Chapter3

Slam.

Someone shoved my metal locker door shut from the side. A few of my loose flashcards scattered across the floor. Before I could even drop my gaze, Blair’s face—complete with her flawless winged eyeliner—was already inches from mine.

"Well, if it isn't our genius debater." She crossed her arms over her chest, the pointed toe of her heeled boot resting dangerously close to my flashcards. Dozens of students lining the hallway froze instantly. All eyes locked on us. The gaggle of girls trailing behind Blair giggled right on cue.

"Got your little speech memorized, Maya?" Blair leaned in, slightly mocking. "Or do you need me to lend you some adult diapers? You know, so you don't piss yourself on the finals stage tomorrow and ruin the auditorium carpet?"

The crowd erupted into louder laughter. Beside me, Chloe’s face turned livid. She stepped forward abruptly, trying to shield me. "Blair, did you gargle with toilet water before you left the house today?"

If this were yesterday. If this were before eight o'clock this morning. Faced with all this, I would have cowered behind Chloe like a literal mouse, head down, unable to utter a single word.

I instinctively pressed my hand against my jacket pocket—right where the pill bottle Chloe had given me was hiding. An hour ago, I had swallowed one pale pink tablet in the girls' restroom. Now, my heartbeat was terrifyingly steady.

"Chloe." I reached out, grabbed her wrist, and gently pulled her a half-step back.

Chloe looked at me in shock. I didn't look at her; instead, I turned my head and met Blair's eyes dead-on.

"Blair."

The moment I called her name with such deadpan calm, her eyebrows twitched noticeably.

"Every day... no, for the better part of this semester, almost every word out of your mouth has been a reminder to everyone of how pathetic I am, and how bad my stutter is," I said, looking right at her. "Whether it’s in the hallway, the cafeteria, or every single open seminar."

"What, am I not stating the facts?" Blair scoffed.

I took a slow, deliberate step toward her. "The fact is," I stared at her expressionlessly, "if you truly thought I was a harmless loser who didn't pose a threat, you wouldn’t even give me the time of day."

"You go out of your way to broadcast my weakness to everyone, anytime, anywhere..." My tone dropped to an absolute zero. "Has it ever occurred to you that this just proves how terrified of me you actually are?"

The mockery on Blair’s face shattered instantly. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she opened her mouth to shoot back, but someone in the crowd snickered.

I didn't bother checking her reaction. I just tightened my grip on Chloe's wrist. "Move." The two cronies blocking our side stepped out of the way on pure instinct.

It wasn't until we rounded the hallway corner that I stopped dead in my tracks, leaning back against the wall and gasping heavily for air.

"Oh my god... Maya..." Chloe stared at me, her eyes wide. "Did you just... you didn't stutter once? You roasted her so hard she looked like a total idiot!"

I kept my head down, staring at my right hand. My fingers were trembling uncontrollably. Yet the threads of logic in my brain were horrifyingly clear.

"The pill... it's too strong." I clenched my fist tight, muttering to myself. "I couldn't even control my own mouth just now. I thought I was going to run, but my brain directly issued a command to fight back."

This was insane. Whatever was inside that unlabeled glass vial had to be some terrifying, high-grade chemical concoction. It hijacked my biological responses and replaced them with a monster I didn't even recognize.

"It worked, didn't it?" Chloe smacked me excitedly on the shoulder from behind. "If you can keep this energy up on the stage tomorrow, Blair is literally going to cry right there on the spot!"

I took a deep breath, but my peripheral vision caught something less than ten feet away. Someone was leaning against the shadows by the side stairwell. It was a tall guy in a navy-blue varsity jacket, spinning a black fountain pen between the fingers of his left hand. He looked like he had been standing there for a long time.

My chest tightened sharply. Was it muscle Blair had secretly called in for backup? Or just some rich kid waiting to watch a joke unfold?

He snapped his notebook shut and looked up. His eyes were impossibly dark. They didn't hold that condescending provocation Blair always had, nor the mockery and disdain I usually saw in my classmates' eyes.

"Seb! Let's go!" At the other end of the hallway, a guy with a red-and-black duffel bag poked his head out and yelled. "Coach has been waiting in the locker room for ten minutes!"

He didn't answer the guy. His gaze lingered on my face for a fraction of a second. Then, tucking the notebook under his arm, he slipped the pen casually into his pocket and walked away.

I watched his back disappear around the corner of the stairs, my palms breaking out in a fresh layer of sweat.

"Who was that guy who just walked by?" I turned and asked Chloe.

Chloe was staring rigidly at the stairwell, her face looking several shades paler than when she had faced off against Blair.

"You really ought to buy a lottery ticket today, Maya," Chloe swallowed hard.

"What do you mean?"

"That was Sebastian Vance." Chloe turned to me, her eyes clouded with an incredibly complex expression. "The current president of the school debate club, and the runner-up of last year's National High School Debate League." She pointed back to where Blair had just been standing. "Not only is he one of the final judges for tomorrow's tournament... but he also just heard every single word of you roasting the vice president in the hallway, word for word."