“But she didn’t catch us.”
“I can’t believe we stood there discussing monthly supplies with the principal. I am irrevocably scarred.”
“It will all be worth it when Cooper opens his locker and pulls out my gift.” I hadn’t decided what to do with his jeans and T-shirt yet. If he’d had a car, I would’ve plastic-wrapped them to his windshield, but he always rode home from football with Henry Harris, the team captain.
Not that I paid that much attention to Cooper’s schedule. One just has to know pertinent facts about one’s nemesis, and I’d collected details about him ever since he spread lies about me last year.
He was the one who started this feud. He could stop it any time he chose. But if he didn’t, I had no choice but to stand up for myself. The popular people walked over enough people in the school. I wasn’t going to be one of them.
2
Cooper
I strode across the locker room, shaking my fingers out. Bench pressing weights always made my hands stiff, and I’d done two hundred and seventy pounds today. Not bad. Sometimes I’m almost as good as people expect me to be.
When I first began playing football and the coach told us we had to take weight lifting, I didn’t think I’d like the class, but there’s something satisfying about moving heavy things. I just wished the class was sixth period, like last year. Less changing into and out of clothes. Coach scheduled it fifth this year to see if an hour of recovery time before practice improved our performance. He was always searching for ways to give our team an added advantage.
Jasper walked beside me, talking about his girlfriend. I got along with most of the guys on the football team—sort of a necessity when you need the defense to keep each game from turning into a series of concussions—but Jasper was my best friend. I used to hang out with him back before I started working after practice and actually had time to hang out.
“Amelia knows Dahlia,” Jasper said. “We could get together sometime.” Since Jasper started dating Amelia last summer, he’d been trying to set me up with her friends.
Dahlia Lu moved to Silver Creek in the middle of last year, and it hadn’t taken me long to notice her. All the guys had noticed her. She’d lived in LA before and people said she’d done modeling there. If it wasn’t true, it could’ve been. She had a confident way of walking, her long black hair streaming down her shoulders, which made her look like she was strolling down a runway.
“Does Dahlia even know who I am?”
Jasper snorted. “Everyone knows who you are. The school isn’tthatbig.”
The school had less than a thousand students, so he was right about that. What I’d meant wasHow much does Dahlia know about me?I was a boundary exception from the poor side of town to play football here. SCH had a top-notch program. In a school like this, I had to know that a girl would like me despite my family’s tax bracket.
I tried again. “Maybe Amelia should run that plan by Dahlia and see if she’s interested.”
I opened my locker and saw some weird red wig and huge white boat shoes inside. A multicolor jumpsuit hung on the hook.
“What the—” I sifted through them. There was no note or explanation as to why they were there.
And my clothes were gone.
Great. Someone had stolen my clothes. I gripped the jumpsuit and held it up for the room to see. “Okay, which one of you clowns did this?”
The group broke into laughter. It was only then that I realized what I held. A clown outfit.
“I don’t know,” Jasper said. “But whichever clown did it, he left his stuff behind. We should look for a streaking Bozo to blame.”
Very funny.
“Wasn’t me,” Keoni, the biggest guy on defense, said. “All of my clown clothes are extra large.”
“Hey, Cooper,” another guy said, “we don’t judge your fashion taste. You do you, man.”
Someone else chimed in with, “Wouldn’t want to walk a mile in those shoes, bro. Good luck with that.”
They all went back to the lockers and their clown commentaries while I stood there, fuming.
It didn’t take long for me to realize who was responsible. Madeline Seibold, the school’s leading drama chick. Her father donated big bucks to the school, and in return, the teachers gave her whatever she wanted, including the lead in every play.
I double-checked my locker to see if I’d overlooked anything. Maybe she’d written a note telling me where she stashed my stuff.
No such luck.
