Delinquent

by M. F. Lorson

  “A raid?” I asked incredulously “In the library? What are they looking for in here? Isn’t this place like…the purest place on campus?” Bill laughed.

  “The raids online. I play WOW. I’m a wower.”

  “That’s cool” I said, trying to sound like he hadn’t just said the lamest thing possible.

  “No” He replied “It’s not, but thanks for pretending. If you come by my desk before you leave I’ll give you that assignment sheet.” I thanked Bill and made my way back into the stacks. I made a photocopy of the encyclopedia entry and then dove into the database. Bill was right. It was a lot easier to find stuff on there than on Google. There were no ads pretending to be websites and you didn’t have to worry about whether or not the information was legit. Everything on there was published by some sociologist or another. The bigger problem was deciding what mattered. There were literally thousands of articles on deviance. How was I going to narrow down what to put in my speech? I needed a break and I needed food. I decided to call it a night on sociology, save what was left of my brain for Algebra. I stopped to say goodbye to Bill on the way out. I was going to be spending a lot of time in the library from here on out so it made sense to be on friendly terms with him. At the moment Bill was completely engrossed in his game. I coughed to get his attention. “Ahem”

  “One sec….Booyah!” Bill thrust his hands into the air in triumph as something gore filled happened on the screen.

  “So, that’s WOW huh?”

  “Noooo!” Bill cried “WOW’s graphics are more cartoon like this game is more realistic.”

  “Cool”

  “No, not cool” He smiled and leaned over to grab a small stack of papers from under his desk. When he did I caught a glimpse of a tattoo poking out of the back of his T-shirt collar. I only saw it briefly but I had to stifle a giggle as I was pretty sure Bill had the Decepticon logo printed just below his hairline. “You look amused” Bill said, he was scrutinizing my face for evidence.

  “It’s nothing” I squeaked , suppressing a smirk.

  “Riiiiiight. I don’t know about you yet. Here take these.” In his hand were two sheets of paper. One was clearly the assignment sheet, though he had highlighted several areas. The other was a neatly folded slip of stationary. I didn’t ask him what it was. As I exited the library I unfolded the paper. In insanely messy print Bill had written:

  “If you want to make an impression start by following these breadcrumbs..

  Travis Hirschi

  Howard Beeker

  And

  William Chambliss

  Chapter 10

  Between studying with Hayden and running with Jordan I had had little time for anything other than school work. Maybe that’s why I was the last one to notice that Robyn was acting unusual. It was Sydney that approached me first. It was late and I was exhausted from my run but she insisted that we go outside and talk. Technically as long as we still had our feet on the steps we were not breaking curfew. Sydney lit a cigarette.

  “I’m surprised you do that” I said.

  “So’s my mother” Countered Sydney. I guess even mentors can’t set a good example all of the time.

  “What’s this about?” I asked. I hadn’t really talked to Sydney since our failed coffee cart conversation. I wasn’t avoiding her necessarily but I hadn’t exactly sought her out either.

  “Your friends with Robyn correct?”

  “Yes.” I answered. If Robyn had gotten herself into some kind of trouble it was news to me.

  “She’s pulling away from the other girls. She’s usually very friendly but not lately. Ordinarily I wouldn’t intervene but cuts are coming up. If she’s got something distracting her she needs to get past it. She could use a friendly nudge in the right direction.” I was surprised to see Sydney showing such concern for a girl she hardly knew.

  “Why do you care” I asked. Sydney took a long drag from her cigarette before responding.

  “Believe it or not Robyn and I come from similar backgrounds.” Sydney and Robyn from similar backgrounds? Now that was a surprise. Robyn was from a wealthy family on the east coast. She was a privileged girl. Mr. Humphries didn’t look for her, her family sought him. That went against all protocol and spoke to the power of their wealth. It was difficult to imagine Sydney with her buzzed head and combat boots growing up in any proximity to Robyn. I guess you never could tell about a person. Sydney stood up, brushing the dirt and leaves from her pants. “See if she’ll talk to you. If she doesn’t fine but if she does it oughtta be worth the effort.”

  “Of course it’s worth the effort” I growled. It didn’t sit well with me how Sydney implied that Robyn might not be worth MY effort. Did I really appear to be that bad of a friend? I wanted to be mad at her for saying that but as I lay in bed that night, the more I thought about it, the more I realized she might be right. Aside from meals and idol chat I hadn’t made much of an effort to get to know my so called friend. I never asked questions and the majority of our conversations were one sided. And then there was the fact that Sydney, Sydney who communicated with next to no one had noticed a change in Robyn and I hadn’t.

  I needed to talk to Robyn. Whatever was bothering her had to be the sort of thing you told a friend about, didn’t it? I was rusty when it came to friendship but I figured the old rules still applied. Tomorrow at lunch I would coax whatever it was out of her. How bad could it really be? I rolled to my side, with my back to Wanda and my front to Robyn.. Her eyes were wide open, fixated on the spot directly above her bed.

  Robyn wasn’t at lunch and she wasn’t in fourth period either. Which meant she had better be deathly ill because if she wasn’t she was in serious trouble. This place wasn’t as strict as Juvie but attending class wasn’t optional. All residents were required to attend class or face expulsion. It was a three strike system at Huntley and Drake, three strikes meaning you had three chances to screw up before you were out on your ass. And out on your ass meant different things to different people. I had served thirty days of a sixty day sentence. Technically I no longer owed time but that wasn’t true of everyone. If Robyn still owed time she would be sent directly to a juvenile facility like mine, a fate her parents had paid their way out of the first time. It was unlikely that they would take Robyn being expelled lightly. She was digging herself a hole her parents couldn’t pay their way out of, but why? It was driving me crazy but there was nothing I could do until fifth period ended.

  The class seemed to drag on forever. We were supposed to be in a round table discussion today. But I couldn’t keep my mind on any of the topics. I didn’t care whether or not American’s were prone to ethnocentrism. As I understood it, to be ethnocentric meant that you thought your beliefs were the norm and all others are bizarre. It was hardly a challenge determining whether or not American’s fit the mold there. And my classmates weren’t exactly pushing the envelope debating whether or not Christians were a good example of ethnocentric beliefs either. Didn’t the majority of religions base their faith on the idea that they were right and everyone else was wrong? I mean look at the Mormons. Mormon’s thought their profit came in the 70’s and that women needed husbands to get to heaven. And then there is your garden variety Christian who would call a mormon bizarre while wholeheartedly believing that anyone can attain a free pass to heaven by asking Jesus into their hearts. So mormon heaven won’t take spinsters but Christian heaven has a cloud waiting with Charles Manson’s name on it? Religion in general seemed to be an experiment in ethnocentrism. I might have said as much but I was saving my limited conversational skills for my chat with Robyn. Besides with Wanda spouting off brilliant points like “But the difference is, Christians are right” I figured the argument was pretty much futile. It was however, entertaining watching Hayden attempt politely to educate her. Didn’t he understand that Wanda had no soul and therefore couldn’t comprehend any argument, especially not one that used terms like tolerance and acceptance? Apparently not. I could have made a sport counting all
the eye rolling in the room. Instead I counted seconds on the clock. When the bell finally did ring I bound from my seat like there were fireworks below it. I had a list of places to check and I wasn’t going to waste any time in getting to it. I started with the student union. She had missed lunch so maybe she was there grabbing a snack now. I wasn’t that lucky. She wasn’t in the student union or the music hall. I asked Bill if she’d been in the library but he said the place had been dead all day, and that I was behind on my sociology project, and was I doing the research he suggested. I basically had to run away from him mid sentence. I had hoped Robyn would be in the library. It was unlikely but idealistic for sure. If she had just been catching up on some work in there it would have been slightly more conceivable that she simply wasn’t feeling well during fourth period. Now, it was seeming increasingly unlikely.

  She had either gone rogue and left campus all together or she had never left the barracks this morning. The latter was much more likely. I couldn’t picture Robyn scaling any fences. By the time I arrived back at barrack A a line had already begun to form in front of the door. No one was getting in that was for certain.

  “What’s the deal?” I asked.

  “Sydney’s not letting anyone in” responded Liz. Even the sound of her voice irritated me. Which didn’t do her any favors since she was already incredibly homely. Wanda clearly knew how to make herself look good. Flanked by Liz and Ariel her other manish sidekick she practically glowed.

  “How long has she been in there?”

  “Since lunch” answered Wanda. “I came back because I forgot my bio book and she wouldn’t let me in then either.” From inside there was a loud clatter. Somebody's something had just hit the floor.

  “That’s the fourth time we’ve heard that in half an hour!” cried Liz. “Is this like a drug thing?” Asked Wanda. “Are one of you hiding drugs? I honestly think you should just admit it, cuz Sydney’s gonna find it anyway.” I looked around. No one appeared to be that stupid, but all bets were off here. Wanda was looking at me now. “Are you harboring drugs Kate?” I laughed out loud.

  “Not my style, but I appreciate your concern.” Wanda shrugged, “You never know.” Just then the front door to barrack A flew open. Sydney’s face said it long before her mouth did. “You” she barked “Get in here!” I hardly had a chance to react. Before I knew it she had grabbed me by my shirt sleeve and was yanking me inside the doorway.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” cried Wanda “I’ve been waiting for 20 minut….”

  “Shut it Wanda!” yelled Sydney. For once Wanda was silent. No one had ever been yelled at by Sydney. There was plenty of bickering in the barracks but Sydney didn’t interfere. She wasn’t like Jordan she didn’t have to scream at us to keep us from getting into trouble. For the most part she walked away and let you deal with it yourselves. If she was raising her voice, it was serious. Even Wanda wasn’t stupidest enough to argue with an angry Sydney. Not to mention she owed her. It was Sydney who brought Wanda back the night she was jumped and it was Sydney that kept the vultures from making smart ass remarks about her five day monster face bruise. Sydney slammed the door behind me. My jaw dropped instantly. Barrack A was a disaster. It honestly looked like one of those scenes from a cop drama where the FBI turns a room over in search of evidence. There wasn’t an inch of uncovered ground in the room. Someone had pulled the sheets from each cot. Our belongings, had all been raided. It would take forever just to sort one uniform from the next. There had to have been ten size six girls in that room how were we supposed to be able to tell whose pants belonged to whose butt? It was a mess to say the least and I had a very bad feeling about how it got that way. “You talk to your friend yet?” inquired Sydney.

  “I didn’t get a chance.” I mumbled.

  “Hmmm.....nows your chance. She’s in the bathroom, probably dislodging walls, seeing as how they’re the only things left standing”.

  “Whoa!” I hollered “Wait a minute now, you’re trying to tell me that Robyn did THIS?!”

  “Yep and she skipped class to do it so talk fast because by 5:00 the Dean is gonna be here to ensure she’s “sick”.

  “Holy crap, she’s gonna get a strike for this?” Sydney looked at me in disbelief.

  “A strike Kate would be incredibly generous. She’s going to get two at minimum. One for skipping class and one for wrecking school property.” This was not good. I’d been a lousy friend to Robyn but the last thing I wanted was for her to not be here.

  “Can’t she just act sick?”

  “She could” Sydney said, her voice fuming with irritability. ‘but she WONT!” They should have been teaching us psych not sociology. I was in no way equipped to handle this. I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with Robyn or how I was supposed to fix it by 5:00pm. That was 30 minutes away! If I was her last shot, Robyn was screwed.

  I opened the bathroom door with caution. There was no telling what her mind frame was. She was standing over the sink her face slick with tears. “I’m in no mood to chat.” I didn’t have time to beat around the bush so I didn’t.

  “That sucks because not talking to me isn’t really a viable option.” Robyn glared at me from the other side of the mirror.

  “You’ve picked a hell of a time to start giving a shit.”

  “What can I say, I’m deeply flawed.” I could tell this wasn’t going to be one of those thirty second chats where you hug it out so I took a seat on the radiator. “How about this. You tell me what the problem is and I’ll tell you how incredibly inept I plan to be at solving it.” Robyn finally cracked a smile.

  “I lost something”

  “I gathered as much”

  “Only, I’m pretty sure it didn’t walk away on its own.”

  “So someone swiped something of yours and you skipped class to search everyone's stuff?”

  “Pretty much” sniffled Robyn

  “And…..when you didn’t find it. You decided to express your frustration in a….physical way?”

  “I flipped out.” hollered Robyn. “I searched things nicely the first time but when I didn’t find it, I just lost it. I do that. I lose it.” Clearly, a part of me wanted to tell her to suck it up, that whatever she lost couldn’t have possibly been that valuable but I knew that wasn’t how I was supposed to handle things. If it were Chelsea, if we were kids again I would have cried with her not judged her for acting childish. I was gentle with my next question.

  “What did you lose?”

  “A necklace. It was from my father. I wear it every day, you’ve seen it I’m sure.” She was right I knew just the piece she was talking about. It was a simple white gold chain with a teardrop shaped sapphire dangling from the center. It wasn’t terribly valuable but it was rare and beautiful.

  “Where was the last place you remember having it?” This was the same annoying question my mother asked me whenever I misplaced something. Although I’d never admit it to her, it usually led me to find it.

  “I put it in the box under my bed. I always do that before I shower” Each of us had a trunk under our cot. It wasn’t very big but it held your clothing, school books and a few small possessions.

  “Did you notice it was gone right away?”

  “Yes, I always put it back on before bed. The waters not good for it so I don’t shower with it on but other than that I would never leave it unattended not in a place like this.” The way she said “a place like this” gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had heard those words before. But what were we supposed to do? Tattling on someone here was a death sentence. Robyn needed to cut her losses, but it wouldn’t happen. “I know who took it.” So did I, but I wasn’t about to say so.

  “If you know who has it how come you went through everyone else’s stuff?”

  “I didn’t know for sure until I had searched everyone. I don’t know who in here pilfers stuff and who doesn’t. But once I didn’t find it I knew for sure.” My lips were sealed. I was still half hoping she’d b
e sniffing the wrong path. No luck, “Wanda took it. And it’s no wonder I didn’t find it because she’s not keeping it here. She’s keeping it down in the art room with all her other supplies. She’s gonna take my necklace apart and turn it into something for her portfolio.” She was right. I knew she was right. I sighed, “Well what are you going to do about it?”

  “You’re my friend, right?” This was the part I was dreading.

  “Of course”

  “Then, you should really be asking what WE are going to do about it.” This was going to get me in trouble I knew that. There was a chance I would get caught and receive a school sanctioned punishment, but that wasn’t what worried me most. There was no doubt about it. If we were successful Wanda was going to make our lives here hell. But if we weren’t Robyn was going to be a loose cannon and the last thing I wanted was to lose my one and only girlfriend over the likes of Wanda.

  “I’m gonna help you. But right now you’re gonna get in your cot and play dead for the dean.” Robyn’s face lit up like Christmas morning. She wrapped me in a big hug. I wasn’t used to hugs, it had been a while, but there was no time to enjoy it. She was already shoving me away.

  “I can do that.” She hollered as she burst out of the bathroom and back into the barracks.

  If Sydney had any hair she’d have yanked it out by now. One minute Robyn was ripping the place to pieces and bawling her eyes out and the next she was pulling on her pajamas and obediently hopping into bed.