Jaded (Jaded #1)(11)
There weren’t any more interruptions.
Bryce chuckled in amusement, but he shook his head a moment later.
A discreet knock sounded at the door and Mr. Sayword murmured, “Uh…Mr. Scout and Sheldon, the principal requests your presence in his office. Please finish your developing as soon as possible.”
Bryce cracked a grin as I laughed.
“We’re almost done, Mr. Sayword,” I called back.
Bryce murmured, his hand at my back as we moved outside, “He seems cool.”
I flashed a grin to my teacher who’d moved back behind his desk.
“Yeah. He is.” I waved to Mr. Sayword as we moved into the hallway.
Before we got to the main office, we both saw Corrigan in the hallway, hunched over an open locker.
“Seriously, dude.” Bryce clapped a hand on his shoulder.
Corrigan jumped around, eyes wide, and nudged the locker shut with his heel.
When he saw it was us, he relaxed.
“Jeez. Don’t do that!” he hissed and opened the locker again. He was on a mission.
“Don’t you ever go to class?” I asked.
“Not if I can help it,” Corrigan muttered.
“Whose locker?” Bryce reached inside and plucked a book out. He opened the cover and read, “Theodore Campbell.”
Theodore Campbell?
I said lazily, “That’s Teddy. I just met him. He’s in my art class.”
“Yeah, well, he’s going down.” Corrigan mumbled as he looked through Teddy’s bag.
“What are you doing?”
“He spray-painted ‘Greco’ on my car. The douche is going down. I’m looking for his keys.”
“Greco? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but it’s on my car,” Corrigan growled. Corrigan never growls. In fact, a serious Corrigan was a rare event.
“What are you going to do?”
“Steal his car and give it to Hoodum.”
“Isn’t that excessive?”
Hoodum ran the local gang. They specialized in the economics of refurbished cars. They stripped cars, stolen or ‘legitimately’ donated.
“He spray-painted my car,” Corrigan spelled it out. “No one does that and gets away with it.”
Fair enough.
“How do you know it was Teddy?”
“Chet saw him do it. He did it when we left school. He’s going down.” Corrigan produced the keys and took off, triumphantly.
“Mr. Scout and Miss Jeneve!” Our names were shouted down the hallway. The principal’s secretary, Mrs. Walker, was irate as she pointed at us. “If you do not get your butts in this office within thirty seconds, you are both expelled from this school.”
Yeah right, but… Bryce and I headed towards the office. I know that I liked to see an irate Mrs. Walker. It was funny to watch.
Chad Yerling grinned widely when he saw us walk in. He leaned back in one of the waiting chairs, his arm rested over two more, and had kicked up his shoes on another pair of chairs. Three students were forced to squish together in the remaining two chairs across the waiting room.
“What are you guys doing here?” he asked and removed his legs. Bryce and I sat down while Chad rearranged himself to lay sprawled over three chairs. His feet propped onto the stand.
“What are you doing here?” Bryce asked in amusement.
Mrs. Walker harrumphed as she sent a withering glare our way before she walked into the employee’s lounge.
Chad beamed and folded his hands underneath his head. “I got caught getting a blowjob in the boiler room.”
“You did? By who?”
Chad shrugged. “Just some girl.”
I narrowed my eyes and studied him. He was lying, but whatever. I saw that the other students had froze at his words. Chad’s coolness would rise another level.
He nodded in our direction again, “So what are you guys doing here?”
I shrugged and Bryce replied, “Mouthing off? I don’t know.”
Chad smirked, “Did you guys go to the library in second? Word is that you took off.” And had sex.
He hadn’t said the words, but they were still there.
“Nah. We skipped to eat with Corrigan,” Bryce murmured and the sneer disappeared from Chad’s face.
The office door burst open and a student sprinted inside. He panted as he babbled, “Corrigan Raimler is—”
Bryce moved in a flash and dragged the kid outside.
Chad glanced to me and asked, “What was that about?”
I shrugged and moved to follow. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that Mrs. Walker was still absent—she was. Chad moved to follow too, but I said firmly, “You stay and cover for us. Tell them I’m sick.”
He could’ve come, but I didn’t like Chad—never had. He just gave me the creeps.
“Okay.” Chad nodded, but watched through the window as I quickly darted around the hallway.
Bryce had dragged the kid outside and was already interrogating him by the time I got there. “So what were you going to say?” He prodded the kid with a finger in his shoulder.
The kid looked like he was about to pee his pants. He trembled when Bryce towered over him.
“I…I…” he stammered and glanced up at me. Terrified.