Three's A Crowd

In the morning, I woke up with my head pounding harder than I could have ever imagined. Even better was when I stood up and the room spun around me.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I reached for my side table and tried to steady myself. Under my breath, I cursed myself for allowing myself to get drunk (as easy as that was) with Jez and Junior.

Once I got my footing back and the dizziness faded, I made my way into the bathroom. I knew consciously why I had done it, which made everything worse. It would have been better if it was a subconscious thing, but I knew that I just wanted to forget everything. Reminding myself of my criminal past was enough to make my stomach lurch, but the fact that it was thrown into my face by a police officer, who was questioning me about Jez’s awful situation…well, that just made my life a whole lot worse.

It didn’t take me long to get ready for school, but I wasn’t surprised to find Jez and Junior sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast, looking like they’d been up for hours.

Jez snorted when she saw me. “You look like shit.”

“There’s something called concealer for under-eye circles,” Junior chimed in, raising his eyebrows.

“Thanks, both of you,” I responded sarcastically. “It’s not my fault that some people decided it would be a good idea to get drunk last night.”

“Hey, you’re the one that went along with it,” Jez reminded me, sitting back in her chair with her hands up in surrender. “We didn’t make you.”

She was right, but I was too stubborn to admit it. So, silently and grudgingly, I turned back to the coffee maker and stole a mug-ful from my parents. If they asked, I would just tell them that I stayed up all night studying for a test that could bring up my math grade. That would get me out of hot water and very into the cooler temperature.

“Shouldn’t we be getting to school soon?” Junior piped up, sneaking a peek at the clock. “I know that perfect little Eva wouldn’t want to be late.”

“I think you’re just dying to get another look at Puckerman,” I fired back with a teasing tone.

He sank back in his chair with a smirk. “He is one sexy man, but I thought you were going for him, Eves.”

My face flushed as I remembered exactly how I’d described him the night before. “You totally cannot hold that against me!” I laughed. “I was drunk out of my mind.”

“Yeah, from one beer.” Junior shook his head in disgust. “Pathetic.”

“Mixed with vodka,” I heard Jez mutter in between hacking, dramatic coughs.

“What?!” I squealed.

“Oh, look at the time!” Jez covered, wearing a bigger grin than I’d ever seen on her face in her life. “Better get to school. Don’t want to be late, now do we?”

Mom came into the kitchen right then, looking at Jez pushing me toward the door, Junior scampering along behind us. Her eyebrows drew together when I made eye contact with her, and my heart immediately started to race. She figured something out, no doubt about it.

Swallowing the lump of fear that was starting to form in my throat, I turned back around and walked just a little bit faster toward the door. Jez faltered a little bit in the split-second transition between pushing me and not having anything to lean on.

“One second. Eva, come here for a second, please.”

“See you at school, Eves!” Jez screamed before the door slammed shut. I could picture her and her brother gossiping and coming up with crazy theories about what my mother was going to talk to me about.

The sad thing was that I would probably have believed any of them from the scary look on her face: that one that looked like her features were made of stone, no emotion whatsoever. How could a face that was so void of expression give off waves of intense fury?

“Why do you look like a mess?” Mom asked in a flat voice.

In my mind, I let out a relieved sigh. This was a question I was prepared for. “I stayed up all night for a math test I have today. Thankfully, I think I finally got everything down.” I gave a slight smile, confident that my answer was one hundred percent believable.

“So why do you wince slightly when I’m talking? Am I supposed to believe that you have a headache from not sleeping enough?”

“Of course,” I lied smoothly. What was Jez doing to me? Clearly corrupting me. So my parents were right in that respect. “That always happens.”

Mom narrowed her eyes. Then, she leaned in and whispered so harshly that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, “Eva, I went to college. You think I don’t know what being hung over looks like?”

If she wasn’t absolutely certain before, she definitely was when I swallowed so loudly that I was pretty sure China heard it. “Mom, I really have to get to school before I’m late.”

“We’ll be talking about this later,” she told me, still hostile. “Along with Jez and Junior’s living arrangements.”

I wanted to argue, to stand there screaming at her for even suggesting that Jez and Junior should be kicked out, but I couldn’t. I really did have to get to school, and I didn’t have so many guts yet that I could be that disrespectful without qualms.

Instead, I took out my frustrations by slamming the front door behind me with so much force that I was surprised the glass windows in the top didn’t shatter.

The whole way to school, I had to speed-walk (well, really, it verged on a run- the closest I could get without sweating, anyway) to try to get out all my anger before I walked through the front doors. The last thing I needed was to get slushied the second I walked through the door, only to shove Karofsky.

I shuddered when I thought of what my face would look like if I ever hit Karofsky. It would probably be as if I stuck my head into a food processer. If that was possible, I mean.

Right as I stepped into the main hallway, the late bell rang. After taking a split second to admire my skills in getting to school so quickly, I turned my speed-walk into a full-blown run to my first class.

I burst through the door, my breath heavy (which I did my best to mask). My teacher looked at me angrily for being late, but I wasn’t quite late enough to get a detention.

“Tardiness is high in my book of pet-peeves, Eva. I never thought that you’d be the one to break that rule.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled as I made my way to my seat. Everyone’s eyes were on me, which immediately made me jump to the conclusion that they all knew. They all knew my secret, why I transferred to McKinley in the first place.

Or, I realized later, they were just watching me in case I got in trouble for being late.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves and my head, I tried to focus on the notes that were being written on the board and the explanation that went along with them. My teacher’s always loud voice was so painful that I had to close my eyes for small increments in order to keep from running out of the room.

Why the hell had I not taken aspirin before leaving the house? What was wrong with me?

* * *

“Why, hello, Eva!” Jez greeted from behind me, jumping giddily so I could see her easily on the other side of my locker. “So, what did mommy dearest say this morning? Did she catch her little angel being bad?” She pouted dramatically, and I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah. She knew I was hung-over, and she’s kinda pissed.” I shut my locker and winced. “Never mind. I meant majorly pissed.”

“That sucks,” Jez replied, shrugging her shoulders. “But she’s gotta realize that her little Eva is being corrupted.” She let out a laugh that was so loud and evil sounding, even I was a smidge nervous. Not to mention the herds of kids that had been hurrying by that looked like they saw the Reaper himself.

“Yeah, thanks for that. I found out that I can actually lie well now.” I sighed and switched shoulders that my heavy bag was on.

“Congrats!” She slapped my back so hard that the sound reverberated through the hall. “I knew you had it in you.”

“That’s not a good thing.”

“Sure it is! Now you can get things you want. Trust me.” She gave me another grin before breaking into a skip.

“How can you be so damn giddy?” I snapped, ignoring the synchronized periods of pain of my head and back.

“Because I didn’t drink enough to get hung over,” she teased. “One of the perks of being a pro drinker.”

That elicited another eye roll from me as we made our way into the cafeteria. Junior stood up at his table and waved us over. From the corner of my eye, I saw Puckerman grimace as his skin turned slightly green while he caught sight of Junior standing up.

Laughing, I elbowed Jez in the side and pointed it out. She burst into hysterics and hurried to the table so she could tell her brother the awesome news.

“God, have I mentioned how incredible it is that you transferred here?” I asked him as I unpacked my lunch. “You’ve made this dumb place so much better.”

“Least I could do,” he smirked. “Should I go by Puck’s table and make a mention of last night? Make it sound like something actually happened?”

I just started laughing so hard that my eyes were starting to tear up, but Jez actually contemplated the option. She looked over at Puck’s table, with the other football players, before turning back to her brother. “Hmm…I dunno…should we really embarrass him in front of all his testosterone-filled meathead friends…?”

“Of course we should!” Junior beamed as he got up from the table and started across the room to Puck.

“This is gonna be good,” Jez announced, her eyes locked on Junior.

I nodded, catching my breath and wiping the tears off my face so I could see Junior’s prank, so to speak, perfectly. After all, I didn’t want to miss a second of what was to come.