Later that day, it was dismissal and the girls grouped by Debra's locker once they had their backpacks while waiting for Andrea. As they did, Lizzie decided to start a discussion about her confusing day.
"Everybody is acting so weird around me," said Lizzie. "I feel like I'm in that movie 28 Days."
"Have you ever seen 28 Days?" asked Skye.
"No, but I know a ton of freaky stuff happens in there."
"Why is everybody bothering you?" asked Debra.
"Because they found out that I--" She stopped herself.
The girls looked at her in a confusing way.
"They found out that you what?" questioned Madeline.
"Nothing," Lizzie took a while to reply. "Nothing at all. I have no idea. Let's just not talk about it, okay?"
"But you brought it up," said Skye.
"Now I'm bringing it down."
"Where is Andrea?" asked Madeline. "I feel like I've been waiting forever."
"Patience, my friend," said Debra.
Skye looked to her side. "There she is right now."
The girls observed Andrea walking down the hall towards them, with a furious look on her face and holding a long object in her hand.
"Is that a baseball bat?" Debra asked.
"Why would she hold a baseball bat?" Lizzie asked.
"Girls, when Andrea is seen with large things in her hands," started Madeline, "it means that someone is going to die."
"But she's walking towards us," said Debra. "Does that mean she's going to kill us? Because I didn't do anything."
"She was missing at lunch," said Lizzie. "Maybe she was doing baseball practice."
"But Andrea is not on the baseball team," noted Madeline. "And I don't know about you but I am frightened."
Once Andrea had gotten close enough, she lifted up the baseball bat and approached Lizzie. "I'm gonna get you, Liz'!" she said through her teeth.
Lizzie sprinted away while Skye and Debra tried to block Andrea. She struggled with her baseball bat still held high. Lizzie looked at her as if she was crazy and maintained a far distance.
"Why are you so upset?" Madeline asked.
"I'm going to smash her face in!" Andrea did not answer Madeline's question.
"Come on, Andrea," said Debra, still blocking her. "Peace on Earth."
Andrea quickly backed up, forming space between Skye and Debra. She pointed at Debra's face with the baseball bat. "Peace on Earth this!"
"Why are you trying to attack Lizzie?" asked Madeline.
"She told my secret to a bunch of people."
"What?" Lizzie said, walking quickly towards Andrea. "You told my secret."
"No, I didn't."
"Then why does everybody know I wear Secret Extensions?"
"Why does everybody know I wanted to break up with Kevin?"
"Wait, wait, wait," said Madeline. "Hold on a second." She pointed at Lizzie. "You wear Secret Extensions? I thought your hair was naturally that long."
"It is," said Lizzie. "It's just that I tried to cut my hair a few weeks ago and it got... bad. So I'm wearing fake hair until my original hair grows back into its maximum length."
"Why didn't you tell me? It's not a big of a deal."
"I was going to tell you but Andrea went and told everybody."
"I did not tell everybody," Andrea pointed her bat at Lizzie.
"Oh, that reminds me," said Skye. She took off one of the straps of her black backpack and held it in front of herself to unzip it. She pulled out a folded-up newspaper then put her backpack back on. She unfolded the newspaper to the desired page and handed it to Madeline. "You might want to read this."
Madeline read the story in the middle of the newspaper titled, "Forbidden Love Stories". "'Schools are full of love stories. Teenage love affairs are the most common in romances in the media. But as we grow up, we learn tons of valuable lessons about love, such as being in love with someone who doesn't love you back. As a perfect example, debate club member Madeline King loves to hang out with graphic artist Tony Sweetin almost every day. However, she puts her heart into a railroad of pain as she knows she can never be with Tony because he has a long-distance girlfriend in Illinois. And developing a relationship with Madeline would be unfair to the unaware girlfriend even though it is sadly unfair to her'?! Who put this in here?!"
"I have no clue," said Skye. "I didn't read ahead after that."
"Now everybody has pity for me? I don't need pity; I'm happy that Tony has a girlfriend that he loves but can't touch because she's in a place like Illinois!"
"So you're not happy for him?" asked Andrea.
"This is outrageous. Of course I told this secret to all of you but I know you guys would never do this to me. Besides, I didn't even detail the situation to you guys like this so something weird is going-- Hey, Skye, you're in the newspaper, too."
"Really?" Skye inquired. "I didn't see it."
Madeline pointed at the story which was in the right corner of the paper. "It's right here. Your name is titled under, 'Enthralling Liars'? It says, 'Skylar Carter tells her friends that she is a vegetarian. But actually, we have transparent evidence that when she is not around her friends, she gets her grub on at Burger King, eating burgers and chicken tenders.'"
Debra grew an angry expression on her face, breathing heavily.
"Okay, I don't care that you're not a vegetarian, but I think I know someone who does."
"How can you lie about being a vegetarian?" Debra asked loudly, approaching Skye.
"I'm sorry," Skye responded. "I didn't mean to lie."
"But you lied anyway. Why would you do that?"
"I didn't want you to feel left out since you were the only vegetarian out of us. I just wanted us to connect."
"Oh, now we have a bad connection. I would never keep a secret from you."
Madeline flipped a page in the newspaper. "Oh, Debra, there's a story about you, too."
"Say what now?"
"'Debra Lincoln once went out with a boy who had a strong resemblance to U2's lead vocalist, Bono.'"
Skye stared at Debra, bristling with anger while Debra developed an abashed look on her face.
"I forgive you now, Skye," said Debra, not knowing what to say. "Hug?"
"How can you not tell me you dated a guy who looked like Bono?" Skye angrily asked.
"And this is a big deal because?" questioned Andrea.
"I have a huge infatuation with Bono. He is my hero. So for Debra to not tell me what she has experienced means that she had a reason for not telling me which makes it shady."
"Guys, we can't let these secrets get in the way of our friendship," said Madeline. "Look, there are some things we haven't told each other or accidentally told other people, but that is what makes them secrets. Everybody has one and we cannot get blinded by this. Now we need to figure out who released them so we can still have our pride."
"Madeline is right," Lizzie agreed. "Let's--"
"Hey!" a unfamiliar boy interrupted.
The girls turned around, paying their attention to the boy. He marched up to Andrea and snatched away the baseball bat from her hands.
"That's my baseball bat!" he said. He turned around and walked away, while slowly rubbing his bat. "Are you okay, Alicia?" he whispered into the bat.
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