24 | Believe It, Babe

When Ethan tells me that there's no time like the present to go looking for Lizzie, I don't argue— since I'm still kicking myself for not taking his previous advice, it's not hard for him to convince me. Especially since I know he's right: the sooner I try to fix things, the better.

I have a pretty good guess of where she is, since he said he saw her heading to the fashion building when he ran into her earlier. I wonder if she's told Zack yet— what if one of them forgives me, and the other one doesn't?

I shake my head as I open one of the building's heavy doors, trying to clear my thoughts. I'll worry about that if it happens, but right now, all I want to focus on is coming clean.

I sigh as the door shuts behind me. The large room is totally empty. The sewing machines are quiet, surrounded by the fabrics and garments neatly hung on shelves and racks around the room. I'm alone, with no idea where else Lizzie might be. The writing building with Zack? Maybe.

My eyes find a rack that's all skirts, and I know before I even see the label that it's Lizzie's. Her collection looks amazing, and there's no doubt it'll be a huge hit tomorrow. There are six skirts, and I can already tell which goes with which decade, from the classic fifties style, the flashy metallic fabric for the eighties, and ending with a pleated miniskirt that looks straight out of a music video from the early aughts.

The sound of the door opening snaps me out of my thoughts, and my eyes go wide when I see shiny, bouncing curls poke into the doorway. Rita's head is turned away from me, and it seems like she's checking the room for people. Without thinking, I duck down, crouching behind the racks of clothing and hiding among the clothes.

"It's clear," Rita snaps, and I can see from below the hems of Lizzie's skirts as another set of feet walks inside.

"What are we doing in here?" Mei's voice asks. She sounds tired, almost annoyed. I hold my breath as the door closes behind them, feeling like prey trapped in a cage with its predator.

"We're here because I'm a genius," Rita replies, crossing the room. To my right is a table with a large swath of fabric draped over it, so I use that as cover as I peek around to watch them. Rita gestures dramatically to a rack at the back of the room, with fanciful looking dresses, colorful vests, and old-fashioned fashions. "Ta-da."

"The costumes for the play...?" Mei trails off, obviously not getting whatever Rita's trying to enlighten her with.

"And our ticket at the greatest, most foolproof revenge of all time."

"Rita..." Mei sighs, shifts her weight, and fidgets with her hands behind her back, where Rita can't see the nervous action. "They stopped pranking us already. We won. There's no reason to keep it going."

Rita lets out a dramatic huff of air, rolls her eyes, and runs a frustrated hand through her hair. "Just because they're done doesn't mean I am."

"I just don't understand why—"

"Then allow me to fill you in," Rita interrupts. "They humiliated me with that stupid worm prank. Delena stole Ethan from me. And to top it off, our last prank didn't even work. No one connected them to what happened with the dock, and Lizzie and that weirdo ended up happily ever after. This thing is so far from over."

"Okay..." Mei says it like she isn't totally convinced. "I still don't get what that has to do with our costumes."

"Well here's the plan, as simple as I can put it. You come here tonight, screw up our costumes, and plant the evidence at Lizzie's sewing station."

My eyes go wide, and I have to stop myself from gasping as my jaw falls open. Rita beams proudly, as if it's the most brilliant plan ever made. And I have to admit, it is good. It's exactly the type of thing I'd expect from such a heinous bitch, and yet I'm still surprised at just how low it is.

"With everything between us, it won't be hard to pin it on her, and she'll be out of camp before the showcase begins Now that is a win."

My thighs burn with a dull ache from squatting for so long, so I move into a kneel as quietly as I can while I watch Mei shake her head. I feel a pang of sympathy in my chest for her, grateful that she's at least trying to put a stop to this.

"No, Rita. No way."

Rita scoffs, crossing her arms. "And why not?"

"Dustin and Jaclyn worked really hard on these costumes for us. It wouldn't be right. And I know you're upset, but Del and Lizzie stopped."

Hearing her use my nickname and come to my defense is so unexpected, so the opposite of what I would've expected from her. For the first time in a while, I find myself mourning what we once had as I'm forced to face the fact that Mei isn't as evil as I made her out to be in my mind.

"Who cares if they stopped? I decide when this thing is over."

"Well I won't do it," Mei says, even as her voice wavers. She turns, heading back towards the door.

"I'll tell Michael you cheated on him at camp!" Rita blurts, so fast it almost sounds like one long word. Again, my eyes nearly bulge out of my head, and Mei stops in her tracks, whirling around so fast she's risking whiplash.

"I did not!" she yells. "What are you talking about?"

"I never said you did," Rita's voice oozes with superiority, "I said I would tell him you did. If you don't do this, you are so out of my circle, Mei. Say goodbye to whatever you thought your senior year would look like."

"You can't do that," Mei argues, voice steady. From behind the fabric, I watch her square her shoulders, watch her expression go hard.

Rita gives a short, humorless laugh. "I got you to ditch Del, didn't I?"

I grip the base of the rack I'm next to, needing to steady myself after that one. Rita was the reason Mei stopped talking to me? The reason I lost my best friend?

This whole time I'd been blaming Mei and Mei only. She met Michael, she met his friends, and from where I stood, it seemed like she thought they were a whole lot better than me and took off without a second thought. But now... now I'm realizing that maybe there was a lot more to the story than I ever thought.

"Mike wouldn't believe you," Mei counters, but her voice wavers.

Rita raises a perfectly groomed eyebrow. "Maybe. But he'd probably believe it if he heard it through the grapevine. If I got people from camp to confirm it. One little rumor is all it takes, Mei."

"I'll tell him what you're planning!"

"And I'll say you're lying and are trying to cover your tracks."

Mei groans loudly, a noise filled with so much anger and frustration that I'm surprised she doesn't charge and tackle Rita. "I can't believe you!"

"Well believe it, babe. If you want to date one of the in-crowd, you have to be in the in-crowd. And I decide who's in. It's obvious your relationship means a lot to you. The question is... how much?"

The air is thick with tension as they stare each other down. I hold my breath, even though I'm not sure anything would break their intense concentration.

Mei's voice is sharp and strained when she finally speaks. "Fine. But I'm doing it for Michael, not for you."

Rita shrugs, smirking as if to say it doesn't really matter. "Works for me. Now let's get out of here before Jaclyn comes and uses us as mannequins for the millionth time."

Once the door closes I let myself sit, letting out a long breath as I try to process my racing thoughts.

At the end of the day, Mei did choose Michael over our friendship. But it's not like she stopped talking to me out of her own accord— the she-beast forced her to leave me behind.

It's a lot to take in considering I've spent so long hating her, especially since now I feel a lot less hate and a whole lot of pity in its place. If I'd been in her shoes... say I'd met Ethan, fallen head over heels and been faced with threats like Rita's... what would I have done?

There's a part of me that feels like maybe, I might've caved to the pressure. And it's a big enough part to make me pretty damn certain that I can't let Mei do this. Not just for Lizzie, but for her, too.

I push myself from the floor, gears turning in my head. I started this war, and it's my job to end it, even if it takes one last mission.

It's time to commence Operation Ending It.

It'll take guts, it'll take sacrifice, and it'll take the only guy on camp grounds who I think can help me: Haru Nakamura.