Free The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock

up at her as her hair fell around her face like a hood and she smiled her straight-teeth smile. She put down a paper with a purple sticky note affixed to the front and then, without speaking, she continued around the room. The note said:
Celia,
You have talent as a writer. In my eight years of teaching, I haven’t come across a more natural and engaging voice. I hope that you will continue to work hard and hone your craft both in school and in your spare time. I believe you have been given a gift.
Ms. Green
     
    A tingly feeling started at the base of my skull. It crept all the way around my head and stretched my mouth into a smile. Ms. Green had noticed me! Ms. Green thought I had a gift! I sat staring at the purple note until I got the prickly feeling that another set of eyes had joined mine on the paper. I glanced to my left just in time to see Sandy Firestone, seated next to me, with her eyes glued to Ms. Green’s note.
    As soon as she felt my gaze on her, Sandy’s eyes darted around the floor as if she was innocently looking for a dropped pencil. I glanced at Sandy’s paper and noticed a large, red C sitting there like a mouth hanging open.
    Sandy looked up and saw my eyes on her paper. She snatched it up and shoved it into her notebook, slamming the cover closed.
    That’s the day the trouble started. The trouble that nearly ruined my life. The trouble that turned me Dark. The trouble that begs me for revenge.

CHAPTER

    15
     
    FORM OF
REVENGE
PRO
CON
Trip her in the hall
Embarrassing but not public enough
Not clever, involves physical violence, could get suspended
Post a photo of her online with mean caption
Mildly embarrassing
Have to find photo, would enough people see it?
Steal one of her bad English papers and spread it around
Might be able to steal it in L.A.
Being bad at school is not very embarrassing
     
    I spent the rest of L.A. working on a Revenge Plan Pro & Con list. Since I want my revenge to cause humiliation and be public, and for Sandy to know that I orchestrated it, it wasn’t the easiest plan to concoct. Also, I wasn’t thinking clearly because my heart was beating so fast. By the end of class, I had gotten nowhere. As everyone was standing up and shuffling out of the room, Mandy kicked my chair subtly and whispered, “Watch out, Weird.”
    Before lunch, I waited for Drake at my locker while he dropped off his science book. He was walking down the hall toward me when I witnessed a scene. A group of girls was standing around another bank of freshman lockers when Drake tried to walk by. One girl pushed another girl hard on the back so she fell right into him, dropping the book she was holding. Drake looked surprised at first, but then he gave the girl a charming smile and picked up her book. When he walked away, the girls exploded into giggles like they were toy volcanoes that erupt in pink icing.
    “Hey,” said Drake flatly when he reached my locker.
    Over his shoulder, I could see that the girls were still watching him, transfixed by our interaction. Drake seemed unaware of the audience.
    “Hey,” I said back, closing my locker and walking with Drake away from the girls and toward the doors to the picnic area. I glanced back over my shoulder once to find that they were still staring.
    A brooding quiet joined us for lunch on the lawn that day. We both chewed our sandwiches with lazy mouths like horses gnawing on grass.
    “Not playing the pickup game?” I asked, noticing the basketball players collecting on the court while Drake sat unmoving.
    “Not feeling it,” he mumbled, and went back to chewing.
    “I got detention,” I said.
    “Of course you did”—he chewed—“because everything sucks today.” When he said the word
sucks
, a little piece of tuna sandwich projected out of his mouth and landed on my hoodie sleeve. It flew right through the tension and forced us both to laugh. Drake took a napkin and wiped it off for me.
    “Do you want to buy tickets to the homecoming