by Matt Fazio
Drew did as he was told and quickly ran upstairs to grab his things while his dad stepped into the kitchen. He wasn’t often privy to conversations between his parents, so he tried to listen when he had the chance. He crept halfway down the stairs so he could eavesdrop.
“Excited for your big night out?” Ryan was asking.
“Very much,” said Penny. “Thanks for looking after Drew tonight. It really helps out.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ll hang out with Drew anytime you want. In fact, I think you should go out with Donna more often,” Ryan said playfully.
“Still, thanks,” said Penny. “But before Drew comes back down …” Her voice changed to a whisper, but Drew could still make out what she was saying. “I think something’s bothering him. A boy at school, the big kid, Trevor, got caught cheating. When I asked Drew about it, his face turned red, so I dropped it. It might be nothing, but if you can talk to him about it, that’d be great.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Don’t pressure him, though. He always gets defensive when we try to push him.”
“I know that.”
Just then Drew decided to head downstairs, stomping loudly enough for his parents to hear him coming.
“And I’ll go over his homework with him tonight and have him in bed at a reasonable hour. And I don’t start work until ten tomorrow, so I’ll just take him to school,” said Ryan. “Hey, have fun tonight, and tell Donna I said ‘hello.’”
“I will.”
“Give your mom a hug, bud. We gotta get rollin’.”
Drew went to his dad’s place that evening. After he finished his homework, the two of them watched a movie. His dad asked him questions about school, but Drew avoided saying anything about Trevor and answered each question as if everything were fine.
He knew his mom was still concerned, so over the next few days he did his best not to let on that anything was weighing on him. But there was still something he needed to do. It would be risky – maybe even crazy – but he knew curiosity would gnaw at him until he did it.
****
Monday was Trevor’s first day back from his suspension. The anti-rumor campaign hadn’t been very effective, and the news about Trevor had spread through the halls of Emerson Elementary like Mrs. Steinbeck’s perfume. Everyone was steering clear of the big bad cheater, but Drew marched right up to him at his locker, tapped him on his shoulder, and said, “Hey, I know what you did.”
“Yeah, dude, so does everyone else,” said Trevor, his meek words projecting into his locker. “I got caught with a cheat sheet, and I got suspended.”
“Not that,” said Drew. “I mean the other thing you were doing.”
Now Drew’s words captured Trevor’s attention. He turned from his locker and looked down at Drew. “What?”
“I saw you copy off Jeff!” Drew whispered harshly.
An angry look came into Trevor’s pale face. He slammed his locker shut, grabbed a fistful of Drew’s shirt, and yanked him into the computer lab entranceway, blocking them from everyone’s view.
“Listen, we can’t talk about this. At least not here,” Trevor said through gritted teeth. He stuck his head out into the hallway to make sure no one was within earshot. “Let’s meet behind the jungle gym at recess.”
Drew nodded, and Trevor released his grip.
When Drew got to his locker, he was met with a barrage of questions from Jeff and Tommy, who had seen him emerge from the computer lab entranceway with Trevor. Was he talking to Trevor? Was it about the cheat sheet? Why was his shirt collar stretched? But he dismissed them all and went to class as if it were just a normal day.
As he sat through the morning classes, he thought about what his mom had said during dinner the previous week. He realized that he had never stopped to think about things from Trevor’s perspective. And while Drew was pretty sure he had done the right thing for his friend, he still needed to know why Trevor cheated in the first place, and, more importantly, why he didn’t deny the cheat sheet was his.
But while Drew stared at the back of Trevor’s head during science class, he began to worry about his pending meeting with the giant. Maybe this is a bad idea. If he doesn’t want anyone to know, why is he willing to tell me? What if he thinks I’m gonna tell on him for copying, and he wants me to go behind the jungle gym so he can beat the snot out of me without any witnesses? Beads of sweat formed on Drew’s forehead, and he could feel his heart thumping hard and fast. He had come this far, though. He couldn’t back down from Trevor now. He flipped to page 139 to sneak a peek at the picture, and he managed to calm down and regain some confidence.
Drew ate lunch at his regular pace and took his time getting to the playground. Trevor was at the jungle gym waiting for him. Drew rotated his shoulders back and puffed out his chest to show Trevor, and perhaps himself, that he wasn’t scared. Trevor scanned his surroundings to make sure no teachers were around.
“Hey, dude, what’s up?” he said.
His casual tone aggravated Drew. He stood with his arms crossed, staring up into the giant’s eyes.
“Okay, here’s what happened,” Trevor began. “It all started a few weeks ago at football practice. I fell over on one of my friends and broke his wrist. It was Kyle Olinski. I don’t know if you know him … But it was an accident … I swear I didn’t mean to. And I didn’t mean to do this all to Jeff either. So anyway, I ended up going to the hospital with Kyle because I felt really bad about it. But the worst part was I had football right after school, then I went to the hospital, then Kyle’s parents took me to get ice cream with them because they said it was nice that I came to the hospital with them. Then Kyle asked me to come to his house and hang out for a little. And what was I supposed to tell a kid in a cast? So I didn’t have time to study at all. To be honest, I was kind of okay with failing the quiz. I even told Jeff during the quiz that I was gonna fail. But then Jeff was trying to be nice because we’re friends, so … I copied off him.”
He paused and took a deep breath, and for the first time all day, Drew almost detected a smile on Trevor’s face. He seemed relieved to be talking about it, as if carrying around the weight of the lie had become too heavy, even for the biggest kid in class, and he needed to tell someone the truth.
“Anyway, my mum always says this thing at home. It’s stupid and everything, but she always says, ‘Every time you don’t get caught for something you did, you will get caught for something you didn’t do.’ And … I guess the cheat sheet was my way of getting caught for something I didn’t do. I don’t know, I mean, I didn’t even make the cheat sheet. But I still felt bad because I was cheating, even if it wasn’t the way Mrs. Steinbeck thought.”
Drew could not believe his ears. As he listened to Trevor’s story, he tried to find some gap, some flaw, to make it a lie. He wanted Trevor to be lying now more than ever.
“But the bad part is that I didn’t cheat just once,” said Trevor, dropping his head and drawing a circle in the mulch with his foot. “I don’t know how much you saw, but I guess Jeff is cool with cheating, so he’s been opening up his paper to me for a while now. And I know he’s your best friend and everything, and he was just trying to be nice, but I didn’t even want to cheat. I almost always study. Sometimes I get bad grades, but, I mean, I do try. But even though I studied, I still checked my answers with his. It was stupid, I know.
“So then, after I got caught with that cheat sheet, I was so surprised. I was waiting in the principal’s office, trying to figure out how to show them I was innocent, but all I could hear was my mum’s voice in the back of my head: ‘Every time you don’t get caught for something you did, you will get caught for something you didn’t do.’ So I decided not to say anything. After all, I had been cheating. So I figure it was coming to me at some point anyway. And I’m glad it all ended before I got Jeff in any trouble.”
“But why didn’t you tell Mrs. Steinbeck the cheat sheet wasn’t yours in the first place?” Drew blurted out.
“I tried, but I couldn’t. She was staring at me, and she looked so mad, and I just … I froze. I’m scared to death of Mrs. Steinbeck.”
“You are?” said Drew.
“Yeah, who isn’t? I dread going to her class every day. Remember when she yelled at you on the first day of school? That was so scary. I felt so bad for you.”
Drew continued to stand in amazement as he listened to Trevor’s story.
“But anyway, it all worked out. I mean, my parents were really mad at me at first. I got yelled at for a long time that first night. But after my dad cooled down, he told me everyone makes mistakes. ‘The good ones just find the good in the mistakes,’ he said. So I studied a lot all week and my neighbor, she’s like a math whiz, she tutored me, and now I finally understand all the decimal stuff we’ve been doing in math.”
After a period of silence, Drew said, “But aren’t you curious to find out how that cheat sheet got on your chair?” Immediately regretting his question, his eyes grew wide as he waited for Trevor’s answer.
“Nah, not really. It could be anyone. Maybe someone made a cheat sheet and got scared before the test, and it somehow landed on my seat. It’s over. Now I just need to tell Jeff to stop giving me a clear shot at his paper and letting me cheat.”
At this point, Jeff and Tommy emerged from the corner of the building where they had been hiding. They had walked around from the inside so they could sneak up behind Drew and Trevor to hear the conversation. Jeff and Tommy only caught the end of the conversation and were obviously lost, but Tommy’s frustration got the best of him.
“Wait, what did you say?” he almost shouted. “Jeff let you cheat?”
“Shhh. Stop, or they’ll hear,” said the cautious Trevor.
“Stop, you really don’t understand,” said Drew, stepping between Trevor and Tommy.
“What don’t I understand?” Tommy snapped. “This is all so stupid and it don’t make sense.”
“Just listen for a second,” started Trevor, stepping toward Tommy.
“What, are you gonna beat us all up now?” Tommy said sarcastically, though he took a small step back. Tommy had a thick build and was one of the taller kids in class, but Trevor still towered over him.
“What? Why would I wanna beat you up? I was just telling Drew …” said Trevor, and he explained everything again.
“So you weren’t gonna beat me up?” Jeff said weakly.
“No way, dude. You’re my friend.”
“Wait, this story makes no sense,” said Tommy. “If it wasn’t your cheat sheet, then who planted it on you?”
“I was just telling Drew, I don’t think anyone ‘planted’ it on me. I bet someone was gonna cheat and got scared. They probably threw it or something. Maybe I sat on it somewhere else and it stuck to my pants. Oh well, who cares, it’s over now,” Trevor said with a carefree grin.
Tommy’s entire demeanor seemed to change instantly. “No way, dude, you gotta figure it out. Maybe someone was trying to get you in trouble!”
No, Drew thought, if Trevor looks into this, he’ll probably figure out it was me!
“You got suspended for something you didn’t do,” Tommy continued. “That’s not fair.”
Drew suspected that Tommy cared less about fairness and more about prolonging the conflict, but he wasn’t sure if he should say anything.
“I’m not worried about it anymore,” said Trevor. “It’s over. I’m back at school, and I just wanna forget this ever happened.”
Drew breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn’t have chosen better words himself.
The bell rang again, and it was time to go back into the school. Before departing, Trevor said to Jeff, “I’m sorry you thought I was gonna beat you up. Sometimes I hate being big. Everyone thinks I’m some tough guy. I’m totally not.” He laughed at himself, but only for a moment.
Jeff nodded. “I’m sorry, too. Maybe we can all hang out this weekend and play football … two-hand touch, not tackle,” he said, laughing.
“Yeah, that sounds cool,” said Trevor. “I’ll see you guys. I gotta go to the bathroom before class,” he added, and he turned and ran clumsily toward the building.
The three boys continued to walk slowly. The once terrified-looking Jeff was gone, and Drew’s best friend was back.
“Crazy, right? I had nothing to worry about at all. And Trevor’s actually pretty nice. I mean, we were always friends when we were little. His grandma used to live next door to me. He’d be there sometimes and we’d play together. So it’ll be cool to hang out this weekend,” Jeff rambled.
The boys stopped at their lockers and proceeded to math class. Drew thought about telling Trevor he was the one who planted the cheat sheet on him but figured nothing good would come of it.
Even though it wasn’t science class, he pulled out his science book again and opened to page 139. He thought of the beautiful picture, Skylar’s smile, and Trevor’s mum’s saying: “Every time you don’t get caught for something you did, you will get caught for something you didn’t do.”
Tears in a Storm
Drew’s heart sank as each rumble of thunder clenched at his stomach and each flash of lightning turned his worried face pale white. He paced across the living room, back and forth, back and forth.
“Honey, calm down,” said his mom. “I didn’t know storms scared you so much.”
Drew paused. “I’m not scared. It’s just …” Unable to find the words, he shook his head and resumed pacing.
“I understand. But it’ll be okay,” said his mom. As she spoke, there was another modest grumble of thunder, as if the sky were clearing its throat in preparation to roar.
“How do you know, Mom? What about all that work I did? All that work Dad did? We’ve been waiting for tomorrow forever. What if everything gets ruined?”
“Worrying won’t do you any good,” she replied. “We can’t control Mother Nature.”
Drew let out a frustrated sigh and peered out the living room window. Everything was darkening by the minute. Drew was no meteorologist, but as another threatening gang of smoky clouds glided across the sky, and as the distant rumblings grew louder, he knew the storm was coming. Just yesterday a perfect, golden sun had hung in the bright blue sky, radiating warmth and pleasantness throughout Emerson. There were a few clusters of puffy white clouds, but they only made the scene that much more picturesque. Now, only one day later, the sun had gone into hiding, and the sky was a dark, murky gray, with clear intentions of destruction.
Drew looked straight out the living room window and watched as the gusting wind scooped leaves from the ground and sent them down Ernest Way in a spiraling frenzy. The half-bare elm tree in the front yard shivered. Emerson Township was well-known for its trees. Many homes had wooded areas for backyards, and almost every home had at least one tree in the front yard. Drew was staring at the elm tree when his gaze was interrupted by the sudden appearance of wet spots on the window.
“It’s raining!” he cried out.
Penny didn’t respond, either because she couldn’t hear him from the kitchen, where she was removing some pork chops from the oven, or because she felt no need to respond to such an obvious declaration. Considering that the forecast called for a 100% chance of rain, and the sky was now the same color as the Johnstons’ freshly paved asphalt driveway, there was no need for someone to announce the arrival of the rain. Drew saw just a few droplets at first, but within a minute they were scattered all over the window. He cringed as the rain pattered on the glass.
“Dinner’s almost ready,” said his mom from the kitchen. “I want to eat now, finish up a few emails, then go down to the basement while it’s bad out. I’m sure everything will be fine, but I’ll just feel better if we’re down there. There’ll probably be some hail, and they said on the news that some areas could even see tornadoes.”
“Tornadoes? Seriously?”
“Honey, we’ll go downstairs and we’ll be fine. It’s just a precaution, that’s all. It’s ver
y unlikely there will be anything like that here, but there will be some strong winds. Better safe than sorry, right?”
“You don’t understand,” said Drew. “I’m gonna call Dad.”
He grabbed the phone from the kitchen and dialed his dad’s number. It rang five times and went to voicemail: “You have reached the voicemail of Ryan Daley, Architect Apprentice at Ewing, Jones, Parker, and Silverman Designs. Please leave your name and number, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.”
Drew hung up without leaving a message. “Mom, Dad’s not answering.”
“Did you call his cell phone or his work phone?”
“Work. He said he’d be there late tonight so he can have more time for the unveiling tomorrow.”
“Try him on his cell.”
But there was no such luck. Why isn’t he answering? He always answers. Drew began to think of possible reasons why his dad wouldn’t have picked up his phone, but they only made him feel worse.
****
The rain continued tapping on the windows as a constant reminder of its presence. As Drew sat at the dinner table, barely touching his food, all he could think about was the swing set at Emerson Park, and all the time he had spent working on it.
Earlier in the year, Mayor Garcia had announced that the township would renovate Emerson Park. For years the old park had been unusable. The grass had died; the merry-go-round was rusted; the pavilion had a leaky roof; the basketball hoops had bent rims and shredded nets, and weeds sprouted from large cracks in the court; and the crown jewel of the park, the swing set, had to be removed after its collapse. Many older Emerson residents talked about the beautiful swing set that once stood proudly in the middle of their little town’s park. But the area was now a taped-off void with rusty pegs emerging from the earth as the only vestige of a swing set. With roads to pave, snow to plow, leaves to collect, and other more practical jobs to do, there hadn’t been much money left for anything else. However, after enough town members spoke up at board meetings, Emerson would finally get a new park.