by C. L. Stone
“Damn,” Mike said. He jumped up off the ground. “Maybe next time.” He stalked off toward the door to the school. His friends were giggling behind him.
“What the hell was that?” Nathan asked from the grass. He had been on his back nearly the entire time but he was sitting up now.
“Second marriage proposal this week,” Luke said, holding up two fingers. “Am I going to need to keep a scoreboard?”
“There might be another one in here somewhere,” North said. He pulled out a handful of folded notes from his pockets, tossing them at his brother. “I didn’t go through them yet.”
My eyes widened, my hand going over my heart. Was this school so much different than my other one? “Who is it?” I asked. “Who keeps writing to me?”
“It’s different boys,” North said. “Homeroom, geometry and history now.”
Kota pulled out two folded notes from his pocket. “English, too,” he said, looking guiltily at me.
Victor pressed a palm to his eye. “God, I swear, I feel like we’re back in elementary school.”
“Why are they writing?” I asked, confused. “Are they being mean?”
They all blinked at me and started laughing.
“I don’t talk to anyone but you guys,” I said over their laughter, not really understanding. “No one ever talked to me at my old school.”
“Sweetie,” Luke said. He collected my hand and tugged me until I was sitting next to him on the bench. “What did you do at your old school?”
“Went to class, and went home. There wasn’t much else I could do.”
“Did you bother to try to talk to anyone?” he asked.
I blinked, and shook my head. “I never really had the opportunity or knew what to say. Most people ignore me.”
Kota started to laugh. “Everyone probably thought you were stuck up. Since you’re here and talking to us, everyone thinks you’re open and popular so they’re trying to climb the ranks.”
“What are you talking about? I’m not popular.”
They all laughed.
I groaned, putting my elbows on my knees to rest my face in my hands. “You’re all crazy.”
♥♥♥
The other classes were quiet. I’d expected to see Mr. Hendricks or Mr. McCoy pop in, as I’d seen them so often that week. When I made it to gym class without incident, I was happy.
It was the first official day we were supposed to get dressed for gym. When I changed into the uniform, the shorts looked really short. I clapped my palms to my thighs. They were a few inches shorter than my longest fingers. Did the school check for this kind of thing? The t-shirt at least was normal, and perhaps a little big for my frame even though I’d ordered a small.
I’d brought another clip with me just for gym class. I twisted my hair, pulling it away from my face. Gabriel couldn’t do anything about it now. At least I hoped he wouldn’t.
I was walking with the other girls toward the gym when a hooting echoed through the hallway. The girls crowded at the door, peering out. A few of the girls had already entered the gym, crossing the room. The guys were sitting in formation and started hooting cat calls.
“What are we going to do?” one of the girls said, looking back at us. “They’re being stupid.”
The others were talking about taking the long way around so we had a shorter distance to walk.
“Let’s just all go out together,” I suggested. The others turned to me and I pushed my finger to my lip, unsure. It surprised me that I’d said anything. Maybe the boys were right. Maybe I needed to relax and open up more. “I mean, let’s go and get it over with. Who cares what they do? We’ll be doing this all year and we can’t just avoid it. Just don’t let them think we care. They’ll get over it.”
The other girls smirked. We waited until everyone was together and as a group, we moved into the gym. The guys started clapping and hooting again. The echo in the gym was deafening. I recognized a few of the boys from the fight yesterday. The one who started it wasn’t among them. I wondered if he came to school at all or if Kota managed to wire him.
“Ignore it,” I said to the group, quieter so the guys couldn’t hear. “Just move to your seat and sit. If you look at them, they’ll keep doing it.” If I learned anything from my old schools, it was how to use being invisible as an advantage, especially when it came to avoiding contact with bullies until I was too boring to be any fun. Even I didn’t want that kind of attention.
Focused, the girls moved toward the other end of the room. Some of them did glance up at the boys, but for the most part we all ignored the hollering. I caught Nathan and Gabriel sitting on the ground in their assigned spots, both of them watching but not participating. I was happy about that.
The other boys did manage to quiet down after we were all sitting. The boys were rushed into what would be their warm up exercises. The girls’ coach waited until the boys were done before she started talking. She spoke loudly, ordering us to stand up and stretch. She walked through our lines as she gave off commands, getting us to do push-ups and sit-ups and jumping jacks.
The boys took out basketballs and started playing. When the girls were done, we were told next week we would start with tennis. This week, since we only had one more day left, they would just let us do our warm up exercises and we could talk the rest of the time.
“Hey,” one of the girls said. She was tall, lean, with pixie-styled brown hair and big brown eyes. “Don’t we get to play basketball?”
The coach smiled at her. “Want to play?”
The girl nodded.
Coach blew the whistle at her neck, turning around. “Okay boys,” she barked at them. “Play half court. The girls want to play.”
The boys grunted. Nathan and Gabriel were the only two who seemed to perk up at the idea.
I stood up, not wanting to sit down since I’d been sitting all day. I was still sore and knew if I just warmed up my muscles, they’d feel a little better. I joined the brown-haired girl and three other girls followed. The others stayed on the floor so they could talk.
Since there were only five of us, we split up. I joined Karen, the tall one who had asked to play basketball first, and the other three were on the other team. Karen was competitive. She barked orders at me and constantly asked for the ball. I didn’t mind. The action was getting me to stop thinking about detention that afternoon.
“Oy,” Gabriel’s voice called from the other side of the gym. He stood with his hands on his hips, watching us. Nathan stood beside him. “Let some of us join,” Gabriel said. “It’s too crowded on this side.”
Karen held the basketball, rolling it in her hands. “Fine,” she said.
Five boys joined us on our side. Gabriel flashed a grin at me and Nathan was beaming. He seemed to have forgotten he was hurt. Maybe he had the same idea about warming up muscles, or he’d taken some pain-killers and was feeling better.
The girls and the guys split up so it was five on each team. A couple of the other boys kept guarding Karen since she was the tallest and clearly the best out of us. For the most part, the boys had the advantage. The other girls were average sized and like me, simply outmatched.
I wasn’t tall enough to attempt to cover Gabriel or Nathan. It didn’t seem to matter. Both hovered over me more often than anyone else. I couldn’t touch the ball before they managed to wrestle it away from me.
When the ball bounced out of bounds, Gabriel ran to fetch it. He caught it and dribbled it at the boundary, trying to figure out who to pass it to. An idea floated into my mind. I waited quietly in front of him as if I was tired and wasn’t about to attempt to try to stop him. He bounced the ball a couple of times as Karen and the other girls were doing their best to guard everyone else. He focused on Nathan.
When he lifted the ball to pass, I jumped to life, running across in front of him to snatch it from the air. His eyes popped open in surprise and he ran after me. The others were preoccupied and I had no one to toss it to. In a desperate move,
I spun, aimed for the basket from beyond the three point line and made a shot. The ball sank cleanly into the net. It was pure luck.
“Holy shit,” Gabriel said, looking stunned. He laughed, came after me and hooked an arm around my waist, swinging me off the ground. “That was awesome.”
“Hey, boys,” called one of the female coaches. “Keep your hands off of my girls or I’ll give you detention.”
Gabriel smirked and let me go, a hand remained on my back until my knees stopped shaking.
“That’s all it takes?” Nathan called out. He had the ball in his hands at that moment. He laughed, tossed the ball right at me.
Surprised, I took it back, not understanding what he meant. He raced across the court after me. I half cried out, trying to run and dribble at the same time. I couldn’t get away from him. He hunched down, grabbed me by my thighs and hefted me up until I was sitting on his shoulder. He carried me that way until I was close enough to the basket and I could drop the ball inside easily to score.
“Hey!” The coach called. She pointed at Nathan. “That’s it. I warned you. Detention. Put her down.”
Nathan laughed, bending over and putting me down gently. He beamed. “I’ve got detention. I’ve got detention,” he taunted at me, wiggling his fingers in the air. The silver brace on his right hand glinted under the gym lights.
I tucked a hand to my side, laughing. Gabriel laughed, too. The others in the group stood by, shaking their heads and trying to understand what was so funny.
Change of Plans
After gym was over, I changed quickly and waited in the hallway for the guys. Nathan and Gabriel came around the corner and I breathed in relief that they weren’t held up by more taunting bullies.
Nathan brandished his detention slip, beaming.
“What do we do?” I asked. “I’ve never been in detention before.”
Gabriel smirked. “And you assume we have?”
Nathan read his slip. “I don’t know. It doesn’t say where to go.”
“Let’s go to the main office,” Gabriel said. “Someone there should know. Text Kota.”
Nathan fished out his phone as we walked against the flow of students. He sent a message to all the other guys about where we were headed.
We gathered outside of the main office. Kota was the last to arrive. My heart started to thud. I would miss the bus. Marie would notice. What now?
Kota opened the main office door and motioned to North and then to me. “We’ll go ask what to do,” he said. “The rest of you stay out here until we figure it out.”
While the others remained in the hall, I filed in behind Kota and North. We stood together in the main office waiting, as there were a couple of other students at the desk. The boys stood so close to me and they both had serious expressions on their faces. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting, but I wondered if they were waiting for Mr. McCoy or Mr. Hendricks to appear at any moment.
We waited our turn to talk to the secretary, who informed us that detention was held in the auditorium. “I think you all are the first this year.”
We left the office and told the other guys. We moved as a group to find the auditorium. When we were halfway down the main hallway, I realized the guys were surrounding me. Kota and North walked ahead, Gabriel and Nathan hovered close on either side of me, the other three trailed behind us. I was in the middle again. I didn’t know if they realized they’d done it. Maybe they did. They seemed to do everything with purpose.
When we got to the right hallway, the doors to the auditorium were locked.
“Does this mean we can go home?” Gabriel asked. He hooked an arm around my neck, half hanging off of me. “If no one shows up, how will they know if we’re here?”
“I think our bus is already gone,” Nathan said. He leaned against the metal door, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “We can wait. If we don’t do it today, we’ll end up having to do it tomorrow anyway. I don’t want to do this twice if we don’t have to.”
We all watched and waited next to the doors. I was starting to stare off at the wall when Kota cleared his throat. He tilted his head toward the end of the hallway to get us to look.
Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green marched down toward us. The guys straightened. Gabriel let go of me to stand tall. The others, while they weren’t saluting, stood still, posture perfect. While I was confused, I followed their example, trying to look humble.
Mr. Blackbourne continued to walk past us. Dr. Green stopped in mid-step, motioning with his head at us. “Let’s go,” he said.
I pushed a finger to my lip, unsure if he meant me.
Dr. Green caught my hesitation. “You, too, Miss Sang,” he said calmly.
What about detention? I glanced at Kota and the others, but their faces were all the same granite expression. Now I regretted telling Mr. Blackbourne. Were they displeased that he knew? Wouldn’t he have found out anyway?
We collected our things and followed them outside. The temperature had changed from uncomfortable to broil, and the humidity was turned on maximum, sweat guaranteed. We were led out to the old wood bleachers at the abandoned baseball field. Mr. Blackbourne pointed at the seats and the others clustered together on various levels of the benches and faced Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green. I slipped onto the edge next to Victor, feeling the heat from the warm wood radiating through my skirt.
Mr. Blackbourne crossed his arms over his chest, standing in front of us with that steely gaze. Dr. Green stopped beside him. Dr. Green put his hands behind his back and his face became unreadable. This was business.
Mr. Blackbourne stared down Kota. “Start talking.”
“Mr. McCoy isolated out Sang,” he said. “We needed someone to go in with her. I think otherwise it would have been her and McCoy alone.”
“It’s not the first time,” Silas spoke up. “He bumped into her the first day of school and started to blame her for it. He wanted to give her detention then, too.”
All of the guys turned to me. My face was radiating as I kept my finger at my lip, pushing it to my teeth. “I don’t know why,” I said. “I’ve been trying to avoid him since the start of school.”
“We’ll have to figure out why later,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He jabbed a finger in the air toward their faces. “We’ve got other things to do, and so far Sang is the one doing your job.”
They had a job? What were they supposed to do other than be good students and set an example to the others? I was the worst example so far. Fighting. Detention on the first week! And I got all of them involved.
“Gabriel, Luke, I need you two to work out a uniform. Victor, make the calls to find out who will produce seven by tomorrow morning. Kota and Nathan, go tail McCoy and see if he’s still here. Give me updates. North and Silas, you’re with me.” He pointed at Kota, and made a motion with his hands.
Kota pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It looked like the notes I had written that morning about Mr. McCoy’s office. Kota handed the paper off to Mr. Blackbourne. Kota and Nathan left their bags and started sprinting to the school again. North and Silas followed Mr. Blackbourne in the same direction.
I folded my arms around my knees as I watched Gabriel and Luke moving together to get started. Victor had his phone out and was thumbing through it. I felt useless. Were they going to go wire McCoy now? Could they get into trouble? This wasn’t a student, it was the vice-principal.
Plus, Mr. Blackbourne had to deal with Mr. Hendricks’ demands. With uniforms, they’d get into more fights. What was I going to do? I didn’t know how to help or even if I should. It all felt like my fault. Maybe if I wasn’t in the middle, Mr. Blackbourne would have stuck to his insistence that the guys couldn’t wear uniforms.
“Miss Sang,” Dr. Green called to me. He was still standing where he had been in front of the benches. “Would you like to take a walk with me?”
My eyebrows lifted. I glanced at Victor. He had the phone pressed to his ear but he nodded to me, silently confirmi
ng with me to do what I was told.
I left my things on the bench and stumbled down to Dr. Green. He smiled pleasantly and I felt a little better that I was being told to walk with him instead of Mr. Blackbourne. We started away from the others, walking around the rusted fence of the baseball field.
Dr. Green was quiet until we were out of earshot off the others. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It looks like I might have made you a target.”
“With the vice-principal?” I asked. “He was the one that started it at registration.”
“Yes,” Dr. Green said. Locks of his sandy hair fell into his eyes and he brushed them away. “But maybe if I hadn’t intervened, he might not have been so determined to come after you.” He dipped his hands into his pockets. “What do you know about us, Miss Sang? I believe they’ve mentioned the Academy, right?”
“It’s a private school,” I said. “They normally attend there and this year they’re on loan to try to be an example. If you can help improve the grades, there will be some approval for more money to build a second school.”
“Right,” he said. He unlatched the gate of the baseball field. He held it ajar for me and I entered. He closed it behind himself and strolled toward the pitcher’s mound. “Although I think we’ll have to make a change of plans. Mr. Hendricks wasn’t very happy that we stepped in. He would never admit he needed us. Since we’re here, though, I believe he has developed a new idea on how to utilize us.”
“And he wants uniforms to get other students to pick on them?” I asked. “I thought the point of the boys being here was to try to get the good students to do better. Like setting an example?”
“That’s part of it,” he said. He stepped onto the mound, drawing still and staring out toward the tree line. “A quick way to boost grades for school is figuring out the worst students and catching them out in something to legally expel them. We didn’t like that idea. It’s only depositing bad students into other schools or ensuring they drop out altogether. It displaces the burden instead of solving anything.”
