The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“She’s not even taking you seriously,” Coach Hailey remarked, shaking her head. “Boot camp, Peter. It’s the only thing that’ll get through to her.”

And fuck you too.

“Can she not be here?” I asked, glaring. “She’s made it abundantly clear what her opinion is. Is there any other reason for her presence?”

Principal Marshalls frowned, but replied, “I agree, Miss Matthews. Ms. Hailey, we’ve already taken up enough of your time. I’ll keep your recommendations in mind and if you could have them typed in a report, it’d be most appreciated.”

She was going to argue, but she smiled instead. Like she’d been given a compliment or something. I made a vow, then and there, that I’d find whatever report she was going to type up and I’d shred it. Then I’d find her backups on her computer and trash those. Maybe a bat to her computer would work.

When she left, Principal Marshalls leaned back, considering me. He sighed. “Taryn, you are a mystery to me. Most of these students that walk these hallways make perfect sense to me. I know exactly what’s troubling them, how to help them, or how to change them. But you…you were excelling in your classes. Now you’re dating Tray Evans, skipping classes, pissing off teachers, and breaking into my office via the venting shaft.”

What? I looked up, surprised to see him grinning knowingly at me. He pointed upwards. “Don’t think we didn’t know who was behind that little prank the other week.”

I feigned innocence.

“We just couldn’t prove it,” he remarked, “But we knew. Principal Corey is a very good friend of mine. I’ve gotten more than an earful about your juvenile pranks.”

They weren’t juvenile. And they weren’t pranks.

“But that’s in the past and now we’re dealing with the present.”

I readied myself, ready to handle whatever he threw out.

“I’ve heard rumors that you’re a swimmer. Quite good, in fact.”

What the hell?

“I think your consequence will be to join the swim team,” he announced. “I’ve already talked to Coach Greenly. He’s watched you swim and dive, he said you’re given an automatic spot on the varsity team, which is highly unusual here at Rawley, let me tell you. Girls have to compete against each other for varsity spots.”

I waited. There had to be a catch.

“My only stipulation is that you do not kicked off the team.”

Meaning no skipping practices, no attitude, and no drama with team-members.

“And you can start today,” he finished, looking proud.

“What? No! I have something I need to take care of after school,” I protested, jumping out of my chair.

“Whatever it is, it can wait. You don’t want to get kicked off the team before you even start, do you?”

Oh…fuck!

“Good. Now that that’s settled, you can leave, Miss Matthews.”

I shut the door behind me. When I got to the hallway, my mind was reeling as I walked to my locker.

Most of the hallway was empty. A few lingered, talking, whatnot, but as I opened my locker, I found myself reaching for my purse. In my wallet, I found the picture I was looking for: me and Brian. We’d gone to the beach that day and we were just being stupid. He was carrying me on his back, my legs were wrapped around his waist and he had turned his head, trying to lick my neck.

I took a deep breath and clipped the picture on my door.

“That your ex?” Tristan asked behind me.

“Yeah,” I murmured, my voice lacking heat.

“Look, I’m sorry. I heard about it in fourth period about him. Why you and Tray took off this weekend.”

“So what?” I laughed. “Now you’re going to be nice to me? Please.”