20. Scheming + Sabotage

20 freaking THOUSAND reads 💙 thank you for everythingggg. Part 1/2 for this double update.

Principal Wright had been kind enough to at least act shocked and interested. He even went so far as to call Mrs. Bridges and Layla into his office and interrogate them - what he called - relentlessly.

By the time the final bell rang, Layla was as clean as a whistle and it had been determined that Haven and I simply had a bad test day, even though Mrs. Bridges stood up for me and said that something beyond my control must have be amiss. Still, she said she wasn't sure how anyone could have changed the tests, because the only time she'd ever been away from the test papers for an extended period was during lunch, and her classroom had been locked.

In the end, none of my efforts made a difference, and I made damn sure to stay as far away from cheer tryouts as possible. I had gone to soccer tryouts ready to smash some fucking skulls - well, mainly one particular skull. Overall, my aggressiveness had probably ended up helping me impress the coaches, so at least something positive came of the whole shit show.

I figured that Presley would be going to a party tonight, but I had texted her anyway, hoping to get a couple hours to process with her before she darted off to some rager.

By the time I got home and filled her in on the goings on of my irritating day, she looked like she was fantasizing about slowly sticking pins in Layla's eyes.

"Where's that bitch now?" She asked furiously, whipping her curly mane out of her eyes.

"Probably sucking the blood from a kitten or something," I grumble, curling into a ball on my cushy bed. Ever since I got home and was able to process what had happened this morning, my stomach felt like it had been stabbing itself. I wasn't naive enough to disregard the effect it'd have on me and Haven's future if the scores weren't able to be fixed. If I came from a rich family like Jayce or even Presley, I wouldn't need to worry about it so much. But considering that getting a scholarship was pretty much our only hope of attending college, I was pretty anxious. As far as I could see, there was nothing stopping Layla from doing this again and again. She knew right where the chink in my armor was. I felt pretty damn hopeless.

"She seemed oddly peppy at tryouts. Like, even more so than usual, which I didn't even know was possible," Presley huffs and drops onto the bed next to me, absentmindedly stroking my hair, which is still a bit damp from my shower.

"I don't think she ever stops smiling like she's a fucking maniacal schizo."

"We have to do something, Fallon," Presley suddenly sits straight upward. "We can't let this end like it did with Kate freshman year. I don't want you to get exiled to Arizona."

"What are you suggesting?"

"This is our chance! This is our moment to take down that jumped-up baby prostitute!"

"You sound a bit crazy, Pres. Straight obsessed."

"Fallon, come on. This girl has had unrelenting reins since freshman year. She needs to be stopped. Let's binge some Gossip Girl and get inspired."

"I just need to find a way to prove that the tests were fucked with after we took them. I'm not looking to start a dick-measuring contest with a girl who wipes her ass with $20 bills. I don't want to 'destroy' her or whatever. I just want her to leave me the fuck alone."

"Trust me, Fal. Layla is a tyrant. Can you please tell me what a tyrant does to anyone who tries to prove they're evil, little miss AP?"

I roll my eyes and rotate onto my left side, facing away from her and resuming my curled fetal position. I don't know what to do, but I do know that sabotaging someone before they can sabotage me isn't exactly what I want to be doing with my time.

"It'll be fun," Presley says in an almost sing-song voice. "Ooh! And I bet that Jayce would totally help us! You'd be able to spend a lot of time with him, that's for sure." She shoves me encouragingly.

"Oh, wonderful idea, Pres. I'll just literally use a man to destroy his own girlfriend. That's some great karma," I let out a half-hearted laugh, feeling more and more defeated as the seconds tick by. I'm unsure of what to do, and my best friend's only solution is sabotage.

Awesome.

"Well, we have all day tomorrow to come up with a plan," she says, climbing off the bed.

"Yeah..." I admitted slowly. "About that. I'm sort of busy all day tomorrow."

"All day?" Presley's brown eyes suddenly appear in front of my face, her adorable face scrunched up in question. "What the hell plans do you have on a Saturday that don't involve me?" She looks genuinely confused, like I've never had weekend plans that she wasn't a part of. Actually, I probably haven't.

"I'm helping Jayce work on-" I catch myself before I tell her what we're doing. She'd get excited enough to take off like a rocket and leave a hole in my roof. "-On a project. He told me not to make any other plans, because it will probably end up taking all day."

Presley eyed me suspiciously. "Are you sleeping with him yet?"

"What?!" I sputter as I feel my cheeks redden and I grab at my bed sheets defensively. "No!"

"Uh huh," she rolls her eyes and trots away. "It's only a matter of time. How's everything going with that lawyer and your dad's note and stuff? Any news?"

I feel a sharp pain in my gut and squeeze my eyes shut, fighting to keep my voice even. "No. Nothing."

Literally nothing had developed since we'd spoken to Jeffers almost a week ago. It sucked. I wanted so badly to know what had happened between my father and Alexei - I wanted to know what my dad was talking about in his note. I had to have answers.

At the same time, part of me didn't want to think about it and just pretend none of it was happening. But I knew that would be impossible. I'm too damn curious and headstrong.

The sharpest pain I've felt yet stabbed at my gut, not letting up for several seconds and causing me to gasp as agony shot through my body. I needed to change the subject.

"How's Cole?" I barely get the two words out.

I hear Presley sigh dreamily from the other side of my room, "He's perfect." I swear I can hear her blushing. "He's putting together a security patrol for the Harvest party tomorrow so that he can go with me. Or, well, more like follow from a distance and maybe get lost in the hay maze with me."

This comment doesn't exactly help with my attempt to turn the conversation toward something less stress-inducing.

"That's great," I'm able to manage.

"Do you think you and Jayce will end up going? It could be sort of like a double date!" She squeals as I feel her plop back onto the bed next to me.

I roll over to face her, doing my best to not look like I'm in agonizing pain that her carelessness is only making worse. "I didn't even realize the Harvest party was tomorrow. Jayce and I will probably be working on his project all day, and besides, he's probably been to enough of those for his entire lifetime."

Every year, Goldcrest has two massive parties to celebrate the beginning and end of its vineyards' harvest seasons. It's like a huge carnival in the middle of town that goes pretty much all night. I never connected the dots until a few weeks ago, but Jayce and his family would probably be the most honored guests in attendance, since they own the town's pride and joy, Duende Vineyards. I wouldn't know - I'd never gone to one. Presley and I were always too preoccupied acquiring free booze around town and partying at our classmates houses to actually attend the damn thing.

Plus, mom didn't ever want Haven or I to go, for previously unknown reasons that I'm beginning to understand more and more.

"Well, I happen to know that Jayce is going. Cole's making sure he's got his best guys on the Solis family."

I groan from a mixture of pain and annoyance. I wasn't particularly fond of the idea of accompanying Jayce to a town-wide celebration while his girlfriend was on the other side of the country.

"I know the exact dress you should wear, too!" Presley hops off my bed and flings my closet doors open, quickly sifting through the hanging clothes. Within seconds, she produces an orange dress she gave me for my last birthday. It still has the tags on it. She looks hurt. "You never even wore it?"

"I guess I hadn't worn it yet because I'm meant to wear it tomorrow... Bet you never would've thought that I'd be wearing it to a Harvest party alongside Jayce Solis when you bought it for me, huh?" I save smoothly. It's not that I didn't like the dress, it's stunning and a super generous gift. I just never had anywhere to wear it before.

This brightens her demeanor. "I'm so excited! You have to tell me everything that happens between you two, okay?" She raises her eyebrows like she's insinuating something sexual. "I know for a fact that Layla just left for New Jersey a few hours ago, so maybe this weekend Jayce will finally realize that he has to have YOU, and then he'll break up with Layla! It'll be perfect!"

"I don't think that's going to happen," I giggle as she bounces excitedly, my stomach pain finally letting up a bit.

The idea of taking something from Layla suddenly seems extremely appealing. I'm not sure why, but bursts of anticipation spark across my brain the more I think about it. Maybe I'm not above sabotage, and maybe, just maybe, there could be a way to clear the test failure from me and Haven's records and teach Layla a lesson in abolishing monarchies.

"Just don't be afraid to be a bit risqué while you're with him all day, okay?" Presley suggested. "Channel your inner me!" She smiles teasingly.

My stomach pain subsides instantly.

"Pres," I say, sitting up in bed, suddenly more clear-minded than I had been all day, and probably all week. "We need to watch some fucking Gossip Girl."

~

Four hours later, around 9pm, Presley and I are dressed in all black, looking like bandits. After several Gossip Girl episodes, we got inspired to do something that I literally never thought I would do. If the situation with Layla were any different, there's no way I would've ever agreed to Presley's idea in the first place.

But, if we were going to clear me and Haven's names and fix our grades, we had no other choice.

We were going to break into our high school and watch the security camera recording of Mrs. Bridge's classroom.

Why Principal Wright hadn't insisted on us watching the footage during his investigation, I had no idea. Maybe he didn't want to go through the trouble. Or maybe he suspected I was telling the truth about Layla screwing with my test and didn't want her to be caught red handed and on tape. Either way, I had to know the truth.

We took Presley's Fiat, figuring it would make a better escape car than mine, which was probably going to die any day now, and parked on the edge of the lot, where the cameras wouldn't see us.

We made sure our faces were covered by our beanies and bandanas as we slunk through the chilly night, toward the large building. We knew for a fact that the school had a cleaning crew that worked until around 10pm on Fridays, so we quickly found their van and pressed our bodies against the school's nearest side door.

"Oh my god," I breathe, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to calm myself down. The coolness of the brick against my back helped soothe the nervous heat all over my body.

"I'm going to peek in real quick," Presley has a small giggle in her voice.

I'm glad that at least one of us is enjoying ourselves. I, on the other hand, feel like my stomach is in my throat.

Presley slowly, quietly opens the door and gazes through the small crack, before opening it a bit wider and popping her whole head in.

"Coast is clear!" She whispers excitedly. "Let's go!"

"Pres, wait," I say with a start, realizing what could happen if we get caught. "Should we really be doing this? Shouldn't we just wait until Monday and talk to Principal Wright about watching the footage?"

Before I met Jayce Solis, I had never broken into anything. Now, I'd broken into a vineyard and I was about to break into my damn high school. Of course, Jayce and I hadn't necessarily broken in to Duende, but I was none the wiser when that hot piece of ass was slinking through the grape vines with me.

"Absolutely not! If Principal Wright is the one to see the footage of Layla changing the tests, he'll find a way to cover it up so that nothing happens to her. No," she shakes her head and looks at me very sternly. "If we're going to do this, we can't have any adults involved. At least, not until we have solid proof that's completely undeniable."

I let out a jagged sigh, grateful that my wild friend is willing to go to such lengths to help me prove the evilness of her captain and our classmate.

"You're right," I admit. I know she's right, especially after witnessing Principal Wright's half-assed "investigation" earlier today. He would do whatever he could to keep Layla from anything that could hurt her record. "Let's go."

We pull up our bandanas and slip into the dark hallway, moving as quickly and quietly as possible along the lockers. My heart is pounding and my ears are ringing in the silence, straining to make sure we don't encounter any of the cleaners.

Presley starts humming James Bond music, but I smack her to let her know to shut up.

Before I know it, we're standing in front of Mrs. Hayes, our secretary's, computer. To my surprise and gratitude, we didn't cross paths with the cleaners at all as we made our way to the front office.

Presley bends over and grabs the mouse, wiggling it to wake the computer. "Ha!" Presley exclaims with joy and I slap my hand over her mouth. "Sorry," she lowers my hand from her mouth. "Mrs. Hayes doesn't have a password on her computer," she looks up at me with a mischievous grin.

"That's great," I whisper, peering around to make sure no one is coming, still paranoid as fuck. "Can we please just find the video and get out of here?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," she rolls her eyes and turns back to the computer, clicking away. "You should at least try to enjoy this, Fal."

"I'm sorry, I don't want to go to jail for breaking and entering," I clip, my voice a bit harsher than I'd intended.

"Well, if you did go to jail, at least have fun while doing it instead of being an annoying, fun-sucking sap the whole time," she grumbles as she clicks through several files until a video opens - she found it.

"That was fast," I remark, genuinely impressed.

"Usually the most time consuming part is trying to guess Mrs. Hayes' password," she grins at me, her eyes glinting.

"You've done this before?"

"Let's just say that there's been a couple cases of intoxication and fornication that needed to be gotten rid of," she shrugs and turns back to the computer, playing the video in 8x speed.

I can't help but laugh and shake my head at that. Of course, if anyone would get drunk and have sex in the school after hours, it'd be Presley.

"Start at lunchtime yesterday," I advise, leaning forward on the desk to watch the screen with her. "Mrs. Bridges said that was the only time she was away from the tests for a while."

The seconds pass as we watch the day go by in fast motion - students coming in, sitting, leaving. Coming in, sitting, leaving.

Then, we're looking at an empty room. Presley rewinds the video and slows the speed. We watch as video-Mrs. Bridges collects her lunch bag, meanders out of the classroom, locks it behind her and disappears through the sliver of glass on the door.

Presley speeds up the video a bit and I watch as the screen flickers and time passes... And then, there's nothing. The screen goes completely black.

"What just happened?" I ask as my stomach lurches.

"I'm not sure..."

Presley scrubs forward until the recorded video feed reappears on the screen.

"There's a 5-minute black space," Presley turns to me, looking puzzled. "The recording, it's just... gone."

We watch the footage of the rest of the day, up until Mrs. Bridges leaves, and there's nothing. I feel my upper lip turn into a snarl as I say the name of the one who is clearly responsible for this. "Layla."

"No fucking doubt."

"Why the hell would she put this much effort in?" I mumble, searching the depths of my brain as to why the fuck Layla would go this far, just to fuck us over.

"She's literally evil," Presley says soberingly. "And she's extra as hell. She doesn't need a 'why.' Sabotage is her drug of choice. She just does shit, that's why I've been wanting to get her back for so long. Finally be able to give her a taste of her own medicine."

"Ugghh," I let out an annoyed sigh. "What the hell do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," Presley looks up at me apologetically. "Take Layla hostage and torture her until she gives us solid answers?"

I let out an empty laugh, wishing I had never managed to catch the attention of Goldcrest High's resident evil queen, "The sad thing is, right now, I actually wish we could do that."

"I feel you," Presley exhales and stands up, turning toward me with a defeated expression. "I'm sorry this was such a waste. Should we just get out of here?"

"Pres, what are you talking about?" My brows scrunch together at her words. "Because those five minutes of recording were erased, we now know, for sure, that someone was behind this, and I'll shave my fucking eyebrows off if it wasn't Layla."

Presley's face breaks into a smile at the thought of me, eyebrow-less. "Yeah, I guess that's true, huh?"

I have to admit, even though we didn't find video evidence, I'm still excited. We now have an actual lead to follow, because we know that someone, at some time, needed to erase a 5-minute clip, during the same exact time frame that Mrs. Bridges wasn't in her classroom.

"Hell yeah, this is huge," I tell Presley, giving her an encouraging side hug and a huge smile, feeling extremely grateful for her. "If it wasn't for your crazy, brilliant mind, we'd never have found this!" I gesture toward the blank screen. It's not much, I'll admit. But this is way more than we would've had otherwise.

Presley's face lights up, clearly pleased that I'm pleased. "Let's get out of here before we get caught, yeah?"

"Um, fuck yes, please let's go," I giggle. "Thank you for doing this with me."

We practically sprint back through the halls, and as soon as the night air hits my face again, I can't help but laugh with a mixture of relief and gladness. We got a step closer to the truth, and we didn't get caught.

As Presley and I speed out of the parking lot, we unroll the windows and even though the freezing wind chills us to the bone instantly, we whoop and holler all the way home.

I'm filled with giddiness as I realize that I'm definitely going to sleep well tonight, for more than one reason. For the first time, I'm a step ahead of Layla Wright, and tomorrow, I'm spending all day with Jayce Solis.

~~~

Hit that ⭐STAR⭐ then READ ON SQUAD for the second chapter of this DOUBLE update, which is smothered with Jayce 😍 YEET.