Sasquatch in the Paint (15 page)

HAVING
Gavin at his school made Theo think of what would happen if you tossed a wild boar into a room six inches deep in farm-fresh eggs.

Squash! Crunch! Splat!

Gavin with Theo's best friend:

Brian approached the lunch table cheerfully, swinging his bulging lunch bag as he walked. The sight of Gavin sitting beside Theo made him freeze in midstep, like someone who sees a cobra curled in the toilet he was about to pee in. The cheerfulness instantly evaporated from his body and he slumped in anticipation of Gavin's insults.

He didn't have to wait long.

“Hey, Chubs, stolen any good songs lately?” Gavin said as a greeting.

“Don't call him that, Gavin,” Theo warned.

“What's he doing here?” Brian asked, a slight tremble in his voice.

Theo filled him in. CD missing. Song on Internet. Searching for thief.

“So I'm a suspect?” Brian asked indignantly.

Theo shrugged. “I guess everyone who heard the CD that day is.”

“I haven't been suspected of anything since Rabbi Vohen accused me of eating the box of matzo on Passover. Took me an hour and a lot of tears to convince him I was innocent.”

“I forgot how much I missed your boring stories, Chubs.” Gavin smirked. “Besides, you're not really a suspect. You wouldn't have the guts.”

“Oh yeah? Well, I really
did
eat all the matzo. So the joke's on you, Gavin.”

Theo laid a hand on his friend's shoulder to calm him.

“How'd you get the school to let him in here?” Brian asked, still huffing with anger.

“I told them the truth. He's my cousin visiting for the day. They gave him a pass.”

“Security at this school sucks,” Brian said, glaring at Gavin.

Gavin looked around at the buildings and nodded as if impressed. “Pretty fancy setup you boys got here. We find the kid that stole my song, maybe I'll make enough money to go to a place like this. Maybe even this place.”

“That removes our incentive to help you,” Brian said.

“Whoa, ‘incentive.' Did you eat a dictionary?” He patted Brian's stomach. “Or maybe the guy who wrote it.”

Brian stepped away from him and slid onto the bench beside Theo. “None of your friends would have taken it,” he said to Theo. “It has to be somebody else.” He frowned at Gavin. “Maybe one of
your
friends stole it. Or more likely enemies, since I'm sure you have a lot more of those.”

“I never played it for nobody!” Gavin barked. “Theo's the only one I let hear my songs.” A few kids at other lunch tables looked over.

“Keep it down,” Theo cautioned, “or they'll throw you out of here.”

“Just for raising my voice?” Gavin laughed. “If they did that at my school, the place would be a ghost town.” He took a slice of carrot cake from his tray and slid it across the table toward Brian. “Tell you what, Lyin' Brian. You give me the name of the thief and you can have this big ol' slice of heaven. Yum, yum.”

Brian opened his lunch bag and pulled out a bottle of Gatorade, a fat-free yogurt, and celery stalks with peanut butter smeared on them. “Thanks, Gavin. I'm covered.”

Gavin laughed. “A diet, huh? I bet you've been on more of those than the number of pimples on your cheeks.”

“At least I have the hope of becoming better. You don't.”

“Rain give that lunch to you?” Theo asked.

“I'm perfectly capable of making my own lunch, Theo. She just got me started that one time.” He took a bite of yogurt. “That reminds me, you heard from Motorpsycho?”

“Who's Motorpsycho?” Gavin asked.

“Some creep who knows Rain,” Theo said.

“Who's this Rain chick?” Gavin asked.

Brian and Theo exchanged smiles.

“You'll see,” Theo said.

Brian crunched a bite from his peanut butter celery stalk and grinned at Gavin.

Gavin with the Brain Train:

While waiting for Mr. J to arrive, Theo introduced Gavin to the Brain Train team. Everyone but Rain was there.

Upon being introduced, Brooke released a loud snort that said, “I've already forgotten meeting you, chump.”

Tunes smiled in his usual friendly way and offered Gavin a fist bump. “What up, dude?”

Gavin did not bump.

“Hey,” Daryl said, nodding coolly like he was trying to show he was street tough like Gavin. “Down from L.A., huh? That's cool.”

Gavin ignored everyone but Tunes. He pointed his finger at Tunes's face like a gun. “You're the guy that took the CD from Theo's backpack and played my song for everyone.”

“That was your song?” Tunes said excitedly. “Man, it is awesome. I saw the Wild World video on YouTube, dude. Have you seen it? Man, they really played the crap out of it.”

“Yeah, I saw that, too,” Daryl said. “I concur. It's awesome.”

“The tune is really catchy. I already know how to play it,” Tunes said proudly.

“I especially like your lyrics,” Daryl said, and started to sing in a surprisingly good voice:

I think about everything I haven't done.

And everywhere I've never been.

And I howl at the moon.

I just howwwl at the moon.

He howled, and then grinned at Gavin. “Can I get the rest of the lyrics from you, dude?”

Gavin lifted Daryl's backpack from the desk and held it above his head. “Can I beat your face with this,
dude
?”

Daryl winced. “I'd rather you didn't.”

“Knock it off, Gavin,” Theo said.

Gavin dropped the backpack to the floor and moved in front of Tunes. He grabbed the sides of the desk and leaned forward until his face was just inches from Tunes's frightened one. Tunes leaned back into the chair, but there was nowhere else to go.

“You can play the tune and your pal here knows the lyrics. That seems pretty effing suspicious.”

“Dude, it's on the Internet,” Tunes said. “Pretty much anyone can play or sing it now.”

“That's my point!” Gavin yelled into Tunes's face. “It's
my
song.
Mine!
And now everybody knows it.”

“Yeah,” Tunes said, “but isn't that kind of the point? Your song is famous.”

“But he didn't get paid for it, man,” Theo said. “Whoever stole his song and sold it to Wild World is the one profiting from it. And Wild World will profit from it. Everyone but the guy who wrote it.”

“That sucks,” Tunes said sincerely.

Gavin glared at him. His hands tightened on the desk until his knuckles were white. He started lifting it off the floor. The muscles in his neck and shoulders bulged. It looked as if he was about to toss the whole desk, with Tunes in it, through the window.

“You going for style, or distance?” Rain said as she entered the classroom. “Getting in some practice, in case desk tossing becomes an Olympic event?”

Gavin dropped the desk. Tunes bounced a little at the impact.

Rain lifted the front of the desk Theo was sitting in.

“Hey!” Theo protested.

Rain let go, jolting him. “See? Not that hard to do.”

“Oh, brother,” Brooke muttered. “Tweedledum and Tweedledumber.”

Gavin walked up to Rain, his massive body towering over her like the Hulk over puny Bruce Banner (in those story arcs when they didn't occupy the same body). Theo started to rise. He wasn't sure what he was going to do. He just knew that he wasn't going to let Gavin touch Rain.

It was Rain who touched Gavin.

She poked a finger into his thick chest. “I heard you got ripped off, Song Boy, and now you're stumbling around school like Frankenstein's monster, threatening people. If you really want to find out who did it, you'll need a better plan. Fortunately, I've got one. So shut up and sit down, and let us get on with practice.”

Theo couldn't help wincing in anticipation of Gavin's reaction to Rain talking smack to him. But his actual response was not at all what Theo had expected. In fact, it made Theo come to a stunning realization: Gavin wasn't the same guy he was six months ago. The songs showed he had a whole artistic side Theo had never believed in. They also showed that he was in some pain. Sure, he could still be a jerk and a bully at times, but now that seemed less like the real him and more like a role he was playing. An act that he was used to putting on and that everyone expected of him. Theo was confused by this revelation. It made Gavin complicated; Theo almost wished Gavin would go back to simply being a jerk.

The old Gavin might have responded to Rain by setting fire to her backpack or dumping honey in her hair. This Gavin just grinned and said, “You talked the talk, kid. Now you'd better be able to walk the walk.”

To which Rain said, “I have no idea what that means, Django. But if you want my help, meet me after school.”

To which Gavin said with a smile, “Django. That's good.”

To which Mr. J said as he entered the classroom, “Django. Brian, what are they referring to?”

Brian: “
Django Unchained
, the 2012 western movie about an escaped slave bent on revenge directed by Quentin Tarantino. It's based on a 1966 Italian western starring Franco Nero.”

Mr. J: “Excellent. Theo, what does Django have to do with computers?”

Daryl's hand shot up. “Mr. J, should we be discussing an R-rated movie? Isn't that against some sort of school policy?”

“He didn't tell us to watch it, moron,” Brooke said.

“True dat,” Daryl said, looking around for a smile. “Really? Nothing? I don't care. ‘True dat' is coming back.”

Mr. J repeated, “Theo, what does Django have to do with computers?”

Theo: “Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean design.”

Mr. J: “Very good. Tunes, and Django in music?”

Tunes: “Django Reinhardt, 1910 to 1953, was born Jean Reinhardt. His nickname, ‘Django,' is Romanian for ‘I awake.' He is considered one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.”

Mr. J (to Gavin): “And that, young sir, is what we do. If you stay, you play. Otherwise, you may wait outside the classroom.”

Theo expected Gavin to glare or scowl or snarl at Mr. J. Instead, his reply couldn't have shocked Theo more if a third arm had shot out of his chest. He said, “Is it okay if I just sit and listen? I'll be quiet.”

Mr. J nodded and gestured toward a seat at the back of the class. Gavin went to the desk and sat quietly for the rest of the practice.

Afterward, they agreed to meet up with Brian and Rain after school to figure out who the thief was. Once the mystery was solved, Theo assumed Gavin would tie him into a tiny pretzel and shove him into a greasy Dumpster. Just for old times' sake.

For now, Theo had his own problems. Like staying on the team. Make that
teams
.

Gavin with the basketball team:

With Gavin watching from the bleachers, Theo found himself trying even harder. Not that he wanted to impress his cousin, he just… Okay, he did want to impress him.

“Lob it in to Theo,” Coach called from the sidelines. They were running the same drill for the two-millionth time.

Chris Richards passed the ball to Theo.

Theo caught it, spun toward the basket, and ran into the Great China Wall (a.k.a. Roger McDonald). Theo's teeth rattled and cartoon birds spun around his head.

“Traveling,” Sinjin said.

The impact had caused Theo to shuffle his pivot foot.

Roger smirked.

Coach came over, trying hard not to look exasperated. “The move was good, Theo, but you have to anticipate your guy will be there. Where else would he be? So, like we talked about before, fake the spin to the right, then spin to the left. Get him to move. That way if he bumps you, it's a foul. Got it?”

“Got it, Coach,” Theo said.

“Okay. Again.”

They ran the play again. Theo caught the ball, spun to the right as the fake, then spun to the left. This time Sinjin swatted the ball from his hands, snagged it on the fly, and dribbled away.

Theo looked over at Gavin, expecting to see a smug grin. But he didn't look sneering and superior. He didn't look embarrassed. He just watched with no expression.

“Keep the ball up, Theo,” Coach called. “Out of their reach. Use your height. What's the point of being tall if you don't use it? Run it again.”

They ran the play a few more times. When Roger and Sinjin double-teamed him, Theo tossed the ball out to unguarded Chris, who sank a ten-footer.

“Yes!” Coach hollered. “Yesyesyes!”

But the very next play, Theo tried to do the same thing and Sami Russell darted in to intercept the pass.

“You've got to mix it up, Theo,” Coach said. “Don't be predictable.”

And so on.

Finally, it was over. When everyone headed for the locker room, Gavin merged with the players and fell into step with Theo.