Troy High (5 page)

“YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS,” I SAID.

Greg turned to look at me, rubbing at the blue face paint on his cheeks.

“I feel ridiculous,” he said. “But everyone is wearing face paint to show their support and as class president, I can’t be the only nonpainted face in the crowd.”

I looked around at the sea of blue-and-white faces in the bleachers. “You know, at Troy we just yell and wear Troy High T-shirts.”

Greg grinned. “At Lacede, we like to go all-out.”

“The game is about to start,” I said. “Do you think I should sit here or the visitors’ side?”

I noticed the looks I got from a few Spartans and their supporters. Maybe it would be safer to try to blend
in with the Southern Mills supporters on the other side of the field.

“Sit here,” Greg said. “No one will mess with you, if you can deal with the glares.”

“Okay,” I said. We found seats halfway up the bleachers, near a group of girls who gave me dark scowls.

“We’ve got the spirit! We can succeed! We’ve got the moves! Go, go Lacede!” The Lacede cheerleaders leaped into the air, waving their pom-poms and shrieking at the top of their lungs as they urged the crowd on.

The teams emerged from the locker rooms to loud cheers. Lucas and the Southern Mills team captain met on the fifty-yard line and shook hands before heading to their respective sides of the field.

I wasn’t a huge fan of football, but the game stayed tense enough to keep my interest. The crowd around me roared whenever the Spartans scored or booed whenever the Southern Mills Wildcats did.

At halftime, the teams were tied 14–14.

All around me, people stood up to head down to the refreshment stands.

“Want to share a hot dog?” Greg asked.

“Okay,” I agreed. “But no onions on my half.”

“Don’t blame me if the onions spill over to your side.”

We joined the long line for the hot dogs. After several minutes, the line hadn’t moved much.

“I’m starving,” Greg said. “This line is moving too slow. Got anything to eat?”

I shook my head. “I had a mint left, but I ate it during the first quarter.”

But Greg didn’t seem to hear what I said. He was focused on something in the direction of the locker rooms. I turned to see what he was looking at.

Elena and Lucas stood outside the gray building. From the way their arms moved as they spoke, it didn’t look as though she were wishing him good luck.

She wouldn’t dare. Not here. Not
now
.

Would she?

“Um, Greg,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant, “how have Lucas and Elena been doing lately?”

“Not so great, from the looks of it,” Greg said, his eyes still on them. “Come on, let’s see what’s going on.”

We left the hot-dog line and hurried across the grass toward the locker rooms. When we’d drawn closer, I could hear Elena speaking.

“You never pay attention to me anymore! It’s always football or video games or your stupid friends.”

“I spent all of Saturday with you last weekend!” Lucas shouted. His face had turned red and the veins in his
neck bulged behind his shoulder padding. “I followed you around the mall for four hours while you looked at fifty different pairs of shoes and didn’t buy a single thing! What more do you want?”

Elena crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing, Lucas. That’s just it. I don’t want anything else from you ever again.”

“Hey,” Greg said, stepping between them. “Everything okay?”

“Yes,” Lucas said at the same time Elena said “No.”

Lucas stared at her. “So that’s it? You want to throw away three years of us?”

“We haven’t been together three years, we’ve spent at least half of that time broken up!” Elena exclaimed. “We were never meant to be together, I see that now. That’s why we’ve never been able to make this work more than a few months at a time.”

“Whoa,” Greg said, holding his hands up. “I think maybe you guys need to take some time to calm down and think this over. Wait until tomorrow, when you can talk about this rationally.”

“I’ve already thought this over,” Elena said. “And breaking up for good is the right solution. Lucas, once you get over being angry at me, you’ll see that this is right for both of us.”

She had to do this
now
, when Lucas had to put his focus on the game?

“Elena,” I said, “I think Greg is right. Don’t make any decisions now that you’ll regret tomorrow. Wait until you both can sit down in private and talk. Lucas has other things on his mind right now—”

“I’m not making any decisions I’ll regret. I’ve made up my mind, and it’s final.”

At that moment, Perry appeared around the side of the building and said, “Hey, Elena, ready to go?” He shot her a grin, oblivious to the tension in the air.

My pulse pounded in my ears. I could barely hear anything over the sound.

Lucas’s and Greg’s bodies tensed as they both gazed back at Perry.

“What do you want with Elena?” Lucas asked in a deep voice.

“None of your business, Spartan,” Perry snapped.

Lucas took a step forward. The muscles in his arms were rigid and his fists were clenched at his sides. “Anything involving my girlfriend is my business.”

“I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Lucas!” Elena exclaimed.

Lucas grabbed Elena’s arm. “Elena, listen—”

Perry stepped forward. “Let her go.”

“And what are you going to do about it, pretty boy?” Lucas asked.

If I were Perry, I would have thought twice about standing up to Lucas. Lucas had several inches and pounds on my brother.

Suddenly the Spartan locker-room door swung open and Coach Whittingham stuck his head out. “Mennon! What are you doing out here? The second half is about to start, and we’re waiting on you so we can talk strategy.”

Lucas looked at him, blinking, as if he’d forgotten where he was. He looked down at his uniform, then back at the coach and nodded as he stomped into the locker room. He shot a dark glare back at Elena and Perry.

“You coming with us, Cassie?” Elena asked, sounding just as perky and happy as usual, as if the last five minutes hadn’t happened.

Behind us, people were returning to their seats, waiting for the game to resume. In the distance, I could hear the rumble of hundreds of voices talking all at once. But in our little corner, everything was silent, as if waiting for me to make a decision. Who to go with—my old friend or new one?

Greg turned away from us and said in a cold voice, “I have to get back.”

He ambled away without saying anything else.

“Let’s get out of here,” Perry said. “I can’t stand to be around so many Spartans much longer.”

Elena held a hand out to me, smiling. I let her take my hand and lead me toward the gate behind Perry.

“CASSIE,” MOM CALLED FROM BEHIND MY CLOSED door. “Cassie, wake up. You have a visitor.”

I rolled over, grumbling into my pillow. It was too early. I had stayed up half the night wondering if I had done the right thing by keeping my mouth shut about Elena and Perry. I felt like no matter what choice I made, I would have hurt someone I cared about.

I heard the door open. “Cassie, get up. It’s almost noon and you have a guest.”

Moaning, I lifted my head from my pillow and opened one eye to look at Mom. “Who is it?” I asked.

The door opened wider and I saw Elena standing in the hall, looking unbelievably gorgeous at this time of day. I sat up, trying to shift my Tweety Bird pajamas into
position and reaching up to smooth down my rat’s nest of hair.

“I think she’s awake now, Elena,” Mom said. She shot an amused smile my way, raising her eyebrows, and then disappeared down the hall.

Elena bounced into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. “Morning, sleepyhead!”

I winced at the sound of her voice. “Not so loud. I just woke up.”

“You’re sleeping the whole day away,” Elena told me, laughing. “It’s time to wake up. Perry isn’t here. He and Hunter are doing some pregame tradition thing.” She got up and walked over to my dresser, picking up necklaces and CDs at random to inspect them.

“Waffles,” I said. Hunter and Perry always met the other guys from the football team for breakfast on game day, a longstanding Trojan tradition.

“Yeah,” Elena said. “I was up and decided to come by and see you. And tell you about what an amazing night Perry and I had after we left the football game.”

Perry had dropped Hunter and me off at home around ten, and then he and Elena took the car back out to drive around for a while.

“It was so incredible, Cassie,” Elena said, leaning against my dresser to sigh at her reflection in the mirror. Dozens of
pictures of Greg and me that I had taped along the sides of the mirror framed her face. “We went to the park and it was all lit up by the streetlights. We were alone and Perry pushed me on the swings for a while. Then we lay in the grass and looked at the stars. It was so romantic. And the way he kisses! I haven’t kissed anyone like that ever. Lucas was always such a sloppy kisser, but Perry is amazing.”

I shifted in my seat. “I don’t really want to hear all the gory details.”

“I know breaking up with Lucas was the right thing to do,” Elena told me. “I knew it before, but I’m
completely
sure now. Perry is the guy I’m meant to be with. It was fate for me to be transferred to Troy.”

“Elena,” I said, “did you happen to think that maybe you shouldn’t have broken up with Lucas last night?”

Elena looked at me as if I were the crazy one. “It wouldn’t have been fair to keep dating Lucas when I’m in love with Perry.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” I agreed. “But you could have chosen a different time to dump Lucas. He really needed to focus on the game and not on you.”

To her credit, Elena did look sorry as she twisted one of my beaded bracelets in her hands. “I thought it would be better this way, if he could use the game to work out his anger.”

I sighed. “I don’t think your plan worked.”

“Lucas kept calling my cell last night,” Elena said. “And he’s already started this morning. He’s left about twenty messages, begging me to go back to him.”

“Maybe he really loves you,” I said.

“Then he should have taken the time to show it before now,” Elena said. She pulled her cell out of her pocket and punched a few buttons. “Here, listen to this.”

She pressed the phone to my ear and I heard Lucas’s voice. He sounded weird, his voice higher than usual, with a desperate pitch to it. “Elena,
please
,” he said. “What does that Trojan jerk have that I don’t? We’ve been together for years. You know I love you. I’ll do anything to get you back. I’ll be a better boyfriend, I promise—”

I felt uncomfortable listening to Lucas pour his heart out to Elena’s voice mail, and I pushed the phone away. “Are you sure breaking up with Lucas is what you really want?” I asked. “He doesn’t seem so bad, as far as jocks go.”

“The way I feel about Perry, it’s … different. Amazing. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.” She gave me a half-smile. “I made the right decision, I’m sure. And now I’ll let you go back to sleep.” She stood and started toward my door. “By the way,” she said, pausing to point to one of the pictures taped to my mirror, “I can’t believe Greg let you put that horrible picture up.”

The picture was from band camp two years ago, when Greg and I had first met. He had thick braces, bad acne, and hair that he had tried to grow out that year to look cool but instead looked like a huge frizzball. I had taken the picture on our last day at camp, when I had dared Greg to stuff as many grapes into his mouth as he could during breakfast. His cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk’s full of nuts, and he grinned wide, showing the mouthful of grapes and braces, which had remnants of his breakfast stuck in them.

It was one of my favorite pictures ever and it always made me happy to look at it.

I thought about Greg and the anger I’d seen in his eyes the night before. “Is Perry really worth all the trouble you caused?” I asked.

Elena turned back to me, her eyes shining. “Of course!”

I tried to smile as she waved and left the room.

I was thankful that Greg didn’t suspect that I’d known Elena planned to dump Lucas for Perry. At least no one had given that secret away during the scene the night before.

But I still worried a little that Greg might be mad at me for leaving the game to go with Elena and Perry, so I called him and got him to agree to meet me at TJ’s, our favorite pizza place on Lacede’s side of town. We always ordered
the same thing, a large thin-crust pizza with everything, no mushrooms on Greg’s half and extra mushrooms on mine.

He walked into the restaurant five minutes later. Glancing quickly at me, he moved toward the table, his hands buried deep in his pockets and his eyes focused on the floor.

“Hey,” he said as he slid into the seat across from me.

“Hi,” I answered.

We were silent for nearly a full minute. I played with the paper from my straw wrapper while I tried to think of the right thing to say.

Millie, our waitress, saved me from having to decide right away. “Hey, honey,” she greeted Greg. We were at TJ’s so often that she knew our names, but she always called everyone honey. “The usual?”

Greg nodded.

“Okay,” Millie said, smiling wide. “I’ll be right back with your Coke and the pizza.”

Once again, we were alone, sitting silently. Greg stared at the wall over my shoulder.

“Hi, Greg!” some girls called as they walked into the restaurant. Spartan cheerleaders. I recognized them from the game. I shot a quick glare at their backs as they headed across the room.

The jealousy that flooded through me helped give me courage.

“I’m really sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have left the game with Elena after what happened.”

“You didn’t have to stay,” Greg said. “But I kind of thought that you might. I thought we were best friends.”

“We are,” I said softly. “But I wasn’t sure that you wanted to see me right then, since you walked away like that. And Elena had just dumped your brother for mine.”

Millie returned with Greg’s drink and the pizza. Once she had left and we had both served ourselves a slice, Greg said, “Why would that make me not want to see you?”

I twisted a string of cheese around my finger. “I don’t know. It just seemed like you might be mad at me.”

“No, I’m mad at Elena and Perry. Lucas is my brother, so I have to be mad at them.”

“And Perry is my brother,” I pointed out. “But that doesn’t mean I have any hard feelings toward Lucas.” I put my pizza down on my plate and looked at him. “How’s he doing, anyway?”

“He’s doing as well as he can after being dumped,” Greg said. “He messed up a lot of easy plays last night during the second half. We lost, by the way, 38–14. Coach
called the house last night after the game, and he and Lucas talked for a long time. Lucas isn’t punching holes in the wall, so I assume that’s a good sign.”

I sighed. “Good. I told Elena this morning that she should have chosen a different time to break up with him.”

“You talked to Elena this morning?”

I looked at the clock on the wall. “Well, actually it was only about an hour ago. I slept really late today. She came over to tell me—” I broke off, realizing what I was about to say.

“To tell you what?” Greg asked.

I stared down at the table, tracing a crack in the laminate with my fingernail. “To tell me about her night with Perry.”

Greg gripped his glass in one hand, his knuckles tight. “That girl is … Ugh, I can’t even think of an adequate word to describe her. She stomps all over Lucas’s heart and then she just goes off with her new boyfriend.”

“I know,” I said. “She does feel bad, though. She thought it would be good for Lucas to work out his frustrations during the game.”

Greg sat in silence, stirring his Coke with his straw. I chewed my pizza, watching him.

“So what’s going on with you and Elena?” he asked.

I shrugged. “We’re friends.”

“Elena Argos has never given you a second look during all the times she’s seen you at my house, and now she’s suddenly your new best friend?”

I raised one eyebrow at him. “She’s not my
best
friend.”

Greg’s ears reddened a bit. “You can be friends with whoever you want. I just thought the two of you were an odd pairing, that’s all.”

“Why?” I snapped. “Because Elena is so beautiful and popular and I’m just some plain, unnoticeable dork?”

“You know I don’t think that,” Greg said, staring hard at me. “But really, what do you and Elena have in common?”

I sat up straighter. “Lots of stuff,” I said. “Girl stuff that
you
would never understand.”

Greg rolled his eyes. Before he could speak, the chime on the door sounded and Lucas walked in, followed by his friends Owen, Ackley, and Patrick. I knew Owen better than Ackley or Patrick, although all of them were on Lacede’s football team and I’d seen them around Greg and Lucas’s house several times. Owen was friendly, but Ackley kept more to himself and was always shadowed by his best friend, Patrick. Also, I doubted Ackley had wanted to spend much time in my presence over the past year, ever since Hunter injured his ankle in the game between Lacede and Troy.

Lucas headed in our direction when he spotted Greg and me.

“Well, if it isn’t a Trojan in Spartan territory,” Lucas said, looking down at me. He looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes.

“Leave her alone, Lucas,” Greg told him.

Lucas, ignoring his brother, leaned down so that he was eye level with me. “Tell your brother that he has no idea what he’s started. Steal from me, and you have to deal with every Spartan wanting revenge.”

“Cassie has nothing to do with what her brother does,” Greg said.

Lucas turned toward Greg. “You, little brother, need to decide who you’re loyal to. What’s it going to be? Family or friend?”

My heart felt as if it were running a marathon inside my chest. I had never seen that wild look in Lucas’s eyes before. I didn’t doubt for a moment that he could and would do something to have revenge.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Lucas,” Greg said in a calm voice. “You’re just really upset right now. Take a few days to settle down.”

“He won’t listen,” Owen spoke up, shaking his head. “I’ve already tried. He just says that I owe him allegiance if I want to keep my position on the football team and, well,
I’m really counting on a football scholarship for college.” He shrugged and shot me an apologetic look.

“The Trojans will pay,” Patrick said, punching a fist into one hand. “I can’t wait to get my hands on them.”

“Especially that big Trojan quarterback,” Ackley growled, glaring at me. “I owe him payback for what he did to me last year.”

“No one takes anything from me and gets away with it,” Lucas said. “Perry Prince has started a war.”