Sigh. Only the normal photos that anybody with a crush would have. I closed the folder and sat back. Just in time; Eric was hovering in the background, and if he knew I had seen that folder he would probably have a humiliation meltdown.
“Thanks for letting me use this.”
He nodded back at me, smiling slightly.
“Can I ask you a technical question?” I said.
“For sure.”
“If you had files you wanted to get rid of permanently, can you just delete them, or would you have to do more than that?”
Now Eric was on familiar ground, and he started talking rapidly.
“There would be only two ways to do that. You could do a secure delete. It’s a way of encrypting the data so it can’t be retrieved by a hacker. It’s pretty simple, in Windows for example—” And then he demonstrated the steps. It didn’t look too bad, but a bit time consuming.
“What’s the second way?”
“Well, you could rip out your hard drive. Brutal, but she works. You’d lose all your files, everything.” He flipped the laptop over and showed me where the hard drive was. Apparently, a few screws and it was out.
“Thanks so much, that’s very helpful.” And I went back to my room to think this through.
Okay, Steve-O was looking like the prime suspect here. I definitely got the vibe from him that he was jealous of Jimmy’s success. Jimmy had mentioned Steve was a big deal prospect until he got his knee injury. Would that be enough to piss him off into doing something like this?
I figured Steve would not hand his laptop over so easily, so I might have to do a little reconnaissance mission of my own. I looked over the camp schedule for tomorrow and found that Steve was doing an extended session with the Bantams, on-ice instruction and dryland training from 1:30 to 4:00 PM the next day. Leaving his room wide open for me to search!
I took my backpack and headed over to the room after the on ice session was well underway. I listened at the door first, and didn’t hear anything, so I walked in. I found the laptop right away and turned it on. I checked the browser history, and it didn’t take long to find the same stalker sites April had sent me.
That Steve was a total bastard. He had a lot of photos, so I didn’t have time to search for mine. I took the basic route, flipped over the computer and removed the hard drive with a screwdriver I had brought. Dropped the hard drive into my pack and then started looking through Steve’s closet and drawers for the camera. No luck, maybe he had it with him. I was going to have to try to get that later.
I rushed off to help a group of boys going out canoeing on the lake. Once we were near the middle, I reached into my pack, and brought out the hard drive, complete with the rocky anchor I had taped onto it. The water of Lake Carswell was so clear I could see it falling into the darkness at the bottom. A really lovely sight.
I finished with the canoe group in time to go and supervise the art room. Only Max was in there as usual. We chatted for a few minutes, and then he got to work on the miniature village he was creating out of clay and recycled junk. Well, I had taken care of the laptop, but I knew there was still a camera and maybe a memory card out there somewhere. Maybe Steve had used someone else’s camera and downloaded the photos. I could vaguely remember someone showing off a new digital camera, who was it? Oh yeah, it was Riley, he had been taking photos during a scrimmage. And Riley would do anything Steve asked, including hand over his new camera.
I looked at my watch, it was 3:45, just enough time to run in, check Riley’s closet and make it back before the Bantams were done. I told Max I would be right back, grabbed the pack again, and headed back. I found the camera in Riley’s closet but had no time to look at it, as I could hear the voices of the guys in the hall. I stuffed the camera into my pack and headed out. As I zipped around the corner, I ran right into Steve and Riley.
“Hey, Céline.” Steve smiled at me, what a phony he was. “Are you missing Jimbo yet? Because I can show you what a real man can do for you.”
“Uh, no thanks,” I told him, hoping my nervousness wasn’t showing.
I headed straight back to the art room where Max had not used his unsupervised time to set fire to anything. In fact, he was exactly where I had left him, now landscaping his miniature city.
I took my backpack to the other side of the art room and opened it up. Then I looked at the camera, no photos. Damn, there was no memory card here. Where the heck was the memory card?
“Looking for this, Kelly?”
I turned around. Riley! And he was holding the memory card in front of me.
Okay, I had to admit, I did not expect this. I had been thinking Steve the whole time. Why would Riley have done this? Shit.
Well, whatever was going to happen next, it wouldn’t be G-rated.
“Hey Max, you better go and get ready for your on-ice session now,” I called out. He looked up at Riley and me.
“Are you sure? Is everything okay here?” Great radar on this kid, but now was not the time.
“I’m sure, sweetie. You’re on the ice soon, so scoot.”
“Yeah, kid, I’ll see you there in a few,” said Riley. He walked over and shut the door behind Max, then came up close to me.
“Gee, Kelly, I seem to have your full attention for once. Usually it’s Freshy or even Steve, but now—” He grinned at me. Then he reached out and ran his hand through my hair. I could taste bile in my mouth, but I swallowed it down.
“So, baby, what would you do to get this little memory card back?”
“Riley, I don’t get this. Why would you do this?”
“Wasn’t a plan, just chance. I seen you going to the dock. I wanted to talk to you. After we danced Saturday, I felt like there was something between us. But you were more into Freshy. Of course, he’s a big fucking deal around here, but whatever.” He shrugged, and then ran his hand down my shoulder. My stomach lurched.
“I guess you’re cooked. Something like this could really fuck things up, but more for you than him. Shows what a stud he is, but shows you’re more of a… slut.” He smiled. “Still maybe the Blackhawks don’t want their squeaky-clean prospect to be a player off the ice, so it might fuck up his deal too.”
I didn’t say a word. I stayed as still as if I had encountered a poisonous snake on a trail.
“I’ll make it easy for you. Alls you have to do is meet me on the same beach tonight, after lights out at 10:00. You can do to me what you did to Freshy; that looked like fun. But I’ll want more than that. I still can’t figure out why he didn’t nail you that night, because you sure seemed to want it. Guess he’s too much of a gentleman. I’m not.” And he reached out for my breast, but I backed away.
Riley laughed at me.
“Sure, run away now, but if you want this card, you’ll be all over me later. And if you tell a soul, I’ll make sure I lose this, until I get a chance to post it on the World Wide Web. D’you think your parents will be happy to see how their daughter spends her summer? Freshy’s parents will be impressed too. The big fuck you for that snobby bastard is only a bonus.” He shoved the memory card into his jeans and grabbed his camera back.
“I might need this later. To take some shots of us.” He smiled, then turned and left.I ran over to the sink and threw up.
17
Plastered
That night at dinner, I was a zombie. Loreal and Xavier were talking about their days, but my brain was too fried to even attempt to participate. I couldn’t eat either. I noticed that Riley, at the next table, was having some trouble eating as well; he looked nervous and kept glancing at me. Perhaps his guilty conscience was finally kicking in. Odds were it wouldn’t be enough to stop him meeting me tonight.
Xavier was talking about the afternoon scrimmage. “T’was unbelievable. Max, of all people, started a fight with Jerome, the biggest guy on the ice and a bully. T’was unprovoked. So Max got sent off the ice early.”
“He probably did it to get back to the art room,” laughed Loreal. “I had to
let him in there before dinner. Kelly, you’ve created a monster there, an art monster.”
I nodded numbly and poked at my salad.
They started talking about a sci-fi television series they both loved, so I could stop listening and let my mind go back to my problems. What was I supposed to do tonight? I didn’t want to have anything to do with Riley, but I also didn’t want photos of Jimmy and me all over the Internet. The only option was to go to Trudy and Burt, but then Riley would deny everything and I’d never get the memory card back. I wished—not for the first time in my life—that I were a gigantic guy who could take matters into his own hands. Then I would beat the crap out of Riley. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t the beating-up type. Riley was a lot bigger than me, so even armed with a hockey stick there wasn’t a lot I could do. I hated feeling weak and helpless.
Riley acted so creepy and entitled. I had no clue he liked me, and of course I didn't mean to lead him on or hurt his feelings. And since he had mentioned my parents, I felt worse. I wondered how bad the other photos were. Why wonder? I knew what we had done, and they were going to be bad. Riley had seen everything. Now I was close to throwing up again. Crap.
“Are you okay, Kelly?” Loreal asked.
“No, I feel a little sick.” I got up to leave the dining room. I decided I’d have to tell Trudy and Burt. Maybe we could figure out a way to get the memory card if I pretended I was going to go along with Riley’s stupid scheme.
Max came running up to me. “Kelly, I have a present for you,” he called out in his sweet voice.
“You know, I’m not feeling totally well right now. Maybe we can see it later.”
He grabbed my hand. “Please. This will make you feel better.”
“Okay, bud.” How cute was it that he thought his arts and crafts project could solve my humongous problems? I wished I were a kid again.
We walked to the art room, and I unlocked it for him. Still holding my hand, he walked me over to a little snowman-like object.
“You can’t touch it yet, because it’s not 100% dry. By tomorrow, it will be rock hard. This kind of plaster gets really hot while it’s drying and totally wrecks stuff. I used some of my Legos on a plaster sculpture and they melted out of shape.” That sounded dangerous, maybe I should have been keeping a closer eye on Max, but he seemed to know what he was doing.
The present was a little robot, with stuff embedded in him, like coins and beads. It was kind of cute with bead eyes, metal tube ears and an unsmiling mouth. At any other time I would have loved it, but it was pretty hard to concentrate right now. I looked at my watch; it was 7:00 PM now, three hours to go.
“Thank you, Max. It’s very nice.”
“Kelleeee, you’re not really looking at it. You have to take a super-close look at it.”
I bent down and examined it. Max was an excellent little sculptor and scrounger. He had used bits collected from everywhere: springs from pens, buttons, zipper pulls, and the mouth even seemed to have teeth. Wait! The mouth looked familiar—the mouth was made from a memory card. A freaking camera memory card.
I turned and met Max’s steady gaze. He nodded at me.
“I stayed, and I listened at the door.” Max paused. “I know that was bad, but I could see Riley was going to bully you. I didn’t want him to bully you.”
He stopped and twisted up his lips. “I heard him talk about the memory card. So I knew I had to get it for you. I got in a fight. It was Jerome, he’s mean so I didn’t feel bad about it. I won too. My dad will be happy when he hears I was in a fight.” Max sounded a tiny bit proud.
“Then I got in the dressing room early. I went through Riley’s stuff and found the card in his pants, and a backup one in his hockey bag. I took them both.” Max looked up at me earnestly. “Riley started looking everywhere, so I hid them in the robot.”
He showed me the other one, which was part of the dials and gears on the robot’s back. What a prick Riley was. He was probably planning to give me one card tonight and then let me know there was a second one I had to work off as well.
“You don’t have to worry, Kelly. The plaster totally melts them. Even if you broke it open with a hammer, they wouldn’t be any good anymore.” I looked closely, and you could see the plastic was already slightly misshapen.
“Max, I don’t know how much you heard, but you have totally saved my life here. This robot is the most awesome gift I’ve ever had. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can I give you a hug?”
“Actually, I would prefer not to,” Max said politely.
I laughed. “No problem. Wow, thanks so much, Max.”
“Sure. And you can leave the robot here to dry. Everything will be fine here. Now, could I stay here a bit longer?”
“Let me get a book, and you can stay as long as you like. I’ll be right back.”
Whew, I now had no plans for tonight and no worries. Awesome possum. When I got back to the cabin, Loreal was very upset.
“Someone went through all our stuff, Kelly. They tore the place apart looking for something. I haven’t found anything missing yet, but who knows.”
“Really? What a mess.” But I couldn’t stop smiling. Riley had obviously discovered the missing memory cards. “Listen, I’m going to the art room to supervise Max, and I’ll help you clean up afterwards.”
And then I gave Loreal a hug. I couldn’t help it; I had dodged a major bullet here, and I wanted to hug someone.
18
Alone Time Together
I debated whether I should tell Trudy or Burt about Riley, but I figured the fewer people that knew about the photos, the better. Riley was pitiful, but I didn’t think he was a serial pervert—just an opportunist. He avoided me for the last few days of camp, which was perfect. I did hear that Steve was pissed at him, as Riley had been the last one to use the laptop before its hard drive mysteriously disappeared. Hopefully Steve would get a little payback somehow, perhaps at the body-checking clinic.
Friday was the last full day of camp and also my birthday. In the mail, I got a card from my family and one from April. I didn’t think anyone at camp knew about my birthday, but maybe Trudy noticed on my résumé, because at dinner there was a big cake and everyone sang to me. That was sweet, and it was nice to feel appreciated. I had enjoyed helping the young players, and I could see coaching could be a really satisfying profession. There definitely needed to be more women coaches working with young girls. I had had only one female coach in my whole time in minor hockey.
Jimmy was coming to pick me up. He phoned and told me he had rejigged his schedule, so he could drive me to Montreal. “We’ll get some alone time together,” Jimmy said. Which was obviously a euphemism for screwing our brains out. Finally.
I liked Jimmy a lot. He was young, but he was also a nice guy and he had worked so hard to try and fix the whole photo situation. When I called him to tell him everything was okay, he sounded so concerned. I didn’t tell him any details because it was pointless. I had handled things, and it was over. Chalk one up for Nancy Drew and her trusty sidekick, Max. I had gotten Max's address before he left, and I would get my mom's advice on the very best gift for a budding artist.
By Saturday afternoon, almost everyone was gone. Loreal and I were taking a last look around the cabins to make sure nothing had been forgotten.
“I’ll miss you,” I told her. “And you have to promise to tell me how your date with Karl goes.” That big event was happening tomorrow.
“Don’t worry, I’ll let you know. And we can stay in touch.” Loreal’s eyes widened for a moment, but before I could turn, a strong pair of arms wrapped around my waist and squeezed.
“How’s my beautiful girlfriend?”
“Jimmy!” I wriggled around and hugged him.
He looked so nice in a white polo shirt and khaki shorts. He bent his head down and kissed me. I relaxed into his arms, feeling oddly safe and happy. His lips were soft and tasted a little minty. I finally remembered Loreal was there and broke off the kiss. Jimm
y opened his eyes and smiled down at me, then looked up. “Hey, Loreal, how’s she going?”
“Going good. I’m walking home now, so I’ll leave you two alone.”
“Actually, can you do me a favour? I’d like to get a photo of me and Kelly.” He produced a camera and handed it to her. Loreal decided the light would be better outside, so we stood in front of the cabin. I had a weird flash of uneasiness, given the last time we had our photo taken, but Jimmy didn’t seem to make that connection.
I went to the office and said goodbye to Trudy and Burt. All the other staff had left on the camp bus. I gave a goodbye hug to Loreal and hopped into Jimmy’s pick up truck. Just the two of us. He grinned at me and patted the bench seat beside him.
“Why don’t you scoot over? You’re kinda far away.”
I rolled my eyes. Sitting right next to him seemed so trailer trashy. However, in person, it was tough to keep my hands off him. He looked so clean and vibrant that I wanted to take a bite out of him. I slid over, and he rubbed my thigh. “That’s better.”
He pulled out onto the road. “We have a choice. We can drive straight through to Montreál or we can stop and camp one night on the way. I brought camping stuff.”
“How long would it take us to drive to Montreal?” I asked.
“About ten hours. More if we hit a lot of traffic.” Right now we were zipping along the empty highway with the windows down and scratchy Top 40 on the radio.
“Stop and camp it is,” I replied. There was no way I was waiting ten hours to have sex with Jimmy. He grinned and nodded. I wriggled closer, enjoying his warm and solid body next to mine.
Jimmy’s hand clamped down on my leg. “Okay, Kelly, now that you can’t get away, who took the photos of us? It was Steve, wasn’t it?”
I groaned. “I told you, I took care of this. I got the photos back, and everything is fine.”
Hockey Is My Boyfriend: Part Two Page 10