Welcome To Hickville High (Hickville High Series Book 1) (13 page)

In Texas there is a law that states: if two trains meet at a crossing, both must stop, and neither can proceed before the other has moved.

Austin shuffled through the stack of papers Mrs. White handed out and thought about Kelsey.
That would explain the smile on your lips? Really? Could I be more lame?
He wasn’t expecting her to say she was thinking about her boyfriend. Just hearing Drew’s name made him want to puke. He couldn’t stand the guy and he’d never met him. He was probably really nice and maybe he and Kelsey were meant to be together. It’s just that Kelsey seemed to get all uptight when she talked to him.

She sure didn’t look tense when she was thinking about Drew. When she’d closed her eyes, her face softened and she had a sexy kind of kiss-me-now look. That really bugged him. He had hoped Kelsey was on the verge of breaking up with Drew, not daydreaming about him. From what little he knew about Drew, the guy was a neat freak and would probably croak if he saw Kelsey working in the barn. Austin doubted Drew would appreciate the way she grumbled about her chores in complete contrast to the sparkle in her eyes, or the smile that played across her lips when she brushed the horses.

The horses. It was just a matter of time before she learned to ride. She said she was afraid of them, but she began to relax almost from the first brush stroke. And what about the water fight and that day at the courthouse?
There’s loads of chemistry between us—isn’t there?
He just had to make her see that the guy she wanted was the one in front of her, not the one she thought she wanted halfway across the country.

He stopped by his locker on his way to meet Kelsey at the cafeteria. Travis leaned against the locker next to his. A couple of other guys on the team stood in a half circle around him. Travis fist-bumped him and said. “Dude, we were just talking about the Quinn sisters.”

Justin Hayes, wide receiver, smirked, “They’re hot.”

Austin was in a pissed off mood and didn’t want to hear them talk about the girls.

Justin moved a little closer. “Come on Austin, you got any ass yet? I heard you were tight with the oldest one.”

There’d been bad blood between Austin and Justin since they were sophomores. Hearing him reduce Kelsey to a piece of ass in the same tone his dad used, sent Austin from pissed off mood to total rage in a nanosecond. He pushed Justin just hard enough to make him take a step back. “Watch your mouth, Hayes.”

Justin pushed back. “What’s wrong with you, man—you got the market cornered on Quinn ass?”

Austin slammed Justin against the locker and held his forearm across this throat. “I said watch your mouth.”

Travis grabbed Austin and pulled him off of Justin. “Dude, chill.”

Justin rubbed his neck. “Don’t be getting all uppity. You know you want it same as the rest of us.”

Travis stepped between them. “Let it go.”

Austin knew Travis was right and turned back to his locker.

Justin couldn’t let it go. “How does it feel, Barns?”

Travis didn’t say anything, he just gave him a
what
look.

Justin jutted his jaw before he spoke. “How does it feel to know your boy here killed your sister?”

Travis looked at Austin. “Don’t let him get to you. You know he’s full of crap.”

Justin said, “Keep telling yourself that, Travis. We all know the truth here.”

Austin took a step toward Justin, but Travis clapped a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. “Shake it off, dude.”

Austin couldn’t shake it off. Fury coursed through him, the only thought on his mind was to take that son of bitch down. He dropped his books ready to launch into Justin when Coach grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.

Coach stood between Austin, Travis, and Justin. “McCoy, Hayes, in my office. Now.”

*

“Zero tolerance! What do you not understand about zero tolerance?”

Austin stood next to Justin. Back straight. Eyes forward.

“One punch and you’d be handcuffed. One punch and you’d be arrested. One punch and you’d be off my team. Do you want off my team! Do you want off my team?” Coach yelled into their faces like a drill sergeant.

“No, sir!” They shouted back.

Coach stood in front of Austin and Justin with his hands on his hips and worked his jaw like he was too angry to get the next words out. When he spoke it was like he had to squeeze them through tight lips. “You disrespected what it means to be a Hornet. You disrespected the team. You got a problem, you take it out on the field, on the other guys. You’re sidelined Friday.”

Austin felt the blood drain from his face and his feet remained frozen where he stood. Justin spoke up. “You’re benching us, Coach? It’s the first game.”

“I didn’t do squat. You lost your place when you decided to play smack-down in the hallway.”

Justin took a step back. “You can’t do that.”

Coach narrowed his eyes. “I just did.”

Austin sucked in a breath and said, “Coach, I know what we did was wrong. I want to earn my place back.”

Coach crossed his arms. “What are you gonna do to earn your place?”

Austin answered, “Whatever it takes, Coach. I’m there. I want this. I’ll earn it.”

Coach moved in front of Justin. “What about you, Hayes? Do you want this?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How bad, Hayes?”

“I’ll do whatever you want, Coach.”

“You wanna play, you’ll work your ass off for me.” Coach paced in front of the boys and rubbed his chin. He stopped and looked at the players. “Suit up to run. You got five minutes to meet me on the field.”

*

Kelsey waited outside of the cafeteria for Austin and watched groups file pass her. St. Monica’s or Hillside High, the cliques were pretty much the same: jocks, band nerds, geeks, stoners, Barbies. She was one of the beautiful people at her old school and although she had first day jitters, was fairly confident she’d slide right into that group here. But so far, the students walked by her as if she didn’t exist and not one person came close to saying hello.

The word loser formed in her mind.

L-O-S-E-R.

Lonely.

Outsider.

Social misfit.

Expendable.

Replaceable.

Loser. Loser-Loser-Loser Stop it!

Girls like her didn’t worry about being a loser. It was a matter of time before she was back on top. But, everybody in “A” lunch had passed her by and still, no Austin. He told her he’d wait for her. What if he hadn’t? Maybe he was sitting at a table laughing with Britney and Courtney about how stupid she looked standing all alone in the hall. The “L” word loomed large in her mind again. Her eyes burned.

She hated this place, hated this school, and hated these people. She especially hated Austin for standing her up. Drew would have been there for her.

What was she going to do? Everybody in “A” lunch knew she was waiting for someone. If she walked in now, she might as well start wearing pigtails and a pocket protector because she’d never recover from the degradation. Austin said it was a closed campus, so she couldn’t leave, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hide out during lunch.

She made her way away from the cafeteria toward the Hornet Hall of Honor. No losers there. She turned the word over in her mind. L-o-s-e-r. Place right hand on forehead with index finger pointing up and thumb to the left.

She stopped in front of the football trophy case with the homage to her dad. No big fat “L” on his forehead. He was Mr. Amazing—at least for a couple of years. Why had he quit football? Aunt Susan had mentioned some girl—Cassidy Jones. What could have she done to make him give all this up? His eyes were set with determination and he was smiling, but even then, he looked like he was carrying the weight of the world with him. But he had escaped this nothing town and so would she. She began disassembling the “L” word looming in her mind.

L-O-S-E-R.

Leader.

Original.

Social trendsetter.

Exclusive.

Rebel.

I can do this. She backed away from the trophy case and turned toward the cafeteria. Her stomach growled urging her on. I can march back in there, grab a tray, and just sit somewhere. Alone. Her stomach may have been begging but her feet weren’t moving. The word she’d ripped apart called to her again. She refused to listen. Deep breath in, back straight, go.

Go the other way, because no way was she going to sit by herself in the cafeteria. She turned around and walked down the hall in search of a place to hide out for the next thirty minutes or so. She made a right at the end of the hall and caught the scent of pizza. She followed it to one of the rooms where a group of students stood in line to get a slice. Above the pizza table, a banner stretched across the wall. Gold letters spelled out Purity Club.

Ms. Bettis, the counselor, waved her in. “Welcome to our eat and greet.”

Kelsey stepped into the room. That’s when she noticed Ryan standing in the front of the line.

*

Austin stood on the goal line with Justin and waited for Coach Peterson. Whatever Coach had in store for them was going to be bad, but not as bad as missing the game Friday. It was so hot Austin could almost see waves of heat radiating from the ground. Sweat trickled down his forehead. If Kelsey were here, she’d probably say something about the stadium being hell’s oven.

Kelsey. He hoped Travis would think to tell her why he didn’t meet her at the cafeteria. She’d probably already met somebody to sit with anyway.

Justin hockked a lugy and spat on the ground. “Maybe he’s just going to leave us out here to sweat to death.”

Austin cut his eyes to Justin. He could be such a prick. A lot of guys talked crap about girls. Justin and his buddy, Eric, were the biggest players in school. He hated the way they used girls. But the girls kept coming. And the rest of the guys were left to put the pieces together when they were finished with them.

Coach appeared from the stadium tunnel and headed toward them carrying a couple of sports bottles. Austin dreaded what was ahead. He shouldn’t have let Justin rile him the way he did.

Coach Peterson looked even more pissed off than in his office. He stepped in front of Austin and Justin. “You don’t fight on my team. You don’t even look like you’re gonna fight. You got that?”

“Yes sir.”

“Rules say if I’m gonna work you in heat, I gotta give you as much water as you want.” He sat the bottles on the white chalked line and said, “Ball busters on my whistle. You got that?”

Before either of them could answer, he blew the whistle. Austin shoved his hands into the turf and with his butt in the air and scrambled down the field. He hated these things. His shoulders burned from the weight and impact on them. And then there was the balancing act between his legs and arms. His legs were stronger and tended to get ahead of his arms, putting more weight on his shoulders.

When he reached the forty-yard line the whistle blew. He straightened and ran backwards. The next whistle blew at the thirty and he turned and headed to the goal line. His shoulders thanked him all the way to the water bottle.

One squirt and he was on all fours again. This time Coach took them all the way to the fifty before blowing the whistle. It was a little harder to stand and his legs were heavier as he shuffled his feet backwards. Sprinting was the easiest part but he couldn’t quite find the energy to explode into a full sprint.

By the sixth set, his shoulders screamed for him to stop. A couple of times his hands slipped and his powerful legs to drilled his face into the ground. As they bear crawled past the fifty-yard line, he noticed Justin fall behind. Prick or no prick, he was still a team member and if Austin left him, there would be hell to pay.

He slowed his pace down and yelled at Justin. “Come on, man. You can do this.”

Justin groaned and almost stopped.

“Don’t stop. We’ll do it together. Come on. Come on. On my count. Right hand. Left.” He didn’t think Justin would join in, but he did. It was slow, but together, in sync, they made it down the field. They practically fell across the goal line before hearing the tweet ending this bit of the torture.

Austin stood on wobbly legs. They lined up next to each other before they backpedaled down the field. Fortunately, Coach only made them run backwards for about ten yards before signaling the sprint. They turned and ran.

Normally, it took just a few seconds to run from one goal line to the other, but Austin’s legs felt like two lead weights. Instead of eating up the earth, he felt like he was trying to sprint through waist deep water. His lungs had that deep burn like he was turning over stagnant air from deep in the bases and his stomach roiled with nausea.

This was do or die time for him. He had to keep going to show Coach how bad he wanted to remain QB. Justin was faster than Austin and could have probably been drinking water by now, but he wasn’t. He had moved to run closer to Austin and kept his pace even.

The nausea Austin felt grew and he got that pre-spew funny feeling in his throat. He stumbled.

Justin grabbed Austin’s elbow. “Don’t go down on me, man.” Together they made it to the water bottles.

Austin bent over and heaved. He heard Coach Peterson bark “showers” but couldn’t move yet. When he finished puking his guts up, Justin handed him a water bottle and they headed for the field house.

He gave Justin a quick nod, a silent thank you for helping him survive the workout. But what happened out there was a truce between football players who needed to work together for the sake of the team. Justin was still a prick.