Read Online Out of Order by Casey Lawrence - Free Book Online Page A

graduates bumbling around outside the auditorium doors and immediately began searching for my friends. Jessa waved me over when she saw me craning my neck around much taller students. Her waves of dark hair stood out in a sea of blonde dye-jobs and colorful hair extensions.
    “Where’s Kate?” I asked, having to raise my voice to be heard over the mass of conversations surrounding us. She exaggeratedly jerked her head to her left, a clear “follow me.”
    I followed her through the press of bodies at the door, all hoping to get seats near the back of the auditorium so they could mess around without being seen or heard. We finally reached open air just as they opened the auditorium doors, and the crowd began to shuffle through them. Jessa carefully took my hand and led me around the corner, out of sight of the hall monitors directing traffic.
    “Kate’s having a malfunction,” she whispered dramatically, although we were very much out of earshot. “Ricky’s with her now.”
    Jessa had released my hand, but I still kept close to her side as we picked our way down the empty hallway, careful to avoid open classroom doors as underclassmen continued to take notes or goof off, whichever the case may have been.
    “What kind of malfunction?” I hissed after we passed Mr. Williamson’s classroom, where he continued to drone on without noticing us hurrying past his doorway. His loud, monotonous voice followed us to the end of the hallway.
    Jessa didn’t have a chance to answer before she was pulling me into the bathroom by the stairwell, the one everyone avoided because it backed onto the teacher’s lounge. “Everyone’s in class or the aud,” Jessa said loudly as the door swung shut behind us. “I brought Corinna.”
    “Corey, please tell me you have a spare set of clothes in your locker,” Kate moaned from behind a closed stall door, her voice high-pitched and a little desperate. “I forgot what day it was.”
    “I don’t think I do,” I said. “Sorry, Kate.”
    “Well then I guess I’m going out on stage like this,” Kate said and unlocked the stall. She walked past me, looking as put-together as she usually did—until she passed me, and I saw her from behind.
    “Oh dear,” I gasped, a hand flying up to cover my mouth in surprise. Jessa raised her eyebrows, and Kate whirled on me, her face suddenly pink with embarrassment.
    “‘Oh dear,’ she says! ‘Oh dear!’” Kate yelled, throwing her arms up in the air dramatically. “I look like I sat on a severed head, and she says ‘Oh dear!’”
    “It’s not that bad,” I corrected quickly, though the red blossoming of blood over the back of her white shorts was rather stark. I was reminded of the Rorschach inkblot test by the way it had seeped evenly in both directions, forming a pattern not unlike butterfly wings across the curve of her buttocks.
    “It’s bad,” Kate said matter-of-factly. “I know it’s bad. I also know that I’m supposed to walk on stage in like five minutes.”
    “It’s just rehearsal. You can miss it,” Jessa cut in, reaching out to rub across the back of Kate’s shoulders comfortingly. “We’ll go to the principal’s office and call your mom to come get you. Everyone will just think you’re sick. No biggie.”
    “I wanted to watch Corinna’s practice speech!” Kate stomped her foot angrily and crossed her arms. “This isn’t fair. Stupid uterus!” She poked angrily at her abdomen, as though addressing the offending organ directly. “You had to choose today, this day of my fake-graduation!”
    “Where’s Ricky?” Jessa asked, suddenly seeming to realize that our fourth was nowhere in sight.
    “She said she was going to save me and then ran off!” Kate wailed, storming back into a stall and slamming it behind her. “She left me!”
    “I’m sure she just went to get tampons,” I said soothingly. “Or Tide-To-Go. Maybe the blood will come out?”
    “It won’t come out! That white dress you bled all