Across the Rivalry Line

Episode 4: Choosing Sides

The recording went public at lunch.

It wasn't the whole thing. Someone had cut it down to eleven seconds, just enough to make it sound like a betrayal.

"If Ridgemont closes, the students get sent to your school."

"Then it stays that way."

"You're not going to tell Westbrook?"

The clip ended on Maya's voice, flat and clear: "I told you, we're partners."

By the time she reached the cafeteria, everyone had heard it.

Conversations died as she walked in. Someone muttered "spy." Someone else laughed. A girl from her own cheer squad turned her chair away.

Priya grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway. "Okay. Breathe. Tell me it's out of context."

"It is. Completely." Maya's hands were shaking. "Ridgemont is in trouble, Priya. The county might close it. Jace told me in confidence."

"And you kept it from the student council."

"It wasn't mine to share!"

"I get that. I do." Priya's voice softened. "But right now it looks like you hid something big, and you chose him over us."

Maya opened her mouth, then shut it.

Because the worst part was, she didn't know if that was wrong.

Dani Reyes was waiting outside the principal's office, looking far too pleased.

"There she is," Dani said brightly. "I hope you don't mind, I sent the clip to Principal Hargrove. Transparency, you know."

"You edited it."

"I trimmed it. For length."

"You cut out the part where I said it was Jace's secret to tell."

"Did you say that?" Dani tilted her head. "I must have missed it."

Maya stepped closer, her voice low. "You want my spot so badly that you'd help close a school?"

For a flicker of a second, Dani's smile slipped. "I didn't know about the closure. I just thought..." She stopped. "It doesn't matter. Hargrove wants to see you."

Principal Hargrove's office was quiet, and her expression was worse than anger. It was disappointment.

"Maya, I need the truth. Is it accurate that Ridgemont may close?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you knew, and said nothing."

"I was asked not to." Maya swallowed. "But I'd rather be honest now. Ridgemont's students are scared. The festival is their last chance to show the county they matter."

Principal Hargrove studied her for a long time. "The student council has asked me to remove you as co-lead. They say your loyalty is compromised."

Maya's stomach dropped. "And what do you say?"

"I say I'd like to hear what you say."

It was a trap, or maybe a gift. Maya couldn't tell.

She thought about the Westbrook banners, the trophies, the fight songs she had grown up with. She thought about Jace's shaking hands, and the way his voice cracked on the only place that ever felt like mine.

"I'm not choosing Ridgemont over Westbrook," she said slowly. "I'm choosing the festival. If it works, both schools win. Ridgemont stays open, and Westbrook gets to be the school that helped save it."

Hargrove's eyebrows rose. "That's a very different story from the one going around."

"Then let me tell it."

The school-wide assembly was called for Thursday morning.

Maya stood alone at the microphone, a thousand faces staring up at her. She saw Priya near the front, arms crossed but eyes kind. She saw Dani in the third row, smirking.

She took a breath.

"I've been Westbrook's loyal rival for three years," she began. "I wore the colors. I sang the songs. I never thought I'd say this, but Ridgemont High is in danger of being shut down."

A murmur rippled through the room.

"I kept it quiet because it wasn't my secret. But now it's everyone's, so here's the truth. Their students aren't our enemies. They're kids like us who love their school the way we love ours. And if it closes, they'll be sitting in these hallways. Next to us."

Silence.

"So I'm not asking you to like them," she finished. "I'm asking you to help. Because one night, one sky, one county, is worth more than a rivalry."

For a long moment, nobody moved.

Then Priya stood and started clapping.

One by one, others joined, first scattered, then louder, until the whole auditorium rang with it. Dani sat frozen, her smirk gone.

From the back of the room, near the doors, Maya spotted a flash of royal blue.

Jace.

He had come, uninvited, alone, and he stood there with his hand over his heart, his eyes locked on hers like she had just given him the whole world.

Maya's chest ached in a way she had no name for.

But as the applause faded, her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.

"Nice speech. But you don't know the real reason Ridgemont was chosen. Meet me at the lantern site tonight. Come alone."

To be continued...