Superior

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Delaney

"Hey, did you see that vid last night?"

"The one about the Superiors? Yeah, it was so weird. I was on Chatterbox, and all of a sudden the page just blanked over and switched to that vid."

"Do you buy it?"

"Of course not; total lies. Why? Do you?"

"...I don't know. It kind of makes sense, though, don't you think?"

Smiling I grabbed one last book and turned away from my locker, slamming the door behind me. The girl from my science class was standing to my left and talking to Samantha Markowitz, her green eyes wildly eager.

"No," Samantha was saying, "I think it's a total load of crap."

Leaning back against the wall of lockers, I watched the two argue. "I, for one, believe them," I said nonchalantly. Samantha's eyes glazed over me, her nose wrinkling in disgust, but the girl from science grinned.

"You get it!" she gushed. "I mean, why would anyone go to all that trouble if it wasn't true?"

I smiled inwardly. "That's what I'm saying!" We needed more people like her, who weren't afraid to believe the unbelievable.

I turned to the other girl. "What's your name?" I asked her.

"Naia," she said brightly, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"Nice to meet you, Naia," I replied with equal animation. "I'm Delaney." As she sidled away, mumbling something about seeing me in science, I pulled out my phone and looked her up. Naia Modere. Rank of five, just as I'd expected.

Throughout the day, I caught more and more similar conversations. As far as I could tell, most people were skeptical, but there was a curious minority that seemed open to the idea. During our fifteen minute snack break, Trai, Abby, Caleb, and I met up to compare notes. In their circle of friends, everyone seemed doubtful, but, like me, they'd heard a few interested comments.

"Everyone's been talking about this," Abby murmured. "It's not going to be long before it gets around to the administrators."

Trai shook his head. "I wouldn't be surprised if they've heard about all ready, or even seen the video themselves."

They all looked worried, so I smiled. "So?" I demanded confidently. "What's the big deal? No one's ever going to know that we were behind it; I took major precautions to make sure of that. All the coding is thoroughly scrambled. There's no chance of tracing whatsoever."

"We shouldn't be wasting time on that, anyway," Caleb interjected. "What's really important is what we do next. We can't let people lose interest in this, or nothing will change!"

Abby raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think you can change anything?"

Before anyone could respond, a pointed cough interrupted our thoughts. We whirled around in unison. Lizzy was standing by herself a few feet away, her feet planted solidly on the ground and her arms crossed across her chest.

"Delaney?" she asked quietly. "Can I, like, talk to you?" Flashing a confused glance back at the others, I stood up and walked over to her. She gestured for me to follow her farther away from the group. When we were around the corner and out of earshot, she sighed, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

"I saw that video last night," she informed me.

"I'm not surprised," I replied calmly. "It's been all over school today. Totally intense." I rolled my eyes.