Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) (23 page)

“You can spend the night together and not kiss,” I said. I knew that was true. Happened every night with me.

“If you spend a night with a guy,” she said, “you’d be lucky to get out of there still a virgin, let alone not have kissed all night.”

“Oh,” I said. I wasn’t sure I should contradict her. “So you’ve heard things?”

“I hear a lot of stuff going on,” she said. She rolled her eyes. “A lot of it is boring.”

“So why do you listen?”

She shrugged and changed her attention to the football field. “So you gave up on the idea that you could date a bunch of guys at once?”

“I’m still friends with the others,” I said, again unsure about letting her in on the truth. Not that I didn’t trust her. She hadn’t told anyone about my previous confession which would have probably spread like wildfire if anyone had found out about it. Again, I didn’t feel I should press the issue.

“Not with Nathan any more though?”

My mouth parted. Had that spread already? “What?”

“He’s sitting over there all by himself.”

I glanced back, not meaning to, but she made me want to check. He was sitting in the back row. His eyes met mine. I could feel the pulling at my chest, wanting to sit next to him but at the moment, unable to.

“Something came up,” I said, turning back to her. “There’s a rumor.”

“There’s always a rumor,” Karen said. She sat back, stretching to put her feet on the seat in front of her. “What now?”

I wondered exactly how far this rumor got tossed around if Karen hadn’t heard it. “There’s one that Nathan spent the night with me last night. And then a follow up that Nathan was the one that spread the rumor. So for now, he’s trying to distance himself.”

“Oh,” Karen said, nodding and looking thoughtful. “Haven’t heard that.”

Maybe Silas had been on to something. Was it Rocky making up the rumor just to get them into a fight with Nathan? Or to urge Silas to break up with me? Did Danielle even say anything at all to anyone about what happened this morning? “The football team heard it.”

“The cheerleaders haven’t. They usually know everything. They usually start them.”

“You know the cheerleaders?”

“I’m friends with a couple of them. Well, not best friends, but I know them.” She pulled her cell phone out and then tapped at the screen. “Speaking of friends, wonder where mine is.”

“Who are we waiting for?”

“Karen?” a male voice floated to us.

Karen and I looked up at the same time. Derrick approached, wearing a running jacket and jeans and sandals. His bowl-cut dark hair had been recently trimmed.

My head jerked back, and I blinked, double checking to make sure I was right and not just seeing things. “Derrick?”

Karen turned back to me. “Know him?”

“We’re neighbors,” I said.

“Yeah,” Derrick said. He sat down in the lower seat in front of us and turned to talk. He did a short, two-finger wave. “Hey, Sang.”

“Hi,” I said. I offered a slow smile, relaxing. I’d been anticipating a complete stranger. Derrick was okay. I could handle this.

Karen grinned. “Sang knows all the boys, it seems.”

“I didn’t realize you two were friends,” I said.

“I only see him at school these days,” Karen said.

“Where’s your sister?” Derrick asked me. “Is she here?”

I shook my head. Gabriel had thought once that Derrick had a crush on my sister. Had that changed? I’d thought briefly that this might have been a date I was interrupting, but now I wasn’t sure. “Last I saw, her and Danielle were at my house. I wasn’t sure they were coming to the game.”

“Danielle said she was spending the night.” He glanced over my shoulder, in the direction where Nathan was sitting. “Everything okay?”

“Rumors,” Karen said. “There’s one about her and Nathan when she’s going out with Silas. So Nathan’s trying to hang back a bit to let the rumor cool off.”

“I thought you were going out with Kota. That’s what Jessica said.”

Uh-oh. A rush swept over me and my heart started frantically beating. That was right, Jessica, Kota’s sister, hung out with kids on our street. And Derrick occasionally hung out with them. Jessica may have heard from Kota’s mother that we’d been on a date. And after being at his house, and the cheek kiss, if Jessica heard about those, she’d no doubt think Kota and I were supposed to be dating.

“No,” Karen said. “It’s Silas. Or maybe for now.” She grinned. “She’s getting popular, so next it might be Rocky or one of the other popular goons running around.”

They started talking about the upcoming game, and I hid my release of a sigh. Karen saved me from answering Derrick, but what happens when Derrick reports back that I am dating Silas to Jessica? How far would these stories stretch?

Suddenly, the world had shrunk and everyone knew everyone else. My tongue glued to the roof of my mouth, letting the others talk. I nodded my head when I thought I should, but I was a million miles away, wondering how I got wrapped into this and what I was supposed to do next.

The bleachers filled and the start-of-game rituals began. I huddled in my seat, my arms tucked into my sides. I tried not to look as cold as I felt. The others had jackets and I was without, but I didn’t want to go back for one.

I worried about Gabriel, Luke, and Kota. I hadn’t heard back. I wondered if they were okay.

Nathan never moved. I occasionally looked back, but it was clear we shouldn’t make too much eye contact. He’d smile a little when I caught his attention, but he’d jerk his head in a way that told me I should look ahead and not stare at him.

I tried to focus on the game, and it was an excuse to get out of friendly conversation. Karen talked with Derrick about television, food, and gossiped about other students.

Part of me wondered if Derrick ever mentioned what he knew about the Academy to Karen. From the way they talked, they sounded like old friends. How much did Karen know about what was really going on?

The football game started up and I focused on the players. I didn’t understand football, so mostly I was trying to identify which of the orange jerseys were Silas and North and then followed them. Did they keep the same numbers on their jerseys? Or did they switch? I couldn’t remember the numbers they had been wearing this morning.

By the end of the first quarter, the opposing team had scored and our team still had zero.

“This is depressing,” Karen said.

“I thought we had a good team this year,” Derrick said.

I couldn’t imagine a better team. Between North and Silas, who were massive and worked together well, and then Jay and Rocky, despite how I felt about them, were fast and had a fluidity in the way they played the game. Jay caught whatever Rocky threw at him. “Is the other team good?” I asked.

“They aren’t bad,” Derrick said. “But half their team graduated last year. Ours should be more together than they are now.”

“So why do our guys suck so bad?” Karen asked. “I mean, that last guy flat out dropped the ball.”

Nothing seemed to be going right for this game. Silas and North seemed to be the only ones able to tackle the opposing team. Others around them fell, or were pushed aside easily. And the other team even appeared smaller in size.

“Bad day?” I asked.

Karen shrugged. Derrick shook his head, his lips pursed. Others around us became disinterested in the game altogether and were talking to each other. Maybe they were wondering the same thing.

I wasn’t sure if North or Silas cared one way or another about the football games. I understood they wanted the team to do well in general, though. Would it be bad if they lost one or two? I supposed any team could have an off game. Did the almost-fight between Rocky and Silas shake everyone else up?

Crowds around us were talking and I wasn’t paying attention, but I heard my name and turned my head.

Karen and Derrick were turned to a group sitting a couple of bleachers up. Karen was saying something, and one of the kids responded. With the noise going on, I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

And then I recognized Mike and Jer amid the group, paying attention to Karen. Mike’s freckled face changed and he looked at me. He grinned and then started to walk around the rest of the group.

My heart started racing. He wasn’t going to start the proposals again, was he?

Jer joined him. They were both in jeans and with different sport T-shirts. Mike was twice the size of Jer. Were they best friends? They slid into the empty bleacher seat behind Karen.

“Hi,” Mike said loudly. His pudgy cheeks bunched as he smiled.

“Hi Mike,” I said, trying to be nice.

Jer did a short wave. “How’s it going?”

“Okay,” I said. I sensed this was something other than a greeting. They were checking to make sure I was fine with them talking to me. They were trying to test the waters? Did they think I was mad at them? Or didn’t care to talk? Karen used to tell me with the Academy boys around me, I seemed to be inapproachable.

“Hands off, Mike,” Karen said, pulling herself out of the conversation with other kids and turned around in her seat. “Silas will get you if you propose to her.”

Mike and Jer started to laugh.

I leaned into Karen to whisper to her. “You knew about that?”

“What?” she asked, a curious look on her face.

“He did that to me the first of the year,” I said.

“Oh,” Karen grinned and then nodded. “Yeah, he does that to everyone.”

Well that wasn’t so bad. Did he pick up the other girls, too?

“But she’s so pretty,” Mike said with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah,” Karen said, and in a strange tone like she was trying to agree with him and then was tiptoeing around something. “But Silas is bigger than you. He hears about you coming after his girl, and you’ll have the whole football team to deal with.”

“Shit,” Mike said. He turned to Jer. “I can’t mess with her anymore.”

“You heard what Rocky said.” Jer shrugged.

Derrick drifted up to sit beside me, but turned around toward them and started talking to Mike and Jer over my head. I was nudged closer to Karen while she started talking to other people. They pointed out players on the field, identified Rocky and Jay and a few others I didn’t know the names of. There was loads of gossip, usually things that were uninteresting.

I was stuck in the middle, and was a bundle of nerves, trying to figure out what to do. I was having trouble following any conversation because people were talking on either side of me, and with the noise of the game, I couldn’t focus.

I wanted so bad to go sit next to Nathan. Where was Gabriel? Or Luke? I itched to check my phone, but I didn’t want to pull it out from my bra in front of everyone else. I sat on my hands to stop them from shaking.

The group shifted around us, and suddenly there were students all over. Karen and I were at the center. What was going on?

I stopped panicking when I focused on one of the other students. It was the red-skinned kid that had tried to stab himself with a needle. He was a little less red, still sun burned, but it was fading. His eyes were clear – a nice blue. He was back with his friend, talking to him. They were on the other side of Karen, so I dodged around her to watch. I tried to focus on what he was saying.

Now that I knew about the JH14, it puzzled me to see him. He didn’t appear to be the type to do drugs at all. Would he try it again now that he’d been sick? His friend must have forgiven him, because they were talking again.

Suddenly the boy shifted, as did his friend. They turned to the game, focusing on the field. I followed what they were watching.

There was a kick, and Ashley Waters claimed possession of the ball. The teams lined up, waiting. They smashed together. Rocky caught the ball and was looking for someone to throw it to.

The mass of bodies crunching into each other suddenly shifted. One of our own team members broke free, running full force at Rocky. He chucked his helmet to the ground, and looked like he was going to head-butt Rocky in the gut.

“What the hell is he doing?” Karen asked.

Rocky must have realized what was going on. He dodged, but the boy kept going after him. Some of the team members turned around, aiming to tackle.

My heart lunged into my throat. I was worried it was Silas or North. From the distance, I couldn’t tell and from the almost-fight earlier, I wondered if this was what North had been hinting at.

“Isn’t that John?” Derrick asked.

His identifying who it was hit me with relief, until I realized North was one of the ones trying to tackle the now wild John.

I sucked in a breath when it hit me: John? Wasn’t he the one that had kept putting his hands on that girl in class? How was he allowed to play when he had been such a mess earlier?

Rocky made a circle, holding onto the ball and then knelt to keep possession. Referees blew whistles. Coaches were waving arms and shouting.

All the students around us stood up, their eyes riveted to the field. John never stopped. He ducked down, taking Rocky with him. He smashed his head into Rocky’s padded chest like he could dive right through it. Rocky caught him, and fell over, losing the ball. North and a bunch of others caught up to them and grabbed at John, yanking him off.

“Okay,” Karen said, “I don’t know all the football rules, but I know that’s wrong.”

“They kind of look at you bad if you’re trying to tackle your own team mate,” Derrick said.

There was a commotion on the field as the Ashley Water’s coach and some team members ran out. North and another player carried John off, struggling with him as he fought them, clawing and biting and looking like he was trying to lunge after Rocky again.

Acting crazy.

I snuck a look back at Nathan while everyone was looking at the field. He was focused on the game, following along with everyone else.

“I should go find out what’s going on,” Karen said.

“What?” I asked. She was going to get into the middle of that?

“I have to,” she said. She started walking off, toward the steps. “Stay here.”

I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to investigate on her own. Why was she so persistent? And then I remembered her with Mr. Hendricks, and waiting in the office for him. Maybe she kept tabs on students because he told her to. He was casting was really wide net: Karen, Wil, me...