“I had nothing to do with that,” she said. “Nothing at all.”
“Liar.”
Kendra walked toward Corinne. In a blink she reached out and grabbed Corinne’s hair, pulling her forward and trying to force her head onto the table. I came around the far end and grabbed Kendra’s arm.
“Let her go.”
Kendra tried to shake me off. She kept her hold on Corinne, but could no longer pull with all her might. Corinne picked up a pen and stuck it in the hand holding her hair. Kendra screamed and let go.
“Look what you did, you hurt me,” she said.
She examined her hand. Then she turned into a crazy person. She swept through the room and swiped every surface clean. Papers, pencils, stacks of books, cups. The whole lot flew through the air, bounced off walls and littered the floor. Corinne and I stood there and gawked. By the time she was done, Kendra panted like a greyhound after a race.
“It should have been you he broke up with. It should have been.”
At the door, she turned and pointed at Corinne.
“And you’re not even pretty. Not even.”
She slammed the door after her so hard that one of the framed posters fell off the wall; the glass shattered on the floor.
It was deadly quiet in the room for a few moments as we both just stood and stared at the door.
“You okay?” I asked.
Corinne rubbed her head where Kendra had yanked her hair.
“Yeah, I think so. Yeah…yeah.”
We looked at each other. We looked at the mess of the room. The giggle rose up in my throat again and spilled out, a small chuckle at first, then a rolling, full-on laugh. Then Corinne started. Pretty soon we were both standing in the middle of the rubble, laughing until the tears ran down our cheeks.
“Phew. Wonder why Jack broke up with her?” I said.
“Gotta admit, if you don’t look at the floor, the place looks better.”
We burst out laughing again. I began to pick up some of the stuff as Corinne wiped her eyes and grabbed some garbage bags. We worked steadily for a couple of hours, cleaning the stuff strewn all over the floor. After that was cleared, we kept on going. We tidied up the shelves as we put books and everything else back on them and sorted out the old, outdated stuff to put it into garbage bags. We even found a box for all the clothes and sneakers.
“Did you know Jack was breaking up with Kendra?” I asked.
“No, I know she was mad that he came with me to the goth party in the end. And I knew she was giving him a hard time after that. But he said nothing to me about a break up.”
We carried out seven huge bags of junk to the trashcans outside the cafeteria. The little newspaper office looked great, better than I’d ever seen it.
“Not bad. Not bad at all,” Corinne said. Then she hugged me. “Thanks, Caro, my friend. I’m glad you were with me for this.”
We turned out the light and headed to the bus arm in arm.
Chapter Forty-Three
The air crackled with nerves and excitement. We were doing warm-ups for the qualifiers before the Regional finals and Tommy Mack’s first official race. The team was happy with Tommy on board. Everyone shook his hand or thumped him on the shoulder and wished him luck. Coach took him aside. I knew she was settling him into a bubble of calm, and I tuned out all the hoopla and pulled my own bubble around me.
I had run two races by the time Tommy ran. All the team members who were not competing came to the stands to watch. Everyone in the school was interested in this race; either because they wanted one more team member to qualify for Regionals, or because they had money on Tommy, win or lose. Tommy looked calm as he stepped into the blocks. Only how long it took him to settle told me he was nervous. The crowd hushed for the starter, and then the whole stadium broke into yells and shouts, whistles and screams. Our opponents wanted to win as much as we did, because we would have a smaller field at Regionals. It was wild.
Tommy made third. Just. He did what he was asked to do: give us another team member. Tommy himself. He was the man of the hour.
The win fired him up to try harder. He knew he had just squeaked in. We took a couple of days off, and then got back to our own workouts. Coach was working Tommy hard, so our runs were long and slow most days.
Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks later, I met with Tommy at the community track. He was already there when I arrived and so was Bart. They stood close together. As I crossed the grass, Tommy took a step back and folded his arms across his chest. The air between them was tight and nasty.
“Hi, Tommy,” I said.
I ignored Bart.
“Ah, here’s your coach, Tommy. How are you, Carly?”
He smiled at me. It looked more like he bared his teeth, though. His eyes were so cold. Without meaning to, I took a step back as if I expected a slap.
“I’m fine. Everything okay?” I said to Tommy.
Tommy gave a quick nod.
“Everything’s easy. Tommy is going to do a little job for me, that’s all, isn’t it, Tommy?”
“I’m doing nothing for you,” Tommy said.
“Now, now. Don’t be like that. It will be better all around if you do. Right? Much better.”
I moved away toward the shed and dropped my bag in the shade, then stood there and watched the two guys. Just with the turn of his shoulder, Bart took up a lot of space between Tommy and me. He kept his back to me, and though he stood a good three feet away from Bart, it felt like they were nose to nose.
“Maybe Carly would like to know the kind of guy she’s coaching. What do you think?”
Bart turned to me and said, “You want to know the kind of guy you’re coaching?”
“I know the kind of guy I’m coaching.”
Whatever charm Bart had over me was gone right then.
“Suit yourselves.” Bart raised his arms palms out in surrender. “You know what you’re into. Take the consequences.”
He walked away across the field. Tommy and I watched him go until he reached the road, turned the corner, and was gone.
“What’s going on?” I asked Tommy.
He let air out through his teeth, picked up his bag, and took out his running shoes.
“Remember I told you someone wanted me to keep on steering and start dealing? Well, that’s who.”
“Can he make you do it?”
“No, he can’t make me. But he can make life hard for me.”
“He’ll tell what you did?”
Tommy shrugged, and then grinned.
“Everyone knows. Even the cops. So it wouldn’t make any difference. It all came out when my dad died. I promised to keep away from it in the future, and they let it go. That’s what I’ve got going for me. Naw, Bart can’t make me, But he could hurt me.”
My eyes popped. “Really?”
“Really! Of course, he wouldn’t do it himself, but he’d see it done.”
“Are you scared?”
“Well, Caro, nothing I can do about it except be careful.”
We sat side by side on the grass, peeled off our sweats and laced up our shoes. It took me several tries to get my laces done up right because my fingers jumbled the knots. Just about everyone had warned me about Bart, but I hadn’t seen his bad side for myself until now. I hadn’t seen him much recently, since I didn’t go to the dance with him. I never thought that he might deliberately arrange to hurt anyone. Some part of me hoped Tommy was exaggerating.
By the time we finished our workout, I was calmer. We packed up and strolled back through town.
“Will you tell someone about Bart?” I asked Tommy as we waited at the bus stop.
“Nah. No. No point.”
I thought about how much better I felt after I told Fern about the texts. The few I’d gotten after that hadn’t bothered me nearly so much.
“I’m scared for you. I think you should tell someone.”
“Well, you know. That’s enough for me.”
He smiled at me, hoisted h
is bag onto his shoulder, and jumped onto his bus. I was sorry he was gone. I looked around and saw no sign of Bart. I trotted to the café where Fern was waiting.
I showed Fern the chart I’d made of the messages. There were twenty-one in total.
“Do you think the same person is sending them all?” she asked.
I told her about meeting Mick in town.
“The rest of them may be from the same person. I think so. I don’t know for sure. I can’t find any pattern, can you?”
Fern studied it a while, her tongue tucked into the corner of her mouth as she traced the dates and times with her finger.
“I’m not sure I remember everything I was doing. It’s kinda hopeless because I might be wrong about some stuff.”
“What about Kendra? You were around her a lot.”
“Naw. I hardly know her. Besides, if she were mad at me she’d let me know directly.”
“She would? You sure?” Fern looked at me from under her eyebrows.
“Certain,” I said, and told her about Kendra trashing the news office.
“Wow, she shoulda trashed Jack’s stuff, not Corinne’s.”
She went back to studying the chart, one hand twirled a springy curl behind her ear.
“The only other one who shows up is Bart. But less than half the time.”
My heart gave a couple of thumps. Would Bart do that? At the same time he was nice to me? After what I’d seen today, it could be true. It was hard to believe, though. And I hadn’t turned him down until well after the texts started, so why would he? I had no idea. As far I was concerned with Bart, right now all bets were off.
“Uh-huh,” Fern said. “Don’t really see a pattern. Besides, you don’t even know if you remember it all.”
She folded up the chart, and I put it back in my bag. Just in time because Corinne arrived then, and the three of us settled in to gossip about school and stuff. I kept Tommy’s encounter with Bart to myself, not ready to talk about Tommy’s struggles to stay out of the drug thing.
Chapter Forty-Four
The next month flew by. I got four more texts, but they didn’t bother me so much now that I could talk to Fern about them. Tensions between Jane and me had eased up a bit, and now and again Corinne, Jane, and I studied together. I missed her less, because I was all caught up with practice for Regionals and studying for exams. We didn’t say much to each other though. Only stuff to be polite. Sometimes when I didn’t want to deal with her, I studied with Fern and Tommy. Corinne joined us now and again.
Fern never said a word to Corinne or anyone about the texts. Even Ryan thought she was pretty great. Mostly he was polite to Jane, and he liked Corinne. He never hung around and chatted, though, the way he did with Fern. For a while I thought he might be hitting on her, but when I asked him, he said no. He was into Claudia. He just thought Fern was a star. She even came to Regional Finals but then, so did Jane.
The school chartered those dinky orange school busses to take us to the arena, which was about 50 kilometers away. Some kids drove with their parents or the senior students, but most went in the busses for the fun of it. The teams all went in one bus, along with Miss Eagan and the Assistant Coach, Mr. Osborne. I couldn’t help wishing I were on the fan bus with Corinne and Fern. They showed up all decked out in school colors. They even had their faces painted. I almost died laughing. Still, I guess it was good to be with the team. A couple of guys were goofing around in the back. I sat next to Tommy.
“Nervous?” I asked him.
“Yeah. You?”
“Yeah. I’d be worried if I weren’t.”
He gave me a sidelong glance and shifted in his seat. Then he looked out at the window, his cheek against the glass like he was trying to see ahead.
The bus rolled in through the gates of the sports grounds, and we all stood up and tried to get a look out the front window. The track and grounds were better than any I’d ever raced on before. They had been used for the World Games once.
“Sit down, sit down. Take it easy,” Miss Eagan said. “It’s just another race and another track. Don’t forget that.”
It wasn’t just another race for me. It was Tommy’s first big meet as a team member, and he didn’t have much experience. I sure hoped he wouldn’t get an attack of the nerves in the middle of the race, but then again, I had enough to spare for him as I waited to run. I looked up into the stands and saw Corinne and Fern waving a cardboard sign that said, “Run, Caro, Run.” Jane raised her arm in a slow wave when she caught my eye. I gave them the thumbs up, and then turned back to the watch what races I could before my warm-up. I was glad they were there, but I needed to get into my bubble and keep my focus.
My races went well. I won all but one. Jack won two of his and came third in the steeplechase because he stumbled badly at the water. He was up and running in a blink. Too bad, because he could probably have won that one too, given his comeback. When I was done, I changed into sweats and went to join Corinne and Fern in the stands to watch Tommy race. Jane was there too, right next to them.
“Well done, you,” she said to me.
That was the most she’d said to me directly in a while. For a second, I was sad that she was there now when it didn’t matter that much to me. Then I thought it was good that she was there and good that it didn’t matter that much to me. I sat between Jane and Fern. The familiar scent of Jane’s perfume drifted into my nose. I remembered the first time we kissed after the bike ride; the first time she touched my bare skin. Suddenly I was sad again. Sad that I would never have another first time to be kissed and touched. That it only happened once to a person and was gone.
Fern patted my hand and said quietly, “Great going.”
I cleared my mind and settled in to cheer Tommy on.
He really went for it, right from the start. The field was deep, lots of really good runners from the other schools. Astoria had one good distance runner, and he was in the stands in a cast. It was always a long shot for us. I’d say this about Tommy, he held nothing back, and came in third, even though I’d thought he had started too hard and wouldn’t make it to the finish. Our school went wild. Whether he knew it or not, Tommy won a place for himself with everyone that day, not just the ones who wanted drugs. I hoped he would know that.
Everyone was manic in the bus on the way back, goofing off and throwing candy wrappers and sweat-soaked shorts at each other—at least the guys did that. We had won Regionals overall. Tommy was quiet next to me.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Oh yes. I’m good. Didn’t think I could do that, but I did. Weird, kinda.”
I knew what he meant. I thought about how running was always a way for me to make my mark. This time it was different. I had real friends and had helped Tommy. Whether he knew it or not, we were friends now too. The most amazing thing was that knowing was enough for me. I didn’t need anyone else to tell me, or acknowledge it.
Chapter Forty-Five
“Well, who’d have guessed how this would all go when I first came to Astoria High,” I said.
It was Friday evening, a week after Regionals, and Tommy and I were having a workout at the community track one more time before summer break.
“Yeah, who would? Thanks, Caro. I mean it. It’s been great. I’ll probably make the team next term if I keep this up.”
“You’re welcome. And you will. No question if you keep up training over the summer.”
Little kids’ screams of delight carried toward us every now and again, along with the smell of gas as barbecues fired up all over the neighborhood. It was a fine evening. The sun was hot all day, and the heat lingered on as people grilled steaks, cracked open beers, and kicked back for the weekend.
We jogged through the next thirty minutes. Mostly being here was an excuse for us to get together, and it seemed a proper end to this past term for Tommy and me.
“Wanna help me? If you have time that is?”
“Yeah. Yeah. I will.”
We jogged sho
ulder to shoulder one more lap. A couple with a greyhound walked through the track and out toward town. The dog looked at us, ears up as it walked sedately alongside its owners.
“Tommy, I’m having a birthday party coming up soon. Would you like to come?”
Tommy’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, Caro. That would be good. Really good. Yes.”
I felt a twinge of guilt because I hadn’t asked my mom yet. Or anyone else. I thought I could count on Corinne and Fern. It would be a sad party, but a party with friends. It was a start.
We walked the last couple of laps to cool down and began our stretches on the bench near the shed, like always. When we were done, we gave each other a high five, and I sat on the grass to take off my shoes.
“So, Golden Boy and Slut Girl. What a lovely pair.”
Bart stepped around the corner of the shed and grinned at us. Tommy jumped up from where he sat on the grass next to me. Another guy came and stood next to Bart. He was short and heavy. His shaved head shone and his smile was ugly. He stood a bit apart from Bart. A short plank swung loosely along his leg, held in his right hand.
“What do you want, Bart?”
Tommy faced Bart at an angle, so he could keep Mr. Ugly in view. I scrambled upright, my knees not too happy to hold me up, my brain trying to take in “slut girl.”
“You, you sent all those texts. Why?” I said.
Bart’s eyes flicked toward me, and then back to Tommy. He widened the gap between himself and Mr. Ugly.
“Get behind me, Caro.”
Tommy motioned me back. Bart smiled that charming bright smile of his, but his eyes were cold. I shivered in the sun and stepped up beside Tommy. Scared. I was definitely scared, but no way was I leaving it open for them to pick us off one at a time.
“Carly, Golden Boy wants to be a hero.”
Bart dragged out my name and said “hero” like a song.
“Well, you shoulda done that little task for me, Tommy. It wasn’t much to ask of a friend, now was it? Not like you hadn’t done it before. Did you know Golden Boy was a pusher?” He asked me.
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