BFFS 4EVA, LYLAS, ETC

The rest of the day goes by quickly. Here and there, taped up to the walls or pinned to a corkboard, I find more copies of the picture of Sabrina. Ripping them down, I watch for anyone reacting to what I'm doing, but no one seems to care one way or the other. Is it because Sabrina won't rise to the bait? Is everyone already getting bored?

I keep an eye out for any opportunity to corner Blaine, but it isn't until after school lets out for the day that I manage to track him down. In the front foyer of the building, I catch him frowning at the bulletin board. Is he unhappy that I tore the picture of Sabrina and me down?

"Hey," I call out, standing up straight and trying to look even mildly intimidating.

Sophie cracks her knuckles beside me. "Are you sure you don't want me to scare him, Clark?" She aims a sidelong glare at Blaine. "Just a little?"

Subtly, I wave her off. There's still a fair number of students milling around, on their way home or to after-school clubs. As much as it would be satisfying to wipe that smug look off Blaine's face, Sophie has a tendency to go overboard, and I don't want to make too much of a scene.

Blaine shoves his hands in his pockets, smirking at me. "Hey," he replies, casually. He's not as aggressive without Henderson and Foley around. "Did you find out who dared to snap a picture of Madame President?"

I hadn't, but apparently Sabrina had, which was good enough for me. "Yeah, as a matter of fact. You did."

His expression doesn't change. I don't know what I expected, but I guess I expected something, at least. "Didn't we do this yesterday?" Blaine asks, putting a hand on his hip. "Why are you so obsessed with me? Is it because of the ten bucks thing?" He laughs. "That was just a joke, man. Lighten up."

Oh, was chasing me all the way from the school to the hotel a joke, too? But never mind all that. Right now, the issue was Sabrina's privacy. And mine, theoretically. Even if no one had seemed to recognize me.

No, I'm not salty about that. I'm not!

"I don't know anyone else who'd act like such a creep," I say, for lack of any actual evidence.

"Okay, Detective Columbus." Rolling his eyes, Blaine takes a step closer. I don't know why I never noticed before now-- maybe because Foley and Henderson are both pretty big guys-- but Blaine's slightly shorter than I am. "Where's your proof? I already told you I didn't put any pictures on the board. Not this one, and none of the other bulletin boards around the school, either."

Sophie crosses her arms, peering unseen at Blaine. "And that's true," she says, "This is a waste of time. But why does he still seem shifty?"

Because he is shifty. "We're not talking about pinning the pictures on the board this time," I say, aware I'm not going to get far without evidence. "You said it yourself a second ago. Who took the picture in the first place? I think you did."

Blaine shrugs. "You can think whatever you want, man, it's a free country. But you can't prove I had anything to do with it." He chuckles. "I'm just glad to see her knocked off her pedestal, even a little. Obviously I'm not the only one."

"No, I suppose you're not."

I turn to see Sabrina approaching us, a sheaf of paper in her arms. Has she been taking down more pictures? I thought I'd found them all.

Blaine cocks his head to one side. "Hey, prez." He gestures toward me. "Can you do something about your sidekick? He keeps harassing me, and you know the school has a zero tolerance policy."

"How interesting," Sabrina says cooly. "That's the very topic I'd like to discuss with you. I found Justin Henderson and Justin Foley attempting to put up more copies of that rather boring candid photo of me. It would be unfortunate for either of them to have another suspension on their records." As she speaks, I can see Blaine's face turn red. "Naturally, I had to offer them the option of explaining the situation in full so they could avoid any unfair punishment."

"Those morons!" Blaine snaps. "I can't believe they'd rat me out like this after screwing up the simplest thing!"

Huh. So he is the culprit, after all. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Anyone would have had the means and opportunity to take pictures of us from a public sidewalk, but he's the only person I know of who'd have the motive. It's not exactly something that takes a genius to figure out. The main problem was proving it, and he just confessed out loud, more or less.

Sophie, on the other hand, is surprised enough for both of us. She looks from Blaine to Sabrina and back again like she's trying to figure out a magic trick. "But he wasn't lying before! How did he trick me?"

By answering the question I asked, which was "Who put the picture up on the board?" instead of "Who took the picture?" If I ever need Sophie to be a lie detector again, I'll have to remember to be careful about what I say.

Blinking, Sabrina gives Blaine a small smile. "You can't believe it? Well, you shouldn't believe it. Neither of them mentioned you." She tosses her hair back over her shoulder, like a flag waving. "For all their other faults, they're commendably loyal."

At this Blaine turns from red to white.

"You're a good friend for refusing to let them take the fall for your actions, however," Sabrina goes on, shifting one hand to show her cell phone on speaker. "Thank you for telling the truth."

Blaine crosses his arms, shoulders hunched. "What do you want?" He eyes Sabrina's phone. It would only take a minute to walk over to the principal's office and play back the conversation. If that picture was meant to damage Sabrina's reputation, being known as the guy who sneaks around taking creep shots of girls wouldn't do any favors for Blaine, aside from any punishment the school would hand down.

"I want to be left alone," Sabrina answers, calmly putting her cell phone away in her bag. "I want you to bear the punishment I give you gracefully, and then the matter will be closed. You won't pester myself or Clark anymore. This childish behavior on your part will cease."

Blaine rolls his eyes, but I can see nervousness lingering on him. "Oh, is that all, your highness? What punishment?"

"You'll see soon enough. It's certainly no worse than the annoyance you've caused me. Now," Sabrina goes on, "you can run along and go home."

It takes all the self control I have not to grin at the look on Blaine's face. To say the least, he's certainly not looking smug anymore.

He leaves, muttering something under his breath that I won't repeat that makes Sophie blush.

"Golly!"

Primly, Sabrina turns to me. "Thank you for keeping Blaine occupied until I arrived, Clark. Very adequately played."

I nod. "Glad I could help."

Sophie shakes off her affront at Blaine's foul language to be affronted at Sabrina instead. "Instead of wasting Clark's time by using him as a distraction," she scolds, hovering in front of Sabrina's face. "You should have shook a leg to get here sooner yourself!"

Under the full force of Sophie's undivided attention, Sabrina lights up with a smile. "Oh, but then I wouldn't have had time to put these up." She pats the sheaf of papers she's still holding.

"Wait," I say, scratching my head and now really curious about what's on those papers. "You didn't catch Foley and Henderson after all?"

Sabrina shakes her head. "Not this afternoon, no. I noticed them pinning something to a corkboard yesterday and thought it unusual, but didn't make the connection until last night when I went online." She shrugs. "Neither of them have any reason to instigate anything like this with me, and there's only one person they're close with who would." She shrugs, as if this is all pretty boring. To her, it probably is.

"What's on the papers?" I ask, leaning in slightly. No way would Sabrina sink to Blaine's level and take a picture of him doing something people could take out of context. What, then?

Without fanfare, Sabrina hands me a sheet of paper so that Sophie and I can take a look. It's still a little warm from the copy machine.

"Oh!" Sophie exclaims, hands on her cheeks. "How adorable!"

It's a crayon drawing. Two stick figures, one with long black hair and the other with spiky short hair, are entangled in some scribbles that may or may not be a little kid's attempt at drawing a game console and controllers. There's a rainbow overhead, and "BLAINE & SABRINNA BFF 4EVER" is scrawled along the bottom.

"Did Blaine draw this?" I ask, more confused than ever.

Sabrina nods. "In second grade, yes. I thought it was sentimental to hang onto it for so long, but I suppose it's come in handy now."

I'm not sure how to feel about all this. They were friends? What happened? It's not my business, maybe, but I want to know.

Sophie scratches her head. "Boy, won't he be embarrassed! Hard to think of him as a tough customer after seeing that little Blaine liked to draw rainbows and big smiling faces."

True. Blaine might be in for a shock in the morning.

"If being reminded that he used to be a nice little boy embarrasses him," Sabrina says, "that's his problem. I want him to think twice before trying this nonsense again."

I chuckle, still taken off guard by the unexpected knowledge that Sabrina and Blaine were close, but relieved that Sabrina isn't the kind of person to do anything truly nasty to him in retaliation. Blaine will be mortified, sure, but this isn't showing anything bad about him.

"Remind me not to become your arch-enemy," I say, only half joking.

"Nonsense," Sabrina says. "You're a far better sidekick."