Elise loved playing judge, jury, executioner. I watched from the sidelines as the Deadly Vipers—Elise, Julie, Madi, Jae, and now Evan—spent our lunch hours debating who their next target should be. I was technically a Viper, but I stopped giving any input for the most part.
There were times I didn’t know how to talk to her anymore. “Hey, how are you?” I’d asked, the first day back from spring break.
“What do you mean?” She gave me a weird look. “Things are fine,” she said. “I’m fine.” She hated being asked how she was, but every time I did, she acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about. It almost felt like she regretted telling me in the first place. She never brought it up again, refused to even acknowledge anything was wrong. But it was always there—this tension between us.
Things only got worse as the pranks took off. At first the targets ranged from teachers with a history of misconduct to the better-known bullies at school, like Ethan and George from math, the assholes who taunted weaker students for sport—at least when Elise wasn’t around.
The administration and school security investigated the Vipers’s spring break prank on Mr. Dawkins. But the investigation didn’t result in discovery, the exact opposite—Dawkins quietly resigned. What was once an open secret had been fully exposed through a single trashed classroom and Riverside had to take action. The school never contacted the police and seemed to end the investigation the moment he left. They probably didn’t want to draw even more attention to the matter.
Emboldened, Elise charged full speed ahead with her plans. There were more mice in bedrooms, tuna oil in the ventilation. They slashed tires, egged cars, filled balloons with vinegar and food coloring, then ambushed targets. She was always devising new ways to fuck with people. She wanted to push the limit, or maybe she wanted to find out if there was one, and she grew bolder and bolder each time they escaped capture. After Dawkins, the Vipers were always careful to take action off school grounds to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.
I went to the first few missions but soon began making excuses every time they had another. The pranks had been thrilling at the beginning but they’d lost their appeal. On some level, I really did understand that Elise needed to take control, deliver her brand of justice, but it was also exhausting always raging against the world.
When I wasn’t with Elise, I was with Jack. As I started to spend more and more time with him, I had less time for her. We went on hikes with Lola, to the lake, for rides on his motorcycle, my arms wrapped around him tight. I told myself I was running toward him and not away from her, but maybe that was just a convenient lie.
“I don’t understand,” she complained to me after I skipped the third prank in a row. “You never had a problem before.” We were at my house after school, just the two of us like always. “What’s different?”
I shrugged. “I just don’t want to anymore.”
“It’s Jack, isn’t it?” she asked.
“No.” Though maybe it was, at least partly.
“He’s just trying to steal you away from me,” she concluded, stretching out on one of the lounge chairs by the pool.
I laughed, thinking it was a joke.
“I’m being serious! He was a competitive swimmer, wasn’t he? And now he can’t compete, so this is what he does instead.” Elise scoffed.
“That’s ridiculous.” I lit us two cigarettes and passed her one. It was four in the afternoon, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Mom and Dad were at work, and Christian was probably with his girlfriend.
“Then come back,” she said, tipping her sunglasses down to look at me.
“Finals are next week,” I protested.
“Fuck finals,” she said. “This is more important.”
I didn’t answer, snuffing out my cigarette and staring at the water. Finally I turned to her. “How are things?”
“How are things? Really, Rem?” she asked.
Ever since she showed me that bruise on her shoulder, she never brought up her father again.
“They’re fine,” she said. “God, I wish I’d never told you, honestly. It’s not a big deal. I can handle myself, stop asking!” She paused. “You haven’t told anyone, have you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I would never do that.” It hurt to think she didn’t trust me. She wished she’d never confided in me, and now she thought I might’ve told someone when I promised I wouldn’t.
“Good.” Her eyes were so piercing that I almost flinched. “And don’t change the subject. We’re talking about you.”
In the days after the prank on Lara, Jack had told me, “It’s not about fairness. It’s just revenge. There’s already so much awful shit out there, why add more?”
I heard that even after Lara’s parents paid thousands of dollars to clean out the ventilation system in her car, the stink of tuna lingered. When Elise found out, she laughed.
It just seemed cruel.
“Come out with us tonight,” she said, lighting a second cigarette. “We’re getting Mr. V.”
“The principal?” I used to think Elise was an everyday heroine, a protector of the downtrodden. That she only ever wielded her power for good, sticking up for people who needed it. But what had Mr. Voss done?
“Yeah—”
Before she could launch into a speech about why we had to get mild-mannered Mr. Voss, I cut her off. “I already have plans,” I lied.
“With Jack?” she said. “I thought he worked Wednesday nights?”
I shrugged. “He swapped shifts.” It was so strange and awful, how easy it’d been to lie to her. We were best friends, soulmates. It was us against the world. Only, it was starting to feel different.
She examined me, taking a long drag and exhaling the smoke. Her expression was unreadable. “Fine, whatever,” she said. “But tell him to watch out. I won’t let him win so easily.” She meant it as a joke and I laughed, but it didn’t feel very funny. I used to love the idea of being fought over, being a prize, but now I wasn’t so sure.