I smirked at Tag. “Only if you pay us in fries.”
Smirking back, he pulled out a large cone of French fries from his paper bag. “I figured that’d be your price.”
“Why takeout?” I asked after he, Alex, and the other guys had dragged extra chairs over to our table. “Why not eat at the Hub?”
“Because our favorite booth was taken,” Alex answered through a massive bite of his grilled cheese. “By Blair.”
“Mmm,” I said, not needing to hear any more. The schism in their friend group seemed inevitable after Blair had seethed like a snake at Tag during calculus. “Well, I now know why you saidnoto me,” she’d harped, to which he simply nodded and said, “Yes, you do.”
Meanwhile, Tag had not only gifted me with fries but also with a cheeseburger and a black-and-white milkshake. I pushed away my limp salad and smiled. “Thank you,” I said as he unpacked his own lunch. Naturally, it included ten ketchup packets.
“We really came for the five of us to be together,” he murmured once the others had fallen into conversation. “Alex and I wanted the team to be in the same place when the news breaks, so Blair stealing our booth was a brilliant excuse for takeout.”
I hid my grin by sipping my milkshake, thick and creamy. “Have you heard from Manik?”
“Yes,” Tag said. “He was also at the Hub and gave me a thumbs-up. It’s really packed, so the wait will explain why he’s late to the office.” He chuckled. “I’m impressed.”
Together we laughed before tuning into the table topic: prom. “You guys need to get your priorities in order and freaking ask someone,” Pravika was saying to Tag’s friends, which made my heart dip. While my punishment had ended up saving me from a night with Daniel, I still wanted to go. It was prom!
What does he think?I wondered, sneaking a quick glance at Tag. He was chowing down on his chicken tenders.If it hadn’t been taken away from us, would we have gone together?
We were already dancing with our hands tied.
“Fine, fine, fine,” one of his buddies chuckled. “I promise I’ll ask someone.” He paused. “Pravika, would you like to go to prom with me?”
My friend beamed, and after a round of applause, everyone finished their food…but my stomach soon soured. Our lunch hour was almost over, yet we hadn’t gotten any updates from Manik. Why hadn’t he texted our group chat? Danielhadto have discovered the absent Almanacs by now, right?
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Tag take out his pump so he could bolus. Alex monitored him too. Their friends didn’t give him a second look, knowing it was normal. But they hadn’t seen him last night. “All good, Taggart?” Alex asked.
“All good, Alexander,” Tag said. He then bumped my knee under the table, silently telling me the same.
I flushed before picking up my phone. My fluttering heart beat faster when I saw that Manik had finally texted.
Prepare yourselves, his message said, and after reading the warning on my phone, Tag unlocked his own and tapped his screen a few times. Something was coming.
Not even a minute later, a chorus of iPhone chimes and vibrating Androids drowned out the voices at our table.“Another email from my brother,” Maya said with a seemingly disinterested sigh. “Probably a reminder to—”
Pravika shrieked. “Oh my god!”
“Holy hell.” Alex glanced up from his phone, eyes wide. “Guys, you better read this…”
From: [email protected]
Subject: Almanac Distribution Update
Ames,
Today, as you know, the Almanacs are supposed to be distributed; however, due to unforeseen events, that will not be the case. Editor in chief Manik Patel and I recently discovered the Almanacs to bemissing. The faculty has been made aware of the situation, and we are working to get to the bottom of it. If you have any information regarding the yearbooks’ whereabouts, please email Manik ([email protected]) or myself ([email protected]).
Thanks,
Daniel
A hush had fallen over the dining hall. Instead of hearing cheerful chatter and the scraping of utensils, I saw studentsstaring at their phones and whispering to one another. “Is this a joke?” a nearby junior asked. “How could the Almanacs bemissing? This has to be a joke, right?”
Then, as if on cue, our phones pinged again. Only this time, the email wasn’t from President Rivera; it was from someone else. Someonewithoutan Ames School domain. I shut my eyes and willed myself to keep a straight face before I opened and read Tag’s message.
