Chapter 12

 

Slowly, people turned to Matthew, who raised her hands in defense. “I don’t know anything,” she said. “I just figured out which way the wind was blowing pretty quickly.”

“Come on,” May said, “you have to have some idea. If anyone knows, it’s you.”

“Nope,” Matt said. “I spend too much time hanging out with you losers to know about stuff going on at this school.” She twirled her hair. “It’s nice of you to think of me, though.” Paxton rolled her eyes and shoved her hands into the hoodie’s pockets. 

“Useless,” she mumbled. “Fine. But when you get your prize, whatever it ends up being, you better point me at whoever is doing this.” She turned around in a huff, then stopped and turned back. 

“You don’t have anyone anymore?” May offered, doing her very best to leave spite out of her voice. Paxton glared and shook her head. “I’m sorry. Well, if you want to hang out—“

“Hold on,” Ryan said, “Paxton has been fucking with you since… how long have you been at this school? And you’re going to forgive her just because you found out she was sad? Any limits on that, huh?” He pointed at Paxton. “You’re lucky you’re a girl now, dude. I would’ve—“

“You want to fucking go, Ryan?” She said, pulling her hood back and rolling her sleeves up. “I’ll still knock your ass out.”

“No!” May said, stepping between them. “Neither of you are fighting anyone. Paxton, it’s like you said. We’re not friends, but also you deserve to have some people to talk to who know what you’re going through. But you owe us.”

“Reparations? Are you serious?” Paxton said, rubbing her face. “I don’t even want—“

“I know you don’t want to be our friend,” May said, interrupting her, “but right now you’re alone, and you know how much that sucks. Ryan, she’s alone and she doesn’t have anyone else. It’s not like she was wildly homophobic or racist or something before. She was just an asshole. Full offence, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Paxton grumbled.

“We’re not ‘forgiving’ her. But I’m iffy on her deserving ostracisation because she was scared and stupid. And the only people she really hurt was me. Forgiving her is up to me, I think.” May put her hands on her hips, daring him to contradict her. She tried not to falter even as she caught Drew looking more than a little unsure.

“Fine,” Ryan said. “But I don’t have to like her.”

“I don’t either,” May said. “I don’t think anyone in the school does, at the moment!”

“Thanks again,” Paxton said bitterly.

“Point is,” May said, “I’m willing to give her a chance and a space — for now — until she gets her feet under her, she can fuck up all over again and then we drop her like a sack of bricks. How’s that sound?”

“Peachy,” Paxton mumbled. 

“Fine,” Ryan said, clearly not fine. 

“Cool,” May said. “Let’s go to class.” She turned her little heels, feeling more than a little conflicted. Well, no point in worrying about it any longer, things were likely to get weird and funky again soon, anyway. To say things were in flux was an understatement. Drew walked up next to her, gently touching her hand with his. 

“You’re sure about this?” He asked. She looked at him and thought for a second, then nodded, smiling. 

“Yes,” she said, “I think I am. Again, Paxton isn’t a war criminal, she was just a dickhead. And clearly a dickhead going through it, going by her relationship with her parents. I just want to believe that if I was in her position, someone would help me out too.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “If I didn’t already have you guys, I mean.”

“You’re sweet,” Drew said. “So what’s the plan for today?”

“Not sure,” May said, shrugging. “Don’t really have one.” She looked at the app on her phone and showed him. “A lot of people like the dress! I got a bunch of the little ‘super votes’, whatever that means.”

“Ryan’s catching up with you, though,” Drew said. “Not worried about that?”

“I don’t know,” May said, cocking her head. “He’s apparently been tutoring phys ed. after school, which is getting him a ton of goodwill, but I don’t think I need to be worried yet, no. And besides, whoever is doing this seems to be a sucker for drama, so odds are they’ll be keeping the top two slots in the running. Sorry Lloyd.” She looked at the votes again. There was a second number with a little crown next to it. “I’m curious what the super votes do, though. Guess we’ll find out tonight.”

“About the other thing,” Drew said. “Who do you think is doing this?”

“I don’t know,” May said. “It feels so random and haphazard.” Drew didn’t say anything in response, just looked straight ahead. “But even if it’s targeted, I’m still not sure who the targets are. A lot of the people who have been turned into girls have chosen to stay as girls, but either there’s more to it than that or they’re not one hundred percent accurate.” Another pause. “You know,” May continued, “because I’m not one.”

“Okay,” Drew said, still looking ahead. 

“So yeah. We’ll figure it out, I guess. But whoever’s doing it is going to catch flak.”

“Deservedly, I think,” Drew said. “They didn’t ask anyone involved if they wanted to be, which, like… it’s a surprise so many of the girls in school have been so supportive but it’s still got to be a huge adjustment, right? And girls like Paxton are now in deep shit.”

“Didn’t someone say the girls could turn back if they wanted to? What happened to that?” May said. “Has someone come to Paxton and offered to turn her back?” She scratched her chin and quickly pulled her hand away. There was the hint of a stubble there, and for some reason it had felt really out of place. Apparently she’d sold herself on her own game. Drew had noticed. 

“You okay?”

“Just a little nauseous,” May said. It wasn’t strictly speaking a lie. “Anyway, maybe it’ll be okay. But someone’s still getting an earful. But for now, let’s try to focus on class! It should be a quiet day!”

It was. The day puttered on with the energy Fridays usually did. Fridays, to May, had always felt a little impatient, like the day itself was trying to get to the end but dragging its feet in getting there. It had those “last few weeks before summer break” vibes without the commitment. 

You are reading story Girl By Popular Vote at novel35.com

But this Friday felt a little different, too. There was a sense of apprehension, of anticipation. After all, there was a chance that the elimination in the contest in the evening would be the end of the game. May didn’t think it would be, of course. That’s not how this thing was going to go. Not after introducing a new game mechanic that wasn’t explained and with a whole weekend to drum up hype for the final round. 

Still, classes came and went a little slower than maybe they had to, but they went regardless, and the end of the day arrived with a little *beep* on the app, letting them know that this phase of the contest was also drawing to a close. May looked at the app as she stood in the hallway, waiting for the others. Ryan had actually overtaken her. Looking out the window, she could see him helping to round up some stuff after the PE class he’d helped out with. Matt was waiting by the edge of the field, holding a small parasol. Where had she even found a parasol? Who even used parasols anymore? 

“May.”

“Paxton,” May said. “How was class?”

“Dull. I want to get this over with. You think you or Ryan are winning this today?”

“Not really,” May said. “But it’s going to be interesting to see which one of us ends up on top at the end of the day. I have the distinct feeling that whichever of the two of us ends up in second place today is going to be the underdog, and people do love an underdog.”

“So…” Paxton said, looking at the field. 

“It looks like Ryan might take the win today. I could probably do something dramatic right now to oust him or something, but if I end up in second place, I think I have a bigger shot for the next round,” May said. 

“If there is a next round,” Paxton said. “Risky.”

“Exactly. But I mean,” she looked down at herself, “I haven’t gotten this far without taking risks.” She chuckled as Drew joined them. “We’ll just have to wait and see. But I’m not all that worried. The people doing this have a flair for the dramatic, I’ll give them that.”

“I’m not giving them anything,” Paxton said. “You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to the assholes who did this without my permission.”

“Speaking of which,” May said, “I wanted to ask you. Has anyone contacted you about turning back? I think I heard a rumour that the girls who were turned got offered to turn back but as far as I can tell nobody did so maybe that wasn’t a thing…”

“I—“ Paxton said, and her face went red in splotches. “I got a notification on the app.”

“Wait,” May said, “but I thought you said your life was ruined if you went back to your parents like this, but you got the offer to turn back immediately? Why didn’t you take it?” Paxton glared at her. Her eyes were red. 

“Because it’s not that easy! Do you know how… how much it fucking sucks to know that I could just be… be this?! And that it could cost me everything but that the alternative is giving this up?! I could have lived my life pretending like I was fine and I would have been fine! I could have been coasting! I could have ignored everything and it would have been easy! I would have been content! But now I’m here and I have to fucking choose? Who would do that? Who is that cruel?!”

By the end of her tirade, tears were streaming down her face. May got the distinct impression that this wasn’t the kind of crying you hugged into. This was the kind of crying that punched people. May looked at her phone. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t understand it, either. But I think I know what you’re going through. It sounds really hard.”

“Of course you do,” Paxton said. “I’m sure Ryan does too.”

“What do you mean?” May said, confused. 

“Oh, come on. You’re telling me Ryan doesn’t want to be a butch lesbian with her weird femme hippie girlfriend?” She pointed outside at Ryan in his black sleeveless shirt, necklaces and backwards baseball cap. “He’s literally already dressing like one.”

“I… I could see it,” May said. “But that’s up to he- uh- him, isn’t it?”

“Yeah but that’s not the point. The point is that, if Ryan loses, it’s statistically likely he’s going to want to stay a girl, but he’s also built his whole-ass personality around being this sporty try-hard guy, and suddenly he’s going to have to choose between who he is and who he wants to be, with no way to find his own way from one to the other!”

“Uh,” Drew said, “you uh… sure know a lot about this, Paxton.”

“Oh, fucking sue me,” she growled. “Also, I’m going to go by Heather for a bit.”

“Yeah that tracks,” Ryan said as he walked in, a towel around his neck and Matt in his arm, who was giddily staring at her phone. “You’ve got that Heather energy.”

“Eat shit,” Heather said, giving him a wide, fake smile. 

“I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast.”

“You eat shit for breakfast?”

“Shut up, you two,” Drew said. “Looks like the clock is about to count down.” They all looked down at their phones. The last few names bounced votes between them, presumably people trying to make some last minute changes. It wasn’t enough. The gap was too wide, and when the number counted down, there were three short ‘poof’s from the Pink Bathroom. 

The names on the phone blinked proudly. Ryan at the top. May underneath it. 

NEXT ROUND, it said. SUDDEN DEATH. 64:00:00

So it was going to start Monday. They looked at each other. Ryan extended his hand. “May the best man w—“ 

“I already used that one.”

“God damn it, Heather!”