Snitch (7 page)

“But your friends are. And if your friends are, then
you
are.”

I had never seen Liz this angry. I decided not to ask her out quite then.

“I heard two girls in the bathroom talking about how Kate got Seth in trouble. Kate did not get Seth in trouble!” Liz put both hands on my desk and leaned into me. “Seth got Seth in trouble. He made the decision to terrorize the sub. He made the decision to stand on his chair. How can this be Kate’s fault?”

I was afraid to speak because Liz looked like she might take my head off if I did.

“People don’t like snitches,”
Chrissy
sniped from across the room.

Liz stood up tall. “People don’t like liars either!”

“Seth didn’t do anything any of us haven’t done before,”
Chrissy
argued. She made sure some of the class was watching her and Mrs. Mason wasn’t. Then she crossed both hands in front of her chest and held out her middle fingers. An evil smile spread across her face
. “I suppose
you’re gonna
tell on
me
now.” Her smile challenge
d Liz, but Liz didn’t take the bait
.

“What is wrong with you?” Liz breathed. “Why are you so hateful? Why do you want to pick on Kate?”

“The only thing I
hate
is a snitch,”
Chrissy
retorted, nodding
towards
Kate
who sat frozen like a mouse about to be eaten
.

“Sit down,” Mrs. Mason told the class. “Let’s get started.” She paused for a moment and surveyed the class. “Is everything all right
here
?”

No one said anything.
 

Including me.
I was not going to get involved in Seth’s revenge.

Which made it impossible to get any work done on our science project.
Liz refused to speak to me, glaring at me through those little green slits I wanted to avoid until I finally agreed to talk to Seth.

“It’s not going to do any good,” I warned her. “It’s not like I have any power over Seth or anything. Seth does what Seth wants to do.”

“But you’ll try.”

“I’ll try.”

“Thanks,” Liz said, checking on Kate who
still
sat in agony, not speaking, barely breathing, trying to remain invisible until the bell rang and she could go home for the day.

“I try not to hate anyone,” Liz confessed, “But
Chrissy
Allen is a total bitch.”

I looked over at
Chrissy
who had the amazing talent of being able to
bully Kate from across the room by
laughing before looking at her or whispering and eyeing her at the same time.
Chrissy
was good at it, and she loved every minute of it. It was pathetic.

“You two need to focus on science,” Mrs. Mason warned us from behind. “Have you gotten anything done?”

Liz whipped out her notes from Sunday night. “We’ve already watched one special, and we are just getting ready to combine our notes.”

Mrs. Mason smiled. “Good. For a minute there I thought you two were way behind.”

Liz smiled and Mrs. Mason smiled back. How could she not? Liz had the best smile.

“I will talk to Seth,” I told Liz. “I’ll do it tonight at practice.”

How is it girls can get you to do the dumbest stuff? I’ve always wondered why Dad carried Mom’s purse while she shopped for some stupid pair of shoes. Now I think I was beginning to understand. I couldn’t say no to Liz even though I knew talking to Seth was useless. I promised I would do it for her, and I would
—even
though it was hopeless.

What I didn’t know was what Seth was planning to do.

***

Charlie and Ben were doing
up-downs
when I got into the gym
,
which meant they had gotten in trouble.

“What’s that all about?” I asked Johnny. Charlie and Ben had been at them for a while because they were both sweating like crazy.

“They were kind of
fighting in the locker room. I think about
Chrissy
.”

My eyes rolled
all on their own
. ”Don’t ever let her know. She’s already so full of herself.”

“
Chrissy’s
not bad to look at
,
” Johnny reasoned, smiling.

“Yeah,” I said. “Too bad you have to talk to her. It ruins everything.”

Coach blew his whistle.

“Get in line!” he shouted. “We’re going to start with some ball handling drills. Grab a ball; pass through your legs and behind your back. Sizzle, let’s see if you can do this without losing the ball this time.”

The team hooted on Sizzle who smiled and promptly
ran across the court
to chase his ball.

After that we ran some lay-up lines. And then we just ran.

“Yo-yos
!
”
Coach yelled. “Twenty-five seconds or the whole team does it again!”

We ran from the baseline to the center and back, over to the other sideline, back to the center and crossed over the court. Wes lagged behind and Coach blew his whistle.

“Again!” he shouted. “This time get moving!” Three tries later we were allowed a water break.

“Scrimmage in three minutes!”
Coach announced. We all tried to run t
o the water fountains, but I kne
w my legs didn’t want to move and my ankle had that old familiar throb
.
I walked.

“Seth,” I said gasping for breath, “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” he said, wiping the sweat off his face with his shirt.

“Can you tell
Chrissy
to
lay
off?”

Seth looked up from the fountain quizzically. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I let out a sigh.
“C’mon, Seth.
Call her off.”

“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and faced Seth. “I’m not stupid. This thing is getting way too big. Lots of people are talking. Kate is…she’s like a little rabbit or something. Why don’t you just go ask her if she told? I mean, what if she didn’t?”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Seth insisted, “but I do know you’ve been paying an awful lot of attention to Liz who would be….hmm. Let’s see. Oh, I know, Kate’s best friend. What a coincidence
.
”

Seth looked deep into my eyes and I could see the frightening determination in his. “All I can say is
,
you do what you need to do. I’ll do what I need to do.”

“You
need
to ask Kate if she told on you
.
” I could feel my anger surfacing. I hate it when people blow me off
,
and there was no doubt that that’s exactly what Seth was doing.

“
You
do it
,
” Seth scowled and turned on his heel.

I was about to go after him, but Coach blew his whistle.

“Hey, ladies!” he yelled to us
.
“Stop your gossiping and get over here for scrimmage.”

I grabbed a quick sip of water and returned to the court, but I decided I
was
going to take
Seth’s challenge. I would ask K
ate.

***

That night I called Liz.

“I need to know something.” I paused. “You have to tell me the truth. Did Kate snitch on Seth?”

Liz snorted. “Kate. Snitch. Can you even believe she would do something like that? She barely talks back to her parents. Kate would never make an appointment with her counselor, walk out in front of a class
,
and go to the office to tell on someone. Not Kate.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“Besides, she’s too busy at home to worry about immature hallway drama.” Liz paused like I should understand what she was saying. I didn’t.
“With her family.”
She paused again. “Don’t you know her whole family is deaf?
Her mom, dad, and big brother.
I mean they’re fine and everything. Her dad is
a lawyer, and her mom teaches.
Her brother is away at State working on a degree in engineering.
”

“
Really?
Her dad’s a lawyer? How does that work?”

“I don’t know for sure, but there are lots of people out there who are deaf and need lawyers. Kate says he has clients
who are deaf
as well as
hearing
ones.
Her m
om teaches sign language at
Central Community C
oll
ege and has for the past ten years
. Her parents can talk—I’ve heard them. It’s just flat and
kinda
funny sounding. People pay more attention
to that than what they’re saying, so
whenever there is any interaction with the speaking
world
—over
the phone or at the
bank
—stuff
like that, Kate takes over.
It’s not that her parents can’t handle it; it’s that the rest of the world has a hard time dealing with the non-hearing world. Kate’s
been doing that ever since she was little.”

I couldn’t believe I didn’t know that
about Kate
and wondered at the same time what it would be like not to hear my little sister talking for once. “Hey, maybe that’s why she’s so quiet.”

“Probably.
You know, she told me that when she was little she would go most of the summer barely saying anything. Out loud, I mean. Kate can sign as fast as you or I talk.”

I shook my head realizing there was a lot more to Kate than I thought.

“Did you talk to Seth?”

My stomach rolled. Liz was not going to like what I had to tell her. “Yep,” I paused. “It
did not
go well.”

“What did he say?”

So I told her everything. And I was right; she didn’t like it.

Frenz

Kate wasn’t at school the next few days
,
which was the coward’s way out but actually a good thing.
This way
things
could settle down. Instead of concentrating on Kate and her problems, I was able to use my talents to get Liz to agree to meet up with a bunch of us at the movies that Saturday.

Johnny, Ben, and I planned to meet up with some other kids from school, so I took a chance and asked Liz to meet us. I was a little worried that she would still be mad at Johnny, but once the two of them
relaxed and
started joking, they never stopped. There were about six of us and it turned out Ben “Romeo” Rodriguez’s new girl, Ashley, knew everybody from the play last year too
,
so it turned into a fun, easy time.

“Actually, Liz is pretty funny,” Johnny confided in me as we hit the concession stand for popcorn. “And do you know she has some pretty amazing eyes?”

Like I hadn’t noticed.

After the movie we walked across the parking lot for some pizza. Johnny and Liz sat together and joked back and forth until they had the
whole table cracking up. Then they started discussing the spring play and how I should get involved. I wasn’t too sure about that.

All in all it was a great date. Yep, date. Liz and I are officially going out.

I have never laughed as much as when I am with her, because she has a way of making everything funny. And it’s so cool that she can take care of herself. Somebody like
Chrissy
always has to be the center of attention, but Liz is happy just to be someplace with friends who want to cut up and have fun. She doesn’t need me to sit with her or talk to her all the time. She’s perfectly comfortable being herself. I can honestly say I have never met a girl like Liz before.