Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys (19 page)

Finn's brow knit as he laid the brush out to dry. “What are you, a guy?” he asked.

“No. Just an observer of the obvious,” she replied.

“Well, look, I just want you to know that I wouldn't have left without you this morning if I had known,” Finn said.

Looking into his eyes, Megan couldn't believe she'd ever thought that Finn would do such a thing. He was Finn.

“So tomorrow, we'll drive you,” Finn said.

“Nah, I don't think so,” Megan replied, thinking of the ice-cold shoulder she had just received from Evan. “I think I'll be taking my bike for a while.”

“I thought you said someone flattened your tires,” Finn replied.

“Right. I need to fix that,” Megan said, pushing herself up. “Do you guys have a pump around here?”

“Somewhere,” Finn said. “Probably in the garage. I'll help you find it.”

“Thanks,” Megan said as they walked out together. “So, any idea who I can blame this one on?”

“Too immature for Evan,” Finn said, standing by while Megan picked up her bike. “I'd like to say it's too immature for Doug too, but who're we kidding? He and Ian are your best bets.”

Megan sighed. “Well, at least I know who my enemies are.”

“And who your friends are, I hope,” Finn said.

His smile touched something inside her. She looked at the ground and wheeled her bike across the grass. “Thanks.”

Megan and Finn had just reached the back door of the garage when the sound of screeching tires out on the street caught their attention. Megan leaned her bike against the wall and they walked to the end of the driveway, arriving just in time to see Doug dive headfirst into the backseat of a tricked-out Honda Civic. It had fluorescent purple running lights and rims that had probably cost more than the car itself. Megan wrinkled her nose at the smoke billowing through the windows. A couple of people cheered and shouted as the engine roared and the car peeled out. They skidded around the corner at the end of the street, completely ignoring the stop sign, and screeched out of sight.

“That can't be good,” Finn said, echoing Megan's thoughts.

 *  *  *

“Are you sure you don't want a ride, Megan?” Regina asked the next morning as she shoved her wallet and sunglasses into her purse. Megan sat at the breakfast table across from Ian and Caleb. To her right Sean was sipping coffee as he read a new book. This one was titled
City of Glass
, by Paul Auster. Megan would have to look that up on the web later.

“No thanks. I kind of like riding my bike,” Megan said.

“Okay. Well, if you ever do . . .” She checked her watch and adjusted her purse strap, looking frazzled. “Doug! Let's go! I'm gonna be late for work!”

“It's printing! Keep your pants on!” Doug shouted from the rear of the house.

Regina looked at Megan. “Did he just tell me to keep my pants on?”

“I think so,” Megan said with a smirk.

“That boy is lucky he did not grow up with my mother,” Regina said. “He would be out of teeth by now.”

“What's he doing?” Megan said.

“Spell checking his
Scarlet Letter
paper on his father's computer,” Regina said. “I guess I should just be happy he's doing his homework this year, right? I had at least five parent-teacher conferences last year about him squandering his potential.”

“Really?” Megan asked.

“Doug's the smart one,” Sean said flatly.

“Not the only one,” Regina shot back, looking at Sean pointedly as she grabbed her keys.

Sean ignored her and took a huge spoonful of Count Chocula.

“Doug!” Regina shouted.

“Patience, woman,” Doug said, tromping down the hall toward them. The two black eyes left over from his fight with Evan shone in the morning light. He shoved his paper into his bag and walked right by his mother out to the front porch, where Miller was already waiting.

Regina took a deep breath. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . .” she muttered as she followed her son out. “Sean! Make sure the boys get to the bus!”

“See ya later,” Megan said, getting up and placing her bowl in the sink.

“Yeah,” Sean replied.

Megan grabbed her bike and pedaled off to school, thinking about the exchange between Sean and his mother. If Doug and Sean really were the “smart ones” in the family, Megan could only imagine how frustrated their parents must be. Doug spent all his time doodling and being obnoxious and Sean spent all his time playing guitar and working on his bike.

As she came around the corner at the edge of the school parking lot, Megan saw a haphazard line of people standing along the west wall of Baker High. She hit the brakes and squinted against the sun. Someone had tagged the school with blue and silver paint. She couldn't make out the design from this distance, but it took up almost the entire wall.

“What's going on?” she asked the redheaded kid who was locking up his bike across from her.

“You gotta see it,” he said. “It's freakin' awesome.”

Megan's brow creased as the kid took off toward the crowd and she bent to fasten the lock on her bike. A shadow fell across the sun. It was Finn and he looked nauseous.

“What?” she said.

“I told you it wouldn't be good.”

Megan's heart dropped as she stood up. Every inch of her was on red alert. Her gaze trailed past him toward the school. “Oh no,” she said.

“Oh yeah,” he replied.

Together they hoofed it up the hill in front of the west wall and joined the throng. Teachers, students, office workers, janitors—everyone had come together to gawk, laugh, or shake their
heads. Written in huge blue and silver letters were the words
Baker Sucks
. Below was an illustration, a quite good one, of a very familiar anime character peeing on a Baker High varsity jacket.

“Well, it could have been worse,” one of the girls in front of Finn said. “They could have actually illustrated their point.”

A bunch of people laughed and Megan and Finn exchanged a look. Megan now knew where Doug had gone the night before. And unless all the students and faculty in this place had neglected to notice Doug's self-styled wardrobe, it wouldn't be long before the rest of the school knew as well.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Boy Guide

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

Entry Ten

Observation #1:
Boys have immature ways of making their points.

Like leaving you without a ride to school. Or flattening your tires. Or spray-painting really obvious graffiti involving pictures of pee.

Observation #2:
Boys can chill you out with just the sound of their voices.

At least Finn can.

Megan had to hand it to Doug and his buddies—their inappropriate art display had definitely shifted the focus away from her and her supposed escapades. All day the graffiti was all anyone could talk about. Who had done it? Was it someone from a rival school? How had they gotten up so high on the wall? Everyone had forgotten that Megan Meade even existed.

The hallway was abuzz with the latest gossip when Megan and Finn walked out of Spanish class that afternoon. Aimee was standing across the hallway, waiting for them.

“What's up?” Megan asked.

“They're rounding up the suspects,” Aimee said. “Betsy pulled Chad Linus out of my trig class right in the middle of our quiz.”

“Oh, crap,” Finn said, stopping in his tracks as they rounded the corner into the main hallway.

“What?” Megan said, following his gaze.

A few doors down, Doug was being ushered into one of the offices by a tall man with huge shoulders, a square jaw, and seriously thick glasses. The guy looked like Frankenstein without the neck pins.

“Who's that?” Megan asked.

“Dr. Frank,” Aimee said. “The VP.”

“You have to be kidding,” Megan said.

“Trust me, the perfection of the name is not lost on any of us,” Finn said.

Doug looked at the floor as he stepped into the office. He looked like a little kid. A little kid who was trying his hardest to appear tough but who wasn't tough at all. Her heart went out to him, but at the same time she wanted to walk over there and smack him. Had he really thought that he wasn't going to get caught?

“I'm going in there,” Finn said, heading down the hall.

“What? Why?” Megan asked. “What do you think you're going to do?”

“I don't know, but he's my brother,” Finn said, raising his shoulders. “Call it a sickness, but I have this stupid compulsion to help the kid.”

“Okay, I get that. I do,” Megan said. “But he clearly did it. Maybe he needs to get punished for it. Maybe . . . I don't know. Maybe it'll smack some sense into him or something.”

Finn blew out a breath. “Megan, don't take this the wrong way, but you don't know the whole story, all right?”

“What whole story?” Megan asked.

“Doug. Why he is the way he is,” Finn said. “It's not so cut-and-dried as you think. I mean, you try growing up as the twin brother of a kid like Miller. And then surrounded by five other kids. He's not a bad person, you know? He's just . . .”

Megan swallowed hard. “Your brother.”

“Yeah,” Finn said. “I'm not saying it's an excuse, really. It's not. I just saw what it was like for him. It's not fun when the kid next to you gets everyone's attention. And then there's nothing you can say about it because he's sick, you know?”

Megan and Aimee exchanged a look.

“Okay, but what are you going to say?” Megan asked him finally.

Finn turned and walked over to the office door. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“I don't know. Maybe I'll just tell them that Doug was with me last night,” Finn said.

“They'll never buy it,” Aimee told him.

“She's right. You're his brother. They'll think you're just lying to get him out of trouble,” Megan said, her heart starting to pound. She thought of Doug's expression after the fight with Evan the other day. She'd seen the way he was with Caleb and Ian. Somewhere under that gangsta demeanor was a good kid. Maybe he just needed someone to see it. “But they might buy it from me.”

She reached for the door, but Finn grabbed her arm.

“Megan—”

“Think about it, Finn. I have no reason to protect him, right?” Megan said.

Finn considered this. “Well, you do hate his guts. So . . . why are you doing this?”

“Call it a sickness,” she joked. “I don't like to see my friends suffer.”

Finn smiled and Megan's heart swelled.

Megan opened the door and stepped inside, then peeked her
head back out into the hall. “You did know I was talking about
your
suffering, not his, right?”

Finn laughed. “Just go.”

Megan let the door close behind her. Doug was sitting on an old pleather couch against the left wall, across from a closed door. He looked up when she walked in. On his lap was a pile of books, all of which were covered with his signature doodles. Megan clucked her tongue and grabbed the pile as she dropped down next to him.

“You know, for a supposed smart guy, you're really not that smart,” Megan said, unzipping her backpack.

“What're you doing?” Doug asked.

“Saving your ass,” Megan replied.

She took out a few of her own, clean notebooks and placed them in his lap, then shoved his books in her bag.

“Where's your
Scarlet Letter
paper?” she asked.

“What? You're trippin'.”

“Where is it?” Megan asked again.

Doug pulled a face, leaned over, and slid the paper out of one of his notebooks. Megan placed the neatly printed pages on top of the pile of books, then zipped her bag shut.

The door opened and Dr. Frank stepped halfway out. “Who's this?” he asked when he saw Megan.

“I'm here as a witness,” Megan said, standing up.

“I don't need your help, yo,” Doug said, rising as well. Megan was happy to see that he had at least left his incriminating jeans at home, opting for a clean, if ripped pair.

“Yeah, right,” Megan said. She held out a hand to Dr. Frank,
who, after a moment of total bafflement, shook it. “I'm Megan Meade. I just started here last week,” Megan said. “I have some information about Doug's whereabouts last night.”

“Oh?” Dr. Frank said, crossing his long arms over his chest. “Come in, then.”

Megan smiled up at the vice principal and slipped by him, followed by Doug, who, quite wisely, and for the first time since Megan had met him, kept his mouth shut. The inside of the office was like a dungeon. The walls were painted gray and there was only one dim light on the desk. The vertical blinds were pulled tight over the window and the only decorations were Dr. Frank's framed degree and a poster featuring a picture of cross-country runners with one word printed beneath it:
Discipline
.

“Have a seat,” Dr. Frank said, gesturing toward the two chairs across from his metal desk.

Doug slumped into his chair. Megan sat with her back straight, perched on the edge of hers. If there was one thing she knew how to handle, it was strict adults who thought they knew everything. After growing up surrounded by army officers, a vice principal was nothing.

“Before either of you says anything, I think you should know that when we saw the anti-Baker graffiti this morning, we naturally assumed that some students from a rival school must have done the deed. But before we took the investigation to the authorities, we wanted to make sure the culprits were not walking our own halls. You can understand how embarrassing that would be.”