Snitch (13 page)

P
ropelled by his father’s arm
,
Set
h’s body flew out of Mr. Perkin
s
’
office. Mr. Perkins barely had time to move before Seth hit the wall
opposite the door, looked at us blindly, and blinked once before he realized it was Charlie he was
seeing
. Looking like
Chrissy
, Seth smiled
—
just for a second. I think that was the creepiest thing about the whole ordeal.

Mr. Biggman blew out the door,
grabbed Seth by the shirt,
and
was
gone before
O
fficer Grant even made it to the office. Charlie and I seemed to have been forgotten for a while and were sent back t
o class without being spoken to after
Mr. Perkins came out and apologized to us for having to witness the behavior of Seth’s father
.
After all the worry and drama, he took out a pass, signed it, and
sent us
back
to sixth period. I hated what I had just seen. I hated being threatened by Charlie. I hated what was being done to Kate. I was totally
creeped
out by Seth.

My mind
was
unable to focus,
but somehow my feet
returned
me
to social studies class. From the beginning of this whole stupid thing I had set out not to become involved, but I felt like I was being sucked into this big black whirling mess of lies and deceit. It seemed like the harder I tried to stay out of it, the more involved I became. So the only
thing left to do was to admit I was involved
and
try
to stop everything. I would call Liz tonight and put together a plan.

Mr. Jones motioned for me to sit before continuing his lecture on World War II. He talked about how Hitler brainwashed his people. How he terrorized them so they would do what he wanted them to do. How he used the radio to make them believe what he needed them to believe. How effective his technique was.

After his lecture
Mr. Jones
assigned us
a
reading and handed out a worksheet, but I couldn’t concentrate on any of it.
His
lecture
had
hit too close to home.
I couldn’t stop thinking about
Ch
rissy
and Charlie and Seth and F
acebook.
I couldn’t stop worrying about Kate.
Somehow I was going to try and fix things.

Our game was with
Nolanville
that night, but I can’t say we played like we usually did. At halftime the coach huddled us together.

“We need this win. We used to be a team
!
” he shouted. “Now we look like a bunch of guys who don’t necessarily like each other.”

Coach focused his gaze on Seth and Charlie and me. “A team puts its differences behind them during game time. It’s time for this team to do that.”

“I’m willing to do that, Coach,” Seth volunteered.

I glared at him. What a liar; he was the reason the team was fractured.

“Good,” Coach said
, “
b
ecause
if you can’t, I’m going to have to make some changes in the lineup.”

Suddenly, I realized Coach was looking right at me. S
o was everyone else. I shrugged and said,
“
Count on me,
”
hoping
my voice was more convincing than I felt.

Johnny stood up to speak. “Coach, there’s been lots of
drama. Don’t worry. We’ll put it behind us and clean up
Nolanville
.”

The rest of the team roared its approval. Once again Seth was the hero.
A lying, conniving, mean hero
who
everyone loved.
And the third quarter began.

Five minutes into it, the horn blew and Charlie was subbed in for Ben. That put Seth and Charlie on the floor, glaring at me
with
poor Johnny unaware of the drama that was about to unfold.

The first part of the third quarter was fast and furious; there was no time for anything but hard play. But then
Nolanville’s
point guard twisted his ankle something horrible and everything changed. A whistle blew and Coach called a time out.

“This is our break, boys. With that kid out, we can slow the whole game down. Half of
Nolanville’s
game is speed. Now they’ve lost it, and we can play our kind of game. Take your time. Play like we practiced. Make every move count.”

The whistle blew and the game began again. Johnny threw the ball to me and I drove it down the court and passed it to Charlie. It was a good pass, but Charlie put on a show making it look like it was hard to receive.

“Slow it down!” he yelled to me.

I did a slow burn. I could see what he was doing was all fake
;
I hoped Coach could see it too.

Suddenly the ball flew by me. Seth and Charlie put both hands on their hips and glared at me. “Pay attention! What are you doin
g?
”

Coach’s whistle blew.

“
Oppenhauser
!”
He motioned for me to come to the sidelines. “What is going on? Didn’t you hear me?”

“I heard you, Coach. I’m okay.”

He shook his head. “Last chance,” was all he said, glancing at the rest of the hopefuls warming the bench.

As
I took
my
position back on the court
, Seth ran over wearing a fake smile and planting an equally fake pat on my back.
“Think you can handle it?”
he growled
still smiling for the coach and the crowd
.
I wasn’t sure if he meant the game or him.

Focusing on the game, I did something Dad had told me to do all my life: Once when I was little, I was angry at not being able to hook my bike chain back around the gears. I had spent a good hour trying over and over to fix it, cutting my fingers and smearing grease over everything. When Dad found me in the garage, my tears were mixed with that grease, and I had just thrown a wrench
,
which had boomeranged off the cement and put a permanent dent in my bike’s fender.

“Hold on, Tiger,” Dad said, wiping my face with a blue, shop rag. “Breathe. Now calm down and focus all that angry energy on getting the work done.”
I did what he said that day, and for some reason I suddenly had the strength to loop my chain around the gear.

Now, in order to win tonight’s game
, I
would have to do the same thing
. I shut my ears t
o the taunts and
calls
from Seth and Charlie
and kept my eye on the game. I p
layed like a pro and the score showed it.

Until the final ten minutes of the game. The other team had called a time out in one last valiant try at figuring a way to
clinch
the
win, but with the score 30 to 36 there was still hope
for us
. As we huddled up, I felt a voice whisper down my back.

“Facebook isn’t just for girls, you know
,
”
Seth
said with an
evil smile.

“Anybod
y can say anything about anyone,
” Charlie chimed in,
slappin
g me on the back
again
so the crowd could see what great friends we were.

“Shut up
,
” I growled.

“Or?”
Seth said,
“What? You
w
anna
go?
I’m in.
”

“
You mean f
ight someone who lets a girl take the fall for him? Don’t think so.”

“
Chrissy
made up her own mind to
do what she did,” Charlie said.

“Yeah.
With no help from anybody, right?”
I glared at Charlie the same way he had glared at me in the office a few days before.

“You’re a sad little man.
Lettin
’ a girl lead you on like you do. You forgot who your real friends are.”

“We might just have to teach that little red
-
headed princess a thing or two,” Charlie said.

The whistle blew; I couldn’t move.

“Andy!” Johnny yelled. “C’mon!”

I moved.

“What did they say? What’s going on?
”
he asked.

There was no time to answer.

With eight minutes left in the quarter the ball came to me. I waited for the right moment to pass to Charlie,
but as soon as he knew I was looking
,
he wi
nked at me and then smiled
as if I were nothing and he was all that. It was enough to make me forget
to direct my anger at
my
goal. Instead, I launched the ball and hit him so hard in the
chest
,
he couldn’t gain control of it which caused him to accidently turn it over to the other team. One look at Coach, and I knew I was
one step
close
r
to being pulled.
Charlie came off looking like a hero, and I looked like the freak
who
couldn’t control myself.

Luckily for me I was able to steal it from
Nolanville’s
point guard, complete a fast break and finger roll it into the basket for two! It was beautiful.

The horn blew and I knew Coach would probably sub me out; I could see Sizzle working the dust off his shoes on the sticky mat.

As I left the court, there was only one thing I had to do.

I passed closely enough to Seth so he could hear me. “I want to go.
After the game.”
I walked away and turned back to him
one last time
.

“
I just thought you should know
,” I said, winking
back
at him, “you suck.”

Ten minutes and one shower later, I had calmed down enough to wish I hadn’t promised to fight Seth. Swirling thoughts of losing my status in Honor Society, facing my parents
,
or being banned from playing the championship game I had worked so hard for helped me decide it would be wiser to replace my anger with logic.

Johnny agreed Seth was a jerk who deserved to be put in his place
,
but that I would lose too much by being the one to do it. In the last few minutes
,
we had pulled the game out of the crapper and won 38 to 36 which meant we were a leader for district champions and a fight was out of the question. I was relieved my friend
was in his usual position
watching my back as we gathered in the same parking lot where only a few weeks ago we had
all
been united in playing a prank.

Word had gotten out because even though it was late, a large group of kids
milled
around under the parking lot lights
anxiously
speculating on what was about to come.

“Holy shit!”
Johnny said
surprised. “What are you going to do?”

I swallowed. It was easy to be a school hero; I didn’t want to be the school schmuck.

“What are you going to do?” he asked again.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to fight.”

Johnny shook his head. “This is messed up. Maybe you can talk to him. Maybe he hasn’t figured out he’ll miss the championship
game
too.
Maybe—
”

“Hey,
Oppenhauser
!
”
Seth yelled
, “Y
ou f
inally showed.” He called to me
but addressed the crowd, basking in its attention. “We were starting to think you weren’t coming.”

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Johnny whispered.

I took a deep breath. My knees were shaking and ears were roaring. This was going to be bad. I was bigger than Seth, but he was faster and trickier. Even if I won the fight, only bad things would come from it.

“Are you coming, or
are you
just
going to stand
there looking like a chicken-shit?” Seth called. The circle of onlookers took a few steps back
,
anticipating
the show about to happen.