Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 1 of 70

Lymber Craft heard her name in the second-floor bathroom and froze with the flat iron still hot in her hand. Two juniors were laughing at the sinks. They said the reigning queen bee had told half the senior class that Lymber paid a clinic to fix her face over the summer, and that she'd cried about it at a sleepover. Neither part was true. Lymber pressed her back against the stall door and counted the days until the autumn dance. Six. Six days to win a crown that had been open since last year's queen graduated, and now a rumor was eating her lead before ballots even opened. She unplugged the iron, smoothed her golden hair flat, and walked out past the juniors without looking at them. She skipped fourth period and drove home to the six-bedroom house her mother kept spotless for guests who rarely came. Her mother was at the kitchen island sorting mail. Lymber told her what the queen bee was saying. Her mother did not look up. She said a girl who denies a rumor feeds it, and a girl who tops it starves it. Then she slid a student council flyer across the marble and tapped the line about the fall blood drive. Lymber understood. She drove back to school, signed up to run the drive herself, and by last bell she had posted sign-up sheets on every senior locker with her name at the top in clean black marker. In the group chat she wrote one sentence: I'd rather give something real than talk about other girls. Three seniors screenshotted it inside a minute. By Wednesday morning the queen bee's story had flipped in the halls, and two of her own friends had signed Lymber's list. That night Lymber sat on her bathroom counter and let herself smile. The rumor was dead. The crown was close enough to touch. She reached into her makeup drawer for her toner and her fingers hit a boxed pregnancy test she had bought two weeks ago and shoved to the back. She had told herself she was late from stress. She stared at the box a long time. Then she put it back, unopened, and turned off the light. The dance was in five days. One problem at a time.