Authors: Lilian Carmine
We had also started to give small performances every Wednesday at Professor’s Rubick’s classes. Since a well-performed prank had got us noticed at school, we’d attracted a regular gathering of people showing up to listen, too, not just our friends and classmates.
Our little unnoticed band was finally starting to get noticed inside Sagan’s grounds.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Under Pressure
Monday morning I woke up with a little bit of a headache. I was walking to my locker to gather some books for my first morning class, when one of the cheer squad girls called after me. Caroline, I think, was her name. She was the blonde perky girl who’d been dead set on having Tristan at that party. I remembered hating her. Vividly.
I sighed when she stopped in front of me. I wasn’t in the mood for conversation. My head started to hurt slightly more in her presence.
“Hey, Gray!” she said, putting a hand on one hip.
“Hi
… you
,” I said, a little annoyed, pretending I didn’t remember her name.
She gave me a glare because she was probably not used to people forgetting her name. She was quite popular around the school. “So, we
kinda
need your official statement so we can close the bet,” she said with a huff.
Ah. The bet. I wasn’t one bit surprised that she was the one in charge of that stupid deal.
“Yes. We need you to confirm the hook-up, so we can deliver the prize,” her friend said, picking at a nail.
“What prize?”
She gave an annoyed sigh, rolling her eyes. “Jeez, you really don’t know anything, do you? The person that hooked up with you at the party gets a whole week of physics homework done by Dwight for free.”
Dwight, I knew, was the school nerd; Seth had told me the guy had a lucrative business going, charging people for homework.
“A whole week of physics homework? That’s a lot.” I hadn’t realized I was worth that much. I think she noticed where my thoughts were heading, so she quickly set me straight, putting me back where I belong: Loserville.
“Yeah, well, we first set the prize up for Tristan’s hookup. He’s totally worth a whole week of any homework. Hell, he’s worth a whole
month
of homework!” she said, getting all excited, but then she noticed my disgruntled face and returned to the point. “And since we had already set his prize for a week, we thought we had to set the same for you … so you wouldn’t feel too bad, and all.”
“Gosh. Thanks so much. I don’t feel bad at all
now
,” I muttered sarcastically.
She shrugged, meaning she really didn’t care how I was feeling.
“So, should I take Harry’s homework, then? He still hasn’t come to collect. It’s so typical of him, always forgetting things …” She shook her head in disapproval.
“Wait, what? Harry?” I asked, puzzled.
“Yes, Harry Ledger. Red hair. Pierced lip. Crazy tattoo, hot and weird. Harry. I’m sure you remember him, the party wasn’t
that
long ago!” she said with a smirk.
“I know who Harry is!” I snapped, annoyed “I don’t … we didn’t … there was no hook-up with Harry!” I said in a hushed voice, and looked around to see if there was anyone overhearing us.
She cocked an eyebrow, not believing me at all. “Come on, Gray. Don’t play coy now. We all saw you two that night, holding hands, dancing. You were all over each other. The whole school is talking about it. Let him have his prize!”
I was baffled. “I-I-I … There was NO hookup!” I shouted, stamping my foot. “And even if there had been, it’s none of your goddamn business! And these bets are awful! You are all awful people! You want some gossip to spread around? Spread this one: if I ever hear that someone has made a bet on me again, I’ll kick their ass! Got it?” I snapped, and stomped off to my next class.
I was early and the classroom was empty, which was fine by me; I really didn’t want to talk to anyone anyway. My head was throbbing. I was rubbing my temples in aggravation when Tiffany walked in.
“Hey, Joey! I saw you storming madly through the corridors. What’s happened? Something wrong?” she asked in concern, sitting by my side.
“No, it’s just … I hate people!” I grunted menacingly.
She chuckled at my general display of hatred. “Care to elaborate? People in general or someone specific?”
I sighed, holding my head in my hands. “People here at this school. Did you know everybody’s been talking about me and Harry getting together?” I said, exasperated.
“Yeah, I heard about that at breakfast. So? What’s the matter?”
“The matter is that we didn’t! It’s a lie!” I snapped.
“I see. I just don’t get why you are so upset about it. Harry is a really great guy, and he follows you around like a lost puppy. Maybe you should give him a chance,” she suggested.
“Harry is my friend,” I said quickly.
“Yes. But he could be more.” Tiff raised an eyebrow, looking me directly in the eyes. “Unless there’s something you’re not telling me … some other reason why you won’t even consider being with him.” She leaned over, close to me. “I always get this feeling you’re hiding something from me, Joe. I thought that, with time, you’d trust me and tell me what it is … It’s the reason you won’t give Harry a chance, isn’t it?”
I avoided looking at her and fumbled with the hem of my shirt instead. “I’m not hiding anything, Tiff. I really like Harry, but just as a friend!” I said, trying to sound convincing, but I wasn’t fooling anyone here.
“Come on, Joey. I tell you everything that’s going on with me! You can trust me! I know there’s something,” she said pushing harder.
“I’m telling you the truth, Tiff. Really,” I said nervously.
She stared at me for a few seconds in silence. “Fine. If you want to be like that, be like that, then.” She looked hurt. “I thought you were my friend.”
“Tiff, come on! Please …” I began, but she just stood up and went to sit far away from me.
Students started to arrive, and the teacher followed right behind. The class started and I didn’t have a chance to talk to Tiff again. She didn’t look my way the whole class, and when it was over, she just stood up and left. She was really hurt and I couldn’t blame her. She knew I was hiding something from her. Keeping my secret was starting to have a price. And it seemed the price was going to be Tiffany’s friendship.
I walked out of class in a very bad mood. The day couldn’t get any worse. First I’d heard about the nasty rumor about me and Harry, and now my best friend wasn’t talking to me any more. Then I glanced up and saw Tristan walking my way, a worried expression on his face. That was it. He had heard the gossip going around school and was angry and had come here to tell me he hated me and never wanted to see me again.
He stopped in front of me, glancing sideways to see if anybody was listening. Okay. He didn’t look angry. I was just over-reacting. He looked … concerned and anxious. Not mad. That was good. Not mad was a good thing.
“Hey, Joey,” he greeted in a tense voice, and managed a weak smile. “What’s wrong? You look awful.”
“Gosh. Thanks very much. It’s always nice to hear a compliment in the morning,” I muttered darkly. I didn’t know why I was snapping at everyone today! The headache definitely wasn’t helping.
“I didn’t mean … You just look kind of in pain. Are you okay?” he said, trying to apologize.
“Sorry, Tris, it’s just a headache, but I’ll be fine. You look worried …” I said, trying to rub the headache away.
“Listen, I need to talk to you …” he said, then stopped and looked hesitantly to one side “… later. Can I meet you after morning classes, by the big oak tree?” he said, his eyes flicking back and forth.
“Sure. What’s the matter?” I said, trying to get some clue about what he wanted to talk about.
“We can talk later, okay?” he said, waving to one of his basketball friends at the end of the corridor. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your next class.”
“No, that’s fine. You don’t need to walk me, I’m not a baby,” I snapped again. “I mean, I’m fine here. Your friend is calling you, you can go.” I waved him away. This headache was putting me in such a foul mood.
He looked uncertainly at me, and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you after classes, then,” he said, walking away.
When I turned around to walk to my next class I spotted a wild-spiked redhead bouncing around in the middle of the crowd. “HARRY!” I yelled, to get his attention, and flinched with the sharp pain that resulted. Curses! No yelling, Joey.
“Hi, Joey! What’s up?” Harry asked, all innocent, when he reached me.
I grabbed his arm and pushed him against the wall, where we could have a more private conversation.
“Don’t go all
‘Hi, Joey’
on me, Harry!” I grunted. He looked startled at my harshness “Have you heard what people are saying about us all over school? Did you have anything to do with it?” I interrogated him.
He raised his eyebrows, curious now. “No! I haven’t heard anything! What’s going on?”
I looked into his green eyes. He wasn’t lying; he really had no idea. I’d noticed Harry never lied to me. That was … kind of sweet of him. I shook my head, trying to get back on track. “Okay. So … you haven’t heard people are saying we hooked up at the party? That you won the bet, and all …”
A wide grin spread across his face then. “Get out of here! Really? All right!” he said, all smug.
“No. No.
No
. Not ‘all right’, Harry! Stop grinning. This is not funny!” I said, real upset.
“Come on, Joey! It’s a little funny. Well, for me it is,” he said, chuckling. “I can’t believe I won the bet!” He jumped up and down, making a squeaky voice. “Wait! What have I won, exactly?”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t win any stupid bet, Harry. And it was a week of Dwight doing your physics homework. Just so you know what you didn’t win,” I said, grabbing him by the arms, making him stop his little excited jumps. “I already told them we didn’t hook up!”
Harry looked crestfallen, pouting his bottom lip. “Awww, Joey! You took a whole week of physics homework from me? That’s just so wrong of you!” he said, crossing his arms, upset. “Couldn’t you just lie about it, just this one time? I really hate physics!” he whined.
“No! I could not! And you’d better start telling people the truth, Harry!” I said, glaring menacingly at him.
“All right! All right! Don’t need to use the Evil Eye on me! I’ll tell everybody, don’t worry! You need to take a chill pill!” he said, uncrossing his arms and giving me a worried look. “Are you okay? You look awful, you know?”
I let out a heavy sigh, hunching my shoulders down. “Thank you, Harry. You sure know how to make a girl feel better,” I muttered, in a bad mood; being told I looked awful twice in one day was doing nothing for my self-esteem. “I’m just having the worst day. And my head is killing me. I guess I’ll go to the infirmary, grab some aspirin. I’ll see you later.” I walked away tiredly.
On the way to the infirmary, I watched Tiffany pass by me, pretending she was deeply engaged in a conversation with Caroline. I felt awful. I never realized how much Tiff’s cheerful mood and positive presence meant to me. Now that I didn’t have it, I missed it so much!
I badly wanted to tell her the truth about me and Tristan. Then I would never have to worry about pretending I didn’t like him in front of her, and I could talk to her about it, and stop with all the lies. I was so lost in my gloomy thoughts that I didn’t pay attention to where I was going as I bumped into someone, hard. I staggered back and looked up in surprise to see a pretty brown-haired girl giving me a scared look.
“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” I began, but the girl interrupted me, taking a small frightened step back.
“Gray!” she exclaimed in shock, as if my name was some sort of curse. “P-please don’t hit me!” she squeaked, panicking.
“I— What?” I stammered. “I wasn’t going to hit you!” She seemed not to hear what I was saying. “It’s not my fault, you know! You don’t need to hit me just because of Harry! He never told me you guys were together! I should have known, no boy that pretty is good news!” she said in a crazy rant. “I swear I didn’t know he had a girlfriend the night of the party! He’s such a man whore!”
Oh. I see. I remember Seth telling me Harry and Josh were still partying somewhere that night, and how girls never resisted Harry and his innocent good looks. Innocent, yeah, right! Apparently this was the girl who’d had him “occupied” that night. She was pretty. Harry had good taste.
“And now everybody’s giving me crap about how you’re going to kick my ass!” The girl continued to freak out, stepping away from me. “Because Harry is yours and you’re some judo queen and you even kicked Bradley’s ass, and now you’re going to kick my ass. And all the cheer squad is scared of you, and … please don’t hurt me!” she rambled on, clearly terrified of me.
If my head hadn’t been throbbing that much, I would have found this thing amusing, but I guess I wasn’t in the mood for any enjoyment. And what about the way people were acting? Like I was some sort of scary bully that beat people up all the time! I’d never touched anybody in this school, for God’s sake! I just stood up for myself when I had to, and I didn’t take crap from anyone! Is that such a bad thing?
“Look … you.” I didn’t know her name. “First. Harry is not
‘mine’
. I’m not his girlfriend. We’re just friends,” I stated seriously. “Second, he’s not a man whore. He was only with you that night. We didn’t hook up at the party. Third. I’m only going to kick ‘some ass’ if anyone dares to make bets on me again. And fourth … I’m not going to hit you, so please stop flinching, for God’s sake!” I huffed, by now annoyed with the frightened girl.
She blinked uncertainly at me. “R-really” she stuttered. “So … Harry likes me?”
I frowned as an unsettling jealousy lurched unexpectedly inside my chest. Where did
that
come from? “I didn’t say that,” I snapped. “I don’t know, do I? But we’re not together, that’s all. And I don’t go around punching people, you know? I’m actually a very mellow person!”
She snorted loudly, then coughed, trying to cover up her lack of faith in my mellowness. “Hum, yeah, yeah. Right. Everybody knows you’re … very …
mellow
.” She attempted a serious expression.