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“Absolutely,” she said.

“Actually,” Nolen said to Ava, “I want you and Jensen partnering for most projects. You need a jump start on some chemistry with each other and more practice interacting since Jensen hasn’t been part of our group for the last several years. I promise you’ll thank me when it helps you interact more naturally on air.”

“Sorry,” Ava whispered to me.

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t her fault Jensen was a ruiner of all things.

“We’ll walk around and give you tips and tricks for some of the concepts on the sheet.”

Susie passed out the review, and Ava stood and tentatively made her way over to Jensen at the other end of the long table.

I hadn’t noticed before, with the seniors filling in seats, but there was an odd number of juniors today, which left me partnerless.

I leaned back in my chair and opened my notebook again. I was still working through exactly how I was going to accomplish the goal of taking football from Jensen. But in the meantime, I’d been adding smaller ideas for revenge to the list as they came to me or when Deja, Maxwell, or Lee suggested something good in our Petty Queens group chat. Even though the list was decent, I’d yet to actually do anything on it aside from the bathroom thing, which had been more of a whim. It was time to change that.

“OUR REVENGE CHOICES TODAY, FRIENDS,”I said. “Are the following…” Deja, Maxwell, Lee, and I were sitting in my carin the parking lot after school. “We can sell all his things that he’s left at my house for a couple dollars online and then send him the receipt of what we sold.”

“That was my idea,” Deja said proudly. “I still like it a lot.”

“Could I get arrested for that?” I asked, curious.

“I don’t think so,” Maxwell said. “He left them at your house. Assumed property?”

I wasn’t sure if that was true at all, but I continued to read,“Make an online post about his wrongdoing and hope it goes viral.”

“We’d kind of just have to pray to the social media gods for that one,” Lee said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Plus, the whole story makes me feel stupid. I really don’t need everyone knowing. It’s bad enough the entire school does. Theo even heard the story today and approached me about it.”

“Speaking of gods, what did he have to say?” Maxwell asked.

Lee smacked his arm, and Max laughed.

“He just wanted to point out that since the whole school was talking about it, Nolen and Susie made the right choice putting Jensen as the host.”

“Ew,” Deja said, her dark eyes flashing irritation. “Stay away from him.”

“What about Jensen?” Lee asked. “You never said how the first time seeing him again went.”

“He gave me puppy-dog eyes like he was actually sorry.”

“Heshouldactually be sorry,” Lee said.

“But if he was actually sorry,” Deja pointed out, “he would’ve quit the podcast once he realized what he’d done. He’s not actuallysorry. He wants his cake, and he doesn’t want you to be mad at him for eating it too.”

“That made zero sense,” Lee said.

“I understood,” Maxwell said.

“What else is on the list?” Lee asked.

I scanned the page and settled on“Call his work and pretend he gave me bad service?”He worked at a tire repair place in town.

“Youcan’t call,” Deja said. “They’ll recognize your voice.”

“I’ll call,” Maxwell said. “I am happy to assist in his downfall.” He pulled out his phone and dialed.

Chapter