“Stay. Away. From him,” Belle said again, her voice carrying clearly into the auditorium.
“Yeah, I think I’m gonna wait forTomto tell me that,” Sadie shot back. “FYI, he’s not exactly pushing me away.”
“Fuck you!”
“Fuckyou!”
“Guys, come on!” Shelly’s blocking had her stepping between the two of them, whereupon they both immediately turned on her.
“Of course you’re onherside!” Sadie said while Belle went with “You lied to myfacewhenI asked you if she’d hooked up with him!”
“I didn’t know, I’m not... I’m not on anyone’s side,” Shelly protested as Sadie and Belle flounced away, in different directions.
“Yeah, well, I’ve always hated both of you so fuck off!” from Sadie, and “Stay away from me, you traitor!” from Belle, while Shelly shot back, “You are both such total bitches, who wants to be friends with you anyway?”
“Andscene,” Hobbit murmured.
“That was good, they did good,” Tom said, and Jules nodded.
News would spread like wildfire around the school that the three girls, usually inseparable, were at war, setting up Friday’s pre-party big show that they hoped—no,knew—would make its way to Suspect X.
The rest of Tuesday went slowly, with Jules going into the cafeteria and having lunch alone in the din for the very first time. It was unpleasant and his stomach was in a knot, but he choked down his sandwich while he tried to read his book. The rest of his classes had been long and slow, with the exception of Spanish where Belle and Sadie glowered at each other while both Tom and Shelly attempted to ignore them.
At the end of the day, while Jules intentionally made himself scarce, Rodney hip-checked Hobbit into the wall of lockers with a crash and a flood of ugly words.
“Stay away from me, Freak-Show,” Hobbit had muttered as he’d collected the school books he’d needed to take home.
“Oh,I’mthe freak show?” had been Rod’s wittycomeback as he lunged suddenly at Hobbit, laughing as the smaller boy braced for a blow—that never came. “Yeah, you’re not worth it,” Rod sneered and swaggered away.
“Well done, Cowardly Lion,” Hobbit told Rod that night in the summer house—they’d had to meet late because Rod had had soccer practice immediately after school.
“You are so weird,” Rod said.
“Why, thank you,” Hobbit said. “Are you ready for tomorrow?”
Rod sighed heavily. “No.”
“No, you didn’t talk to the team,” Jules clarified, “or...?”
“Yes, I talked to the team,” Rod said. “I asked about Mexico, and no, no one’s ever been—no one’s gotten close, although Jimmy Leary said I should talk to Trent from Ottersfield, because he was there for spring break both last year and the year before.”
“Ding!” Belle said.
Thiswasgreat information. “So okay,” Jules asked. “Which one’s Jimmy?”
“Tall, short hair...” Rod said. “You know, Jimmy.”
“Okay, that’s everyone on the team,” Jules pointed out, “at least from my perspective. May I have afewmore descriptive words...?”
“He always wears a rugby shirt,” Tom volunteered.
“Got him,” Jules said. “My favorite is the purple and orange.”
“Oh dear God, I know,” Hobbit said. “It’s just so astonishingly in-your-face ugly. You gotta love it.”
“Rugby-Shirt Jimmy’s most likely one of our main info conduits to Trent and the other Ottersfield suspects,” Jules told them. “Let’s keep that in mind, going forward.”
“He was definitely there, watching when we did our scene today,” Sadie reported.
