Red Herring ✔️

48. House of Cards

Cont.

Mazie left class with a blank piece of paper in front of her. Having zoned out in the middle of class, she forgot to take notes on the class lecture. Luckily, she could probably find all of the information in her history textbook, but it worried her that she so easily tuned out her teacher's lesson without catching a single morsel of information.

In the middle of class, regret started to creep into her consciousness. There were a thousand other scenarios she imagined that included herself, Mary Ann, and that stupid red window paint. She should have just kept it or maybe thrown it away. Better yet, she shouldn't have gone snooping in the first place. In the case she wanted to avoid confrontation, Mazie could have just mysteriously written on Mary Ann's car as well. That situation would have given her more power. The faceless window writer. Maybe then, Mary Ann would feel the fear that Mazie felt every time she approached her car.

As much as they knew about Mary Ann, her character was still in question. Would she seek revenge? Would she tell anyone? Would she confront Mazie about what happened in the parking lot?

Most importantly, why did Mary Ann look like she was going to cry when Mazie gave her the window paint? Did she feel regret? Had she entangled herself in something she couldn't find her way out of?

Maybe it was more simple than that. Her mother was still missing after all. That was stress enough for a teenage girl. Though she still showed little signs of human emotion, Mary Ann could be dealing with a great amount of grief, anger, and sadness.

When Mazie imagined herself telling Christian what she had done, she wanted to crawl out of her own skin and hide under a rock somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. That was one big indicator that she shouldn't have confronted Mary Ann without talking it over with him. But what was done was done. She couldn't take it back now. One way or another, it was going to hurt or harm their search for answers.

The house of cards teetered.

A stormy breeze with copper hair, tight lips, a creased brow, and taut shoulders threatened to blow the delicate house over altogether. A tornado brewed behind her cloudy eyes which she pinned on Mazie as she exited the classroom from her first period class. There was no mistaking the intention of her presence. As the crowd dispersed, Ailene fell into step beside Mazie, keeping pace.

"What did you do?" Ailene growled.

These days, that was a loaded question. One she couldn't answer without fully understanding the question. "What do you mean?"

"Meet me in the girl's locker room in two minutes," she ordered, purposefully shoving her shoulder into Mazie's as she crossed her path and headed in the direction she aforementioned.

Stress tightened her spine. Already, Mazie did not enjoy this transition of power. The tables had turned when she wasn't paying attention. Ailene thought she had the upper hand, and that wasn't something either of them needed. Though Mazie mentally believed she controlled the reigns more than Ailene, she wanted Ailene to believe they fought on the same side so that Ailene would unknowingly continue to feed her gossip about Demi and Lonny.

How could she have pissed her off when she didn't even know it?

Two minutes was not enough time to collect her thoughts to rationalize with Ailene about whatever twisted her panties in a wad. She didn't take the allotted time seriously, and instead, slowly made her way down the hall to the girl's locker room. Her rap sheet grew by the day. Now she was skipping class too.

With her fingers curled tightly around her belongings which she clasped to her chest, Mazie cautiously opened the door to the girl's locker room which, at this hour, was empty. The smell of hairspray and deodorant clinging in the air assaulted her as soon as she crossed the threshold. Peering inside, Mazie did not immediately spot Ailene until she rounded the corner to the wide open hall of lockers and benches.