Snitch (2 page)

Seth
forgot his math book
and slammed his hand into Johnny’s shoulder. “Shut up!”

Aware of Mrs. Mathews’ watchful eye
,
he
stopped himself and
laughed as if he was playing along, but I caught the rogue lightning-flash of anger in his own eyes before he turned away to work his locker combination. Half laughing, half wondering if I had seen what I thought I had, I
grabbed Johnny’s shoulder
.

“I think he really might be mad
.
” I pulled him several steps away.

Johnny’s surprised look gave way to a slow smile. “He’s fine. He can take a joke. Watch this, and remember who the master is.”

I followed Johnny over to
where Seth stood at his locker and put a few people between Seth’s fist
and my body
.

“You’re crazy, but go ahead,” I whispered, nodding my head towards Seth.

Johnny moved in to Seth’s ear and hoarsely repeated “Wes” before wisely backing off.

“What about me?” Wes asked, all six
-
foot
-
two inches of him surprising us from behind. Wes slapped the back of my head. “Think fast, Andy-O,” he laughed.

My
whole
head snapped forward. Getting hit by Wes was like being hit with a brick.
“Geez!”
I yelled, putting my arm up to prevent a second assault.

“Sorry, Andy
.
”
Wes looked at his offending hand and put it behind his back. “I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”

“It’s okay.” I rubbed the crick out of my neck. Besides being six-two, Wes is one big farm boy. He’s not all that bright in the brains department, but he can bench
two-thirty
without trying, and he comes with a brother a few years older and a
bunch of
muscles larger
who
starts for the varsity football team. I guess there’s something to say for years of lifting hay bales and eating fresh farm vegetables.

“Coach is
gonna
start you as center in the game tonight
,
” Johnny-boy said loudly, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, smiling. “
You been
lookin’ good at practice. Seth, here, missed practice. Coach didn’t like that.”

“I was sick,” Seth deadpanned, turning from his locker with his
newly freed math book
. He wasn’t smiling like we were. He tried to give Johnny-boy another shove, but Johnny pulled back knocking into Kate
DuPrey
. She’s what my mom calls petite, so she and her books went flying.

“Watch it,” her friend, Liz
, said
catching Kate. She bent down to help gather the books that flew when Kate did. “You could at least help pick up her things
.
” Liz
narrowed
her green eyes into little slits, the way only girls can do.

“I don’t touch
the
pink things,” Johnny-boy said, motioning to Kate’s pencil case.
“Too girly.
I wouldn’t want anything like that to rub off on the
ol
’ Johnny–boy. I have to play like a man tonight.”

For a moment Liz
froze
, her
mouth open
, unable to speak.

“She’s speechless!” Johnny said. “It’s not often the Lizard is speechless!”

“Oh,
my gosh
!” Liz exploded. “When are you going to grow up?” She bent back down and retrieved the pink pencil case, her red hair catching the light,
turning
copper one minute,
and
red the next. “You act like little children. My name is Liz, not The Lizard. Your name is Johnny. In fact, it should be John
,
but you’re not mature enough to realize it!”

Johnny flapped his hand in front of Liz’s face as if it were a puppet. “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…
,
” he
croaked
in a high, crack
ling
voice before Liz’s hand shot out and batted his away.

“Did you forget we’re in high school now?”
Tossing
that
insult over her shoulder,
s
he
stormed away,
her long hair flying through the air like
red
whips.

“More blah, blah, blah, blah…
,
” His puppet hand flapped towards his own face and pulled him down the hallway by his nose. “It hurts
!
It hurts!” he said loudly enough so Liz could hear him. It was hilarious, but my throat was so tight I couldn’t laugh.

Before we hit Mr.
Leason’s
door, I grabbed Johnny’s shoulder. “How do you know her?”

“From
theater
.
She works backstage.”

Johnny was one of those multi
-
talented people; he was a huge jock in the fall and star of our school plays in the spring. I should have known he knew her. Johnny knew everyone.

“C’mon
Andy-O
, we’re
gonna
take a tardy
,
and I can’t.”

We tumbled into our seats so
quickly
,
we didn’t realize we had a sub until it was too late. Instead of ugly, old Mr.
Leason
, a pretty young blonde girl nervously faced our class. She took a deep breath and consulted some notes.

The basketball team used the time to get ready. From years of being on one sports team or another we had learned how to play well together,
and we were very good at the sub game. We understood that substitutes meant two things: a day off from class, and one hour to play, “Sink the Sub
.
”

We always won that game.

But in order to play correctly we had to rearrange the seating chart. One look at each other and we all knew we were thinking the same thing at the same time. Since Kate was up sharpening her pencil
,
Johnny quickly took her seat and Wes moved in on the other side of me. Seth wasn’t on top of his game and didn’t really have anywhere to go, but he gave us a look that let us know he had something better planned.

“If you’ll all take your seats, we can get started,” the sub said,
nervously
writing “Miss Applebee” on the white board.

“This is going to be great!” Wes whispered. “She looks like she just got out of high school!” He looked around the room and coughed into his hand. “Free day!”

Miss Applebee swallowed hard and moved to the front of the class. “It’s not a free day, Mr
.
...” she studied her seating chart. “You seem to be in the wrong seat.”

“No. Mr.
Leason
moved me here yesterday so I could see the board better,” Wes said innocently. “I need glasses, I think.”

Miss Applebee thought about that for a minute and then announced she was calling roll. That took about ten minutes. Since most of the basketball team was in this class we made it pretty tough on her, switching identities as well as seats every time she turned around and faced the board or looked away. The rest of the class wasn’t cooperating either. Most were involved in their own conversations or secretly texting or plugging into their
music
. We weren’t getting much done, but Miss Applebee wasn’t giving up. She must have been a math major in college or something because she seemed intent on teaching the lesson Mr.
Leason
had left for the day.

We were supposed to be learning how to figure
out
and plot slope
,
which was not important
to me
because I’m sure I will never be having a conversation and someone will suddenly ask, “Could you figure the slope on that?” Anyway, with all the extra talking and messing around, there was little hope of me being able to do that because no one was getting the lesson very well.

Seth waved his hand in the air and waited to be called on. “How old are you?” he asked.

Miss Applebee
blushed
a deep shade of red
. “I don’t think that’s important.”

“I do
,
” Seth insisted. “I mean, how am I supposed to learn math if my teacher hasn’t even finished high school yet?”

“I assure you, I’ve finished high school
.
” Miss Applebee, obviously flustered, blushed deeper. She sat down at Mr.
Leason’s
desk and nervously read something from a paper. By the time she looked up, Seth was standing at her desk, a six
-
foot obstacle in front of her lesson plan.

“Miss Applebee, I have a question for you.” He put both of his hands on the desk and leaned in. “I want to know
,
” he turned to the class to make sure we were all watching, “if you would like to
go to a movie
with me
tonight
.”

Miss Applebee squared her shoulders and leaned into Seth.
All eyes were on the two of them.
Maybe a classroom of kids was new to her, but obviously obnoxious, bold guys were something she had
lots of
experience with. “You couldn’t handle me,” she said, smiling confidently back at him.

The hooting began.

Miss Apple had won that round.
Johnny and I
laughed so hard, we
almost fell out of our seats
,
and this time it was Seth’s turn to color. He sauntered back to his
desk
trying to look cool, but I knew him well enough to tell he was
totally
embarrassed. Miss Applebee had gotten the better
of him; what she didn’t know was that all this meant to Seth was that the challenge was on.

“Miss
Applebeet
,” Seth continued with a smirk.

“Applebee,” she corrected him, standing now, her voice hardening.

“Sorry.
Applebee.
I have a problem with my hearing.”

“Just like I have a problem with my sight,” Wes chimed in.

We all laughed. Our team was on a roll now.

“Anyway, Miss
Applebeet
, I just don’t get how to do this
.
” Seth stood up again and addressed the class. “Does anyone get this?”

“I don’t,” Wes said, giving me my cue.

I took it and shook my head.
“Doesn’t make any sense at all, teacher.”

The class smirked and several more people gave up on hearing any lesson and began to talk among
st
themselves.

Miss Applebee blushed deeper. “If you all sit down and be quiet, we’ll start over.” She turned to the board as a wad of paper sailed through the air and hit me from the left side of the ro
om. I turned to see Ben smiling and
quietly wadding up another piece of paper for the kill. Behind him, Liz sat glaring
at both of us
.

I don’t know why I did it, but I did.

“Miss
Applebeet
,” I
blurted out
, returning Liz’s glare, “someone hit me with this paper, and I think it was her!”

“You know it wasn’t me,” Liz said angrily. “I’m not so stupid and mean as to torture a poor substitute or throw paper like an immature sixth grader!” She did the slit thing with her eyes again, and for some reason the class suddenly quieted. Having Liz glare at me like that made me uncomfortable
,
because deep down I guess I knew we were pushing the sub pretty hard.

Miss Applebee consulted her seating chart again, but since everyone had switched seats it was useless. Suddenly her blush looked more like a prelude to a good cry than embarrassment or anger. Liz was right; this was quickly moving from good fun to…well, just plain mean.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Please, teach us how to do this. We’ll listen.”

Miss Applebee looked at me and took a
desperate
breath. I could see hope in her eyes.

“Please,” I said once more. I
ignor
ed
Seth’s
angry
looks
and
eye
ball
ed
the rest of my team
.
“Chill, guys,” I said, meaning it.

Miss Applebee smiled gratefully.
“For starters,” she said, picking up a marker again and turning toward the whiteboard,
“
I’ll have to make a new graph.”

Johnny-boy’s ears picked up. He winked at Seth and mouthed, “Starters.” Then, he pointed at Wes who smiled and pointed at himself mouthing, “Starter.
Starter.
Starter.”