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Greer blinked first.

“You’re such a buttmunch,” she said.

“I know,” said Jack. “Believe me, I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t have to. I really, really wouldn’t.”

Greer let out a long exhale, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “Operation Sports Banquet,” she agreed.

30

Operation Sports Banquet

May 2003

The Winston brothers were infamous in Jack’s neighborhood long before Jack knew what the word “infamous” meant. It was nepotism, Jack decided when he eventually learned what that word meant. Their father had been a small-time mobster and the boys inherited his ruthlessness and utter lack of charm. One was in Greer’s grade, the other the year above her, and both were unholy terrors around their school and the town at large. When the You Agains formed, despite their mandate to menace without harm, the Winstons immediately viewed them as a threat. They were all operating on the same territory, sometimes with the same end goal, and though their methods, ages, and sizes may have been different, they had just enough in common to piss the brothers off.

The You Agains kept their heads down for the first while. The Winstons were already in high school, which meant only Greer had to contend with them, and she wasn’t exactly shouting from the rooftops about her involvement in a group of preteen outlaws. It kept them all out of trouble with the brothers for the most part. That all changed when Jack’s classmates started turning up to school shaken and occasionally bruised. It didn’t take him long to discover the reason: kids whose family had a little extra in the bank had become targets of the Winston brothers. Through intimidation and physical force, the kids had been made to turn over allowance money, cell phones, even gaming devices.

Normally Jack was all for a Robin Hood approach to crime, but these kids were traumatized after being roughed up by two six-foot teenagers with meaty fists. After witnessing the first black eye, Jack decided it was time to make some changes around here. This wasn’t going to be easy. There might be strength in numbers, but there was even more strength in the Winstons’ wrestling-honed shoulders, and besides, Jack didn’t want to put his friends in danger.

If he couldn’t be stronger than the brothers, though, he knew he could definitely be smarter. Inside the makeshift walls of Fort You Again one late spring afternoon, Greer was in the middle of venting about all the end-of-year events her high school would be hosting.

“Everyone’s taking a date,” she said about Homecoming and the big class trip and Prom and at least three different sporting events she didn’t participate in. “Not like I care. It’s just all dumb, is what I’m saying. That’s too many things. How do you even get a date for that many things?”

Jack had an answer to that question but decided it was best to keep it to himself. Instead he asked one back. “You said there’s a sports banquet?”

“Yeah,” said Greer. “Which is so lame. I mean, why are we celebrating people just because they can run fast or kick a ball? Have they ever created something at once beautiful and profound? Does their jumping around challenge the status quo?”

Everyone looked at one another as though someone else in the fort might actually know the proper response to that.

“N-no?” Jules said at last.

“Exactly!” said Greer. “No.”

Everyone collectively exhaled their relief.

“Anyway,” said Jack. “That means the Winstons will be there, right?”

Greer scrunched up her face. “Yeah, Roy’s being honored for his ‘contributions to wrestling,’ which just means he’s good at beating people up with teachers’ approval. It’s barbaric. I can’t wait to be anywhere but there.”

“I need you to go with him,” said Jack.

Greer stared at him for a long moment before saying, “What?”

“As his date,” Jack clarified, as if that was the part she was most confused about.

“Why the hell would I do that?”

“So the rest of us can sneak into their garage and take back everything they’ve been stealing from everyone.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Greer. “I’d literally rather eat a shoe.”

“You can do that too if you want,” said Jack. “But if you go and keep the Winstons distracted long enough, we should be able to make this work.”

Greer’s expression was hard but she said nothing. Jack had her. He knew he did. She could argue with many things—she was a teenaged girl, after all—but she couldn’t argue with the facts. Besides, she was as upset about the injustice of the Winstons’ crimes as anyone.

“What makes you think he’d even say yes if I asked him? Everyone knows he’s into Jenny Michaels and I’m not exactly a big catch.”

Jack had to actively do battle with his tongue in response to that. Whatever came out of his mouth next had to be chill and nonchalant. Or at least one of the two.