Eve heard an eruption inside the auditorium before she made it inside to warn Nessa.

Soon after, the doors of the theater burst open and she saw Principal Yu and Mr. Rhodes leading Brody toward the second floor, presumably to Principal Yu’s office.

“Wait!” Eve hollered. “Wait, Principal Yu!”

They continued to hurry off and within seconds were out of sight.

Moments after, the crowd trickled out of the side doors, and the cast came to meet them, all babbling and bustling, full of “Can you believe its?” and “I knew its!” and “Best show EVERs!”

As Nessa stepped into view, large swaths of the crowd cheered.

“Oh, stop, stop.” Nessa glowed.

Eve spotted Sophie’s little sister, Bella, asking for an autograph.

Sophie waved to Eve, motioning her over. When they reached each other, Eve grasped onto Sophie like she was a piece of land in the middle of the ocean.

“Winston and Caleb did it,” she whispered in Sophie’s ear.

Sophie pulled away, still holding Eve’s elbows, and her face held no surprise.

“You knew about Winston.” Eve stared in wonder.

“Let’s just say I had an idea.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Eve confessed.

“I think he was honestly on our side.” Sophie patted her arm. “He just messed up really, really bad.”

“But what about Brody?”

“I know,” Sophie whispered. “We have to tell, right?”

“Sophie, honey, it all looked great!” Sophie’s mom came to hug her, and Eve slipped out of sight.

Eve made her way to the front of the school. Before she could reach the entrance, an enormous swarm of girls surrounded her, all wearing masks.

“I believed you the whole time!” one of them said.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about how we look all the time!” a younger voice cried out to her.

“Look!” A girl held up a plastic bag filled with superhero masks. “I’ve been giving them to everybody!”

Eve looked around and saw them. Girls with masks in every color dotted the crowd.

“I’m tired of them looking at us.”

“Of them judging us!”

“And thinking we can be ranked! Like it’s a game!”

“Yeah! We are taking ourselves out of the running!”

The voices continued, and behind a couple of the kids Eve saw Miranda Garland come up to the girl passing out masks and grab one for herself. Miranda saw Eve watching her and waved the mask as if to say hello.

“You were right this whole time!” the girls kept repeating.

And Eve tried to say, “No, maybe not,” but they weren’t listening. She told them thanks and bye, and she rushed out of the school into the freezing air. She sat where she’d once sat with Brody, except now the bench felt ice cold. She pulled her down coat tight around herself.

Eve’s phone buzzed and she glanced at it. It was a text from Miranda Garland: hey just wanted to say im super sorry

Then Curtis:

sry i was mean to you

Unknown number: