Playing Defense (Corrigan Falls Raiders) Read online

  “Is it?” I asked. I let him get back in front of me so he could get the full effect of my arched brow.

  “Yes. It is. Now…tell me about the group you’re going to invite me to join.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. The warning bell rang at the perfect time. “I’ll have to think about it.”

  “Claudia!”

  “Gotta go,” I said. “Time to learn. Just put this out of your mind for first period. Oh, and second period, too. And lunch, I guess, because I think I’ll be busy this lunch break. Maybe I’ll see you in chemistry? But we might not have time to talk…”

  “Claudia!” he said again, with a bit more whine this time.

  I smiled to myself as I headed down the hall. I’d hooked him, no doubt. He was in. I started wondering what his challenge should be.

  When I walked into English, Karen was waiting for me. Instead of slinking over to my desk and waiting quietly for the class to begin, I grinned at her and she stood up and headed toward me. “I want to tell Ms. Coyne,” she said quickly. “I don’t think we can ask her to join; there might be some stuff we challenge people to do that a teacher couldn’t technically approve of. I’m not sure. But I want to tell her about it. She’ll think it’s cool, I bet, and she might have some good ideas for us.”

  “Yeah. Sounds good.” The truth was, I wanted to tell everyone about the sisterhood. I wanted to put out a full-page ad in the newspaper and stop strangers on the street to share it all. I was alone, I’d tell them. And then I found a sisterhood. One that takes boys. And it’s awesome!

  …

  I hadn’t really expected the call to the office. Most of the time when I get in trouble, I know it’s coming, but this time was a surprise.

  Ms. Walker was the principal, and she and I generally got along best by avoiding each other. I’m sure she was a nice lady and was good at her job or whatever, but she was a really, really serious person. And not serious like Claudia seemed to be, with that vein of humor running beneath it all. No, Ms. Walker was serious all the way through, and I think it made it hard for her and me to understand each other.

  So when I was called into her office, I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut and reveal as little of my natural personality as possible. She sat and stared at me like she was trying to read my mind, and it made me nervous enough that I almost started babbling, just producing whatever random crap happened to come to the surface of my brain at the time. I managed to keep my mouth shut, though, and finally she spoke.

  “Mr. Winslow, what can you tell me about firecrackers?”

  I thought for a second. “Is this a real question? Like, I think they’re from China, originally, right? And there are different sizes, and I could maybe tell you a bit about what they’re made from—is that what you’re asking? Or are there specific firecrackers we’re supposed to be talking about?”

  She frowned at me. “Specific firecrackers. The ones that were flushed down the toilets in the boys’ locker room this morning.”

  “Oh. Wow. Uh, I don’t know anything about those firecrackers. Was there a lot of damage done?”

  Another frown. “I’m not appreciating the innocent act, Chris.”

  “No, it’s not an act. Seriously. I can see why you might think I could be involved, but it wasn’t me. Is someone saying I did it?”

  “We have cameras in the school, you know.”

  “Uh, okay. So that’s good, right? I don’t even have gym this semester; I haven’t been in the locker room since last spring. You can check the cameras.”

  “Convenient for you that the cameras in the gym area were disabled right before the vandalism was committed.”

  Never a good thing when authority uses the word “vandalism” instead of “prank.” But I tried not to get flustered. “Okay, well, that’s actually inconvenient for me, because I wasn’t in the locker room this morning, and I don’t know anything about the firecrackers. Seriously. I’m not lying.”

  “The cameras in the parking lot weren’t disabled, you know.”

  It was my turn to frown. “Okay—so—I got here a bit early today? Is that what all this is about? Yeah, I was going to go to the library.”

  “And did you go there?”

  “Well, no. I ended up getting sidetracked. But not by firecrackers. Not by anything bad.”

  “So where were you, then?”

  I know it sounds stupid, but I didn’t want to tell her. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded if I could have just said I went to the caf, but she’d want to know why, and who I saw there, and she might call people down to check on my story.

  And I really didn’t like the idea of dragging Claudia into this. She already thought I was a loser, and lazy, and didn’t take anything seriously; having her think I was a firecracker-flusher, too? I don’t know, I just really didn’t like that idea. “There were fifty other cars in the lot when I got here, and some of the buses were already dropping kids off, too. That means there are hundreds of kids who might have been part of this.” I didn’t want to be the asshole who acts all innocent when he isn’t, but I also didn’t want to get myself into more trouble by confessing to anything I’d done in the past. So I just said, “I can understand why maybe you’d look at me. But if all you’ve got to go on is me being here a bit earlier than usual? That’s a long way from proof, you know?”

  “I don’t need proof, Chris. This isn’t a courtroom, and you’re not facing criminal charges. I mean, the police are definitely going to be involved, but that’s not what you and I are talking about. At this stage, I just need a reasonable belief.”

  “Were the cameras in the caf working? You could check those.”

  “The cafeteria?”

  “I came in, I was going to go study, but I went to the caf instead. I hung out there for a while, then after the first bell I was in the hallway, talking to some guys from the team. MacDonald, Cooper, a couple others. I was in geography almost on time. When did the firecrackers go off?”

  “Who were you in the cafeteria with?”

  She asked it like she was expecting me to name my coconspirators. I just sighed. “You should probably check the cameras. Something tells me that if I told you who I was with, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

  …

  I’ve managed to convince most of the office personnel to call me at lunchtime rather than pulling me out of class, so I was a bit surprised when my biology teacher told me the office had called and wanted to see me. Luckily, we were just doing one of those stupid activities that are supposed to appeal to kinesthetic learners; I didn’t mind taking a trip to the office if all I was missing was making a model with a bunch of pipe cleaners and pasta.

  It was weird when I got there and saw Chris Winslow sitting in one of the hard plastic chairs outside the principal’s office, though. He looked—not ashamed, exactly. But certainly more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen before. “You okay?” I asked him.

  “Ms. Waring?” The principal appeared in her doorway, scowling. I don’t think I’d ever had a teacher or anyone else in authority frown at me like that, and I wanted to immediately start apologizing. I just wasn’t sure what to apologize for.

  “Yes?” I said. I sounded like a scared little girl.

  “Come inside, please.”

  So I did, and she gestured impatiently for me to sit. On the hard plastic student chairs, not in the leather armchairs I’d been treated to when I’d come in to be congratulated on various academic achievements. “Claudia, you were with Chris Winslow in the cafeteria this morning before school.” She made it sound like an accusation, and I was uncomfortably aware that she’d left the door open so Chris could surely hear everything either of us said. Was she playing some sort of game? If she was, I’d let her win, if it meant I could just get out of there.

  “I was,” I confirmed timidly.

  “Why?”

  “Why? I mean—what do you mean? I was there, and he came in and we were talking. There wasn’t really a ‘why,’ I don’t think?
”

  “What were you talking about?”

  It was such a simple question, but I didn’t want to answer it. Partly because it would take a fairly detailed answer and I was too nervous to think I’d do a good job of making things coherent, but also because, in some strange way, I wanted to protect the Sisterhood from her. I felt like it was a baby, just trying to figure out how to walk, and I wasn’t sure it was strong enough to stand up to scorn or even too many questions. It was delicate, and for whatever reason, Ms. Walker seemed really hostile. When delicate and hostile meet, delicate doesn’t tend to do too well. And I somehow felt sure that Chris would have known the same thing, and hadn’t told her anything about the Sisterhood, either. It wasn’t a secret society, but it wasn’t any of Ms. Walker’s business, either.

  So I gathered all my courage and expressed it as a shrug. I know, not Shakespeare-level defiance. Not “lay on, Macduff” or “we few, we lucky few.” But for me? It was a hell of a lot further than I’d ever gone before. “I’m his tutor. We talked about math tutoring. A bit about hockey. Some other things, as well, I guess. May I ask why you’re asking?”

  “No,” she said shortly.

  Oh. So I sat there for another little while, and then she waved her hand at me. “You can go back to class.”

  I was barely out of her office when Chris leaned over so his head was in the principal’s doorway. Without even standing up he said, “Can I go?” and I guess she said yes, because he stood up and we ended up leaving the office together.

  “What was that about?” I demanded as soon as we were around a corner and I felt safe. “Are we in trouble for something?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “Not you, for sure. And probably not me. I mean, I didn’t do it, so I definitely shouldn’t be in trouble. But—” He shrugged. “I guess if you believe in karma, I’ve got something coming to me for other stuff I didn’t get caught for. Maybe. But I’m hoping this all just goes away.”

  “That was—” I’d been about to say scary, and it was true. I had been scared. But at the same time, I was telling the truth when I finished the sentence with “exhilarating. I have no idea what just happened, but it really felt like the Sisterhood in action, somehow.” I frowned. “Not that the Sisterhood is going to cover for you if you do stupid things. That’s not what it’s about.”

  “I didn’t do the stupid thing,” he said quickly. “This time, at least. Someone else was stupid this time. Not me.”

  I nodded. I believed him. He was a sister, after all, but he was also Chris. And for whatever reason, that meant I trusted him. “It’s okay,” I said.

  “I’m sorry you got dragged into it. I was hoping she’d call Karen down, not you.”

  I wasn’t sure how to take that. He’d wanted Karen to come because she was better at this sort of thing, obviously. I mean, nobody was ever going to have to challenge me to expose my inner niceness, not when I was such a wimp all the time. I tried to sound brave as I said, “It was interesting. I feel like—I don’t know. Like an anthropologist or something, learning about this new culture I’d always been faintly aware of but never really explored. So now I know what it’s like to be called to the principal’s office, right? Not an experience I want to repeat, but it’s okay that it happened this time.”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Sure. You can take notes or something, right? Gorillas in the Mist?”

  Well, Dian Fossey was more famous for her primatology than her anthropology, but I didn’t think Chris needed me to point that out right then. So I just said, “Something like that, sure.”

  He nodded and flashed me a smile, but it somehow didn’t seem quite as warm as his usual ones. I guessed he was probably a bit stressed out after the ordeal in the office. “Okay, then. Sorry, and thanks, and see you for tutoring at lunch, right?”

  “You bet,” I said. “Thanks for the experience.”

  “Anything for science,” he replied, and we both headed back to our classes.

  …

  “I aced it,” I told Claudia as I pulled the library chair out from beside hers and straddled it. “The functions quiz? We reviewed the answers in class, and I got sixty-one percent!”

  She squinted at me, and didn’t say anything.

  “Okay, maybe by your standards that isn’t acing something. But we’re talking about me, here. I passed! And it was a hard quiz. There are smart people in that class, and a lot of them were not happy with their marks.”

  “Chris,” she said patiently. “If you were failing before this quiz and you learned enough to get a passing grade in one half-hour tutoring session? Hate to break it to you, but you’re one of the smart people in that class. You’ve taken an important step, but sixty-one is not enough to get you into any university worth going to.”

  “I could still make the NHL, you know. I’m getting scouted. I might not be a sure thing like Tyler, but I could be a professional hockey player. They don’t need to know shit about functions.”

  “So, wait. Are you backing out of the challenge? I mean, I just want to know what we’re talking about here. Are we just chitchatting, or are you saying you don’t want to get any better at math?”

  “Shit. No, I’m not backing out of the challenge. I want to get better at math.” And I wanted to see her at the hockey game, even if she was only going as an anthropologist who wanted to see the gorillas in their natural habitat. Was that weird? I guess I just felt like at school, I was a gorilla in a tutu or something, stuck in a circus doing stuff that isn’t natural to me. On the ice, I was a gorilla in the jungle. Or, shit, I guess I was a gorilla in the damn mist.

  The point was: sure, maybe I was part of an alien culture that she didn’t really want to be part of. But—I don’t know. I at least wanted her to see my culture at its best, not its worst.

  It pissed me off a bit that I was worrying about all this, to be honest. But I’ve never been able to stay pissed off for long, especially not when I’d just gotten 61 percent on a damn calculus quiz. “I know I’m not done learning math. I’m just enjoying the moment.”

  “Okay,” she agreed. She smiled. “Way to go. That’s a huge improvement. I’m looking forward to seeing what you can do when you’ve spent even more time on it.”

  “You are a future guidance counselor.”

  “No. I’m a future engineer. Which means I understand the importance of hard work.”

  “What are you bad at?” The words sort of popped out of my mouth, but once I’d heard them I was interested in the answer.

  But Claudia didn’t seem too enthusiastic about giving it. “What do you mean?”

  “I suck at school. You know that about me. I could tell you some other weaknesses, but I think I’m already at a disadvantage. So I thought it would be nice to hear what you’re bad at. As a sister, not a tutor.”

  “I guess I’m bad at going to hockey games. Right?”

  I sighed. “That’s not really a skill, though, is it? Anyone can go to a hockey game. You might not like it, but you’re not bad at it.”

  “So why did you think I should go to a game as a growth opportunity?”

  “I don’t know.” I frowned, trying to remember what had been going through my head. “I guess I thought you’d be good at pretty much everything. Like, if you tried, you could do it. So I said it because it seemed like something you wouldn’t have tried yet.” And then I pulled my courage together and added, “And because I like the idea of you watching me play.”

  She stared at me for a moment, then said, “Oh.”

  That was all. I’d put it out there, and she’d left me hanging. She actually looked back down at the papers spread out in front of her and said, “We should work on chemistry today. Because you’re catching up in math, and because you’re going to spend time on math this weekend. Okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said. The scientist can’t get too close to her subjects, after all, so we should keep the focus on business. Or, okay, we were still sisters, but that was something different. And sisters
probably didn’t hook up in her world.

  I mean, sisters don’t hook up in my world, either. I wasn’t trying for some big incest thing. I was just…damn it, I didn’t know what I was doing.

  But Claudia clearly knew what she was doing. She was tutoring me in order to have something to put on her university applications, and she was giving me challenges in the Sisterhood because that was the point of the whole thing. Not because she wanted to spend more time with me.

  “You are not good for my positive worldview,” I told her.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” But she was still frowning, so I made myself smile and say, “Hey, how about some chemistry? That’d be really good about now.”

  So we worked on chemistry and didn’t talk about hockey or anything else, and it was fine.

  At the end of the session, after she’d gone and dragged her friend out of the stacks, she met me at the door. “I’m looking forward to seeing you play,” she said quietly, and then she was out the door and heading down the hall, walking faster than she’d walked on any previous day.

  I caught up to her in about three strides. “Yeah?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  That was all I got, but it was absolutely enough. At least for right then.

  …

  Oliver joined as soon as I let him. Karen’s half sisters were in as well, although her half brother was apparently too busy.

  “I think it was the sisterhood part that threw him off,” Karen confessed as we pretended to proofread each other’s essays in English class Friday morning.

  “Oliver didn’t really like that, either,” I said. “But once I told him Chris was in, he calmed down about it.”

  “I tried that with Matt, but he said it was easier for someone like Winslow.” She shrugged. “I’m not too broken up about it, to be honest. I felt like I had to ask him, once we decided we were taking guys, but it was really Miranda and Sara I wanted.”