The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Mandy’s the captain of this team, she leads the count. She’s our top flyer and I need her. The squad needs her.”

“Well, she’s needed somewhere else.” I was starting to see why Vitamin R had been tempting to Mandy.

“Listen, I’ve heard about you, and if this is because of you, wherever she is, undo it. Now. I’ll expect to see Mandy at the Dome before the game, okay?” She pushed past me.

I turned and called out, “She won’t be there. And no matter how much you’re putting this on me, Mandy’s not coming.”

“Listen,” she began, turning back to face me.

I got in her face. “No. Because you’re not listening to me.” I liked teachers, well I respected teachers. I did. But this one…fuck no. “Get over your little trip to Denial Land and deal with it. My sister has an emergency she has to deal with and if you try to get to her, you’ll have to go through me.”

“Where is she?”

I was silent. I shifted on my feet and crossed my arms, as much as I could with a coffee cup.

“Your name’s Taryn, right? Mandy talks about you, a lot. I’ve heard the other girls talk too. You don’t have a great reputation. You’re a troublemaker and you’re on a spiral ride down. I will not let you take Mandy with you.”

That was it.

I crowded her. “Well, right now I’m the only one who’s keeping her from hitting rock bottom, so get off my back, Coach Hailey.”

“I’m calling your parents and setting up a conference for all of us, including the principal and superintendent. You can’t speak to a teacher like that.”

“Fine by me. When you get a hold of ‘em, let ‘em know that their family is falling apart. If they were around a little more, Mandy wouldn’t be where she is right now.”

Fuck. I said way too much. Before I could say anything else I’d regret telling this woman, I turned and swept into the school.

Since it was still way too early, I was faced with a good two hours of nothing before classes started.

This is not a good thing for me. If I get too bored, with too much time on my hands, it’s inevitable for me to come up with something that would more than likely get me into trouble. For instance, right now I’m thinking that I could break into the front office and look up Props’ locker combination. You know, so I can put the tickets in there now and I wouldn’t have to waste time trying to find him later. I would never break in without a good reason. Cue the sarcasm.

That’s my rationalization and I’m sticking to it.

I was telling myself, don’t, don’t, don’t, .but I found myself circling around the locked office doors. It was a whole lot of dark in there. I knew exactly how to get in there, I knew exactly where the locker combinations were—I saw where they were kept when they issued me my locker. It’d be so easy. A quick slip in, a little measly lock to pick, and voila—the combination I needed.

I jumped a good three inches when my phone rang.

“Yeah?” I snapped out, irritated at the caller for interrupting me and at myself for having weak thoughts.

“Where are you?” Tray asked, sounding half-asleep.

“I’m at school.”

“Fuck. Why?”

“I needed to talk to Mandy’s coach and I suppose I’ll have to say something to the counselor.”

“Forget that shit. Tell her on Monday.”

It was a good idea. “I can’t. I gotta hand over these tickets.”

“Slip ‘em in the locker.”

“They’re tickets and backstage passes. They won’t fit.” Unless I break in the office and find his combination… It was so tempting. Damn this trying to be good.

“Who is this kid?”

“He’s a computer geek. His name is Props.”