Night Prowler Part One

by Samantha Steele

  He had a new album titled “Hanging at the Wharf.” I knew that his uncle owned a fishing boat, and Mitch spent a lot of time downtown at the wharf, especially during the summer. The first picture was of Sam in a black windbreaker with a gray sweatshirt underneath, the wind blowing her hair into her face, which was twisted into smile. The second picture was of her and Mitch, laughing. They were eating hamburgers and fries, and it looked like they were inside the boat. I closed the internet browser in a jealous rage and went into my bathroom.

  Standing in front of the mirror, I lifted up my shirt to look at my stomach. It was creamy white, and perfectly flat and smooth. I heard Sam had her bellybutton pierced, and I knew that her nose was pierced. Maybe that’s what I was missing.

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  Samantha Steele

  I went into my mom’s room and got out her sewing kit. I grabbed the largest needle I could find and poked my fingertip with it to test its sharpness. I gasped when I drew blood and stuck my finger in my mouth, satisfied.

  When my mom was sixteen, a year younger than me, her best friend Annie had a “piercing party” for her birthday. Annie’s mom got a bunch of needles and pierced everybody’s ears and bellybuttons. In recent years, my mom had let her bellybutton piercing grow over, but, to my severe happiness, she hadn’t thrown away the rings.

  I took the needle, one of my mom’s belly rings, and a piece of wire from my dad’s toolkit into the kitchen. I boiled some water on the stove, lit a candle, and got some ice out of the freezer. Standing in front of the mirror in the downstairs bathroom, I took a sharpie and made a little dot above my bellybutton so I’d know where the put the needle.

  Using a pair of tweezers, I held the needle in the candle flame until it turned black, and then dipped it into the boiling water until the black stuff came off. Satisfied, I laid the needle on a paper towel and held an ice cube on my bellybutton until it became numb. Taking a deep breath, I put the needle on the black dot. I felt a little pinch and almost chickened out, but then I remembered the prom and the anger flowing through me outbid the pain.

  I cried out as I stabbed the needle through, but I managed to pull it all the way to the other side, and fairly straight, too. I took another deep breath and tried to ignore the blood droplets as I shoved the belly ring through the hole. It hurt more because the gauge of the ring was bigger than that of the needle, but I managed to do it.

  I ran into the bathroom to admire my work. The silver ring was very simple, with a silver ball on top and a diamond on the bottom, but it looked good. Extremely confident in my piercing skills, I ran back into the kitchen to re-sterilize my needle and get more ice for my nose.

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  Teenagers

  Mitchell Mantel

  I was leaning against Evan’s car, fury burning inside me.

  Normally I would have taken Sam home, but I enlisted Austin to do so today so I could confront Evan.

  This morning, Evan had asked Sam’s best friend Annika to prom. I was repulsed. Neither Sam nor Annika had been at school long enough to know Evan’s reputation, so I didn’t blame her for saying yes. Evan wasn’t usually a follower of rules, but he wasn’t one to break the guy code (unless Macy was involved). I had made it very clear when I first started dating Sam that Evan was to stay away from her and her friends.

  “Hey, Mitch,” Evan said brightly when he saw me. I wanted to start shouting at him, but I couldn’t. I was surprised.

  Evan was grinning, full-on, showing-his-teeth-in-a-friendly-gesture grinning! “Hey, I was thinking maybe you wanted to split the cost of a limo with me and Bryce? He’s a senior, and he offered to take Cami since he and his girlfriend just broke up. His uncle knows the owner of one of the limo companies in town and

  – “

  “What are you playing at?” I snapped, cutting him off.

  Evan looked at me, genuinely hurt.

  “What do you mean? We’d split the cost evenly. I’m not trying to rip you off,” he said. I shook my head.

  “No, I mean why did you ask Annika to prom?” Evan looked uncomfortable.

  “Well, she really wanted to see Joan Jett,” he said. “And I needed a date, and she’s a freshman so she can only go if an upperclassman asks her, so… it seemed appropriate.”

  “Since when do you care about what’s appropriate?” I scoffed. “Why didn’t you just ask Macy?”

  “Macy doesn’t care about Joan Jett,” Evan said, rolling his eyes. “Annika really wanted to go. Aren’t I allowed to do something nice once in a while?”

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  Samantha Steele

  I stared at Evan, wondering what his plan was. He couldn’t possibly have asked her just to be nice; I wouldn’t even do that. The only other option was… he actually liked her. The more I thought about it, the more it actually made sense.

  When Zac first started liking Sam, Evan tried as hard as he could to turn Zac off to her. Could he have been doing that because he didn’t want to be involved in the relationship?

  Because he was interested in Annika?

  “You like her, don’t you?” I asked curiously. Evan snorted.

  “I do not. She’s too young.” He coughed a little nervously. “I’m almost eighteen, remember?”

  “You do!” I cried. “You like a freshman!” I began laughing uncontrollably.

  “So do you!” Evan snapped. I straightened and calmed my laughter a bit.

  “So you admit it?” Evan’s eyes widened a little and he glared at me. The glare was shockingly refreshing.

  “Alright, fine. I like Annika, and I did before Zac and Sam ever even met, okay?”

  “You didn’t even know her,” I snorted.

  “Yes, I did. I met her a few times at local band shows.

  My uncle knows a lot of people in the business, so I go to all the metal shows. I’ve liked her for a while.”

  “You go to metal shows?” I asked in disbelief.

  “There’s a lot about me nobody knows,” Evan said with a laugh. “Yes, I go to metal shows. I’m also a kick-ass bass player and I’ve never had sex.”

  ” What?” I stared at Evan in disbelief. “But… Macy talks about it all the time! You have the biggest reputation in the whole school! I hate you because of the way you treat women!”

  “Macy is a whore,” Evan said. “I’ll admit I’ve had my fair share of… times… with her, but she always passes out because she’s hammered. I’ve never actually slept with her, but she always thinks we did. I never tried to deny it, so it just sort of became my reputation.”

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  Teenagers

  “But… you always have that evil glare,” I said.

  “I want to be an actor,” Evan said, shrugging. “I’m good at it. I’m glad we had this little chat, but I’m actually in a bit of a hurry now. I have to pick up my little sister from Goldenview and take her to gymnastics. I’ll call you about the limo, though, if you want to split the cost?”

  “Uh, sure,” I said. Evan nodded and smiled, and got into his car. I never knew he had a sister in middle school; much less that he was nice enough to take her to gymnastics. Shaking my head, I got into my car and drove home.

  As I was driving up the mountain to my house, I realized that Zac was an amazing judge of character. He picked out Sam, me, Austin, Evan… maybe I should trust him more often.

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  Samantha Steele

  Evan Cage

  “Hey, Ash,” I said as my sister opened the door of my truck and hopped in. Usually I have to pick up my little brother too, but now he plays soccer every day after school, so my mom picks him up instead. He’s Ashley’s twin, Jared.

  “Hi, Evan,” she said brightly. “I got an A on my Algebra test!”

  “That’s great, Ash! What about your history project?”

  “Mr. Weathers isn’t done grading them yet. But he said most of them were A’s and B’s. I bet I did well.” Ashley fished a book out of her backpack, tucked her legs up under her, and started to read. I drove
her down to Arctic Gymnastics in the usual after-school silence.

  “I’ll be back at four-thirty,” I said as I pulled up in front of the renovated warehouse. Ashley smiled and said goodbye. A group of “mini-Macys” flocked to my sister like flies to garbage (not that I think my sister is garbage, I just suck at analogies) and I shook my head.

  Macy Hawskins is the reason I have a bad rep. It’s mostly my fault for not denying her wild stories - and continuing to make out with her - but other girls make up stories, too. At South, saying you slept with Evan Cage is like saying you had braces once: not very interesting.

  A few months ago, I went to a metal show (my uncle knows a lot of people in the music business, so I usually get into venues for free) and met a really great girl in the mosh pit. Okay, so a mosh pit is a strange place to meet girls, but you never know.

  So this girl was full-on moshing and she accidentally hit me in the nuts. I’m really tall, so I get hit there pretty often in the pits, but usually people don’t even notice. But this girl did, and when I bent over she grabbed my shoulder and started laughing and apologizing.

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  Teenagers

  “I’m so sorry!” she shouted over the music. “You’re just so tall… it’s right at my elbow level.” She pantomimed elbowing me in the nuts again and laughed.

  “It’s okay,” I said, taking a deep breath and recovering. At first, I didn’t realize I liked her. I mean, I’m used to Macy: super-skinny, blonde, and chocolate-eyed, with tiny breasts and a huge attitude. But this girl had dirty-blonde hair that looked like she’d just brushed it and called it good. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, not even the wild face paint fanatics usually put on for the shows.

  She was… simple.

  It wasn’t until I’d talked to her at a few shows that I realized that I actually looked forward to seeing her, and it wasn’t until I started seeing her at school that realized I liked her. Then the whole Sam thing happened: Zac liked her but was too wimpy to do anything about it, and then Mitch and her got together.

  Suddenly I had an in, and a reason to pursue the relationship.

  When Annika came running up to the table and screaming with excitement about Joan Jett playing the prom, I formulated my plan in about ten seconds. It was incredibly clear and easy. I knew she didn’t have a date, and she needed one if she was going to see Joan Jett. I was just lucky she said yes.

  Macy was super pissed off. I guess she thought I was going to take her to prom or something. Like that’d ever happen.

  I’m actually pretty ashamed of my past with her. I don’t know why I let it get so bad. I guess I just sort of liked the attention, and keeping up that intense glare all the time was a real challenge.

  Recently it occurred to me that I was probably going to get premature wrinkles from all that evil squinting, so I finally decided to be myself.

  I like being challenged. I want to be an actor, which is why I kept up the whole player façade. In the beginning, it was actually kind of fun. For a long time, it earned me a lot of respect from the other guys. Girls fawned all over me. It was pretty great.

  But in recent years, girls started to think I was just a jerk, and only Macy really wanted me. Mitch went to boyfriend school

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  or something and all the girls started fawning over him instead. It kind of left me high and dry with a nasty rep, and nothing to do with it. For a long time I actually thought I loved Macy, and it hurt that she was only with me to try and make Mitch jealous. But another part of me was sickly entertained that no matter how hard Macy tried, Mitch would never care about her more than he cared about his shoelaces.

  “So my uncle got us a deal,” Bryce said over the phone.

  “We can have the limo for the whole night for six hundred bucks.

  Six to six he said. So I figure we go to dinner at six, hang out for a while, then hit prom at ten, stay ‘til midnight, and go somewhere afterwards before we hit the hotel. By then, the girls will be ready to crash and us guys will probably be completely trashed,” he laughed.

  “Sounds like you’ve worked out a decent plan,” I said.

  “So that’s two hundred for each of us?”

  “If Mitchell wants to share, yeah,” Bryce said. “For the sake of Cami’s corsage, I hope he does.”

  “I think it might kill Sam if she couldn’t be with Cami and Annika. Those three are nearly connected at the hips,” I laughed. “Did you even ask Cami yet?”

  “Yeah, I did. She was pretty stoked about it, but I think that psycho boyfriend of hers is going to kill me.”

  “Well,” I said thoughtfully, “he’s pretty intent on killing Sam first. You’ll get a decent warning.”

  We laughed.

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  Teenagers

  Jacob Fastner

  Samantha Steele is going to die.

  That crazy bitch has tried to ruin my life for the very last time. It was one thing for her to be psychotically annoying, but getting a senior to ask Cami to prom? That’s the lowest of the low. Sam knew Cami would say yes because she wanted to see Joan Jett. I was horrified when Cami told me that Bryce had asked her.

  And you know what’s worse? She actually expected me to be happy for her. Happy about the fact that another guy is taking her to the most intimate dance of the year. Happy that SAM had gotten her the date.

  Oh, that was another thing: Cami called Bryce her

  “date”. Not just some guy taking her to prom, but her date. She even told me he was hot. Cami has never told me that I’m attractive, much less hot. Sam has poisoned Cami’s mind so much she doesn’t even like me.

  So my solution is to eliminate the problem. I will kill Samantha Steele on prom night. It’ll work out quite well, actually.

  Once she’s dead, she can’t tell Cami lies about me anymore. Cami will be in a state of emotional duress after losing her best friend (even though Sam’s crazy) and she’ll need me to comfort her.

  I can’t wait. This is going to be so liberating.

  “I am just so excited!” Cami said. We were sitting at the upperclassmen lunch table, eating with Sam, Mitch, Annika, and Evan. Sam and Mitch were giving each other these disgusting sex looks, and Annika was red-faced because Evan was rubbing her shoulders.

  “So am I!” Sam said, suddenly breaking eye contact with Mitch.

  Although I can’t vouch for his taste in women, Mitch is really awesome. He’s very intelligent, and all the girls want him.

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  Samantha Steele

  He’s totally funny in a very dry way. I don’t think he likes me very much, whether that’s because I’m an underclassmen boy or because I hate his girlfriend, I don’t know.

  “I wish we could pay for backstage passes or something,”

  Annika said. “I’d love to meet Joan Jett.”

  “I could probably get you girls something,” Evan said, his arm around Annika, pulling her closer. “You know my uncle’s got big buddies in the business.” The three girls looked at him in awe.

  “Could you really get us a chance to meet Joan Jett?”

  Sam asked, her eyes wide. Evan nodded with a lopsided grin.

  “I’m pretty sure I can. She’ll probably be staying in my dad’s hotel.”

  “Your dad owns a hotel?” everyone, including me, asked in unison. Evan nodded nonchalantly.

  “It’s that big silver one downtown, overlooking the marina,” he said.

  “Your dad owns the Whitmeister? Seriously? That’s the nicest hotel I’ve ever been in! And it’s only three blocks from the hotel that’s hosting prom!” Mitchell said, shocked. “Do Zac and Austin know your dad owns the Whitmeister?”

  “No. No one except Bryce does, actually. I have my mother’s last name,” Evan said. “My dad is Charles Whitmeister.”

  “That’s awesome!” Annika said fondly. She looked Evan in the eyes and smiled. He pecked her lightly on the lips, and she blushed furiously. Everyone but me laughed
. I scowled, angry Cami wouldn’t let me kiss her in public like that. Mitchell started asking Evan questions about his dad, and Annika kept interrupting with oohs and ahs.

  “Can we please talk about something other than you?” I drawled, bored with the conversation. Cami elbowed me in the ribs, and I tried to cover it up by putting my arm around her. She shrugged me off with a glare.

  “Don’t touch me!” she snapped. “I’m sick of you thinking you own me. Why don’t you just leave?”

  I stared at Cami, the love of my life. I felt like she’d just ripped my heart out and sent it through the paper shredder. My

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  pain was enhanced severely when Bryce came over and tapped Cami on the shoulder.

  “Mind if I join?” he asked. Cami looked at me.

  “Of course,” she said. “Jacob was just leaving. You can have his seat.”

  When I didn’t move, Evan gave me a good, hard shove in the shoulder and I fell out of my seat. Bryce quickly sat down in my place and the whole table erupted in excited talk about prom.

  I realized then that Cami truly didn’t love me, and it finally hit me that she never would, either. I wasn’t part of her group. Cami and her girls dated upperclassmen because they could go to prom, get drunk, and see Joan Jett. I would never be what Cami wanted. None of her friends would ever like me.

  Well, you know what they say.

  If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.

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  Samantha Steele

  Austin Trowser

  I rested my aching head on my palms and tried to remember the names of all the moons in our solar system. Mr.

  Bleakman was loading us up on tests right before prom.

  Not that I was concerned about prom. I was only a sophomore and therefore wouldn’t be attending. I had kind of hoped Macy would ask me, but I realized how ridiculous that was when I saw the look on her face as Evan asked Annika Dixon to prom.

  That really surprised me. I don’t know Annika very well, but I’ve studied Evan practically all my life. Asking Annika to prom doesn’t fit his pattern. It’s not his MO.