Falling For Amelia Manning - 11 This Means War

“You can’t just walk up to her and tell everyone she was the one who put paint in your locker! What if she isn’t the one that did it!?” James kept up with Phoebe as she stormed through each hallway of the school until she found the right one. Her painted green shoes were sitting in the bathroom sink while she found the person responsible.

Stopping, Phoebe turned her sights on an English classroom when a flash of someone standing at the front of the room caught her eye. It was Amelia, seemingly reporting on something at the front of her classroom. Phoebe wanted to stomp her way into the room, make a scene, and beat the living tar out of her, but she knew that’s not how this would go down. Amelia was taller, stronger, and more cunning when in a situation like this. Phoebe was the opposite of all those.

“Just please listen to me. Go back and get cleaned up. Let the coach handle this,” James pleaded with her, both of them missing their first-period classes right now. Taking in a deep breath, she watched Amelia through the small glass window inlaid through the door. When she turned and met her eyes, she watched as a smile slowly spread across her mouth. It was a knowing smile, one that told Phoebe everything she needed to know.

“You’re right, James, let’s let the coach handle this,” Phoebe turned back around, nodded at James and walked toward the hall lockers. “That’s a relief, I didn’t think I was going to talk you down on this one. Wait, how did I talk you down?” James quickly scurried along the tile floor trying to keep up with Phoebe who had broken out into a sprint.

“What are you planning? Phoebe stop this now,” James quickly passed her and threw her body in front of Phoebe and her anger filled body.

“I just have a plan, if she wants a war, then I’ll give her one,” Phoebe put it simply, but it was anything but simple.

“Think this over, Phoebe, this is our senior year and if you mess up that could be your future!” James tried to get her to see reason, but when they stopped at the custodian closet by the front doors, she knew what was about to happen. “I’ve thought about it, this happens every year and I don’t do near enough back. Why she picks the day before my birthday every time, I’ll never know. I thought. I thought it would be different this year.” Phoebe paused before opening the custodian closet and grabbing the first few things she could find.

“Why did you think things would be different? Because you’re helping her study? If she’s always been like this, then something like that shouldn’t matter, right?” James asked and Phoebe closed the closet door without a word. Juggling a few cans of white spray paint the janitors used on the outside walls for spot checks, she stalked toward Amelia’s locker.

“It’s probably true, that she will never change, but I’m not letting her get away with it this year. I made a stink about it in the previous years, but it’s never been that bad. There’s never been so much evidence.” James heard the hate in Phoebe’s voice, and she found herself stuck between a rock and a hard-headed Phoebe.

She raised the can of spray paint when they arrived at Amelia’s locker. James’ hand darted out and caught her by the wrist.

“If you insist on getting yourself in so much trouble, at least give me a can, it will go quicker.”

A wicked smile pulled at the corner of Phoebe’s mouth. Her partner in crime to the end. Handing her the other can of white spray paint, they went to work. The hall remained empty and they only had minutes before the next bell. Once their work was done, they discarded the cans in the nearest trash can and ran to the bathroom, hoping they got away with it.

When the bell finally rang, the girls were safely in the bathroom washing their hands, waiting for the perfect time to walk the halls again. They needed to get to their second period, but they wanted to see the look on Amelia’s face. Casually, they walked the halls watching as people laughing passed them. With a glance at each other, they knew people were starting to talk about what happened to her locker. Peering around the corner of the hall, they watched as Amelia stood in front of her locker, no expression on her face, then she turned to meet their eyes.

Phoebe’s whole body froze to the spot. James pulled and pulled on her arm until she finally got her to move her feet the other way down the hall. They footed it until they were in a hall that was far enough away from Amelia and any sort of wrath, she may bring upon them.

There were whispers about what happened with the green paint and then the spray paint they did in retaliation. Listening to the other students, Phoebe’s chest swelled with a sense of pride at their act of revenge. It wasn’t until the intercom came over the roar of the students that her stomach dropped.

“Will the three following students please report to the principal’s office.” The intercom cut off for a second, before letting the whole school know who the guilty parties are. “Amelia Manning, James VanWright, and Phoebe Edan.”

Instead of whispers about how funny and cool the pranks were, the whispers now turned on them. As they walked through the halls, hand in hand, they watched as each students’ eyes turned on them. Their once happy, playful tones turned to haunting chants as they walked further toward the office upfront.

“You had nothing to do with this, okay?” Phoebe told James with little room for argument, but that wouldn’t stop her. “No, I chose to do it, I could have walked away. I helped, we’re in this together.” James affirmed just as they were met with the office doors. Opening the doors, the sight of Amelia sitting by the front desk told them they would have to be there next to her. Finding the chairs furthest away from her, they took their seats and waited.

The second-period bell came and went without a word of what was happening to them. When Phoebe’s mom showed up at the front desk with fury on her face, she knew why they had been told to wait. She watched her mom speak to the woman at the front desk before being escorted to the offices behind the seats they were occupying at the moment.

Next was James’ father, with an equally displeased look on his face. He was taken to the same room where Mrs. Edan was taken moments ago.

James held Phoebe’s hand tighter and in turn, Phoebe leaned her head on James’ shoulder for comfort. They knew what would happen if someone caught them, but they swore no one saw what they did. Plus, if Amelia wasn’t the one to flood her locker, why was she here now? Phoebe took some joy at being right about that.

They were so involved with making each other feel better, they nearly missed the tall young woman coming in and going into the same room as their parents. Phoebe barely remembered what Amelia’s mom or dad looked like, but that person walking in with her mom and James’ dad was too young to be Amelia’s mother. Sneaking a glance over at Amelia, she saw her eyes cast downward, trying not to pay attention to what was going on around them. Phoebe didn’t blame her.

“Girls, in my office,” Principal Sheridan waved for the three of them to enter the same room after about ten minutes of them stewing outside. When they entered the room was thick with disappointment. Phoebe knew she would be grounded for this, probably have her Crosses locked up, and she wouldn’t be able to have sleepovers with James.

Taking in a deep breath, the three of them took their stands in front of the principal and their parents.

“I would like to hear an explanation for the gym locker paint first, then the spray paint in the hall locker. Who would like to go first?” It was a dumb question on the principal’s part. Phoebe would always be the one that wanted to go first in situations like this.

“It was my fault, James had nothing to do with the spray paint. I retaliated because I believed Amelia was the one that poured green paint into my athletics locker. I shouldn’t have done anything since I didn’t know for sure who did it.” Phoebe rambled out her excuse, James and Mrs. Edan shared the same shocked expression. They didn’t think she would own up to something like this, or at the very least not try to drag Amelia down with her.

“Anything from you two?” Principal Sheridan looked from James to Amelia who stayed silent. They wanted to follow the same story Phoebe laid out.

“Well, Miss Edan, those are lovely words and a great confession, but I have it on good authority that Miss Manning was the one to flood your locker with green paint and that Miss VanWright was the one that sprayed the paint with you all over Amelia’s locker.” Phoebe’s lungs deflated. She tried and James knew that. It was a good try, she thought.

“This has gone on long enough between you two, Miss Edan and Miss Manning, I declare a punishment to fit the annual crimes.” The principal looked over all three of them and Phoebe wished she would exclude James from this at least a little.

“Aside from cleaning the mess up, the three of you will have an alternate lunch where you eat alone in the cafeteria after the two regular periods go by. You will be forced to share a single table and you will have to clean up your mess along with the plates and tables from the previous periods.” All three groaned at the same time. Phoebe glanced over at Amelia who looked like she wanted to punch the air in front of her at the thought of spending so much time together. Tutoring was too much as it is.

“Now, you three are suspended the rest of the day, parents, please take them home.” The grip on her shoulder from her mother wouldn’t go away until they got to the car. After the lecture, she knew her punishment would come. She counted the ways she would have to clean the dishes at home, washing the floors, and creating a spotless home during her suspension today.

Watching James and Amelia going their separate ways, she slumped into the car and listened to her mother raging as they drove down the road toward the house.

“I can’t tell you how upset I was to get that call, young lady. What do you think spraying her locker would have done, even if you knew for sure that she poured the paint in your locker in the first place?” She asked her and all Phoebe could do was shrug, say she was sorry, and that this wouldn’t happen again. Luckily, her mother took it at face value for the time being. After hearing words like moping the floor on her hands and knees, she just tuned her mother out until they arrived at the house.

With one last text to James before her phone was taken for the week, Phoebe got to the list of chores she was being forced to do while thinking about how she was really going to get Amelia back. The spray paint was only the beginning.