They fist-bumped and praised themselves as Shift passed around a box of latex gloves.
“You learn a lot about germs living with a mother who’s a nurse. Who’s got the ski masks?”
Clubber passed out black ski masks, then everyone, including Emery, grabbed trash bags and crept through trees, shrubs, and shadows toward the stadium.
“Aren’t they going to know it was you guys?” Emery whispered.
“Shhh.” This from a voice in the back. “You’ll jinx us.”
At the locked stadium gate, they hoisted bags after bag of trash over the chain-link gate. One of the guys exhaled a string of curses when his bag leaked on his leg.
“Who didn’t tie this up tight? Carter? Was it you?”
“Hush,” Caleb said. “Just leave it. Check your bags before you toss them over. We don’t want to smell like trash when we get home.”
Home? If they even made it home because they were getting arrested. Definitely. Yet she was in. All in.
Once the bags cleared, Jumbo, the center most likely bound for a top college football program and eventually the NFL, started launching guys over the gate.
“All right, Emery, you’re up.” Jumbo waved her over. But when she put her foot in his hand, he fired her so high she cleared the gate and then some. Caleb scrambled to catch her.
“Sorry, Emery,” Jumbo said. “But you don’t weigh nothing compared to these guys.”
“Hush up. Want someone to hear us?” Caleb asked, still holding her while Jumbo tossed another guy to the top of the gate.
When the last man was over, Jumbo cleared the top with his own brute strength. Then, and only then, did Caleb set her down.
“Careful, everyone.” Shift ripped open the first bag. “We don’t know what all’s in these things, but—” He gagged. “Keep it low to the ground. Don’t fling it and hit one of us. Let’s get ’er done.”
Operation Revenge dumped trash in the end zones, on the panther mascot in the center of the field, then dragged open bags on every yard line. They worked quickly, efficiently, and quietly. Emery tried to keep upwind of the smell. They’d just emptied the last bag when headlights bounced through the bleachers. Car doors opened and slammed closed. One after another. Then voices.
“I saw Jumbo’s dad’s truck.” The deep, loud voice was angry.
“Scatter!” Caleb whisper-shouted, and every Nickle High boy took off, leaving Emery standing under the goalpost alone. Which way? Which way?!
“Wait, wait—” Panicked, she yanked off her mask to breathe. She tried to run, but her legs wouldn’t move.
“Em, this way. Let’s go. Hurry.” A masked Caleb hooked his arm around her, but she twisted free.
“I’m going to get arrested. I’m sixteen. I can be tried as an adult.” She turned left, then right, then left again, running smack-dab into a mountain of a boy. When she looked up, he snarled down at her.
With a scream, she raised her knee like Dad taught her, connected, then ran. LikeForrest Gump. Through the woods, not caring that palmetto shrubs scraped her arms and legs. Or the thick roots bit at her toes. Somewhere along the way, she lost her mask, but who cared? Emery Quinn was not getting arrested tonight.
Caleb caught her when she finally arrived at his truck, swooping her up and spinning her around. “That was crazy. Emery, you’re awesome. Did y’all see her? She ran into Bobby Brockton, kneed him where the sun don’t shine, and outran us all. Even you, Alvarez.”
“Emery Quinn.” Shift raised her arm. “The queen of Operation Revenge.” They gave one shout to the queen, then Shift passed around a plastic grocery sack. “For your gloves. Leave no evidence behind.”
One by one, Operation Revenge peeled off their gloves then dashed to their trucks. One of the guys tossed Emery’s mask inside the cab.
They drove with their lights off until they cleared West End High and headed east, toward home. Caleb and Shift rolled down the windows and blasted “Summertime Blues.” Clubber, Hollingsworth, and Kidwell hung over the truck bed, banging out the beat.
By the time Caleb dropped off the guys, celebrating with each one, midnight neared. Later, he would tell her that every one of the boys fell a little bit in love with her that night.
He slowed for the red light, and she considered moving toward the door since Shift got out, but she liked sitting in the middle. Sitting next to him.
“You didn’t get arrested,” he said.
“Not yet anyway.”
