The Big Boys' League: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings Book 3)

by Tiffany Sala

  Marcia grimaced. “That wouldn’t benefit anyone, Aileen. Aside from how impossible it would be for them to have two separate schools, their lives completely cut in half… you know this system only stays in balance because I don’t leave them here long enough for him to really go off the rails.”

  “So that’s it.” I knew I sounded sulky at that moment, and I didn’t care. I was eighteen, right? If my preferred method of responding to situations was to fly into a rage and stomp off into my room, that was appropriate.

  “Not at all, Aileen. Like I said, you will both be encouraged to visit any time. Every other week if you can make that work. But your father has to figure out how to facilitate that on his own from now on. I can’t put my life on hold any more just because he keeps his in wilful disarray.”

  She moved so I had to look her in the eyes. “I was hoping you would be on my side with this, Aileen. This might even be the jolt he needs to get things going again.”

  “I don’t think so, Marcia.”

  Marcia reached forward to touch my hair before she remembered who we were now. “That’s not like you, Aileen. You always manage to find the positive side of any situation.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” I said, “but there isn’t one here. I just can’t believe Dad has it in him to be any different to how he is now.”

  “And I can’t believe anyone with the talent your father has wouldn’t be able to do better.”

  I shrugged. “Well, Marcia, I look forward to seeing you and my brothers every other year or so.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it hard before she said anything, as if her impulse response needed to be eaten in its entirety before she could move on. “I’m not going to tell your father today, because I don’t have all the answers to the questions he’s going to ask yet. I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Can you promise me you’ll make sure this stays between us for the moment?”

  “I can’t promise it won’t get too awkward for me to keep to myself,” I said. “But I’m not going to intentionally reveal it. I’ll try as hard as I can to let you do it in your own way. But you’ve got to do it soon.”

  Marcia sighed. “Thank you, Aileen. And… I really am sorry about everything.”

  “You’re not the one who has anything to be sorry for,” I said, the words feeling reluctant even as I formed them.

  Chapter Four

  I got through the whole next morning without having to think about much, just sitting in class absorbing what we were being told and not letting myself think too much about any of the areas of my life that were sucking excessively.

  Then over recess I went to the main office, as requested, to sort out the computer issue. Mr. Henderson the technical guy, who’d taught me for my computer class the year before, was waiting for me at reception. I considered it unlikely this was a good sign.

  “Aileen, we’ve had some developments in the computer situation. You’ve been…” He grimaced. “Well, you’ve been entirely removed from our main system. Actually… you shouldn’t worry about this yet, because we’re still looking into it, but we have reason to believe you might have been expunged from the state databases as well. That, essentially, you no longer exist as a student.”

  I grabbed onto the reception desk to hold myself up. “I’d hate to know at what point you think I should worry about this, Mr. Henderson.”

  “Richard,” spoke up Mrs. Delaney at reception, “I am fairly certain this was not how you were supposed to talk to her about the issue.”

  He ducked his head. “Maybe not. Sorry.” He took me into his office, but I had a feeling that was just so he could more privately tell me about how technically exciting the hack was.

  I perked up again at, “The good thing is, we have our culprit already.” I barely held myself back from screaming out something that would make it obvious I already knew his identity. I didn’t want to have to answer some of the questions that would come up there… or possibly have Mr. Henderson also tell me my dad was a terrible person for having the audacity to patent his own work, and that I deserved to have my school accounts hacked for his sins. It seemed entirely possible.

  “The one thing I haven’t worked out is Matt’s motive,” said Mr. Henderson. Wait, Matt? “I don’t know that he needs one to do it at all, of course… but to be specifically targeting you, it seems like there should be a reason for that.”

  I had a feeling this was another thing where Mrs. Delaney would say he wasn’t supposed to care about that detail, but right now it suited me to be curious too. I assumed he was talking about Matt Ehrlich, who I’d got to know a bit in that computer class last year and who was pretty passionate about technology, to say the least.

  Unlike plenty of my classmates, I’d never given Matt a hard time just for existing. He had absolutely no reason to mess with me. But he was the obvious choice for anyone with half a brain looking for a miscreant who had broken into a computer system.

  I knew better than to try to sort this out myself. Messing with a government-related school database had to be against the law. If Matt was pinned for this…

  “You’re right there’s someone behind this, Mr. Henderson,” I said, “but it’s not Matt. It’s Axel Bennett.”

  Mr. Henderson gave me a look like I’d suddenly become a problem he needed to solve. “Matt already confessed, Aileen. I had a quiet word with him this morning and he spoke up before I even finished talking; there’s no doubt he is involved. The only thing he won’t tell me is why.”

  “Axel made him do it, I’m certain of it. That’s why he wouldn’t tell you… Axel must have something on him he doesn’t want to get out.”

  I realised as I was saying it that what I was putting forward sounded like a literal conspiracy theory, but I couldn’t help it if reality was ridiculous.

  “Interesting,” said Mr. Henderson. “Why do you think Axel is involved, Aileen?”

  I reluctantly started on the explanation about Dad’s patent, even pulled out my phone to show him, but part of the reason I was so enthusiastic was because I could tell from the start he wasn’t buying it. I was used to that look. I’d been getting it from teachers since primary school, when I would tell them about how my father was an inventor, a genius who had come up with ideas for toys better than the stuff everyone else was buying from the shops, and they would tell me that must be so amazing while never believing a word of it. How would a single dad have time to come up with the best toys in the world—and anyway, they’d all met my dad, and so they were definitely wondering how he even managed parenting.

  Until that moment with Axel at that stupid party, I’d been doing so well at not talking to anyone in my new school community about Dad’s ‘interest’. I’d been worrying for a while after we moved and I switched to Sands whether my prior big-mouth behaviour would come back to haunt me. But it had been years now, so I was feeling pretty safe about it. These days, I asked people to tell me about themselves rather than bragging about what I had. I knew I didn’t have anything to brag about.

  Axel was the first person who’d believed me, and he’d only made me aware my situation was even more pathetic than I’d previously realised.

  “That just sounds like a silly fight to me, Aileen,” said Mr. Henderson. “Not the sort of thing that would make the scenario you’re putting forward come to pass. I mean, you know what Axel’s like.”

  “A complete arsehole who doesn’t care who he has to go through to get what he wants?”

  Mr. Henderson just made a noise at me that sounded rude and impatient. “If you can offer any suggestions for why Matt might choose to target you like this, I’m eager to hear them.”

  He was never going to see Axel as being potentially involved in this, was he? The problem was, Axel and Mr. Henderson were too close to being the same person. It was a kind of person that was very popular now everyone was embracing technology with pretty much every part of their body except their brains. Halfway-popular guys who got into technology were destine
d to become even more popular… and guys like Matt who actually cared about technology for more than money and popularity couldn’t relate.

  It really pissed me off that Axel was going to bring Matt down along with me. There was no way Matt had done anything to deserve it, and besides, at least the thing with me was that this would be just an inconvenience in my life. Something I might even be able to laugh about in the future. Being busted for hacking into a government computer was potentially everything-ending for Matt.

  “Have you already, um, reported Matt?” I asked.

  Mr. Henderson gave me a look that suggested he was getting curious about me again, and I had better be careful. “We agreed to gather more information before we move forward with anything like that.”

  “Can I talk to him privately first? I… I might be able to get him to talk to me if he feels like it’s just us.”

  “I’m probably pushing things giving you his name in the first place…”

  I met Mr. Henderson’s eyes and tried to think of nothing but how the two of us had a mystery to solve, and one inconvenient old-school geek in the path of that solution. “I don’t see any other way we’re going to figure this out, Mr. Henderson. If he won’t speak up now to save himself from what he must know will be really bad consequences, once he’s tied up in some official process he’s definitely not going to talk.”

  Mr. Henderson grimaced through a silent argument with himself, then stood up. “I want you to try to keep this between us, okay? I don’t know that the principal will understand.”

  You knew life was getting complicated when people kept asking you to share secrets with them.

  Matt was being kept in an unused office on the second floor, now set up sort of like an interrogation room with a piece of black cardboard tacked crooked over the glass panel on the door. When I finally met his eyes after closing the door behind me, he looked panicked enough to explode.

  “Aileen, I—I—”

  To help me along, I tried to think of myself as the ‘bad cop’ interrogator in all those crime shows. Or did I mean the ‘good cop’? They weren’t exactly my type of television. “I’m going to get right to the point, Matt, because we might not have much time. What did he threaten you with to delete me from my own education?”

  Matt’s jaw dropped. “Who—”

  “Axel, obviously, I’m not as clueless as everyone else around here. I know he’s got something on you.”

  Matt shuffled his feet on the floor.

  “For goodness sake,” I said on impulse, “did he find out what kind of porn you’ve looked up or something?” I put my hands over my face when he looked like he was suddenly biting back tears. “Were you seriously going to sink your entire life because of something everyone does?”

  “It was… pretty weird stuff,” Matt muttered. “I mean it was only once but—”

  I put a hand up to silence him. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but… was it weirder than spanking?”

  “I—”

  “Because that’s what I’ve looked up once or twice… well, a few times. It kind of does it for me and I am incredibly embarrassed that I’ve just told you this, but that’s how desperate I am to get through to you. Is whatever he has on you really worth destroying your life for?”

  “It was animals,” Matt muttered, “except not actual animals obviously, I’m not into that, it was people—”

  “Okay, that’s more information than I needed… but the point remains. Are you willing to let that potentially ruin your whole life?”

  Matt punched his fists down hard on the table. It made me jump, because I’d never expected Matt to make a move like that. It just showed what getting involved with guys like this would do to you—like, Tamara had punched a guy the other day, and he’d totally deserved it, but I was still trying to come to terms with it happening at all. “It’s too late, isn’t it? If I wanted to not ruin my whole life I should have been honest about what was happening before I broke into a government database from my own desktop machine, right?”

  He was probably right, but I wasn’t going to accept that just yet. “There has to be a better outcome from admitting you were coerced into it. That’s totally illegal.”

  “That’s assuming anyone will believe me. I don’t exactly have proof, that’s part of what’s kept my mouth shut.” Matt squirmed a little and squinted at me. Now he had that problem-solving look on his face, and I was worried. “Why does he want to go after you, anyway?”

  “Let’s just say… he wants something from me.” I realised when Matt grimaced and turned red that he’d taken that straight to the gutter. “No! Not sex, for goodness sake. If that was all he wanted, maybe we’d be able to come to some sort of agreement.” I fanned myself a little.

  “Don’t tell me you’re one of those girls who goes weak for a guy because he’s hot,” said Matt.

  “Fine, I won’t tell you. But there’s no shame in being open to the idea of letting someone in your pants for mutual satisfaction, even if it’s partly to get him off your case. Women have sex for a lot of worse reasons.”

  Matt shook his head, but he was looking a lot more relaxed than he had been before, and that was how I needed him to be if we were going to fight this properly. “Well that’s great for guys who can have that sort of effect on girls, I guess.”

  I cocked my head at him. “I don’t know, I’d consider giving you a whirl if you really were the one trying to do this to me.”

  “Can we please just pretend this whole conversation never happened?” Matt said.

  “Yeah, uh, sorry. I’ve been known to take things a bit too far.” With the tension lowered, though, I realised there was a useful takeaway there. “Well I promise you I’m not planning on offering myself up to Axel, but maybe I can still do something with my… womanly charm.”

  “Tell me if there’s anything I can do to help,” Matt said, “and then try not to tell me anything else about what you’re planning, please.”

  Chapter Five

  My heart was already pounding when I finally approached Axel. I had the feeling I was already on borrowed time in getting Mr. Henderson to hold off on having Matt’s situation passed on to the authorities.

  I’d texted Callie to ask where her group was hanging out because it seemed like the quickest way to find him, and if I seemed expected it might even be the easiest way to get him to talk to me without drama. But Callie was still staring at me unsmiling when I approached the group. Axel, at the centre of things talking loudly as if he had only done brilliant things that week, didn’t bother to notice me coming.

  Callie stepped forward to meet me. “How’s it going?”

  “I’ve got a bone to pick with Axel,” I told her.

  “Oh no.” Callie flicked her eyes over to Axel just as something he said made the entire rest of the group burst out laughing. “What’s he done?”

  “I’m surprised you’re willing to believe me so quickly.” Tamara, her actual best friend, had practically gotten the lie detector treatment for having drama with Steven, when it shouldn’t have been that much of a shock to her that Lucas’s friends were as sketchy as he could be.

  “Yeah well, lightning keeps on striking here,” said Callie.

  Carlene, that girl Callie had been getting friendly with since getting together with Lucas, had sidled up to join us. I didn’t think much of her, but I tried to keep my feelings off my face for the moment. Anyone could have more to them than you expected. “Is there going to be a storm?”

  “It’s a storm between Aileen and Axel,” Callie explained to her. I was a little too busy biting down on a smile to explain.

  “He had me deleted from the state rolls,” I said.

  I was actually relieved when their jaws dropped. It was starting to feel like this absolutely insane turn of events wasn’t so shocking after all.

  Carlene turned right around and yelled over at Axel from where he was holding court with the rest. “Hey Axel, did you really go and get
Callie’s friend deleted?”

  When he finally deigned to pay attention to her completely not-subtle shouting, when he finally looked in my direction, he had the nerve to look me up and down like he was figuring out how to deal with me. As if there might be any answer other than ‘apologetically’.

  “I’ll handle this, girls,” he said finally, and did this really obnoxious gliding walk over to me. He slung an arm over my shoulders I immediately shrugged off, but somehow he was there again immediately. “Aileen, let’s take a walk.”

  Callie put her hands on her hips. “I’m not leaving her side unless she’s happy with that. Lucas? Lucas!” Lucas seemed to be having hearing problems that day too, but eventually he came over too… at which point the entire group had migrated to our position like they orbited around him involuntarily. “Lucas, why are all your friends like this?”

  “Don’t you go including me in your sweeping statement,” Steven protested, putting his hands up and taking a step back.

  “I don’t control their behaviour,” Lucas said. “I just provide a focal point for the action.”

  “I’d like to talk to Axel on my own for the moment,” I said. “What I have to tell him isn’t for sensitive young ears.”

  Carlene whooped and applauded us off, even with Ashleigh Tanner loudly asking her to please show some decorum. I had decided I was going to err on the side of liking Carlene a little bit.

  Axel extended his crooked arm towards me as the noise from behind us faded. I gave him a look to communicate my declining walking with him like we were on a date in some modern-day Jane Austen remake.

  “So…” I wished I had accepted the invitation, because the way he was striding right now was annoyingly confident, and if I’d been holding on to him I would at least have been able to cramp his style. “You’ve put the pieces together.”