THE GRIDIRON
ELYXANDRE
“How’s everybody holding up?”
Elyxandre was standing with Quint Axton at the entrance to the football stadium, both scanning the crowd as they entered for the homecoming game. The stadium and parking lots were crawling with on-duty officers, plus Quint had called in some friends as off-duty reinforcements from both law enforcement and Station 7.
Tonight, there were numerous officers here to help with crowd control. They’d been walking around school all day, present for the pep rally, which the school had scaled back for safety purposes, and now for the big event. After yesterday’s scare, which was, in fact, deemed a hoax, they weren’t taking any chances.
“Mostly good. Had about three hundred kids call out, although some of them seem to have made it to the game.”
“Interesting how the kids and their parents are too scared to send them to classes, but sending them unsupervised to the game is okay.”
“Several parents called or emailed admin to praise them for how they handled the whole situation. A few raised their voices about holding the game and the dance, but we just told them to keep their kids home if they were that concerned. I just wish we’d been able to find who did it.”
“Your first year is becoming a trial by fire,” he remarked. “How’s the rest of the week been?”
The first thing that popped into her mind was THE KISS, still in all caps, in Lucas’ living room Wednesday night. She smiled to herself. “Good.”
“Uh-huh.”
When she glanced at him, he had a huge grin on his face. She quickly put her eyes back on the crowd. “It has been, for the most part. The usual shenanigans. At least the students have stopped raiding their own school.”
They started their first walk-through of the grounds, nodding and greeting people as they went.
“You remember how I told you that I had that roof leak? And then my AC went out? Well, I think maybe I pissed someone off.”
“How so?”
“This week, I added some new disasters. All my plants were dug up on Wednesday. Things keep going wrong. I mean, you own a house, there’s always something to do with it, right?”
“What else has gone wrong?”
“Yesterday, after all the shit went down here, my internet went out. Turns out the line got cut. The guy who came out to check it called me this morning. Said it looked like a lawn mower had ripped through the line. But my grass hasn’t been cut since last Saturday morning, which is when the neighbor kid usually does it. Then there are the prank phone calls I’ve been getting. All local numbers, but a couple of digits off each time someone calls, like someone’s robocalling me with internet calls.Sometimes I’ll get a couple of calls an hour, and sometimes I go hours without the phone ringing. It just feels off.”
Frowning, he stopped walking and turned to her. “E, that’s way too much going on to be coincidence. I’ll do an extra ride through or two on my nights when I’m on shift, and I’ll ask the rest of the third shifters to try as well.”
“Thanks. At first, it was easy to let it all go as just bad luck, but now? Combined with the vandalism, both here and during the week, then yesterday’s threat, it’s got me a bit on edge.”
“As it should. There’s been more vandalism here? I haven’t seen anything cross the blotter.”
“Well…” She was hedging, and she knew it. “You knew about Monday’s fire alarm issue. Then the greenhouse got vandalized a second time. Wednesday, a locker room flooded. And obviously, you know about yesterday. The superintendent didn’t feel the locker room was something on purpose, but that doesn’t feel right either. Superintendent Sealy reported both the greenhouse and the plumbing leak to the insurance company, but security footage showed no one breaking into the spaces, so we couldn’t do more than that. I’ve got to admit, none of this feels like coincidence.”
“They may not be connected to what’s going on at your house. But?—”
“But they might,” she agreed. “The air-conditioning and the leak were before the school things, and those all began with the homecoming raid punishments, so I’m thinking the stuff at my house is separate, and yet…”
“And yet,” he repeated. “I’m still going to ask for extra ride-bys. Even though it’s after the fact, file reports anyway. At least that way, everything is documented, and if something else happens, we’ve got a string of events to look at. I mean it, E. Anything. Else. Let me know, and we’ll have some extra presence next week.” He paused. “Your security system at home is up andrunning, yes? Arm it every time you go in and out, even if you’re just stepping out into the yard to water the plants.”
“Well, someone made sure I don’t have to do that anymore,” she joked.
“E,” he growled.
“Yes, Quint. I will. I promise.”
There was a slight pause, and he changed the subject. “So, let’s circle back to how the week has been good. I saw that smile. I also saw a similar one on your face when the Tejeda Springs principal arrived tonight. Anything you’d like to share?”
Her gaze locked straight ahead of her, and it felt like her stomach dropped a bit, like when the floor dropped out of that ride at the amusement park where you stuck to the walls. If she looked at him, her expression would totally give it away that he’d struck a chord.
