"Maria, he didn't do it," I say.
"It's okay," Jackson says. "She can believe what she wants. Let's go get your clothes."
We head back to my room.
"Rumor, wait," Maria says.
I sigh, wishing she'd leave me alone. She always tries to act like a mom to me but I don't need that, and don't want it. She's not my mom and she needs to stay out of my business.
"What is it?" I ask.
She comes up to me, holding her hand out. "I found these in a drawer in the kitchen. You might want to show Brock."
In her hand are some round blue pills with markings on them.
I pick one up. "What are these?"
"Some kind of drug," she says. "I don't know what they're for."
"You found them in the kitchen?"
"In Braden's drawer. The one where he keeps his protein bars. A new shipment of them was on the porch when I got here. I brought the box in and was refilling the drawer when I saw these pills. They were just loose on the bottom of the drawer."
I turn back to Jackson, holding up the pill. "Do you know what these are?"
He walks over to me and takes the pill. "Could be anything. We could try looking it up."
"Don't tell anyone I gave them to you," Maria says. "Especially Braden. You know how he gets when he's angry."
"I won't tell him,” I say. “I’m just wondering why he had them in that drawer. If he was trying to hide drugs, he'd hide them in his room, not the kitchen drawer."
"Unless he thought they'd search his room again," Jackson says.
"You're right." I take the pill from him. "I bet he moved them in case the cops come back to search his room."
"Here." Maria takes my hand and puts the rest of the pills in it. "I need to go, but please, don't tell anyone I found them."
"I won't."
She looks at Jackson.
"I won't either," he says.
She eyes him like she doesn't believe him, then turns and walks away.
"What do you think they are?" I ask, inspecting the markings on them.
"Something to help his performance on the field. He'd do anything to play better."
"Don't they drug test the players?"
"Private school. They don't have to. Even if they did, there's ways around it."
Jackson's already doing a search on his phone. "Let me see it."
I hand him a pill. He looks closer at the markings, then flips it over to see the other side.
"It's what I thought," he says, handing it back to me.
