“I heard Nora won her game. Making it to nationals is a pretty big deal,” Josh said, setting his guitar case against the wall. “Are you going to her next game?” 

I nodded to one of my friends passing by the stairwell we were waiting at before answering him. “As long as she wants me there.” 

“Dude, it was a rhetorical question. I was making conversation. And why won’t she want you there? She invited you to the last one.” 

I shrugged my shoulders, glancing around for Rika. “She could’ve been being polite.” 

“Holy crap, and I thought Ethan was the dense one. You make him look like a genius. Nora wouldn’t know how to be polite if her life depended on it.”  

I took a playful swing at him, but he ducked out of the way. “I feel bad about the mess I caused on Friday.” 

Josh grunted, understanding what I was talking about. Sara hadn’t exactly been subtle when she came over to antagonize us, and we hadn’t exactly kept it under wraps either. Enough people from our school were there to see the mess unfold. This resulted in most of the student body hearing about the confrontation we had with the crazy girl from Asheville. Part of me–all of me–was glad for karma finally catching up to her because Sara deserved every bit of the reputation she earned.  

“That wasn’t your fault. Besides, isn’t that all settled now?” 

“It is.” 

“There’s nothing to worry about then.” Josh waved to some girl, likely someone from his music class. “Hey, how long do you plan on waiting here for?” 

I had to hold back a laugh. “Until she shows up. Otherwise, she was going to hunt me down and force me to listen to a lecture on top of whatever else she wanted to talk about.” 

He peeked at the heavy door guarding the stairwell. “I get that, but the stairwell’s clearly outta commission.” 

He wasn’t wrong. A poster board was nailed to it, and big, bold letters declared its intent. While the message was lengthy it could easily be summed up as nobody was to set foot in the stairwell since there was no reason to be there. Somehow I doubted such a thing would prevent Rika from gaining access. Actually, if this was anything like the first instance I met up with her, then she was already inside.  

“Sorry, Josh. I might’ve wasted your time,” I said, rapping on the door with my knuckles. 

There was the sound of someone shuffling around until the creak of the rusty hinges overpowered it. It swung open, revealing Rika resting against the doorframe, keys dangling from between her index finger and thumb.  

Josh whistled lowly. “Who’d you have to kill to get those?” 

“Nobody. I just asked nicely to borrow them.” 

I rolled my eyes at her sweet smile, realizing she must have tricked some poor janitor into lending the keys to her. It was only a matter of time before they noticed they’d been duped and came after Rika. Although he didn’t know her very well, Josh must have come to this realization too. 

“Well, I’m heading to lunch. I’ll leave you two to whatever it is you do in a locked stairwell.” 

“You know we’re not doing–” 

“Nope, don’t tell me. The less I know, the better,” he interrupted me. 

Traitor. I mouthed the word to him, but he only smirked, turning to leave, guitar case in hand. Seriously, he didn’t understand how this girl worked at all. All she needed was a set-up, and she could mercilessly tease someone until they questioned each and every one of their life decisions leading up to this point. A set-up Josh so willingly gave her. 

Rika cupped the side of her mouth and stage whispered. “Does he know about our secret meetings?” 

I groaned. “Somehow I don’t think that’s what he was hinting at.” 

“What then?”  

“Definitely something more illicit.” 

“Drugs?” 

“Maybe.” 

“Gambling?” 

“Maybe.” 

“Se–” 

“We’re getting off track. What’d you need me for?” I asked. 

“Dang, but it’s so interesting to get off track with you. And the way you get flustered so easily is too funny. But your wish is my command.” Signaling me forward to the doorframe, she continued. “I went through all the trouble to get the keys, so let’s talk in here. Just you and me. All alone. Only the two of us. Nobody else.” 

“I get it. No need to phrase it a million different ways.”  

I walked into the stairwell, muttering obscenities about Josh under my breath. The hinges creaked once more, and we were plunged into relative darkness, the only source of light being the small windowpane. Wait, window panel? Doing a double-take, confirmed it wasn’t my imagination. A new addition then. Adding a window here made little sense to me, but there was a chance the school planned to start utilizing the upstairs facilities and wanted to do some renovations beforehand. That may prove to be the case since the janitors clearly swept through the place, leaving it free of the appreciable grime always present. The stairwell felt less homely somehow. 

And what a scary revelation that was. 

“We’ll jump straight into the serious business.” Rika patted the step she sat on, similar to the other occasions we met. “Sit next to me?” 

I was less hesitant to oblige her now for a couple of reasons. The first being I didn’t have to worry about unwanted dust and cobwebs clinging to my clothes. The second reason was I had grown to trust Rika. She was a menace and drove me crazy, but she meant well.   

Sitting on her left, I clasped my hands together. “You wanted to talk about what happened on Friday I’m guessing?” 

“If you’re ok with it.” 

There couldn’t be much she didn’t know at this point; she had spoken to Sara who no doubt spilled everything she could to try and rile Rika up. 

“That’s fine.” 

When she didn’t begin speaking, I gave her a questioning look. She chuckled, pulling at the drawstrings of her sweatshirt. “Sorry, it’s kind of awkward. Sara told me a lot of stuff, but I’m not sure what’s off-limits to ask about. I don’t want to accidentally upset you.” 

I ran my fingers through my hair. “Don’t worry about it. Anything I don’t want to answer, I wouldn’t. Ok?” 

“Right.” The girl folded her hands in her lap. “Why did you decide to come to school here? Was it because of what Sara did?” 

Starting off with that right off the bat? No low ball questions to warm up with either. I sighed but decided to answer her. “It wasn’t just her, but she was a big part of it. I transferred schools because…” 

And that was the problem. I couldn’t even form a coherent response to that. I transferred schools of those other girls too and because I was good at running away. That sounded about right, and wasn’t that what I had done? Refusing to attend the rest of the last day of school further cemented the notion. But Ethan was the one who put the idea in my head in the first place. I merely latched onto his plan. So, there had to be more to it then. I settled on telling her a half-truth, reminding myself to ask Ethan about his motives later. 

“Because I wanted a fresh start. I studied my ass off to get into this school too. Wasn’t easy for a slacker like me.” 

Yet another joke which didn’t land well with her. She studied her knees, preoccupied with the slight tear in the denim. Was she considering my response? I couldn’t be sure, but I hadn’t been entirely kidding with her. I had studied like a machine over the summer, while Ethan coasted along. Him being naturally gifted at academics really wasn’t fair to the rest of us forced to put in the hard work, but that was a whole separate issue.  

“I don’t have a better answer, Rika.” 

She didn’t look up, but her frown pulled down deeper. “It’s not that. I still can’t believe the nerve of her, but you gave right into her demands. Didn’t even put up a fight.” 

My brow creased. “And what good would that do? Dragging her name through the mud won’t make anything better. I wanted her away from me and away from all of you. And that’s what I got.” 

“Still…” 

“I want to leave the past in the past. None of that matters now. You’ll have to trust me on that.” 

“I guess I will.” 

Looking like she wanted to say more, Rika instead let her head lull to the side. Her bangs fell into her eyes, casting a shadow over the rest of her face. I drummed my fingers against my thigh, fully expecting her to come around and prompt me about another concern of hers. She didn’t. The ensuing hush that fell over her wasn’t contemplative like on the ferris wheel. This felt wrong, unnatural. 

I didn’t like it. 

“Rika”–the girl met my gaze–“thanks for worrying about me.” 

Her expression turned curious, and the corners of her mouth turned upward slightly. “No problem.”