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“You love her? That’s like the biggest joke there is. You? Luke Foster? Love someone besides yourself?” She laughs but doesn’t notice the music lowering in the background. “No one at this school is good enough for either of us. That’s why your dad wants us together, because he knows none of these other girls could ever be your equal. Me. I’m your fucking equal, Luke Foster, and if you don’t start treating me with the respect I’m due, you’ll lose me. And forget about your little pet. I’ll make sure she’s dragged through the mud so much no one will want her. She’s a whore, just like the rest of the girls in this school. Those bitches will do exactly what I tell them to do, as long as I promise they have the opportunity to fuck guys like you. They’re all mindless sheep. Sheep I control.”

She shakes her head. Her eyes sparkle with her madness. “All I have to do is snap my fingers and your little whore will have no one. I’m the queen here. Not her. Not any of these other self-important bitches. Could you imagine? Them up here, trying to be me.” She laughs. “Look at your little pet and how she knows she doesn’t belong here. She doesn’t belong with you. Fuck you, Luke Foster. You’d better figure out who I am real fucking fast, because I’m almost done with this bullshit.”

I lift the live mic and slow clap in her face. “I’ve been done with your bullshit for a while, Sid. And if you ever bothered to look, you’d see that Harper fits in better than you ever did.”

Her self-righteous look fades as she realizes the silence surrounding us. When she sees all the phones lifted toward the stage, filming her downfall. She’s done and she knows it.

“I think that’s enough, Ms. Brown.” Principal McGrath walks over to Sidney with Mr. Wick in tow.

The principal gestures Sidney toward the stairs.

Her eyes narrow on me. Her lips press into a fine line as I replace the microphone on the stand. She can hate me all she likes. I let her see that I don’t give a fuck. Not an ounce of smugness shows on my face because she’d think I actually care. All I give her is coldness. A reminder for her not to come after what’s mine or I’ll take everything away. And Harper is mine.

“Get off the stage!” someone yells from the audience.

“Go home, Sidney!” a girl yells from the back.

Everyone joins in, yelling and booing, making it obvious no one wants her here. Sidney stiffens but holds her head high. Turning on her heel, she walks past Harper, but Caden steps between them when Sidney stops in front of her.

She glares at Caden before turning to Harper.

“Someday he’ll do this to you too. You’re not fucking special.” Sidney storms off. When the gymnasium door opens and she walks out with Mr. Wick following, the crowd erupts into cheers.

Caden

Luke went easy on Sidney. I would have done more to that snake, but at least, she’ll need to lick her wounds for a while. Bitches like that never stay down for long. The principal steps up to the microphone and tells everyone to calm down. Like that ever helped anything.

I slip back to stand next to Eli and Harper, taking Harper’s hand. She squeezes mine, and everything feels right. Maybe that was it for tonight.

At least for Sidney.

The students fall back into silence, but there’s still some joking around going on. The principal seems to give up and steps back.

Parker steps up to the microphone. “Well, that was fun. And just so everyone knows, Sidney did not get the most votes this year. The ballots were double counted to make sure, because we all know she would have demanded a recount.”

Parker rolls her eyes. Everyone laughs and claps and some people yell out things.

Parker waits a moment and then clears her throat into the mic, putting her hands on her hips. “Can we get on with this so we can get back to dancing?”

The crowd calms down.

“Thank you.” She holds up the envelope. “Your king is Luke Foster, and his queen for tonight is...” A bunch of the football guys do a drumroll on their thighs as she reads the card again with a grin. “Ashley Kim!”

Not a huge surprise.

Ashley walks past us as the crowd applauds. She pauses and gives Harper a stiff hug. Her eyes meet mine. “Alex looked upward but wouldn’t tell me what they had planned. Get her off stage as quickly as possible.”

Fuck. I look up, but I can’t see past the lights above the stage. This isn’t going to be a Carrie moment for our girl. Fuck that shit. Eli moves back with Harper, and I make sure Emma is with us.

When Ashley reaches the microphone. Parker places the crown on Ashley’s dark hair before draping a sash over her dress. She grabs a bouquet of flowers off the table and hands it to Ashley.

“I’m glad it was you,” Parker says, away from the microphone.

Ashley smiles. “I don’t think this is a good thing. Sidney will be gunning for me.”

Parker shakes her head and smiles. “Sidney is going to have more problems than she’ll know what to do with by the time she’s allowed back to school.”

That won’t be for a while or until Sidney’s mom can hold an emergency meeting of the school board. Maybe she’ll actually make her daughter take the suspension. That would be good.