Several students started telling Sloane to stop.
That made her angrier.
“You all act like she never does anything.”
Maya frowned.
“What am I doing right now?”
“You know exactly what you do.”
“No.”
Maya’s voice rose.
“Tell them.”
Sloane pointed toward her.
“You make everybody afraid to disagree with you.”
A Student Council girl named Paige Holloway shook her head.
“That is not what happened.”
Sloane turned.
“Stay out of this.”
Paige stepped back but kept recording.
Maya noticed Sloane’s attention shift.
She bent toward the flowers.
Sloane grabbed her wrist.
Maya straightened quickly.
“Let me go.”
Sloane held on.
“Stop acting scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
“Exactly.”
Maya stared.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Sloane released her suddenly.
“You’re always so tough.”
Maya’s anger finally showed.
“I am standing here because you destroyed something somebody gave me.”
“There’s the attitude.”
The phrase came almost automatically.
Maya froze.
Several students reacted.
Jalen, now returning with Tessa, heard it from twenty feet away.
Maya looked at Sloane with a kind of clarity that made her voice quieter.
“You wanted that.”
“What?”
“You wanted me angry.”
Sloane rolled her eyes.
“Please.”
“You’ve called me aggressive all year without saying the word.”
“I never called you aggressive.”
“You call me hostile.”
“Because you are.”
“You call me intimidating.”
“You can be.”
“You tell people they’re afraid to critique me.”
“They are.”
Maya nodded slowly.
“So you walk over here, take flowers from my hands, step on them, grab me twice, and now you’re happy I look angry.”
Sloane’s face reddened.
“That’s not what this is.”
“What is it?”
“You thinking you’re better than everyone.”
Maya laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because the accusation no longer made sense.
“You are standing on my flowers.”
Sloane glanced down.
Her shoe was still partly over the bouquet.
She stepped away.
Orange petals remained flattened beneath the sole.
Maya moved toward the flowers again.
Sloane shoved her shoulder.
The crowd erupted.