Mystery Loves Company

Chapter 59 - File #6.14: The Dubious Foundation

Avery

At lunch, I sat across Danna in the cafeteria. People passing by, looking at us and whispering. It had been weeks since Danna and I were unofficially deemed "best friends" by some of the students because our name was finally cleared after alleged cheatings, but I still haven't gotten used to the stares, especially when she used to belong to higher cliques, and I was the person they love to hate.

Never in a million years did I think I would be sitting together with my so-called rivals while eating chicken sandwich. I had never sat with anyone at lunch, ever. It was either they avoided me, or I avoided them. It was for a good reason, really. I didn't have to hear any more whispers than I got in classes whenever I raised my hand up to answer or ask the teacher.

Danna hummed as she devoured a slice of tomato. Great, not only my peaceful lunch would be forever gone, I also had to sit through 20 minutes of her singing.

"You look unusually happy today." I've had an urge to comment since the Chemistry class, but I stayed quiet thinking it would be over soon.

"Don't you see the news? My Dad is winning the poll," she claimed excitedly. "Can you believe that news about Derek Rickard's affair? Sure he has cleared that up, but he lost a significant number of supporters already."

I furrowed. There was no way she didn't know what was going on behind that accusation. "Uh... Have you talked to Jake?"

"Yeah. He doesn't come to school today, not feeling well," she replied. "He had to rest in the infirmary yesterday."

"No, I mean... about his father. You know, because he—"

"Can we not talk about Rickard and his campaign team please?"

"You were the one who brought it up." I rolled my eyes. So, it was probably for everyone's sake that Jake didn't reveal to Danna that he was the one who used his father's email to spread the fake picture—or at least, that's what Rhett said through his messages yesterday.

Danna took something out of her bag. A pin button that said 'Vote for Peter Jennings'. "I'm not sure if your mom has given you this, but here."

I stared at it eerily. My mom sure brought some home, but none of us would actually show up in town wearing it on our shirts. "Didn't you already give this to the whole school back then?"

"If I remember correctly, you even rejected our flyer. I bet you threw the pin button somewhere," Danna said, reminding me of the time I bashed one of the campaign team for giving out flyers in front of our school. She pulled my wrist and placed it on my hand. "You don't have to be embarrassed now. He's gonna win."

"Yeah, sure." I grimaced. The only reason I wanted Jennings to win was because Rickard had some sketchy thing going on. Jennings, though innocent, was a mere puppet to The Exclusives. Like Rhett had said, it would be better for them to think that they won.

Two girls walked past and greeted Danna. More girls from our French class also congratulated her. It felt ridiculous because Jennings didn't even officially win, but these people acted like they were about to be the Mayor's daughter's besties.

"So... Don't you want to go back to your cliques?" I asked—more like a slip of a tongue, because it sounded like I didn't want her to be here.

"Cliques?" She laughed. Thank God she didn't realize it. "I'd rather sit here than to meet another Helen." She recited the name derisively while taking a bite on her sandwich. "I'm done with people using me just because of my dad's status. The only people that I can actually trust here are Jake and you."

I didn't think anything that came out of Danna Jennings' mouth would warm my heart. I used to be cold to her because I thought she felt the same thing. But really, it was just this unseen 'obligation' that she had to befriend popular and privileged kids for having a famous father. I guess she was really just like me. Betrayal hurt so much to the point that we changed ourselves to avoid feeling the same way again.