Ashlee's Rival Love Read online

  I couldn’t get over how fast Westview’s council election was compared to Carlton’s. Two students were elected from each homeroom in the morning. At the end of the day the new member’s names were announced over the loud speaker. I groaned when I heard Tiffany’s name, but I was glad Sarah, Gina, Debbie, Tim and Jake had made it.

  Outside our locker everyone crowded around Sarah to congratulate her. When the last one finished, I hugged her. “Way to go Sarah. I knew you’d get elected. You’ll be great.”

  Sarah’s eyes were dazed. “I can’t believe it. The Carlton kids are my friends but I didn’t think any Westies would vote for me.”

  “The Westies can tell that you’re nice and you go out of your way to be friendly. The meetings will be better with you there.”

  Sarah chewed her bottom lip. “Thanks. I’m a little nervous.”

  I tossed my books in the locker. “Me too. I’d like to get there early. Are you ready to go now?”

  “Yeah,” she dropped her books next to mine and we headed down the hall. The Westie and Carlton cliques lined the walls. The two groups stood apart, without acknowledging each other.

  Sarah sighed. “I’ve just been elected and I’m starting to feel the pressure you’ve had all along. I don’t know how we’re going to get the kids to talk to each other when they don’t want to.”

  “I don’t either. But this is just the second week of school. They’ll loosen up. Carlton kids are friendly. Sooner or later they’ll talk to the Westies.”

  We passed a group of Westies crowded around a classroom door. One of them stared at my shoes and snickered. I smiled and straightened my shoulders.

  Sarah quickened her pace. “I thought everyone had forgotten about the assembly. They don’t have any right to harass you.”

  “They’ll stop if I stay cool.” I slowed down. “If I walk faster, they’ll think they’re getting to me.”

  Sarah shortened her stride to match mine. “I’ll bet Tiffany has something to do with this.”

  I groaned. “I’m sure she does. I wish she hadn’t been elected to council, but I’m glad Gina and Debbie were. I don’t know any of the other Westies that were elected.”

  “Have you forgotten Tim?” Sarah teased.

  My heart sank into my stomach. “No, I haven’t.”

  Sarah raised her eyebrows. “You don’t sound happy. I thought you would be excited he was elected.”

  “I am. I just don’t know what to say to him.”

  “Didn’t you have a good time on Saturday?”

  “Yes, but I was disappointed. I wanted a boyfriend, and I thought I liked him.” I glanced down at the beige tiled floor. “We’re just friends.”

  Sarah tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure? He’s a great guy.”

  “I’m sure. I should have felt something when he kissed me, but I didn’t. I don’t understand. He’s everything I want in a guy. There must be something wrong with me.”

  Sarah patted my arm. “You can’t help it if you don’t like him. Maybe you were meant to be friends.”

  “That’s all I want, but I’m not sure about him. I don’t want to hurt his feelings. How am I going to face him in council?”

  Sarah scrunched up her mouth in concentration. “Don’t worry. He’s a nice guy. It will work out.”

  We approached the meeting room and stopped to congratulate two of the council members, Becky Santano and Sam Grant. They had worked hard on the Carlton council.

  Becky twirled a pencil around in her hand. She was all movement. I’d never seen her stand still. No wonder she was a size two.

  “I’m glad you’re both on the council,” Becky said.

  “Yeah,” Sam agreed. “We were just trying to figure out who made it.”

  “I hope the Westview members are nice.” Becky’s chestnut hair bounced as she spoke. “The only one I know is Tanner.”

  “Gina Lorenzo and Debbie Baker are a lot of fun,” I said. “They’re the cheerleaders that were at the bottom of the pyramid.”

  “Don’t forget Tiffany,” Sam’s face turned a deep red. “Everyone knows who she is.”

  I studied Sam closely. I had never seen him blush. His brown eyes and dark hair made him appear mysterious and a little dangerous. Last year, most of the Carlton girls had a crush on him. He dated a lot, but hadn’t fallen for anyone. At Carlton he had always been Mr. Hard-to-Get. How did Tiffany do it? She had the guy drooling in one week.

  Sarah glanced at Sam. “It seems like some kids really like Tiffany,” she said with a mischievous grin.

  “Yeah,” Becky nudged Sam, “Some kids love her.”

  Sam’s face flushed a brighter red. “Okay. You’ve had your fun,” he said holding the door open. “Let’s go in.”

  “We better hurry,” I said. “Tiffany might be in there.”

  Sam gave me a teasing push into the classroom.

  The room was in the new addition and smelled of fresh paint. All of the tables lined the walls and the chairs were placed in two rows facing each other. I stood aside while everyone took a seat, then I sat on the end next to Sarah.

  “Can you believe Sam likes Tiffany?” Sarah whispered.

  “It’s too bad. If he was going to fall for someone, why did it have to be her?”

  “Yeah. By the way,” Sarah scanned the room, “where’s Tanner and Tiffany? I don’t see Tim either.”

  I was glad Tim hadn’t come in yet. I needed time to decide how to act around him. “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”

  The rest of the members filed in steadily, including Jake Hartley. Sarah sat up straighter when he walked by.

  “You’ve got it bad,” I teased.

  She stared down at her hands. “What difference does it make? He doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

  I gave her a friendly poke. “Hey, if I know you, you’ll fix that fast. Once he meets you he won’t stand a chance.”

  Sarah blushed. “I wish that were true. But the guys don’t fall for me the way they do for you.”

  “Are you kidding? You’ve always dated more than I have.”

  “That’s only because you’re more particular. Plenty of guys ask you out.”

  I hoped she was wrong. I didn’t like to think I was a snob. Some guys had asked me out when I had already had a date. Other guys were friends and I felt weird going out with them.

  Sarah nudged me as two Westies walked by and sat across from us. Until then, I hadn’t noticed all Westies sat on the opposite side of the room. Even in the council the kids refused to mix. “This doesn’t look good,” I whispered to Sarah.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I know, but what can we do?”

  I stared at the row across from me. The only friendly faces were Gina’ and Debbie’s. “I have an idea,” I said. Without thinking I picked up my chair, carried it to the opposite side, and sat. Everyone stopped talking. I cringed and held on to my seat. What had I done? I wanted to be a good school leader but I always seemed to do the wrong thing. Since I moved across the room in front of everyone I couldn’t move back. My only choice was to sit there and let everyone stare. I hoped they couldn’t tell I was just Ashley Stone scared like everyone else.

  Voices drifted in from the doorway. Tanner and Tiffany stood inside the entrance. I didn’t know how much Tanner had seen, but he gave me a smile of approval. Warmth swept through me. His smile gave me more confidence which was ridiculous. I didn’t even like him. But I couldn’t kid myself. I wanted his approval.

  Tanner marched around the stacked tables by the door. “Hey everyone, let’s pull our chairs in a circle. It will be easier to talk.” He didn’t wait to see if they agreed. He grabbed two chairs. One he handed to Tiffany, the other he carried and set it next to me. “Sorry I wasn’t here to help you in the beginning, but you did a great job without me,” he whispered.

  “Thanks. It helped that you came in when you did.” I stared straight ahead and bit my lower lip to keep from smiling. I didn’t want him to know how much his prais
e meant. He was conceited enough.

  Sarah stood and scooted her chair next to Tanner’s. Soon everyone else rearranged their seats to form a circle, everyone except Tiffany. She stood rigid with her lips in a pout, and glared at Sarah and me. We sat on either side of Tanner. It didn’t leave room for her. Sam moved back leaving a space next to him, but she ignored him. Setting her books on the chair, she pushed it around the circle and stopped behind me.

  I felt a nudge and my chair moved forward. She was pushing me out of the way. I placed my feet firmly on the floor and the chair stopped. Tanner whispered something to her and stood to give her his seat. She ignored him and pushed harder on the back of my chair. I swallowed hard and spun around to face her.

  Principal DeGraff cleared her throat, “Let’s get the meeting started.” She motioned to Tiffany. “There’s room over here,” she indicated the space next to her.

  “I prefer to sit here,” Tiffany mumbled just above a whisper.

  “What did you say?” Principal DeGraff asked.

  “I’d love to sit next to you,” Tiffany said. She pushed her chair hard against the floor. The metal legs voiced her anger as it screeched across the surface like chalk against a blackboard.

  Tim stood with his hands in his pockets and glared at Tiffany. I hadn’t seen him enter. He waited until she sat, then took a seat beside her. He leaned close to her and whispered something. Her jaw tightened and her mouth twisted condescendingly.

  I glanced at Tanner. It was hard to read his expression, except for his eyes. They held a glimmer of disapproval. Was he actually seeing the real Tiffany for the first time?

  I turned my gaze from him and caught Tim staring at me. I froze, not sure of what to expect. He smiled then waved to some of the other members. I breathed easier. It was going to be okay.

  Principal DeGraff clapped her hands. “Let’s have everyone introduce themselves.” She dug into her briefcase and pulled out a plastic box. “While you’re doing that I’m going to pass around this box so you can vote for the president and vice president of the council. Everyone is eligible except Tanner and Ashlee since they are already student body leaders. It would help if you pick one student from each school.”

  She handed the box and slips of paper to Tim. “Put your vote inside then hand it to the person next to you. I’ll give you the results before the meeting ends.” She smiled at Tanner and me. “As soon as you have introduced yourselves, I would like Ashlee and Tanner to tell us their views on the consolidation.”

  I barely heard the kids say their names. If I said what I thought about the consolidation, would Tanner back me up? The only thing we agreed on was that it wasn’t working. We had never discussed what we would say, or how we would act publicly.

  “Ashlee,” Principal DeGraff smiled at me, “you’ve talked with many of the Carlton students about Westview. Would you tell us what you have learned?”

  I searched Tanner’s face. His expression didn’t tell me anything. His eyes were bright and his jaw relaxed. I envied him. He took the responsibility of being a leader in stride.

  My hands were cold and damp. My legs were so tense I wasn’t sure they were still connected to me. “Some of the Carlton kids have adjusted well. But a lot of them are resentful, and with good reason.” I paused, afraid I had said too much. The Carlton kids nodded their approval. I didn’t dare look at the Westies.

  “We don’t have any of our old traditions,” I went on. “We lost most of our teachers, our school colors, our cheers, our song. Even our lunch hour is shorter. The council is different too. We meet after school instead of during class. Eventually, the consolidation will work, but the kids need time to adjust.”

  “We all need time,” Tanner said. “Carlton has lost everything, but Westview has had to give up a lot. We liked our small school the way it was. Everyone knew each other and we liked our traditions.”

  Tanner paused and rocked back in his chair. “Now it seems everything we treasured in our school is under attack. Not only that, but we have to share our lockers, the parking lot is always full, and it’s hard to find an empty table in the lunchroom. We used to have open campus for lunch. Now we have to stay on the school grounds. We wouldn’t mind any of this, but we know Carlton resents being here.”

  He tilted his head and gave me a smile. “I understand Carlton a lot better because of Ashlee. I agree with her. If we’re patient, we can unite our schools.”

  Tanner’s support meant a lot. I couldn’t help but smile back.

  “It’s hard to be patient,” said Westie’s Rick Morelli. “When we try to talk to the Carlton kids, they ignore us and walk away. A lot of the students resent their presence. They think Carlton needs to grow up. They didn’t lose that much.”

  “It’s easy for them to say we didn’t lose anything. They still have their school,” said Becky.

  Sarah frowned. “Carlton kids say it’s the Westies who ignore them.”

  “They’re the ones who need to grow up,” said Sam.

  Everyone began talking at once. If the council couldn’t get along, how could we expect the school to unite?

  Tanner leaned closer to me. “Maybe it’s good to let them talk and get everything out in the open.”

  Complaints from the kids flew back and forth. Tanner was wrong. It was okay to say what the problems were, but the kids had started to argue.

  Principal DeGraff never interrupted the students. Instead, she regarded each member as they spoke, heeding every word. I had thought the council would find solutions, not add to the problem. I hesitated to say anything.

  “Maybe it would help if we added some of Carlton’s traditions to our own,” Jake said.

  “That’s a good idea,’ Sarah said. “It would be great if we had our old school colors. It wouldn’t be that hard to change from blue and white to our brown and white.” She turned her head to the side and smiled innocently at Jake.

  “It would be hard for Westview to get used to,” Jake said. His chin jutted out stubbornly and he never glanced at Sarah.

  “It’s an excellent suggestion Sarah,” Mrs.DeGraff said. “But I’m afraid it would be too expensive. We would have to change everything from football uniforms to the auditorium curtains.”

  “What if we added Carlton’s school song?” I asked. “We could have two school songs. All we would have to do is change the word Carlton to Westview.”

  Several of the kids nodded their approval.

  “Now that’s something we can do,” Principal DeGraff said. “We’ll mention it at the next assembly.”

  Tiffany’s mouth curled at the sides. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?” asked Principal DeGraff.

  “It would never go over with the Westview kids. They wouldn’t accept another school song. I would, of course. But, you know how narrow minded some of the kids are.”

  “I think you underestimate your fellow students,” said Principal DeGraff. “Let’s take a vote of the Westview students right now. All those in favor of two school songs, raise your hand.”

  I held my breath. Every one of the students raised their hands. Tiffany bit her lower lip then slowly raised hers.

  “It’s settled then,” said Principal DeGraff. “The students can vote on it at the next assembly.

  Tanner held out his hand to me. “Good thinking Ashlee.”

  “Thank you.” His hand was warm and friendly. I liked the feel of it, yet it made me uncomfortable. I pulled my hand away and glanced across the room. Tiffany glared at me. Her hands were clenched at her sides and her mouth tightened into a thin line. She sat rigid as a wax figure. In a way that’s what she was.

  “Do you have any more comments you would like to make?” Principal DeGraff asked.

  Tim raised his hand. “It’s bad in the parking lot. “One of my friends tried to park where most of the Carlton kids do and two Carlies parked sideways so he couldn’t get in.”

  Tiffany cleared her throat. “I don’t understand what
all the commotion is about. I’ve never had a problem with any of the Carlton kids.” She smiled sweetly at Principal DeGraff. “I welcomed them to Westview the first day, and they’re all my friends.”

  “That was kind of you Tiffany,” said Principal Degraff. “I’m sure the students appreciated your thoughtfulness.”

  Tiffany lied as easily as I drank water. I remembered the way she welcomed me the first day. The girls ignored her comment. All the guys sent her admiring glances, except Tim and Jake.

  Jake rolled his eyes at her comment. “The worse thing is that the Carlton kids act like it’s our fault their school closed,” he said. “As long as they think that, we are going to have problems.”

  Jake was right. Most of the Carlton kids did blame Westview. Including me.

  “That’s true,” I said. “At first we felt anger toward the school boards. But that didn’t get us anywhere, so we directed it toward the school. It’s a lot easier to blame kids your own age, than it is the Board.”

  “Carlton kids aren’t the only ones who directed their anger at other kids. We’ve done the same thing. We blamed Carlton for coming here,” said Tanner.

  “Yeah. Both sides are to blame,” said Sarah.

  “I’m pleased with the way this meeting is going,” said Principal DeGraff. “I think we’ve covered a lot of issues.” She stood and moved to a desk behind her. “I’m going to take a few minutes to tally the votes. Please continue talking.”

  The kids continued to chat, but suggestions were made along with the complaints. Soon they poked each other and laughed like I had hoped they would. It was the way I had imagined it would be. Principal DeGraff understood that we needed to discuss our differences first. Tanner also always seemed to know what the kids needed. I had a lot to learn.

  Tanner turned to me with a grin on his face. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me I was right about letting the kids get their complaints out in the open. Now, are you ready to admit we can be friends or are you still fuming?”

  I stared straight ahead. If he hadn’t insisted on gloating, I would have told him he was right. Now I would never admit it. “I’m not fuming, and we’ve never been friends.”