Killer Spirit (24 page)

CHAPTER 36

Code Word: Homecoming

“That was the award-winning Bayport High Varsity Spirit Squad!”

Usually, making it through a halftime routine was a cathartic experience for me. I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed it (perish the thought), but there’s something about that last “Bayport!” that gave me the same kind of rush that I had a tendency to crave. That said, the past few days had more or less cured me of my adrenaline addiction. For the time being, at least.

I also typically enjoyed the end of our halftime routine because it meant that I could slink back to the sidelines. Not so today. Not so at all.

“And now, we proudly present the members of this year’s homecoming court.”

Each of us was matched up with an escort. Mine was supposed to be a sophomore named David, but at the last second, Jack redirected David toward one of the twins and took my arm.

“You ready to find out the voting results?” he asked, as he escorted me to the center of the field.

“Do I look ready to you?”

Jack smiled. “Ev, you were born ready.”

“Bite me.”

He leaned a little closer and whispered so that only I could hear him. “Don’t tempt me.”

I tried very hard not to smile, and succeeded only because I knew what was coming. I’d run into enough programs built by the Squad’s previous hacker to know that she was good. The projections were accurate, and I was going to win. I had to wonder—where were the homicidal psychopaths when you really needed one? Right now, I could use the distraction.

For a brief instant, I considered bolting off the field, but Jack tightened his hold on my arm as we came to stand on the fifty-yard line, facing the stands.

“What would you say if I told you I already knew the outcome?” Jack asked quietly.

“I’d say something along the lines of ‘join the club,’” I mumbled miserably.

“What would you give me if I told you that you were wrong?” Jack murmured, as Chip and Brooke came to stand on one side of us, and Chloe and her escort came to stand on the other.

“Anything,” I told him. “You name it, and it’s yours.”

“What if I want a dance?” Jack asked.

What the hell? I thought. This was a bet that I very unfortunately wasn’t going to lose. “Whatever you want,” I reiterated. Jack smiled.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

“The Bayport High homecoming court is a longstanding tradition here at Bayport. Each year, four seniors, three juniors, and two sophomores are nominated for the coveted roles of king and queen respectively. The nominated seniors are…” The announcer was dead set on extending my misery as far as was humanly possible, and he read through each of our names, pausing for applause with each one. Finally, he got to the point, and I winced in anticipation of his words.

“And this year, the homecoming king and queen are Chip Warner and Brooke Camden.”

I turned to stare at Jack, but his face was absolutely blank.

“Each year the sophomore attendant with the most votes is named the homecoming princess,” the announcer continued, and I prepared myself—gladly—for the indignity. At least next year, I wouldn’t be eligible for princess and would only have the queen thing to worry about. The junior girls didn’t know how lucky they had it.

“This year’s homecoming princess is April Manning.”

As April and her escort walked forward to get her tiara, I jerked Jack downward. “Explain,” I said.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that any such explanation is necessary,” he whispered, “but let’s just say that I’m not a stranger to rigging elections and leave it at that.”

I should have been disturbed at the reference to the fact that he’d been brought up to be corruption incarnate, but I wasn’t. I was too busy thinking that my not-a-boyfriend was the sweetest, most wonderful, ingenious boy in the world.

“Remember,” he murmured, as the entire court was presented once more. “You owe me a dance.”

I didn’t even scowl in response to those words. I wasn’t a queen, I wasn’t a princess, and with any luck, I’d never have to suffer through a stunting wedgie again. Life was good.

After the game, we went to put on our dresses, and the change in the others was palpable. Brittany and Tiffany produced a new dress that was black and only borderline girly, and neither of them made so much as a single lewd suggestion about Lucy and Noah. Meanwhile, Lucy was blowing off nervous energy by bouncing repeatedly up and down as Bubbles added the finishing touches to the weapons expert’s hair.

Getting ready for a dance, it turned out, was a communal experience. For once, I wasn’t the only one being primped and fluffed by somebody else. Spirits were higher than the ponytails we’d worn on our heads for the game. Even Chloe spared me a smile.

“Done,” Britt announced, giving my hair one last spray of a newly developed supersonic holding serum.

“Done,” Bubbles echoed. Lucy spun around, giddy, and the movement caught on, until all of us were spinning. Even me. It was weird. If you’d asked me, I would have put money on me being the stick in the proverbial mud, especially considering the torture they’d put me through the day before, but here, getting ready, none of that seemed to matter.

Of course, the fact that they’d saved my life before they’d starting making it miserable did buy them a little bit of leeway.

Brooke clapped her hands, and a few seconds later, the spinning stopped. “Let’s do this,” she said, and with one last glance in the mirror to confirm that her tiara was still in place, she led us out of the room and off to meet our dates.

“Enchanté, mademoiselle,”
Noah said the moment he saw Lucy. His accent was French and over the top and ridiculous, and for some reason, Lucy seemed to think it was funny. He took her hand and kissed it, and a happy blush rose on her cheeks.

Maybe I’d been hanging around Zee too long, but I couldn’t help but analyze their body language and come to the only possible conclusion. There was a distinct chance that peppy Lucy, designer of the bulletproof push-up bra and the bobby-sock grenade, actually had a thing for my freak-of-nature brother.

Go figure.

“Enchanté, mademoiselle.”
Jack’s French accent was predictably flawless. Rolling my eyes, I punched him in the stomach.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re one of a kind, Ev?”

His arm settled around my shoulder as I answered.

“Every day.”

To Jack’s credit, he didn’t make me dance at first. For the first hour of the dance, I twitched at every slow song that came on, but he didn’t mention our bet so much as once. For the most part, we just watched Noah and Lucy. She was a fabulous dancer. He seemed to think that every song required disco moves.

“If dancing ability is hereditary,” Jack told me, “I think I know why you avoid it.”

This time, he dodged before I had the chance to punch him.

“Chickening out?” I asked him finally. “Afraid to be seen with me on the dance floor?”

“Me? Afraid of you?” He took my arm and pulled me up.

“Never.”

Because my timing was either very, very good or very, very bad, the music transitioned to a slow song then, and Jack met my eyes. “Afraid?” he asked me.

I thought of the dreams I’d had for the past few nights and looked down at my body. I was still wearing clothes, and as far as I could tell, Ryan Seacrest and Paris Hilton were nowhere in sight. Plus, the PTA chaperones didn’t appear to be armed—always a good thing.

“Me? Afraid?” I mimicked. “Never.”

We walked onto the floor, and as we started dancing, I realized that even though he was the hottest guy in school, and I’d been forced to become one of the hottest girls, and everyone’s eyes were on the two of us, I felt like myself. And Jack? Well, I had to admit it, at least to myself—as he pulled me in for a kiss at the end of the song, he felt distinctly like my boyfriend.

Some time later, I floated off to the bathroom, still in a happy daze that probably should have disturbed me, but didn’t.

Zee and Tara came with me. Squad Rule Number One: never go to the bathroom by yourself.

“You look…happy,” Zee told me.

“Shut up,” I replied, but I ruined the effect with a girly sigh.

“Shutting up,” Zee returned, and then she mimicked my sigh.

“Don’t pay any attention to her,” Tara said. “I think it’s nice.”

I could count on one hand how many times the word
nice
had been applied to me.

“And besides, once competition season starts up, you won’t have that much time for romance. You should savor it while you still can.”

My kiss-punch-drunk brain was a little slow in processing, and it wasn’t until a good thirty seconds later that my mouth responded to Tara’s words. “Competition season? What do you mean by competition season?”

“Nobody told you?” Zee asked, hooking her arm through mine and smiling. “When you’re on the Squad, football season is only the beginning.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

With any series, half the battle is knowing that there are people who care about the characters as much as you do, and for that, I’m grateful to the people who helped shape the Squad—my editor, Krista Marino; my agent, Elizabeth Harding; my first reader (and mom!), Marsha Barnes; and my second reader (and roommate!), Neha Mahajan. Jack, Noah, Toby, and the girls wouldn’t be who they are without you, and neither would I. I’d also like to thank Noreen Marchisi, who’s seen me through five books now and done an incredible job with each and every one, and Sarah Fogleman, who’s always on hand for moral support. You guys are the best!

Jennifer Lynn Barnes
is a recent graduate of both Yale University and Cambridge University—and a former competitive cheerleader. In 1997, she was named an All-American Cheerleader by the National Cheerleading Association. She can neither confirm nor deny any experience she may or may not have had as a secret agent, but she can tell you that she’s the author of four other teen novels:
Golden, Platinum, Tattoo,
and
The Squad: Perfect Cover.
Jennifer wrote her first book when she was still a teenager, and she is currently hard at work on her next. Visit her online at
www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com
.

ALSO BY JENNIFER LYNN BARNES

GOLDEN

PLATINUM

TATTOO

THE SQUAD: PERFECT COVER

Published by Laurel-Leaf an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random House, Inc. New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2008 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

All rights reserved.

Laurel-Leaf and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Visit us on the Web!
www.randomhouse.com/teens
www.meetthesquad.com

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www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barnes, Jennifer (Jennifer Lynn)
The squad : killer spirit / Jennifer Lynn Barnes. — 1st Laurel-Leaf ed.
p.                           cm.
Summary: As if it were not bad enough that sophomore computer hacker Toby Klein has to be a cheerleader to be part of the elite group of government operatives called the Squad, now she is part of the Homecoming court and has agreed to attend the dance with the most popular boy in school.
[1. Spies—Fiction. 2. Cheerleading—Fiction. 3. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 4. High schools—Fiction. 5. Schools—Fiction. 6. Computer hackers—Fiction. 7. Robots—Fiction. 8. Humorous stories.] I. Title. II. Title: Killer spirit.
PZ7.B26225Sqk 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2007017733

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eISBN: 978-0-375-84914-5

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