nerd swag once I was free from The Squad. I did have a few collectibles I wouldn’t mind digging out of boxes in the attic.

  “So, I saw that you didn’t get kicked off your team,” Parker said, using the wrong word for The Squad and making me like him infinitely more.

  “Yeah, apparently Tawny doesn’t mind being punched in the face every now and then,” I answered with a short laugh.

  “And everything between you guys is fine now?” he asked, a touch of disbelief in his voice.

  I shrugged at his question, not really wanting to go down this conversational path at the moment.

  “Who was that guy on your computer?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

  “Oh, that was my friend Kaydinn,” he explained. “He’s on that game that I play way too much.”

  He laughed at himself for a moment and I laughed with him.

  “It must be fun if you play it so much.”

  “It is. It’s a nice escape from the real world,” he admitted, looking over at me and refraining from adding that the “real world” actually meant bratty cheerleaders who tried to ruin his life.

  “Thanks for not hating me for being a mean person,” I told him. The words came completely out of nowhere, I might add.

  “I’ve already told you—I don’t think you’re a mean person,” he said meaningfully.

  We were much too close now, and continually leaning closer to one another. It was just like the closet all over again except this time, I wasn’t some nameless cheerleader that Parker didn’t know. We actually had a sort of relationship and he was fully aware of what I was.

  “I’m glad you don’t think that,” I said quietly as I closed my eyes and touched my nose to his.

  I was really having a hard time getting my body to listen to my mind. The two hadn’t been getting along too well ever since Parker moved to my town. I’d have to overthrow my body’s rebellion sometime soon.

  Before I could overthrow the “body rebellion,” however, Parker pressed his lips against mine, sending a warm, happy feeling spreading from my lips down to my toes. He placed his hand behind my neck and I leaned into him, just starting to really enjoy the kiss before Kaydinn’s raid yell broke through our wonderful moment.

  “Sovay, I’m starting to think you’re sabotaging us on purpose!” he yelled, startling us enough to make us pull away quickly. “You’re a rogue! You don’t pull a Jenkins and run into the dungeon before we’re ready!”

  Parker quickly stood from his bed to deal with the headphones that had somehow wiggled loose.

  “Sorry about my stupid headphones,” he said to me as he pushed the “talk” button on his keyboard. “Kaydinn, will you stop yelling!”

  “It’s not a big deal. I should get going anyway,” I said urgently.

  At least this time Parker was distracted. That way, it wouldn’t be so obvious when I ran away from my problems . . . like I always did.

  “Was that Xandris?” Kaydinn asked, his voice almost quiet for the first time ever.

  My eyes grew wide for a moment before I regained my composure. There was no way they could prove I was Xandris, right?

  “No Kaydinn, it’s just my friend,” he said, shaking his head and looking over at me apologetically.

  “It sounded just like her,” he insisted, letting me know that it was definitely time to go.

  “I’ll see you later,” I called over my shoulder as I left Parker's room as fast as I possibly could without running.

  “Wait, Reagan,” he called after me.

  But I wasn’t about to stop. I continued to make my way toward the front door and practically sprinted to my car.

  “I’ll see you around,” I called, jumping in my car and shutting the door.

  Parker stood in his doorway looking confused as I drove away. Apparently it wasn’t a good idea for me to indulge my little crush on Parker, and it was an even worse idea for me to go to his house and hang out with him alone.

  One thing was certain—Mom was definitely picking Cannon up from his play date.

  18. Quest Accepted

  The pep rally where we were due to enact my not-so-brilliant plan to haze the junior varsity girls happened a lot sooner than I had hoped.

  When I’d first made the decision to break away from The Squad and become the nerd I had always been, I was excited. I was practically counting down the days until the pep rally so I could get the whole thing over with. Now, as I sat on a bench with a bunch of cheering students, I was seriously starting to chicken out. I was infamous for being a coward, after all.

  The junior varsity girls sat next to me looking like they were waiting for the axe to fall . . . which I guess they kind of were.

  We’d filled them in on the plan beforehand and Tawny made sure they understood that if they didn’t participate, they wouldn’t be making the varsity squad next year. She wasn’t above blackmail.

  Really, the junior varsity girls had it easy. All they had to do was follow directions, which is what they had trained to do all their lives. They had to agree that—if they were selected to take the note to Parker luring him to the school that night—they would go through with it, knowing full well that he would probably get arrested for what we were framing him for.

  As terrible as I had acted since becoming friends with Tawny, I liked to think that I wouldn’t agree to those terms if I were still on the junior varsity team. But Tawny and I had worked our way up through the ranks together, and there had never been a cheer captain as horrible as her before. Our hazing wasn’t nearly as brutal as what we were putting these girls through.

  In order to get onto the varsity cheer team, I’d had to ask a geek to our Valentine’s Day dance and then give him the wrong address to pick me up at.

  Okay, fine.

  Looking back, I could admit that my actions were pretty heinous as well. But if I got Tawny in trouble for vandalizing the school, it was likely that the entire squad would be disbanded and her reign of tyranny would be over. So really, I was doing the entire school a favor—geeks and all.

  “Which guy do we have to give the note to?” Kendyll asked nervousl
y.

  I actually felt bad for her and the rest of the junior varsity girls. Even if they didn’t end up giving Parker the note, they still had to meet us at the school that night to lock him in the pool and spray-paint the lockers.

  Potential vandalism and framing were enough to put any cheerleader on edge.

  Except maybe Tawny.

  She sat at the end of the wooden bench with a satisfied smile on her face; a queen looking happily out over her subjects. Her tan legs were crossed, her bleached teeth shone brighter than ever, and her dark hair was perfectly wavy, like a movie star ready to walk the red carpet (if people typically wore cheer uniforms on the red carpet).

  She glanced over at me and gave a conspiratorial wink as the music started, letting us know that the pep rally was about to begin.

  “Reagan?” Kendyll asked again, nudging me with her elbow.

  “Oh, right, it’s that boy up there in the Voyager’s Quest shirt,” I said, pointing to Parker, who was watching me intently.

  I guess I should have known he’d be wondering about my bizarre behavior the last time we’d been together. I kissed the boy and then away like a little girl. I’m sure it probably wasn’t the best kissing experience he’d ever had, but it was slightly less awkward than our closet kiss, at least.

  What was it with my having the weirdest kisses with him? It was becoming a habit.

  “A what shirt?” Kendyll asked, reminding me that I wasn’t out of the woods quite yet. I needed to keep being a snotty cheerleader until tonight. Then I’d never have to worry about a double life again . . . I'd have to worry about being shoved into lockers instead.

  “Never mind, just remember where he’s sitting in case you get the note,” I quickly amended.

  The soccer team ran onto the wooden floor of the gymnasium, jumping around like a bunch of idiots and trying to get the crowd pumped up. I waved my pom-poms from the sidelines and put on the brightest fake smile I could manage, all while stressing out about finally bringing Tawny down.

  Maybe it wasn’t my place to make sure she got caught for all of the awful things she did. Maybe I could just talk to her and convince her to stop being an awful human being.

  Zane ran past the cheerleaders with the rest of the soccer team and threw a quick wink at Tawny, who smiled and waved at him flirtatiously.

  I could honestly say that I was glad she had done it. Seeing that she was still lying to me about Zane made me feel quite a bit better about throwing her under the bus. And in my defense, I wasn’t even framing her for something she hadn’t done like we were doing to poor Parker (who I still hadn’t figured out how to save from this whole situation). I was just making sure she took credit for her own actions.

  That didn’t make me a bad person, did it? I was just taking my mom’s advice.

  The soccer team talked about their upcoming games and did some stupid stunt with soccer balls that I tried to ignore before they ran out of the gym and opened up the floor for our routine.

  “This is go-time, ladies,” I said to our varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders. “And remember junior varsity, if you get the letter, there’s a very specific boy you’ll need to bring up. Do you guys remember who?”

  They all nodded in understanding before tightening their ponytails, picking up their pom-poms, and running onto the wooden floor with more pep than I thought I could manage at that particular moment.

  I watched them all file past Tawny and waited to see which cheerleader’s fate she would seal, but as they all made their way to the floor, not a single one clutched a piece of paper in her hands.

  “Tawny, what are you doing?” I asked, bringing up the rear of the group and walking with Tawny to our positions.

  “I’ve been thinking, Reagan,” she said, just as the music started.

  I didn’t get to hear what she had been thinking because before I knew it, I was being hoisted up into the heel stretch pyramid that I had so effectively ruined during our last practice. My leg extended, Tawny grabbed my ankle and Kimber’s ankle, and we were perfectly positioned.

  I could feel Tawny’s grip tighten around my ankle as I kept my smile plastered in place. Looking over at her for a split second, I could see her wearing the same fake smile that I currently sported and a sickening thought entered my mind.

  We didn’t have any practice pads under us.

  What if Tawny had figured out that I was going to turn her in? Would she be willing to put me in the hospital to stop that from happening? Her grip was certainly much tighter on my ankle than it normally was. She could easily twist my foot around and collapse my entire group onto the hard wooden floor. If my bases weren’t ready for that, I’d fall head first and probably split my skull.

  “Tawny?” I whispered over to her, my teeth clenched and my smile stuck in place.

  She wasn’t horrible enough to seriously injure me like that, was she?

  “Shut up, we’re in the middle of the routine,” she whispered back just as she released my ankle, allowing my bases to help me back to the ground.

  I was definitely paranoid today. Tawny wasn’t going to try to get me killed—that was just slightly overdramatic.

  The rest of the routine was a bit of a daze until our student emcee announced that the cheerleaders would be pulling students out to the floor to teach them a cheer. Tawny and I exchanged glances and I raised my eyebrows at her.

  “Who did you give the note to?” I asked as The Squad made its way out into the stands.

  “Like I said,” she began darkly. “I’ve been thinking that after your little episode, you really need to prove to the girls that you’re fully invested in this team.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, scared for where this was going.

  “I think the only way that nerd will actually come to the pool tonight is if you invite him,” she finished triumphantly, pushing the fake note into my hand with a sense of finality. “He obviously likes you. Now go ruin his life.”

  That statement about summed up Tawny’s life philosophy.

  “Why me?” I asked in a small voice, hoping I could buy enough time to keep Parker safe.

  “Are you a complete idiot? I just told you. Now stop whining and get out there,” she half growled, pushing me toward the bleachers.

  I looked back at her pleadingly, but she had already turned away. Honestly, though, I don’t know what I expected. Did I really think my puppy dog look would change her mind? And if I didn’t invite Parker to the pool, someone else would have to. I’d just need to figure out a way to save him once he got there.

  Making my way through the bleachers and ignoring the catcalls of a few jocks, I came to a stop in front of Parker. He looked up at me with an amused smile, as if he had half expected me to pick him.

  “Reagan,” he said with a nod in my direction, never losing the adorable smirk he wore.

  “I have to pick someone to come up and dance,” I said apologetically. “Will you come with me?”

  “I guess if I have to embarrass myself for someone, it might as well be you,” he answered as he stood and followed me back to the floor.

  We led our unfortunate group of outcasts in the cheer we were supposed to teach them, and to be honest, Parker wasn’t half bad. You know . . . besides the fact that he was completely uncoordinated.

  Most of the boys were totally embarrassed by the end of our little routine, but a few of them were loving the attention, trying to get the crowd to cheer for them and hamming it up. The Squad actually had trouble getting them back to their seats, which annoyed Tawny to no end.

  “I’ll deal with this,” she said to me with a roll of her eyes. “Get to it, Reagan,” she added darkly as she walked away.

  “Parker, follow me,” I said in a low voice, leading him off of the gym floor and past the other students who were returning to their seats. We walked behind the indoor bleacher and stood under the hundreds of students now stomping their feet along with some sort of activity out on the floor.

  I sta
red at Parker for a long time, wondering if I should just tell him everything that was happening so I could clear my conscious, but there was no way I could quickly explain all of the things I needed to explain while hidden under a pile of stomping teenagers.

  Besides, as selfish as it sounded, I needed to make sure Parker actually showed up for our little prank that night, or else Tawny might figure out my whole plan and I wouldn’t be able to turn her in. It really did depend on him being there, and I hated myself for that fact.

  “What did you want to tell me?” he asked above the din of stomps.

  I opened my mouth to tell him, hesitated, and then chickened out, as per usual.

  Instead, I leaned over and kissed him while pressing the note into his hand, hoping that I’d be able to make everything right in the end instead of epically failing at my entire life like I usually did.

  19. A Heart Frozen in Carbonite

  I couldn’t help myself. I had to log onto Voyager’s Quest that night to see if Parker was on. I knew I’d be meeting him at the school in less than an hour (if he actually showed up), but I wanted to talk to him one last time as Xandris before he learned who I really was.

  Who knew? Maybe he wouldn’t even like me as Xandris once he found out that I had been creepily cyberstalking him ever since he moved here. I would be mad if someone who knew me as well as I knew Parker acted like a completely different person and lied to my face, day in and day out.

  “I’m not saying the game is haunted,” Kaydinn said almost the instant I logged on. “I’m just saying it’s a little creepy that there are NPCs wandering around the city that we can’t see without a revealing spell.”

  “Yeah, but are they supposed to be ghosts?” Parker asked.

  I guess if he was on Voyager’s Quest, he wasn’t too nervous about tonight. Or maybe he was, and he was using the game to ease his mind. Although, I guess he didn’t really need to be nervous about anything—not like I did.

  “Hello! They’re called ‘Angered Apparitions.’”

  “Nice alliteration,” Eilarae chimed in.