The Literary Misadventures of Juniper Rosewood

35- Public Enemy Number One

"What! Oh my God, this is groundbreaking!" Circe cried as she jumped up and down excitedly against my locker on Friday morning. "All of the girls are going to be so jealous of you. Except me, obviously and Etta. And Emma. And probably Ingrid."

I had just relayed to her everything that happened yesterday, from Dalton's paper to when his parents got back from the unveiling and found us curled up together reading behind the counter of the bookshop. Circe had remained silent throughout, holding her breath and silently praying for a happy ending.

"I knew you were head over heels in love with him," She teased in a sing-song voice.

"Shut up," I said before tugging her hand along to our French lesson.

After French and a rather embarrassing exposé at Circe's hand when Emma asked what was up, I had biology with Ingrid. I knew that she would kill me if she didn't hear the news from the source, but before I could say anything, she thrust a newspaper in front of my nose.

"Read it and weep, my friend," She said. I laughed. It was her article about my performance on Saturday. My eyes were drawn to the pictures Emma had taken. My hair was flying about my face and I looked so engrossed in what I was doing. Underneath the picture was a caption that read "Performance at the town square - Photo by Emma McGowan"

I cast my eyes over the article as Ingrid waited beside me excitedly. Finally, I reached the end, and I smiled up at her.

"This is brilliant," I said, "You were right about it being your breakout article." She squealed excitedly and flung her arms around me. "Although I could have done without you describing my setlist as 'eccentric and dowdy'" I joked, my fingers curling into quotation marks in the air.

"Well it was kind of old fashioned," She giggled. I laughed too.

"I really love it, Ingrid. You're an amazing writer."

"Thank you for being interesting enough to write about," She said. "Copies are being handed out at lunchtime," She added.

"Ooh, I get an early version? Aren't I lucky!"

"Cressida wouldn't let me show it to you, so I stole it," Ingrid said nonchalantly.

"Impressive. I am getting special treatment."

"Feel blessed, my friend," She said, as the teacher walked into the classroom ten minutes late with an apology and a steaming mug of coffee.

༓࿇༓

Lunchtime was a blur. I had several people I didn't know come up to me and congratulate me on my performance. The school newspaper was quite important at Lochry, and most of the students read it. I also received several incredulous gasps from my friends about Dalton and yesterday's events. Preston was especially excited, and Ingrid was annoyed with me for not mentioning it in biology.

"She probably couldn't get a word in edgewise," Rashid quipped, receiving a harsh glare from Ingrid.

"No, I couldn't," I said, and everybody laughed, even Ingrid, who didn't seem to mind being made fun of as long as Rashid wasn't the one doing it.

Not a second later, Dalton swooped down onto our table and squished in beside me, carrying a tray of nachos, and so did Abraham, who sat next to Preston. Etta groaned and moved up the table, Dalton flashing her a charming smile by way of apology. Then he turned to me.

"Why hello there, girlfriend," He said, and I rolled my eyes.

"Now I don't recall ever agreeing to that," I said. Dalton pouted down at me with puppy dog eyes.