I shake my head. “This is stupid. I’m not doing this. I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not.”
“Then you’re going to have a shitty year. You don’t know these people. They may look all prim and proper, but they can do some twisted shit if they don’t like you. I used to think that’s how they got their name, from all the twisted shit that goes on there. But if you don’t believe me, then just forget it.” He leans back, putting his arm up on the couch. “I’m sure there’s a Driver’s Ed class in town you could take.”
“Wait. You still haven’t told me the deal. You want me to get close to Braden and his friends and then what?” I eye Jackson. “What areyougetting out of this?”
“Agree to do it and I’ll tell you.”
“Tell me first. What does this have to do with you?”
He hesitates, like he’s not going to tell me.
I get up from the couch. “I’ll see ya later.”
“I don’t want him to win,” Jackson blurts out.
I roll my eyes as I sit down. “So this is about football? You’re doing this so you can win more games than him?”
“This isn’t about me. It’s bigger than that.”
“Meaning what?”
“This is about making sure Twisted Pine doesn’t get what they want. It’s bad enough the school even exists, but having it expand? Giving it even more power? More money? It can’t happen.”
“Why do you care? You don’t even go there.”
“No.” He pauses. “But I used to.”
Chapter 15
“Wait — what?” I turn to him. “You went to Twisted Pine?”
“Freshman and sophomore year. My parents forced me to. As soon as they made me a legal adult and I could make my own decisions, I quit and went to Legion.”
“Were you parents mad?”
“They stopped talking to me. Didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“You don’t talk to them? Like ever?”
“We do now, but only when they need something.”
“Like what?”
“If they’re out of town and need me to go to LA to check on the house or do some other errand. I charge them a fortune to do it, but they have the money, so what the hell?”
“They live in LA?”
“Calabasas. Just north of LA. They’re only there for a few months out of the year. I don’t want to talk about my parents. Just tell me if you’re on board. Do we have a deal or not?”
“I still don’t get why you care if Twisted Pine gets more students. So what if they expand?”
“More students means more money. The kind of money that can clean up their messes.”
“What messes?”
“Shit happens there.” He looks at me. “Shit you don’t even want to know about.”
“Stuff happens at every school. This kid in my class back home got shot leaving the gym after basketball practice. Died before he even got to the hospital.”
