Hunted (30 page)

"Come
on, girls, we're a little behind schedule and this is a key game for
our team. The Jaguars are favored to win state."

I'd
been half worried that I'd end up dream walking during my nap, but
that hadn't happened. Instead I'd slept so deeply that now I was
groggy from being woken up. I checked to make sure that my backpack
and duffle bag were both zipped up and then stood and followed the
rest of the girls off of the bus.

"Adri,
you need a locker room so that you can get changed. The girls' locker
room is through those doors there and then on the far end of the gym
on the right side. Hurry, please."

I
nodded and started off in the direction she'd indicated. I found the
girls' locker room without any problems and thankfully it was empty
of girls from the other school when I arrived. I stripped off my
white uniform and put on my blue uniform. The shell went on with no
problem, but the skirt went over my hips too easily. For a second I
worried that I'd somehow lost even more weight than I'd realized, but
that couldn't be the case. My light uniform had fit just fine and
both uniforms were the same size.

I
let go of my skirt and watched as it instantly dropped down to my
ankles. I stepped out of it and then picked it back up. The seam
along the side had been cut. It had been fine the last time I'd worn
it, I was even pretty sure that it had been fine when I'd put it into
my bag this morning.

My
mind spun as I tried to put the pieces together. Cindi had been
pretty pissed at me the night of the party and she'd been in our room
by herself for hours. She could have done it then, but that didn't
fit very well with Missy's attempt to make me wear my white uniform
today.

It
didn't fit, but I couldn't think of any time today when my uniform
hadn't been with me…any time
other
than while I'd been
sleeping on the bus, sleeping after having shown Missy that I'd
brought the correct uniform after all.

That
fit perfectly. It was exactly like her. I could almost see her
sitting on the bus trying not to giggle while she took scissors to my
skirt. I had to give her credit too, she'd come up with her plan
almost instantaneously, that had to be why she'd gotten Sheree to
move back there with her. Once she had Sheree distracted then there
hadn't been anything to stop her from sneaking up and taking my bag
just long enough to do the damage.

I
pulled my dark shell back off and slipped back into my white uniform.
It only took a couple of minutes to find Miss Winters and the rest of
the girls warming up on the visitors' side of the football field
while the junior varsity players were doing their calisthenics.

"Adri,
why are you still in that uniform? Did you have problems finding the
locker room?"

I
held up my skirt, making it easy for her to see that the seam had
been cut. "I found it just fine, but sometime between when I
woke up this morning and when I got off of the bus somebody destroyed
my skirt."

I
could see the wheels turning inside of her head.

"Do
you think you know when it happened?"

I
nodded. "I fell asleep on the bus, I'm pretty sure it happened
then."

She
looked at the pile of bags next to the bleachers where everyone else
had put their stuff and then turned back to the rest of the squad.
"Okay, I want everyone to stay where you are. Adri is going to
keep an eye on all of you to make sure you don't try to ditch the
evidence. While she does that, I'm going to search your bags so that
I can figure out who ruined Adri's skirt. You can protest if you want
and say that I'm violating your civil rights. That's fine, if you
don't want me to search your bags I won't, but that will mean that
you're off the team."

Some
people moved around like they wanted to say something, but nobody
did. Miss Winters gave them almost a full minute to protest and then
walked over to their things and started opening up bags one at a
time.

It
took almost fifteen minutes for her to look through everyone's stuff,
fifteen long, torturous minutes where it took all of my willpower not
to turn and watch Miss Winters instead of watching the other girls,
but finally Miss Winters called me over.

"I've
checked all of the bags, Adri, and only one has scissors."

She
said it in a low enough voice that I was pretty sure the other girls
couldn't hear her, which I understood, but I didn't understand why
she looked so unhappy.

"It
was Missy, wasn't it?"

"No,
Adri, it was Cindi. I'm sorry, I know this is going to make things
bad at home, but I have to break this bullying ring."

"But
Missy is the one who knew I had the other uniform, Missy's the one
who got Sheree away so that there wouldn't be any witnesses when my
skirt was ruined. Maybe she planted the scissors in Cindi's stuff."

Miss
Winters shook her head. "I know this is hard to hear, but Cindi
hasn't been acting like normal ever since you joined the team. I just
found out tonight that she's failed three tests in the last two
weeks."

"But
that's my fau…"

I
trailed off because the actual
number
of tests she'd failed
finally sank in. Only one test could even remotely be construed as
being my fault.

Miss
Winters could obviously see that I was in shock. She patted me on the
arm and then turned back to the other girls, holding Cindi's
light-green bag up where everyone could see it.

"I
don't enjoy doing this, but I can't let this kind of behavior go
unpunished. Cindi, you're the only one who had scissors in your bag,
you're the only one who could have done this. Do you have any
explanation for your actions?"

Cindi
had gone completely white, but she shook her head.

"Fine.
You're suspended from the team effective immediately. You won't be
cheering tonight and Adri will be taking your place as the team's
third flyer."

"You
can't do that!"

Cindi
looked like she was nearly ready to cry. Miss Winters' lips went into
a tight, thin line.

"I
just did. Frankly we would be having a similar conversation at some
point if only because your grades are slipping so dramatically, but
I'm giving you a chance to earn your way back onto the team because
this is the first time I've had problems with you. Get your grades
back up and then we can talk about next steps."

I
thought Cindi was going to say something else, something that might
prevent Miss Winters from ever being able to let her back on the
team, but she didn't. Instead she just stalked off, disappearing
around the corner of the Jaguars' school in just seconds.

"Does
anyone else have anything they'd like to say?"

The
rest of the team looked like they were in shock. I would have said
that nobody on the whole squad had the guts to say anything after
that kind of bombshell, but after only a couple of seconds Missy
raised her hand.

"You
said that Adri is going to perform with us still tonight? How is that
possible? She doesn't have a matching uniform."

"I'm
putting Adri in the front and center of each of the routines. It will
look like we alternated the uniform colors on purpose and put
everyone's focus on her. The same goes with the stunts, Adri will
take the center position and you and Sheree will be on the sides in
positions two and three."

Missy
looked truly angry for the first time all night. She hadn't been mad
when Cindi had been caught, hadn't been mad when Cindi was suspended
from performing and practicing with us, but she was mad that I was
going to be center stage for everything we did this game.

"With
all due respect, Miss Winters, Adri isn't ready to be in the top
spot. Just because she and her sister are having some kind of fight
doesn't mean that she should be top dog around here."

"I'm
not making her 'top dog'. I'm just making do as best I can given the
fact that Adri isn't going to be able to wear the same uniform as
everyone else."

"I
think that you're punishing me for no good reason. I haven't done
anything but you're bumping me out of the number one spot. When my
mother hears about this she's going to convince the other members of
the school board to fire you."

I
half expected for Miss Winters to kick Missy off of the team then and
there, but Sheree broke in before anything else could be said.

"It
wasn't just Cindi who was involved in cutting up Adri's skirt. Missy
was involved, she had to be."

"What
do you mean, Sheree? Do you have some kind of proof that Missy helped
Cindi?"

Miss
Winters managed to keep her tone even. There wasn't anything in her
manner that suggested just how badly she wanted Sheree to have some
kind of hard evidence, but I was pretty sure everyone knew that was
exactly what she was hoping for.

"No…I
don't have any proof, but she wanted me away from Adri, that's the
only explanation for her inviting me back to talk about our stunts
for the game. I thought it was weird that she wanted to talk in the
first place, but then once I got back there we didn't even talk. She
and Cindi just whispered to each other for a couple of seconds and
then Cindi disappeared."

Miss
Winters closed her eyes for a couple of seconds and then shook her
head. "That's not proof and I won't kick anyone off of the team
without proof."

"But
it's not fair! Missy is getting away with terrible things."

Before
Sheree could say anything else Miss Winters held up her hand. "I
won't kick a girl off of the team without proof, not even a girl who
threatens me, but I still have full artistic control as far as who
does what when it comes to our performances." She turned to me
with such casualness that I knew she was putting on an act. "Adri,
does what Sheree said match up with what you saw happen?"

I
still felt numb inside, but nodded. That didn't seem to satisfy Miss
Winters so I cleared my throat. "Yes. I mean I wasn't back there
with them, but it was right after I showed Missy that I had my other
uniform that she asked Sheree to come talk to her and Cindi. I
remembered thinking it was odd at the time."

"I
see. That isn't proof, but given everything that has happened, do you
feel like you can trust Missy? Do you feel like you can work with
her?"

"Honestly?
No."

"What
about you, Sheree?"

I'd
never seen Sheree look so uncomfortable, but she shook her head. "No,
she's doing terrible things. I don't trust her not to hurt Adri or me
during our stunts."

I
could tell that Miss Winters was still being very careful to keep the
satisfaction out of her voice as she looked at Missy.

"There
you have it, Missy. You've lost the trust of your fellow flyers, so
it looks like we'll be going with just two flyers today until I can
select and train replacements for you and Cindi."

I'd
only thought that Missy was mad before. She was shaking now and her
face had gone white.

"I'll
kill you for this, for putting her above me!"

"You're
off the team. There are some threats that I
have
to react to.
Think very, very carefully about what you do next. I've got a dozen
witnesses who just heard you and I can have a police report filed so
fast your head will spin. Any action you, or your mom, take at this
point is going to look petty and retaliatory."

"This
isn't over."

Even
as she spit the words out at Miss Winters and me, Missy was turning
and stalking away from the team.

"While
I'm thinking about it, you'd probably better call your parents. You
won't be riding home on the bus with us, so you'll need them to come
and get you."

A
few of the remaining girls looked like they were having a hard time
breathing, but when Miss Winters gave us all one last chance to
protest nobody took the opportunity. Satisfied that everyone was
going to take her seriously, Miss Winters then proceeded to give us
all our new assignments for each of our standard routines and cheers.

I
kept thinking that I should be feeling something, but I seemed numb
from the neck down and it didn't go away by the time the JV game
started. Miss Winters had us starting out slow and easy, saving our
big numbers for the second game so that we had a chance to get used
to being down by two girls, but I could tell that I was doing better
than normal even despite the simplicity of what we were doing.

I
hit every mark exactly and my form was perfect the entire time. On
another day I would have been excited, proud even of having done so
well, but I just couldn't seem to muster up the emotional energy to
feel anything.

We
started stunting a few minutes before halftime and it was everything
I remembered it being, just without the emotional thrill that I'd
loved so much. I could feel my body prepare to take off by dumping
adrenaline into my system, gravity clawed at me as I was launched
upwards and then I experienced that timeless instant where I was
perfectly weightless, but it was like it was happening to someone
else.

Flying
in front of a live crowd at a real game for the first time ever
should have added to the intensity of the experience, but it was like
some emotional conduit inside of me had been shattered.

The
realization that I'd been robbed of my single favorite part of
cheering started thawing out my insides. Instead of numb
indifference, I started to feel a hot rage that demanded some kind of
retribution against Missy and Cindi.

For
a split second, if they'd been there and I'd had the strength to do
so, I would have ripped them limb from limb, and then I suddenly
realized what that would mean. I was distracted enough that I screwed
up the landing, but Jackson caught me as effortlessly as always.