The Boarding School Experiment (18 page)

“Yo, yo, Byotches.” Nevaeh threw her bag on top of Geneva’s bed. Her inky black hair had been chopped in a shorter style, and she wore one of Geneva’s hair clips above her left ear.

“Hi,” Kaitlin said, her gaze glued to the hairclip.

I snatched Geneva’s lotion and nail polish from the nightstand and put them on Kaitlin’s table. “You’re not new. How come you’re moving?”

Nevaeh blew a big bubble and smack popped it. “My room had four, and I knew y’all had an extra bed after killing your last roommate and all.” She spun her gum around on her finger and pointed at me. “I’m on to you. So don’t try any of your crap with me.” She eyed Kaitlin’s spot. “I’m not really a middle bed kind of girl, so you’ll need to switch.”

I breathed in and out. “Kaitlin’s staying right where she is. And that’s Geneva’s bed, so you need to talk to Coordinator Steele about another room assignment.”

Kaitlin grabbed Geneva’s nail polish to her chest. “Get out.”

***

Four of us sat at a table together in the dining room: Thane, Rhys, Kaitlin, and me. On the surface, we probably seemed like two cute couples. No one could imagine the baggage underneath.

I took a bite of the puff sugar cupcake Kaitlin had brought and swallowed. “We should warn Rhys about the weirdness here.” I poked my finger in the icing where Kaitlin had drawn a heart. She’d made four special cupcakes: blue hearts to match Thane’s eyes for him and me; and green ones for her and Rhys. She wisely didn’t tell the guys of the significance. They ate theirs in two bites.

Rhys licked some green icing off his finger. He sat beside Kaitlin, his body twisted away from mine. From the tension in his frame, I knew he hadn’t forgiven me. My offer to fill him in was partly to make up for my transgressions and partly because we needed him on our side.

Rhys said, “Weirdness. Yeah. Elena dating Thane. How’s that going to work at Thanksgiving? Can you pass the gravy? Can you give me my legs back?”

Kaitlin frowned and glanced between Thane and me, not understanding Rhys’s snide reference.

I didn’t answer. His description sounded bad and not so far off. Being here made me ignore the real world. No reality existed where I could date Thane, not with our families’ histories, but the real world didn’t live here. I subtly tried to withdraw my hand from underneath Thane’s, but he tightened his grip, not letting me go.

Kaitlin inched closer to Rhys. “When couples face challenges, they just have to work them out.”

“Off subject, people. The layers of freakiness go deep.” I drew a breath and lowered my voice. “They have vats of drugs in the restricted area. I’ve seen them.”

“When?” Rhys asked.

I’d already told Kaitlin. “When Thane and I snuck upstairs to see our friend Geneva who got sent home.”

“We can’t make sense of this if we don’t have all the pieces. So if you see anything weird, share the information.” Thane slid a hand into my hair, and I leaned on his shoulder.

Rhys shook his head. “Dude, that’s so weird.” I think he meant Thane’s hand, rather than the drugs, or the suggested spying. He glanced at the restricted area. “Why wait? Let’s go up there.”

“We tried, but once we lost the access badge we couldn’t get in anymore.” I withdrew one of the vitamin packets from my pocket and turned the label so they could read it. “What vitamins are marked
for experimental use only
?”

“I always thought the payment for being here seemed large,” Rhys said. “If I’m going to be in this zoo, I want to know the real reason I’m pushing a lever for a food pellet.”

“No one else seems to notice or complain,” Kaitlin said.

“Oh, they notice,” Thane said. “They’re just not complaining.”

Kaitlin shuddered. “We’ll figure out something, I know we will.”

Rhys looked at her with bemusement. There wasn’t a lot of belief laced with optimism floating around the trailer park where we came from.

Thane said, “We need another badge.”

Rhys’s green eyes glinted. “We could set off a small explosion, use it as a distraction.”

Kaitlin bit her lip, but didn’t protest.

I grinned and felt a new freedom now that I had people on my side and no more secrets. “Distraction’s good.”

Kaitlin smiled a sweet smile and made her eyes big. “Everyone says I have an innocent face, so I get away with lots of stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” Rhys asked

I shook my head and chewed on the edge of my thumb. “I’m a better thief.”

“True,” Thane said. The other two nodded.

My parents would be so proud at how fast they agreed. “At the next opportunity, I’ll steal another badge. Then, I’ll go through the ceiling, and let y’all in to gather information.”

“We have a plan,” Thane said.

***

We stood in the cafeteria with the ten other teams. Each contestant did his or her own pre-game ritual: stretching, chatting, praying. Everyone kept to themselves except the team who came in second. I liked calling them Team Lefty, but most students called them Team Runners-Up. They hated the nickname.

They wouldn’t have been my favorite team anyway with Nevaeh on board, but I admired their single-mindedness. Each member had used the time between rounds to up their efforts. The already-brawny guys spent double-time at the gym; and they’d shaved their whole bodies to increase their speed. Their shorn heads, white and untouched by the sun, gave them an oddly similar appearance. Nevaeh had cut her own jagged black hair back to an inch in length.

My group stuck to their usual work out, incorporating Rhys into Geneva’s spot and doing our best to motivate Declan.

Something must have worked because Declan placed Kaitlin’s banana cupcakes on one of the nearby tables with an ingratiating smile quite unlike his usual sulk. “Here you go.”

No, that was too helpful. Something was up.

Rhys narrowed his eyes. He and Declan hadn’t gotten along from their first meeting.

“Thanks,” Kaitlin said and centered the box of desserts to face us. Bright yellow, chipper, gooey icing read,
Good Luck, Final Ten
.

I checked my laces, then cupped my hand over the top of one shoe and lifted it behind me, stretching my quads while keeping an eye on Team Lefty. They neared us like shoe salesmen paid on commission. Their bald brawniness blocked our exit.

Thane said, “Hey, Runners-Up.”

Their captain, the biggest of the group, flicked a cupcake, and stared at the yellow on his fingernails. “What’s this? You trying to slow us down with sugar blobs before the competition?” He wiped the back of his nails on his black sweats. Four yellow streaks stood out against the fabric.

Kaitlin straightened the corner. Her face flushed. “They’re banana. They have potassium.”

“Looks good,” I lied and examined the selection. Uncooked banana blobs poked through. Kaitlin hadn’t used the blender to mix the ingredients, and the black tips of the wrappers revealed that she’d left them in the oven too long. Rhys must have distracted her, because she had perfected most of her flavors.

I chose the smallest one. Then I backed up, while toying with the wrapper. I edged my way over to a plant, and used the leafy branches as cover to discard it. The last thing I wanted was a banana cupcake expanding in my stomach during a climb. I already felt anxious enough about Round Two. Not that I could pinpoint the reason for my worsening antsy feeling, maybe the cause was just the increased challenge in my competitors’ stares, their determination to knock us out of the top spot.

One of the brawny guys pointed at Kaitlin. “She probably poisoned the dough.” In response to his accusation, his teammates snickered, including Nevaeh. Four brawny guys and one mean girl mocking Kaitlin’s precompetition kindness. I’d make them pay.

“She didn’t do anything to them.” Declan laughed. “Eat one, Kaitlin. Prove it.”

Kaitlin flushed and reached for a cupcake, but Rhys’s arm blocked her. When she dropped her hand, Rhys braced both of his palms on the table and leaned forward. The position caused his biceps to bulge, and his eyes gleamed with a wild light. “I’m sure you’re about to say,
thank you, Kaitlin,
and eat one yourself. Maybe two.” He leaned deeper. “I’m real sure.”

“Oh, no, they don’t have to,” Kaitlin said, twisting her hands together.

Rhys, taller, but leaner than our competitors, had an advantage over them. While they seemed tough, none of them had the reckless light in their eyes that said,
I won’t stop, and if they drag me out of here, it will be in pieces, carrying out pieces of you
.

I hoped Rhys believed me about switching the tests, how I didn’t do it to hurt him.

Rhys’s gaze didn’t waver, and two of the Runners-Up snared a cupcake. The first guy wrinkled his nose and scarfed it down in three big bites. His face turned a shade of green I’d seen before.

The second guy took one bite, worked his mouth like he couldn’t swallow, and fiddled with the wrapper. I’d done similar maneuvers myself to avoid tasting some of the cafeteria food.

Rhys looked at the other two and Nevaeh. “Now follow your teammates’ example.”

Kaitlin groaned. “They don’t have to.”

The first chewer’s cocky face turned panicked. He pivoted, bent at the waist, and puked all over the remaining cupcakes. Sick, retching, heaves. Once he’d thrown up, the second guy spit out his own mouthful. Then he wiped his chin with his hand and rubbed spittle and chewed cake on the side of his shorts.

I tugged the neck of my T-shirt over my nose and backed away from the bile smell.

Their drama brought two coordinators around, Coordinator Steele and The Scientist. The Scientist said, “Okay, son, let’s get you to the infirmary and see what caused this.” He curved an arm around the back of the bent-over puker, and his white lab coat took a few nasty hits after the first step.

Coordinator Steele said, “Who made the cupcakes?”

I said, “I did.”

Kaitlin shook her head. “Me. I make them all the time.”

“Did you change ingredients?”

She shook her head. “No, I open new vats when I run low on ingredients, but it’s the same stuff as always. I do change up the fruit and spices.” Her voice became rushed as she explained and she twisted her hands together. “I haven’t cleaned the kitchen yet. The stuff’s all there.”

“Leave it.” Coordinator Steele sent me a dismissive look. “Round Two needs to start. Take yourselves down to the amphitheater.”

The further from here the better.

The smell lingered until we reached the amphitheater itself, and the toxic scent of new carpet replaced the banana-puke. I greeted the change with a deep breath and looked around. All the seats were full, and the spectators quieted as we came in.

Halfway down the aisle, Nevaeh pointed at Kaitlin and said in a loud, carrying voice, “Kaitlin poisoned my team.”

Thane looked furious at the accusation. He swiped a hand through the air. “No one on my team did anything.”

Kaitlin paled and shook her head. “I bake all the time.”

“Liar,” Nevaeh said.

Rhys threw an arm over Kaitlin’s shoulders and raised his eyebrows. One of Lefty’s teammates started to say something more, but another look from Rhys and he shut his mouth.

“Our captain felt fine, until he ate one of their poisoned cupcakes.” Nevaeh’s voice lifted and carried.

“I didn’t poison the cupcakes,” Kaitlin said, her voice shaky but insistent.

Rhys and Thane swiveled to look at me.

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. “No, I swear.”

Whispers started around us and the stares from our fellow classmates ranged from suspicious to accusatory.

Kaitlin’s nerves unraveled in front of me. I went to her other side. “Don’t let them get in your head.”

The director, standing in his usual spot behind the lectern, clapped and leaned into the microphone. “Contestants, please take the stage.”

The contestants lined up behind their team captains. Of the ten teams, Nevaeh’s was conspicuous because they only had three contestants.

The director tapped on the microphone. “Due to illness, we’ll need to add two competitors.”

Murmurs rose in the audience and several volunteers raised their hands. The director pointed at a guy on the first row and he bounded up the stage.

“Anyone else?”

More hands raised and the director searched the faces of the volunteers.

Declan, standing on the edge of our group, stepped out of line and strode over to the lectern. “I’ll do it. I need to be on a team I trust.”

Freaking weasel.

Murmurs in the audience got louder. Declan’s defection created a huge pool of doubt about our team’s innocence.

“What are you saying?” the director asked.

Declan shuffled his feet and sent us a quick look and shook his head. He stepped closer to the lectern and leaned toward the microphone. “I’m not saying anything against them.” He held his hands up and flinched back. “Okay, guys, I’m not saying you did anything to me or those other teams. This time or the last.”