“I’m fine,” she went on. “It’s just that people want to blame me for what happened, and it’s not fair.”
“It isn’t,” I agreed. “But do you have any idea why he did it?Or where he might have gone?”
She froze for a second, then leaped up. “You honestly think I know where he is? Are you fucking for real? Did you come here to try to get information out of me? Because I don’t know, OK? I don’t know!” She was shouting, and everyone nearby turned in surprise.
“Hey! I’m sorry, Kate, OK?” I held up my hands, frightened by how drastic her reaction had been. Her eyes bulged from their sockets, and I even began to wonder if she might be high.
“Don’t say you’re sorry, just leave me alone!” she shrieked, turning away and stomping out of the library.
I hid my head in the pages of my biology textbook and tried to pretend nothing had happened. Everyone in the library was staring at me, and by the time my free period came, everyone seemed to have heard about my run-in with Kate. Outside, a couple of girls stopped me to ask about it, and even Ellie ran over wanting to gossip.
“Ellie,” I told her, “I didn’t do anything, I swear. She got hysterical. I mean, I’ve never seen her like that before, and Kate’s always been a drama queen,” I said as we walked toward the gym. Ellie must have zoned out as I was talking, because once we were inside, she asked, “What are we doing here?”
“Thiago gave me detention,” I said, “and I’m supposed to serve it during my study period. And shit! I’m late again.”
As I pushed the door open, Ellie asked, “Thiago?” She was just as surprised as Kate had been.
“I’ll tell you later. Besides, you’ve still got secrets to tell me!”
She pretended not to hear this last part, and as I started in, I ran smack into a wall of muscle. “Shit!” I yelled, standing back and smelling his fragrance all over me.
“You’re late again?”
I stepped back to try and clear my head and studied him. He’dtaken off his vest and loosened his tie, and his sleeves were rolled up. “I think you’re taking this sub position a little too seriously,” I commented.
“I don’t have class until after lunch. Follow me,” he ordered. The gym was empty, and I realized we were going to be alone. With the snowy weather, a dim light filtered through the windows.
He kept the office much neater than Coach Klebb had. That didn’t surprise me. Thiago was uptight about those things; he always wanted everything perfectly in order, orperfectly in disorderas he liked to say when talking about his special way of arranging his stuff. There was a desk, the whiteboard where he mapped out the team’s plays, and in one corner a bunch of fitness equipment and a pile of deflated balls. Thiago sat down, grabbed a pencil, and started writing something on a sheet of paper. I stood there, unsure of what to do.
“I want you to blow up those balls and repair the ones that have holes in them. There’s some special tape over there,” he said.
“Are you serious?” I asked. “You want me to blow up all those balls?”
“Yep,” he responded curtly, then looked at me with his green eyes. “What did you think, you were just going to sit here staring off into space?”
“Yeah,” I said, gritting my teeth. “That’s what we normally do when we have detention.”
“Well, not with me.” He set his pencil down and turned all his attention to me. “This will help you learn to listen to what you’re instructed to do instead of showing me up in front of the other students.”
“I said what I said because you were being unfair.”
He half grinned. “There’s a lot of unfairness in the world, Kamila. I’m not sure this counts, though.”
“All I did was show up ten minutes late,” I objected loudly.
“No. What you did is put yourself in danger unnecessarily,” he said, now more somber.
So this was about the morning! “Seriously?! You’re actually punishing me for walking to school?” I was shouting now. I couldn’t believe this. At least Taylor had finally realized he was overreacting. Thiago just kept on going with his same hard-ass attitude and nodded.
“Exactly,” he said. “Maybe this way, you won’t do it again.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Mmmm…yeah, I think it is.”
“Stop being such a dick, Thiago.” I wanted to pick up one of those balls and throw it at his head.
“How about you stop driving me insane?”
