Colin’s mouth dropped open in surprise. The gym was unrecognizable, totally transformed. The air was dark and heavy. Smoke curled around the edges of the room, and laser lights pulsed through the air. The bleachers were hidden behind dark curtains, and blocking the fabric were the balloon trees they’d seen when they’d walked in. Music pulsed from a stage in the center of the room, and a hundred bodies moved in uncoordinated jerks to Milli Vanilli’s “Girl You Know It’s True.” Jay watched a group of tuxedos stirring their hands, doing the Cabbage Patch.
They passed the misanthropes in the back, fat rednecks who sat splayed out in chairs, barely fitting in their jackets. They were discreetly spitting Red Man chewing tobacco into Dixie cups, while their girlfriends whined and pulled at their arms, begging them to dance. Jay saw several taller heads stalking about the periphery on the edge of darkness, swiveling to check on students. The chaperones. Jay ducked down so quickly, he bumped into one of the rednecks and nearly spilled his cup of chew.
“Watch it,” came a piglike grunt from the dark.
Hunched over, Jay made his way into the largest knot of students on the dance floor. The music was much louder, and he allowed himself up to look around. The edges of the gym were blocked by a wall of dancing bodies.
Stevie and Colin were standing, uncertain. Liz was searching the gym.
“We gotta split up. Keep an eye out for any sign of Hal. I’ll stay here and see what I can find.”
Liz, Stevie, and Colin dispersed into darkness. Bodies clustered in around Jay, and Jay moved his feet a little in what he hoped was the rhythm of the song. Soon, he caught the surrounding faces looking at him and smiling. Encouraged, he began to move his arms as well. A few people clapped. He felt a little silly dancing by himself, but his dexterity score of 10 apparently came with some free dance moves. Before he could even think about what he was doing, he fell to the floor and did a split. There were shrieks of delight, and the prom-goers broke into applause. This was the opposite of what he needed to be doing. Blood rushed to his cheeks, and he held up a hand in acknowledgment. He moved to the other side of the dance floor.
The belting voices of Milli Vanilli came to an end to great cheers from the crowd. And then Jay heard two voices he recognized. He cocked his gaze to see Gretchen and Amber on the periphery of the dance floor with three other cheerleaders. They were so involved in their conversation, they didn’t spot him.
“Oh my God, he’s cute in that tux. And he looks so proud.”
Jay felt the color rising in his cheeks. They were talking about him.
“I feel bad. Should we tell him?”
“Well, she’s not gonna do it anymore. Not after her episode last Wednesday.”
“But it was the whole reason she asked him to prom. How does she not remember?”
“Oh my God, it would have been so mean.”
“Yeah, and she was the one going on and on about how funny it would be to see Jay’s face when Jeremy threw him naked into the gym.”
Jay felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He staggered back through the crowd, leaning against the DJ booth. Paula Abdul’s “The Promise of a New Day” began to play, and the kids around him resumed dancing. Jay was right next to a speaker and could feel each hit of the snare drum tremble his body.
He felt sick. His vision blurred. His heart was pounding. He was seeing double. Beyond this gym was another.
It felt much the same, except now he was back by the gym doors, and he could feel the damp air on his skin. The crowd around him had stopped dancing, and they were staring at him in shock. He looked down. His muscles were gone: he was so skinny, his ribs stuck out his sides. He moved to cover his naked body with insufficient hands, and he ran back to the doors, flashing a small naked butt to the crowd. Laughter erupted all around him. He pulled on the doors, but they were sealed shut. The laughter was spreading: everyone in school was joining in. There were shrieks of joy, and hands reached out, poking him, pinching his exposed butt. He was crying now, his back against the door, no longer bothering to cover himself. He was scanning the gym, looking for a chaperone, desperate to find a friend. There was Liz, standing between two of the Johns, staring at him.
“Help!” he screamed.
But the corners of her mouth turned up. She was in on the joke. Tears were pouring down his cheeks, hot with hatred. He collapsed on the floor, his mind imprinted with that vision of Liz, as he promised himself that he would someday take revenge.
And then the vision was gone. Its passing left Jay feeling empty, as if something inside him had just torn in half. He pushed himself up off the DJ booth and stood on the dance floor, heavy as lead. Bodies jostled around him, but he didn’t notice. It was Liz. Jeremy had pushed him to the brink, but Liz had pushed him over. All the sleepless nights he’d experienced in Hal’s brain, the evenings alone, the coldness growing year by year. In a sudden, cruel clarity, he understood why Hal had trapped Liz.
He pushed his way through the dancers, no longer limiting his strength. Students tumbled out of his way, glancing back at him with angry faces.
A junior got in his face. “What the hell, man?”
Jay grabbed his chin and threw him onto the floor. The dancers gasped and leapt back, giving Jay a ring of space. Jay strode toward the gym doors. Liz ran over from the edge of the dance floor and hissed in his ear.
“What are you doing?”
Jay didn’t answer.
“Did someone do something to you back there?”
“You did!” Jay hissed, not looking at her. “Thirty years ago. You helped Jeremy to humiliate me at prom. That’s why you asked me to go with you last week, isn’t it? Back when you were still an NPC? You were just executing the script of Hal’s worst memory. You were about to do to me what you did to him.”
Liz grabbed his arm, and her voice sounded afraid.
“Yes, I’m sorry. It was stupid, and I regretted it.”
“No, you didn’t. You’re forgetting that my memory is better than yours. You laughed.”
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“You thought you could glaze over that part, huh? That you had a role to play in this. Because I’m an NPC and too stupid to understand? Or maybe I just don’t matter.”
“No, I thought about telling you—”
“Then why didn’t you?” He turned and walked away.
Liz strode after him, silent.
Jay sneered. “I’ll tell you why: because you were worried I wouldn’t share the disk with you.”
“Shh.” Liz looked around fearfully.
“Don’t shh me!” Jay yelled, pushing her face. Liz tumbled backward into a folding chair. The rednecks paused from their conversation, frozen. Liz stared up at Jay from where she sat in the chair, a look of horror on her face. Jay felt the smallest bit of sympathy, but he quickly tamped it down.
“You know what? This is between you and Hal. You guys work it out.”
“What about the plan?”
“Good luck with that.”
Jay stalked out the gym doors, into C-Court. Immediately, Paula Abdul quieted. C-Court was mostly empty, except for Ms. Shirell at the gym entrance. She spotted Jay and her eyes widened.
“Once you leave, you can’t come back.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re not even real,” Jay muttered, storming toward the doors.
“What did you say?!” Ms. Shirell shouted.
Jay ignored her.
“You’re leaving?”
Jay nodded. “I’m gonna raze this town. I’m so done with high school.”
The music in the gym cross-faded to Seal’s “Crazy” as Jay banged through the doors and nto the parking lot. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still thick with clouds. The parking lot was dark except for the streetlamp post feebly attempting to light the parking lot with its orange glow. Jay strode past a Buick. Through f
ogged glass, he could see silhouettes sucking a marijuana cherry in the back seat. He banged on the hood of their car and watched them startle. He stopped at a puddle that stretched across the parking lot. Colin joined him.
“What happened back there?”
“She pranked me! At her prom. Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. She’s as bad as Jeremy.”
“But if we don’t help her—”
He rounded on Colin, furious. “Dude, none of this means anything. Your life. My life. Who cares what happens to a forty-year-old woman who was stupid enough to get trapped in here? You think we’re in any better shape than she is? Hal could delete us in a second. And what was our stupid plan gonna do, anyway? You think we could actually stop Hal?”
Jay was shouting. “I shoulda listened to Hal in the first place. He offered me everything for nothing in return. I should’ve just used the disk like he said.”
Colin stared at his feet. “I don’t think you would’ve said that two weeks ago.”
“How do you know? How do you what I was thinking two weeks ago? You don’t even know what I’m capable of.”
“You’re not Hal.”
“Yes, I am.” Jay’s face was close to Colin’s, contorted in rage. “I literally am Hal. I could kill her, Colin. For what she did. I have that in me.”
Music swelled down Simmons Road, and Jay heard the familiar Kris Kross song, “Jump.” A stream of trucks barreled toward them. In the center, like a presidential motorcade, was a brand-new red Mazda Miata. The entourage flew into the parking lot, winding its way through the cars like a snake. When all the trucks were fitted in, they shut off their engines in uniform. The only sound left was Kris Kross blasting from the Miata’s rolled-down windows, and the dull thump of the gym. Jay stared at the cars, still thinking of Liz and Hal, not yet realizing the significance of the new Miata.
“I’m going home.”
He started making his way around the puddle. Jeremy leapt out of the Miata. The doors of the trucks opened all at once. The Johns stepped out in dark tuxedos, looking like the Secret Service. Jeremy emerged in a black suit. Jay walked toward the line of Johns, shaking his head.
“You know what’s funny?” Jeremy asked as Jay drew closer. “She loved the idea when I told her.”
Jay clenched his fists. “I’m sure.”
“I wanted to leave you alone. I thought the whole thing sounded like too much work.” Jeremy stepped around the puddle to meet Jay.
“Well, she’s all yours now. Enjoy.” He moved to push past.
Jeremy held out a palm, stopping Jay. “Oh, I’m not here for her.”
Jay scowled. “Okay. Well, you’ve got five seconds.”
Jeremy grinned. “Guess I’d better make them count.”
He swung a fist into Jay’s stomach. The force of it knocked the wind out of him, and Jay toppled over, falling to the wet ground, gasping. He looked up in surprise, noticing for the first time that Jeremy’s chest seemed bigger. His hands, poking out of the blue suit already dark with rain, were covered in veins. He grabbed Jay and pulled him up. The Johns had gathered behind Jeremy like a storm, and Jay noticed that they, too, seemed thicker. Colin wavered by the C-Court doors.
“Stop, or I’ll flag a chaperone!” Colin protested.
Jeremy grinned at Jay. “Don’t copy that floppy.”
Jay threw his weight against Jeremy’s grasp, struggling to get free, applying all of his strength. But Jeremy’s grip was like iron. The Johns grabbed Jay’s hands and pulled them behind his back. They were jerking him back toward the gym.
Last Dance
In the gym, the DJ spun “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base, and the kids went wild. Colin secretly liked the song. He never told Jay, who held in disdain any music not recommended by Marvelous Mark. But Colin had actually ordered the Ace of Base cassette from the Columbia catalog. When he would sometimes go down to A-Court alone—another secret he never told Jay—and the song was playing, Colin would hum along. Nobody seemed to bother Colin when he was in A-Court by himself. Which was part of the reason he never told his friend. Jay could be incredibly sensitive.
Now, Colin plowed through the dancing bodies in the gym, searching for Liz and Stevie. Being big had its advantages.
He found Stevie sitting at a table, alone. When she saw Colin, she brightened.
“Where have you guys been? I did a lap around the room, and when I came back, everyone was gone. I thought you’d ditched me. No sign of you-know-who—”
“Jeremy’s here,” Colin informed her. “And I think he’s used the disk.”
She sat up, looking around the gym.
“Where’s Jay?”
“They’ve got him. If you-know-who isn’t here yet, he will be soon.”
“I lost Liz.”
“I’ll find her. You get to Tutorial.”
Stevie jumped up and slipped back into the darkness. Colin watched her disappear. Then he pushed his way toward the dance floor.
The Johns kicked open the C-Court doors and poured into the gym. Ms. Shirell beamed from the ticket booth.
“Fashionably late?”
Twelve of the Johns peeled off to block her view, letting Jeremy and the two other Johns drag Jay through the corridor. A hand covered Jay’s mouth, and Ace of Base drowned out his shouts.
A group of sophomore boys pressed their backs against the walls to let the Johns pass. They carried Jay into the bathroom, where the shocking fluorescents beat into his eyes. He squeezed them shut tight while the Johns stood him upright.
Jeremy’s voice was in his ear. “Strip.”
Jay snorted in disgust. “You can do anything you want, and your first act is to see me naked?”
“Oh, I got plans for that disk. But first, I owe you one.”
John H stretched a roll of duct tape over Jay’s mouth. John C and John B held Jay’s hands while John H pulled off his pants and his tuxedo jacket. Jay felt the cold bathroom air against his skin as they removed the last of his clothes. The Johns looked down and chuckled.
“You’re about to be every freshman’s nightmare.”
Jay’s mind raced. He knew that Hal would intervene to save him. But then, if Hal were watching, why hadn’t he already done so? Why hadn’t he intervened the moment Jeremy had gotten the disk? Perhaps Hal wasn’t watching. Perhaps he was already in the game, somewhere else.
John W, who was posted in the doorway, slapped the wall three times.
“Someone’s coming.”
The Johns opened a stall and threw Jay in. John H got in with him and shoved a warning finger in his face.
“Don’t breathe.”
The door shut, and Jay smelled the sickly sweet aroma of Calvin Klein Eternity. John H forced him down onto the seat, then hopped onto the toilet bowl, pressing his knees into Jay’s back and twisting his arm painfully. Jay grunted, listening to the footsteps echo on the tiled bathroom floor. The footsteps stopped, and there was a moment of silence. Then came an adult’s voice.
“Ya know, most students do their dancing in the gym.”
It was Mr. Amrine’s voice.
“We’re just taking a breather, Coach.”
“Uh-huh. Needed some fresh air?” He knocked the metal stall. “Someone in there?”
“John H had too much Mr. Pibb.”
“That true, John H?”
John H grunted behind Jay. “Almost done.”
“Just the fifteen of you in here? A freshman told me you might have a guest.”
“Just us, Coach,” Jeremy responded coolly.
“Well then, why don’t you guys sow some wild oats? There’s a small line outside this bathroom. You go on. I’ll keep Mr. H company.”
Jay felt John H’s grip slacken. Jay threw his elbow into his stomach, then kicked the door. It blasted back on its hinges, slamming into John
B. Mr. Amrine stared in surprise at the naked Jay.
“What the—!”
Jeremy looked back between Coach Amrine and Jay. Jay used the confusion to rush forward and smash a fist into Jeremy’s face. Jeremy spun around and Jay was off, rushing out of the bathroom. His naked feet slapped against the cold C-Court floors as he ripped the duct tape from his face. A group of freshman girls spotted him and screamed. But then their screams were quickly covered by the opening notes of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Shredding guitars pumped from the gym, and now everyone was screaming and pushing one another to get back in the gym.
“Nirvanaaa! It’s Nirvanaaaa!” a blonde girl cried.
A junior elbowed through the crowd. “Slam dance city!”
Jay slipped between them, hearing shouts of surprise and laughter.
Not far behind him, the horde of Johns, and a furious Jeremy holding his nose, burst from the bathroom, sprinting down the ramp to the gym. A dazed-looking Mr. Amrine followed, shouting at them to stop.
Adrenaline had taken over, and Jay’s only thought was to get away from the Johns. He rushed into the gym and heard Jeremy’s furious voice boom behind him.
“Shut the doors! Lock him in, and don’t let him leave.”
Invisible energy coursed through the gym. The spell of Nirvana transformed the dance floor. Bodies roiled, throwing themselves against one another. Boys and girls thrashed their heads back and forth. Smoke machines filled the room with fog, and Jay pushed through the passing bodies with little notice. One sophomore saw him, laughed, and gave him a high five. Lasers flickered through the smoke. Jeremy slipped through the gym doors and, spotting Jay in the crowd, pointed.
Through the crowd, Jay saw Liz between two tuxedoed shoulders. He remembered when she’d laughed at him in Hal’s memory. But now, instead of a smile, her face was creased with worry. She was staring at something in the corner. Jay followed her gaze.
There, through the fog, emerged a short boy with broad shoulders and thick arms. Jay felt a surrealness that made his head swim. The boy shared his face. It was him. He looked exactly like Jay, except he was still in a tuxedo. The boy looked grim, and he was pushing his way through the crowd toward Jay. It was Hal.
In Beta Page 19
