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“Holiday joy?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Loads of it.”

“Sooo,” I said as Fiona and I walked down the hall after second period. We were headed in the direction of the art room, which was also in the direction of the assembly. I knew she’d read into what I was about to say. Especially after abandoning me at Taco Bell with Ryan the night before, an event she had yet to ask me the outcome of. We hadn’t seen each other much this morning. Just once in the parking lot before first period, where she was busy rummaging around in her trunk. I’d only said a quick hi. But she hadn’t even texted me about last night. She was probably planning to interrogate me about it at lunch. “Let’s go to the assembly today.”

“Okay,” she said.

“What?” I asked.

“What?” she said.

“I thought you’d fight me on that.”

“I saw your bag of cans this morning. I figured Ryan convinced you to go last night.” She smirked in my direction.

I’d dropped off those cans earlier in the bins that had been set up in the gym. “No, he didn’t convince me. I want to go.”

“Oh, I know you do.” She bumped her hip into mine.

Why was I getting defensive? Why was I about to say Never mind, we shouldn’t go? I was the one who’d suggested it. I relaxed my shoulders and took a breath. “You’re the worst.”

“I know,” she said. “But actually, I want to go too. It’s for part of my art project.”

“For part of your art project? What do you mean? What are you going to do?”

“You’ll see.”

I imagined some of Fiona’s cool art displayed on the walls. Maybe something to do with the food drive? Or helping others. She was really creative.

But when we reached the gym and walked inside with a flow of other people, I couldn’t see anything she might have done.

“Let’s sit up top,” Fiona said.

We climbed the bleachers on the left side of the gym. For assemblies, three walls of bleachers were pulled out, forming a U shape. On the fourth wall, a stage was set up with a podium where Ryan and the other leadership students would be.

“What’s this?” I asked, seeing a large white poster board resting on the metal seat. Not just one. When I looked down the row there were at least a dozen.

Fiona picked up one poster board and sat in its place. I did the same. On the back of the board were typed instructions: Hold this up when the words food drive are spoken from the podium.

I flipped the board over to see the letter P on the front.

“You did this, didn’t you?” I asked Fiona. “Your project?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said with a smile.

“What does it spell out?” I was trying to see just how many poster boards there were. Did they span the top rows of the other two sections? It was hard to tell because the rows were crowded now, people standing, trying to find seats.

“You’ll have to see,” she hummed.

“The worst,” I reiterated.

“I hope it works,” she said. “It will require people actually reading and following directions. A Herculean task.”

“How exciting,” I said. “An experiment and a message all in one.”

“Exactly,” she said. “Win-win.”