High School Hero (Forest Ridge High Book 1)

by Sherri Renee

  I eyed the nail polishes on the shelf across the room from us. “What color should I get?”

  “I’m going for that light purple with the glitter.” Michelle turned her attention to the bottles.

  “I guess I’ll do the glittery pink so we can match.” I shot her a smile.

  With our fingers and toes sparkling, we focused on our main mission. Finding me a gorgeous prom dress. Michelle drove twenty miles to the three-story mall nearby. Just walking into the huge building lifted my spirits. The ceiling overhead was glass and showed blue skies with white puffy clouds outside. It was such a perfect day the view almost looked like a painting

  Shoppers carried bags and even wrapped gifts. Although we still had the state championship and prom to get through first, Christmas was just around the corner.

  “Let’s start at Seraphina’s,” Michelle said. “That’s where I found my dress.”

  I joined her on the escalator to the second floor where the store was located. “Seraphina’s always has a great selection. Did you warn Danny he’s going to have to wear a purple cumber bun?”

  Michelle flashed a smile over her shoulder at me. “He said he doesn’t care if he has to wear the whole rainbow as long as he’s going to prom with me.”

  Her voice was sassy, but her green eyes shone.

  “Aw, that’s so sweet. He really likes you.”

  “I like him too.” Michelle stepped off the escalator, and I followed, peering in the windows as we walked past stores and enjoying the Christmas decorations that covered the mall. She didn’t have to tell me she liked him. She glowed just saying his name.

  “Isn’t that George’s mom?” Michelle pointed to a woman heading towards us with a large sack in her hand.

  “It is. Mrs. Masterson,” I stepped into her path. She looked up in surprise before wrapping me in a hug.

  “Kristen, I haven’t seen you in so long. I keep telling George he should invite you for dinner, but as busy as he is he hardly makes it to dinner himself. Hello, Michelle.” She gave Michelle a warm smile. Her blond hair faded to silver in several areas, but blue eyes, almost identical to her son’s, peered out of a young face.

  “I’d like that,” I told her honestly. I’d always gotten along great with George’s mom. I bit my lip. His dad, on the other hand, was a different story. “I’m sorry to hear about your house.”

  She tilted her head in question. “Our house?” Her brows knit, wrinkling her forehead. She gave me a curious smile. “What about our house?”

  I shook my head and shared a confused look with Michelle. Was it possible Mrs. Masterson didn’t know they were close to losing their house. Maybe her husband took care of the bills and hadn’t told her they were behind on the mortgage.

  “I . . . don’t know. I thought George said there was some kind of problem with it. The plumbing or something?” If she didn’t know the future of her home was up in the air, I wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to her. It sure wasn’t my place. I just wished I hadn’t mentioned it at all.

  “No. No plumbing troubles at our house.”

  I forced a laugh. “Wow! I guess I got that confused with someone else. Well, I need to go find a dress for prom.”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to see you and George all dressed up. Be sure to send me some pictures.”

  “I will,” I promised as Michelle and I hurried away.

  My heart beat hard. I glanced back at Mrs. Masterson. I felt so sorry for her. If they lost their house it was going to take her completely by surprise.

  Michelle leaned close and glanced back at Mrs. Masterson herself. “What was that about? Didn’t George tell you they were losing the house?”

  “He said ‘might’, but yeah. That was strange. I guess George and his dad are trying to protect her by not telling her how bad things are.”

  My excitement about shopping for a dress dropped. I felt bad spending money on something so frivolous when they needed it for something so important. Like keeping a roof over their heads.

  “Come on.” Michelle took my arm and turned into Seraphina’s. “Don’t let that get you down. Let’s have some fun.”

  The small store was filled with dresses. Long, short, formal, semi-formal. They had something for everyone. I stood just inside the door and took a long look around. I hoped they’d have something for me.

  “You have to go with long.” Michelle headed for a rack of floor length dresses. “Mine even has a train.” She shuffled through the dresses, eyeing each one intently.

  I glanced at them and moved on towards the back of the store. There was so much glitter and sequins in the store that the walls sparkled every time a dress moved. As much as I’d thought about my senior prom and being crowned queen over the years, I’d never envisioned my dress. I ran my finger across a silky red dress with a poofy skirt but kept looking.

  If only Matt and I could go to prom together. I let out a quiet sigh. I knew my wish was petty in light of what George was going through. I didn’t know how to really help him but decided to send him a quick text asking how his night was.

  He didn’t reply. It was possible he was still sleeping, but I doubted it. He and some of the other guys had planned to go over football stuff today. That was too important to him to miss. I decided he was probably wrapped up in that, so I didn’t worry when I didn’t hear back from him.

  Michelle called my name. I turned back. She had a wide smile on her face. In her arms, she held a shimmery white dress. There was a long sleeve on one side and no sleeve at all on the other. The top would be fitted but the skirt billowed out. It was beautiful in its simplicity.

  I walked towards her and a smile slowly bloomed on my face. “That’s my dress.” I touched the smooth fabric.

  “I know,” Michelle squealed. “You have to try it on.”

  She hung it in the dressing room, and we both stood and admired it for a minute. “If I didn’t love my dress—and you—so much I’d be positively jealous.”

  “Let’s see how it fits first.” Please let it fit.

  I shucked my clothes and shimmied into the dress. Turning around, Michelle zipped it. I faced the mirror and ran my hands down my sides and over my hips.

  “It fits like it was made for you,” Michelle’s voice held a note of awe.

  It really did. It clung in all the right places before flaring gracefully into a romantic dream.

  “I love it,” I said. I gave Michelle a hug for finding it. “You’re the best.”

  She hugged me back then buffed her fingernails against her shirt. “I know,” she said, but her eyes sparkled teasingly.

  I could finally cross dress off my list and move on to more important things. Like how to date Matt without hurting George.

  Chapter 25

  Leaving the mall with the bagged dress in my arms put a spring in my step. The dress was gorgeous, but even more than that, I was thankful I didn’t have to look anymore.

  “We should go back to your house so you can try it on for your mom,” Michelle said as we walked out of the mall and into the nippy air. The sky was still blue and clear but the wind was biting.

  I bundled my jacket around me with my free hand. Glancing to the right, I saw a small group of people talking. They were half on the sidewalk and half on the grass, partially hidden behind a leafless tree.

  At first, I didn’t think anything about it. It was cold to be visiting outside, but not really strange. I don’t know what made me look again, but when I did I saw George step from behind the tree to shove his finger in another guy’s chest.

  I stopped in the parking lot and did a double take. Was that really George? It sure looked like him from the distance. I noticed he was wearing his letter jacket. It had to be him. Michelle didn’t notice me stop and kept walking to her car. I tried to figure out who the people with George were and why they all looked so angry. I took a few steps that direction. Someone from the group glanced at me, and I stopped in surprise. What was Laurie doing here with George? />
  Laurie froze when our eyes met. She cast a worried look at her group then quickly walked straight towards me. She shot a couple of glances over her shoulder as she closed the distance between us. When she got to me she didn’t stop just grabbed my arm and spun me around.

  “You have to get out of here before they see you.”

  She sounded terrified, and that was enough to scare me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, hurrying to keep up with her brisk steps. “Who’s George talking to?”

  I craned my neck trying to see what was going on.

  “Where’s your car?” Laurie asked looking up and down the row of parked vehicles.

  “We’re in Michelle’s,” I said about the time Michelle came back to see what was keeping me.

  “Laurie? Hey, girl. What are you doing here? We finally found a dress for Kristen. Did she show you?”

  Laurie walked right past her to the car. “You have to go.” She looked over her shoulder. “Now!” she added when we both stood staring at her.

  “Are you okay? I asked, knowing she was a ball of nerves but not knowing why. “Should we call the police or something.”

  “No!” she almost yelled. She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “Just go and forget you saw me or George here.”

  “George is here too?” Michelle peered around with a frown. “Are you here with him?”

  Laurie swallowed and looked back again. “I need to get back before someone gets hurt. You two have to go.” She jogged between parked cars and disappeared from sight.

  I was so surprised by the way she was acting, I simply stood and stared after her. Michelle took her warning to heart though.

  “Get in the car, Kristen.” She took my dress and shoved it into the back. “She was really scared. We have to leave before we get her in trouble. Come on.”

  I jumped into the car, and Michelle sped out of the parking lot with both hands gripping the wheel. I glanced back a few times but couldn’t see George or Laurie. Michelle and I didn’t talk until we hit the interstate.

  “What do you think that was about?” I finally asked. I’d run through several possible scenarios but none of them made sense.

  “Laurie said we had to leave before they saw us. Who was she talking about? Did you see who she was with?”

  I tried to remember what the guys talking to George looked like but I’d been so surprised to recognize George I hadn’t paid much attention to anyone else. “I think one of the guys was older,” I said not very helpfully. “They were talking to George, and George looked mad.”

  “Maybe they were from the team we beat yesterday? They might have recognized George and decided to take out their disappointment on him.”

  I considered that, but it didn’t feel right. “Only George had on a letter jacket. I’d think if they were football players they’d be wearing theirs too. And like I said, the guy George was talking to looked too old for high school.”

  Michelle turned on her blinker and merged into another lane. She kept her eyes on the road. “Who do you think they are then?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, but then a chilling thought hit me. “They could be drug dealers.”

  “What?” Michelle frowned at me. “George doesn’t take drugs.”

  “I’m not so sure,” I told her Matt’s theory about the steroids. She was quiet while she considered it.

  “I can see that,” she said softly. “George has changed a lot this year. I know you keep saying how stressed he is, but using drugs could cause changes too.”

  “Why would Laurie be with him though? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Are you sure they don’t have something going on the side like he had with Misty?”

  I shook my head back and forth. “I’m not sure of anything.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the year. “Why would she warn Matt away from me if it was George she was interested in?”

  “Maybe we should go back.” Michelle lifted her foot off the gas and let the car slow. “Laurie was really worried. She said someone could get hurt. What if they hurt her?”

  My stomach flipped over. Was she in danger? Was George? Drug deals went wrong all the time and people got shot. At least according to the news. I shivered.

  “I don’t think we should go back. She didn’t seem worried about herself, just us. We might just cause problems for her if we interrupt whatever’s going on.”

  “That’s true.” Michelle chewed on her lip some more but pressed the accelerator again. “We have to talk to her. Send her a text. See if she’ll meet us somewhere.”

  I did and my phone pinged almost instantly with her reply. “She says she’ll be at the gym at school around four.” Michelle and I both looked at the clock. It was a quarter ‘til three.

  We killed time going over hundreds of unlikely scenarios. At four, I slunk into the gym with Michelle on my heels and checked both ways for anything that looked out of place. Specifically, bad guys with guns. Or knives. Or even baseball bats.

  My imagination had been going wild during the last hour and Michelle was quick to throw even more scary scenarios at me that I would never have come up with on my own. To say I was nervous didn’t begin to touch how I felt.

  The gym looked pretty normal A group of guys had a basketball game going, and some younger kids, maybe here with their big brothers, pushed tiny cars around the smooth floor.

  “She’s not here,” I whispered to Michelle although there was no one close enough to hear us talking.

  “This is so exciting.” Michelle scanned the bleachers with an eager look.

  “Exciting isn’t exactly the word I’d choose,” I muttered. Terrifying was more like it.

  “Let’s check the locker room. Maybe she wants to meet somewhere more private.”

  I really didn’t want to be anywhere “more private.” I wanted to be in the middle of a large crowd, preferably with armed guards standing by. “Don’t you watch movies?” I glared at her. “People never get killed out in the open in front of witnesses, it’s always somewhere dark and secluded. I think we should stay here and wait.”

  I planted my feet and crossed my arms. I’d sent another text to George. I didn’t mention seeing him, just asked what he was up to today. I still hadn’t heard back.

  Michelle gave up her search of the bleachers and looked at me. “Come on, Kristen. We’ll just peek in the locker room. If Laurie isn’t there we’ll come right back out.”

  I rubbed a hand over my face. That so didn’t sound like a good idea, but Michelle was already walking across the gym to the girl’s locker room. I checked my phone one more time to make sure I hadn’t missed a text from George that would hopefully explain everything. I hadn’t. Michelle was halfway across the gym. She was going with or without me.

  After a brief internal debate, I jogged after her. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” I hissed at her as I caught up. I wrapped my arms around myself and stared at the painted green locker door apprehensively. Sure I was curious about what was going on. I also wanted to live to see my nineteenth birthday.

  Michelle didn’t seem to share my fears. She pulled open the locker room door and disappeared inside. Oh, wow. My legs shook. I had to force myself to follow her.

  It was dim inside. The lights weren’t on so the only light came from the high narrow windows overhead. There was plenty of light to see by but not enough to drive away the eerie factor.

  I almost ran into Michelle when I rounded the row of tall green lockers. She was at a dead stop. I looked around her to see Laurie hunched over on a bench with her head in her hands.

  “Laurie?” I said.

  Chapter 26

  Laurie’s head snapped up and her red-rimmed eyes met mine. Michelle crossed the room to sit on the bench beside her so I followed her lead and gingerly sat on her other side.

  “What’s wrong?” Michelle asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Did those people at the mall hurt you?”

  Laurie l
et out a harsh laugh but shook her head. “No.”

  I expected her to elaborate, but she dropped her head back into her hands. Her blond hair hid her face. I raised my brows at Michelle in question. Now what?

  “Is George in some kind of trouble?” I was worried since he still hadn’t replied to my texts and my thoughts turned dark. What if those guys had jumped him and left him in the parking lot? What if he was dead?

  I gave Laurie’s arm a shake as panic clawed at me. “Does George need help?” I yelled at her.

  She looked up and shook her head. “He’s okay. Right now.” I didn’t like the ominous sound of those last two words.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Michelle asked. “Right now?”

  Laurie looked at Michelle before turning to me. “Look, he fell in with some bad guys. As long as he does what they say they won’t hurt him.” Her lips looked pinched and her cheeks were pale. “If he goes along with them they won’t hurt anyone.”

  “Who else would they hurt?” I whispered as a premonition clutched my heart. “Me?”

  Laurie looked down at her brown boots.

  “Me?” I raised my voice as panic echoed the word through the deserted locker room. I jumped to my feet and stared down at her.

  Laurie stood too. “George borrowed money from some dangerous people. Now he’s trying to renegotiate the terms of the loan.”

  “He borrowed money?” I frowned and stared at her. I knew things were tight for him, but he made a decent wage working at the body shop. “Did he need a loan for prom?” I tried to wrap my mind around what he was involved in and why it was putting me in danger.

  Laurie gave me an incredulous look. “Not unless he’s planning to buy the limo to take you to prom in. He borrowed a little more than a tux rental.”

  “His house,” I whispered as the thought hit me. He’d borrowed money to help pay for their house since his dad was out of work. “So what now? He has to repay them and everything will be fine?” The look in Laurie’s eyes told me that wasn’t the case.

  “How are you involved in this?” Michelle sat on the bench giving Laurie a dark look.