Four of Clubs

25

"So, who's the homecoming queen anyway?" Jade asked, carrying a wad of rope under her arm as we headed back to Roy's car. The employees hadn't been too happy when we walked in fifteen minutes before closing, but we'd managed to get what we needed.

"They don't announce it till tomorrow during the dance," Roy explained, the can of paint in his hands sloshing as he bumped it with each step. "Each student gets a ballot as they walk through the door. They can pick one of the nominees that were voted on from each class, or they can write someone in. They stick it in a box and Principal Herrings tallies up the votes."

"It could be anybody," I realized, slowing as we neared the blue vehicle. Roy set the can on the pavement, reaching in his pocket for his keys. I continued as he popped the trunk, a sinking feeling in my stomach. "For all we know, we could be about to scar some freshman for the rest of her high school career."

"Not making me feel any better about it," Ian said, picking up the can and placing it inside as Jade threw in the rope. Roy shut the trunk, but none of us made any move to get in the car.

"I know what it's like to have something embarrassing happen like that-- something everyone sees. Even if people like you, they don't forget about it. It never goes away." I sighed, crossing my arms. "At least with outing a cheater we were targeting someone who did something wrong."

Ian shifted his weight at the last few words, and the guilt from what we did washed over me again as his eyes fell to the pavement. 

"That's true." Roy nodded, frowning. "And everything else was only risky for us. We weren't affecting anyone else so... personally."

"What if we didn't have to affect anyone else?" Jade questioned. "What if we could rig it somehow? Plus, being the victim would make it easier to plan. We'd know where to stand on stage, how long to wait-- it'd be almost impossible for anything to go wrong."

"How would we get that many ballots?" Ian asked.

Roy snapped his fingers, face lighting up as he spoke. "The dance is being held at school, which has a copy machine in every computer lab. Someone can sneak out during the dance and make a bunch of copies before they start counting the ballots."

I nodded, thinking it over in my head. "That could work. It makes this ten times more complicated, but it might work. We'll need to make sure there aren't too many though-- if the count is higher than the student body, they'll know it's been tampered with."

"And the ballots will have to look genuine," Jade added. "We can't just copy the same handwriting over and over again or it'll be obvious. We'll need to copy blank ballots and write my name differently each time."

My eyebrows raised at her words. "Your name?"

"Maddie, you streaked for us. Getting covered in a little paint is the least I could do."