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“This is my fault,” Scarlett said. “I was the one that came up with the idea for the party. But I do have a counter proposal.”

I just stared at her.

“We throw the last party of the semester. It’ll be so epic. Our last day of classes is December 23rd. We’ll host our party then. And yeah, the basketball team sucks, but the mascot will still make sense.”

I went to grab my phone to check what day of the week that was. But Mr. Halifax had my phone. “What day is Christmas this year?”

“December 25th,” RJ said.

I smacked him.

“A Thursday,” Jacob said.

A Thursday?! “You want to throw our epic party on a Tuesday night?”

“It’ll feel like a Saturday,” Axel said.

I sighed. “It’ll feel like a Saturday,” I mumbled under my breath. “It’s a Tuesday!” I turned my attention back to Scarlett. “Don’t do this to me. I only had two weeks to wait and now you’re making me wait two more for a party that doesn’t even make sense?”

“But this new party comes with a built in theme,” Scarlett said. “It’ll be easier than the other one. It’s Christmas Eve Eve.”

“I don’t want to bang Mr. Halifax under a Christmas tree. I want to bang him while celebrating our epic win.”

“Hopefully we’ll still be celebrating our epic win,” Jacob said. And then he shook his head.

“Jinx,” RJ whispered.

Ugh. I wanted to scream. But I was outnumbered five to one.

“Besides,” Scarlett said. “Our parents are probably all going to be celebrating the win too that night.”

“Everyone seriously needs to stop jinxing us,” Axel said.

Scarlett shook her head as she stared at me. “And they might have been doing their celebrating or not celebrating at my place. They would have heard us throwing a party right beneath their feet. Liam and I can make sure my parents have a fancy date on Christmas Eve Eve. Right, Liam?”

“We can definitely handle that,” he said. “Operation Mascot isn’t being called off. It’s just being rescheduled. Even though I still hate that you’re trying to get Mr. Halifax fired.”

“I’m not...” I wasn’t having this conversation again. And there was no use fighting this when it had already been decided. “Fine.”

“It’s going to be great,” Scarlett said. “I promise. And now we can just focus on having a great Thanksgiving and cheering our guys on in their games the next couple weeks.”

Maybe that’s all she’d be focused on. I was the one slowly dying.

But that’s what backup plans were for. And I had a great one.

Chapter 2 – A Sword Fighting Man

Friday

Mr. Halifax hadn’t looked at my photos. Not one peek. I’d checked the analytics on my phone ten times. But no one had used my phone during the whole school day.

It was another setback in a chain of many.

And now I wasn’t even sure if my backup plan was any good. Hell, I didn’t even know if the original plan was. I’d left notes on Mr. Halifax’s desk before almost all the parties this year. He never showed up. Why would this time be any different? And a party on Christmas Eve Eve? He probably had plans with family or something.

I needed to take action. But what action could I take that wouldn’t fail this time? I pressed my hand to the center of my chest. When would this stop hurting so much?

“You okay, Soph?” my mom asked.