The Hijinks War

30. One Team, One Scheme

If we didn't do something, we were only making it easier for him. I needed them to see that.

"Okay, so we're a bunch of spoiled, self-involved brats to him," Jackson interjected as he handed me a tissue. "That's how most of the world sees us. But what he said, kind of... well, we are screwed aren't we? We're trapped, we have no way of communicating with anyone outside of campus, and there's increased security!"

"But," I turned to him with a sliver of hope, "I'm worried about everyone, especially the ones who've gotten a couple detentions. Fine, Katia, maybe some of us should pretend; it's not a bad avoidance tactic. But we need to figure out a way to get everyone clean, and how to get out of this." 

Every time one of them supported pretending, I envisioned the word sailing from their mouths and falling into a growing heap of letters beside Kellen. When none of them acknowledged my plea for action, I felt all my hope being buried by the useless heap of rubble.

Before I could catch myself, I'd shoved Kellen into my seat, and imagined myself kicking the letters so they scattered across the room. "How the hell can you guys call yourselves leaders?"

Hadley and Vivienne looked at me with a blinking stupor I found easy to dismiss. I wasn't talking to them—they generally did whatever Katia wanted. I glared, instead, at the remaining three, especially the two I had always followed.

"What? So it's fine for you guys to expect and demand allegiance and respect in exchange for protecting your sublings from the other side of a useless prank battle? And I guess, it was also fine for you to demand immediate action and obedience from us whenever you needed us for our skills, regardless of anything else going on in our lives?

"But now when those same sublings are in grave danger, and you're the only ones who can unite them and motivate them, you're just giving up? You're just going to let them fall? What ever happened to One Team, One Scheme, and unity and family and all that crap you Idiots say when recruiting? That's what it is, right? Crap! Just a load of crap? You don't give a shit about—"

"Don't!" Kellen warned, his eyes as waterlogged as mine. "Don't say it, Cole."

I jutted my chin out, daring him to tell me he cared, when it was clear he wasn't willing to fight past his own fears to help his peers.

"You know I care," he mouthed at me, emotion so thick, he couldn't even manage a sound.

"You care?" I retorted, with a raised brow. "If you cared, if any of you really cared, you would put your fucking big-kid pants on, and deal. I know you're scared, I know you're terrified, but so is everyone out there. And everyone out there, well, they look to you idiots to tell them what to do, to give them orders, to strategize and organize and think. So, Kellen, Katia, please, for the love of living, stop hoping this will blow over and start planning to blow it up."

They stared at me for a long time. Hadley and Vivienne's eyes darted from me to Katia to Kellen, an awed look on their faces—surprise at the tone and words I'd dared to use and who I'd used them against. After some time, I grudgingly leaned against the table and ignored them in favour of my phone.

When I glanced up again, only Kellen, Katia and I remained in the room, and they were gesturing at a vacant spot on the couch with grim expressions. "So, say we do something," Kellen ventured. "What would it be?"

A tiny victory yell went up in my mind, but I forced myself to remain calm and rational. "Not just pretending we're drugged. His whole thing is that this is going smoother than he expected. He said it would be only one week till they make their next move; two, if things didn't run as smoothly. If we're all drugged and staying out of the way, then he'll initiate their plan." 

Katia made a startled noise, "I didn't think of it like that."

"But what are—?"

"I don't know, Kellen! But we can't go around making it easier for him, and we can't wait around to be rescued! I mean, for one thing, no one's going to miss us for at least a month!"

"A month?" Katia crinkled her face, clearly evaluating me as over-dramatic.

"Yeah, a month. That's when our families will notice that we haven't shown up for whatever off campus spring break things we've got planned. That's when they'll try to call us, or call the school. That's when they'll notice something's up."

"A month." Kellen shook his head. "That's a long time to get more detentions and more wasted."

My face probably read, "Duh!" but I refrained from calling them dumb yet again. "Which is why we need to do something! I mean, we can all work out a plan; it doesn't have to be some rash split second decision. But you guys will have to convince everyone."

Kellen sighed heavily, swinging his gaze to Katia. They each took a deep breath, "I'm in."