Wynezra had decked Thad clean in the face, and now she was on top of him, her fist moving in straight lines, up and down, up and down, like a vertical battering ram, pummeling his skull into the crust of the earth, to be excavated by archaeologists in the distant future and preserved in the Museum of Natural Douchery.

Something grabbed me by the hair and jerked my head back.

“I’ll cut your fucking tits off, you fucking whore!” Jayden screamed.

I glanced down and spotted the tip of his shoe next to mine. I stomped on it. Jayden howled and let go of my hair. I spun one hundred and eighty degrees, swung my leg back, and then kicked like a cheerleader, aiming for the sky but connecting with his testicles, punting them into the top of his skull. Jayden’s pupils shrank to mere specks in his irises. He crumpled to the floor, but that wasn’t good enough for me because I was immediately on top of him. Unlike Wynezra, I took the two-handed approach, beating his face with both fists, whipping his head left, right, left, right, left, right—

It took the biggest person in the vicinity—Daisy—to pull me off Jayden’s would-be corpse. Her big arms wrapped around my waist, hoisting me off, while my arms flailed, and my legs kicked, and I screamed.

I screamed words.

“SHE’S MY SISTER, YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT, MY SISTER, I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU IF YOU EVEN LOOK AT HER AGAIN, I SWEAR TO GOD, I’LL CUT OFF YOUR COCK AND MURDER YOU IN YOUR FUCKING SLEEP—”

Ziggy attempted to pull Wynezra off Thad. She swatted him away—like a human-sized fly—but stood up and backed away with her hands in the air like this was a routine.

She was cool. She was done.

EIGHTEEN

WILLOW POSTPONED our sleepover. She was suddenly feeling very sick.

NINETEEN

THAD, JAYDEN, WYNEZRA, and I had separate meetings with Principal Durden that evening. She seemed to find it incredibly ironic that we were getting into trouble at the very place where we were being punished for getting in trouble last time.

Though Principal Durden was the one asking questions, I had more than enough questions of my own. Slowly, we got to the bottom of the truth.

It all started with a picture. And a breakup. And a very disgruntled ex-boyfriend.

It all started with Patrick Durfee.

The nude pic Wynezra showed me—the one Jayden sent to her and a dozen other people—had actually gone around school last month. It was the reason Thad, Jayden, Patrick, and Willow (yes, even Willow) had been punished and enrolled in theater.

You see, while Willow and Patrick were dating, Patrick asked for a nude. She sent it to him. Then, months later, she broke up with him.