Snitch (14 page)

“I’m not the chicken here,” I answered. “I’m not the one letting a girl take the heat for something I told her to do.”

The crowd gasped; a few of them giggled.

“Been busy posting anything lately?” I taunted.

Johnny stepped up to my ear. “This isn’t exactly helping diffuse anything,” he offered, quietly.

“Shut up,” I snapped. “Everybody knows who’s behind what.”

“What are you ladies talking about?” Seth called, enjoying the fact that he was the center of the hottest hallway dram
a of the moment. “Are you g
oing to
just stand around talking or get down to business?” His eyes hardened and body hunkered down for my attack.

“I’ll fight you,” I said, my breath suddenly ragged, my mouth running all on its own. Without thinking, my legs moved the rest of me to the spot in the concrete parking lot illuminated by that lone light. I lost awareness of my surroundings; I wasn’t even aware of the crowd.
Only Seth.
Only the enemy.

Suddenly Johnny appeared between the two of us, a single beacon of reason in the middle of all this crazy chaos.

“Since neither of you are thinking, let me do it for you. You guys can fight, but
let me remind you
what this will mean: You’ll both be kicked off the team
,
and we can’t win without you. You do this, and you’re throwing away the championship to
Nolanville
.”

“Is this your plan? Is this how you intend to get out of having
me
kick the shit out of you? Having your friend try and talk me out of fighting you?”

“Let’s go,” I heard my mouth s
ay. Adrenalin pumped through me
making Liz-
tricity
seem like nothing. My arms moved to push Johnny away, but they were suddenly pinned by other arms and bodies and words.

It was the rest of our team.

“He’s right,” Ben reasoned. “It’s not worth it.”

“It’s the championship, guys,” Sizzle reminded us.

“C
’mon. We worked too hard
.
” The W
all of Wes pushed harder against Seth’s chest.

“Please, don’t
!
” Johnny said theatrically. “Coach
wi
ll make Sizzle
start
again.”

Sizzle looked horrified and grabbed at his own neck.
“Anything but that!”
he choked out
.

And suddenly, someone was snickering.

The tension was broken; Seth allowed himself to be pushed back. He rolled his shoulders over and over
dramatically proving to everyone how hard he was attempting to control himself
.

“You’re right. You’re right.” There was more laughter as hands slapped his back, con
gratulatin
g him on his decision. “I don’t
need to do this. I’ll take one for the team.”

They slapped mine too.

“Shake?” Seth asked as he extended his hand.

I stood still, anger refusing to let me move.

“Good decision, boys,” Johnny piped up, grabbing my hand and inserting it into Seth’s sweaty palm. Our hands pumped up and down as the team grunted approval.

“Lighten up,” Johnny whispered, leaning into my ear again. “It’s over.”

I stepped back from the fight, exhaling air and an
ger at the same time.

It wasn’t
over.

I stayed as far from Seth as I could the next few days. Whenever I had to be in the same room with him, I pretended he just wasn’t there. I didn’t make eye contact; I didn’t react to his presence. I tolerated him.

“What are you going to do at practice?” Liz asked me.

I remembered my bicycle chain. “Work on skills,” I said. “I’ll just focus on skills.”

Liz put her arms around me and gave me a quick kiss. “Good boy,” she said.

“Break it up!” Mrs. Mason called through the hallway.
“Hands off the girl.”
I smiled at Liz and pulled away
,
noticing her blush for the first time as Mrs. Mason wove through kids walking to lockers and classes to get over to us. “What do you know about Kate? When is she coming back?”

Liz shook her head. “I really don’t know. It’s been pretty awful. Between the pep assembly and the internet…”

“I can’t believe any of it
,
” Mrs. Mason put her arm around Liz. “I’m so sorry. Tell her that.”

“I will. The police are looking into who published the F
acebook
page about her.
It’s
been reported and blocked,
and they’re pretty sure they can trace it
, but
the tweets—you
can’t stop those.” Liz shrugged.
“
I don’t know
when
Kate
’s coming back
or
even
if
she’s coming back.”

Mrs. Mason shook her head.

“What are kids thinking these days? This whole thing has been horrible, just horrible. You tell her we miss her and want her back. Tell her how sorry everyone is.”

“I will,” Liz said. “Thanks.”

Mrs. Mason left us and returned to her post outside her door, her face
pinched into a mask of concern
. Mr. Jones joined her at her door and the two leaned into each other talking. From the look on Mr. Jones’ face, Mrs. Mason wasn’t the only one who was upset about the whole thing.

“Are you going to be able to talk tonight?” I asked Liz. The past few nights she had been busy with Kate. It was selfish, but I missed her.

“I’m going back over to Kate’s, but I’ll call you around six. I need to be over there; there’s supposed to be some sort of meeting with the school today. Lots of people are being interviewed, including our favorite friend, Seth.”

“That’s one meeting I would love to see,” I said, remembering the last time Mr. Perkins
and Seth’s dad “talked
.
”

“Well, lots of people are involved. There were over a hundred posts the first day, most of them against Kate. Only near the end of the day were people trying to support her.”

“It was pretty brutal,” I agreed.

“It was pretty organized is what it was. Too many people posted pro-Seth. It took a while for the other side to post. Lots of kids in this school don’t like him very much because he’s picked on them too. He’s not all that nice to everyone, you know.”

I had to agree with that. Seth made bullying a daily exercise.

“I guess they’ve pretty much figured out it was
Chrissy
who set up the F
acebook
account, and if it was
,
I wouldn’t want to be her.”

“Kate’s parents are pretty mad, huh?”

“Mad? That doesn’t even
begin
to describe it. You know how school’s been lecturing us about cyber bullying? Well, Kate’s parents are demanding they follow through and prosecute. They’re not taking no for an answer. They’re taking
Chrissy
to court.”

“Can they do that?”

“Oh, yeah.
They can. And they will.
Andy, her dad’s a lawyer, remember?
” Liz checked to be sure no one else was listening. “I’m not supposed to tell, so you can’t even say anything
—
even to Johnny
—
but I don’t think
Chrissy
will be going to this school anymore. If they can prove she did this, and we both know she did, she’ll have to go to AEP or total
ly transfer to another district—if
anyone will have her.”

My eyes widened. AEP stood for Alternative Education Placement. It was reserved for the bad kids, the really bad kids who preferred drugs, alcohol
,
or violence to books and school clubs. AEP was the end of the line before ending up in
Juvie
.

“Dang!” was all I could say
before
Liz
made sure
Mrs. Mason had disappeared into her room
, and she could give
me another quick kiss before rushing off to history.
By now the halls were empty and both of us were in
probably going to be
tardy.

“
I’ve got to run!
I’ll call you,” she was saying
when
a shadowy wall of trouble stopped her. Charlie and Seth stood shoulder to shoulder blocking her path.

The words she used were “Excuse me,” but her voice, strong and unafraid
,
translated them to “Move.” I couldn’t believe how much I liked that girl; even more so, I couldn’t believe she liked me.

The boys didn’t move.

My body tightened up, quickly moving into protective mode, words exploding out of my mouth. “Hey! Leave her alone.”

“Hey, yourself,” Charlie said quietly so no teachers would hear. “We need to talk.”

“I don’t need to talk to you,” Liz said, her green eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

“Then you need to listen,” Seth said. “You two are out here stirring up trouble making me look bad.
”

“I d
on’t think you need us,” I said,
egging Seth on because i
t
felt good to do it. “You’re doing pretty well on your own.”

“Shut up,” Charlie breathed.

“Are you
guys
crazy?” Liz asked. “We all know this all started because of something you did
,
Seth. Kate didn’t stand on the chair. Kate didn’t shoot the bird at
Johnny
. Kate didn’t tell anyone YOU were the one that did it. Why don’t you man up?”

“She told,” Charlie insisted.

“She
didn’t
tell. I’ve spent the last few weeks with her trying to find out who did. Kate had nothing to do with it except she was in the class when it happened, and you decided to pick on her.”

For the first time in a long time, Seth was listening more than he was talking.

Liz continued,
“
So, Seth, the big question you should be worried about is if it wasn’t Kate, which one of your buddies was it? Or was it just another random kid in the class who isn’t really fond of you? Who, in this school, really hates you enough to rat you out? ‘
Cause
it’s somebody.”

Seth was speechless.

“Oh, and by the way, you can add
Chrissy
to the list. She’s not exactly thinking you’re her best friend anymore the way you threw her under the bus after all the work she went through to set up the pep assembly and
the
F
acebook
page. I guess you better find another girl to do your dirty work.”

“I had nothing to do with that. If
Chrissy
did that, she did it all on her own.”

Seth was so
insistent
,
I began to doubt our conclusions.

“Seriously
,” he said
,
“
I didn’t know about it until it was up and running.”

Liz’s eyes opened a bit but we
re still skeptical. “You
have to
fix this,” she said. “It’s messed up big time, and Kate didn’t do anything.”

The way Seth
reacted,
I think he finally believed he had the wrong person. He stared long
and hard at Liz,
and then
took a breath
and a step back. It was like watching a movie where someone finally gets what the audience has known all along.

“We’re sorry about Kate,” Seth said softly.

Charlie was taken aback. All he said was
,
“Yeah.”

“But I still didn’t do any of it.”

Liz nodded her head once, pushed between them
,
and rounded the corner
,
leaving the three of us alone.

“Sorry about the other night, too,” Seth apologized. “It was stupid. I said some really stupid things. I guess this whole thing has gotten crazy out of control.”

I nodded, unsure of what I was hearing.

“C’mon,” Charlie said elbowing Seth
, “w
e’re late.”

They were right; the halls were long since empty. It was funny, I was going to take a tardy in English class, I had never even heard the bell, and I really didn’t care.

***

Later that night my phone dinged:
MEET ME @
prk
<3 Liz