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“Maybe that girl wants to be his girlfriend
and he has no interest in her, but then again I didn't get that
feeling.”

“Weird, very weird.” I murmured.

They hadn't pulled out yet, they seemed to be
arguing. He grabbed something from behind his seat and put it on
his head, it looked like a dark colored cap. I got that eerie
feeling I get when a dream I've had was about to come true. It was
so intense it knocked me back a few steps and my knees went weak.
“I know that hat.” I don't remember thinking of saying that or how
the words passed my lips, but it was true; something about that hat
was familiar.

Halftime was about to start and I wanted to
see the guys come off the field, so Nic and I headed back to the
end of the field where the field house and concession stands were
located. The gates opened to let the players off the field.
Although, I didn’t expect him to acknowledge me, I knew he would
put me in a good mood just seeing Jett.

The whole team started jogging toward the
gates, he didn’t notice us and I barely caught a glimpse of him, he
was in the middle of the swarm of football players. I was trying to
play it cool, you know, not eyeballing the team directly, but
looking at the stands and concession stand and then looking at the
team and trying not to stare a hole through anyone. We went to get
a soda from the snack bar and it took a while, I was glad for any
distraction.

We ventured back over to the opening in the
fence. I turned to Nic and asked if she cared if we held up the
fence for a while. She knew why we were here; the good thing about
best friends is you don't have to explain everything to them
because they get you. She replied “Of course not, that's what
friends do and you'll obviously have to return the favor someday.”
I said “Absolutely!” We stood there in silence for a bit when
we were joined by Shelby. The three of us didn't move the entire
half-time, we watched the hand-made floats the seniors made go by,
the marching band and finally our cheerleaders who made the crowd
go crazy.

As the team was walking back to the gate to
enter the field I spotted Jett, his hair all disheveled just like
the day I saw him in the school lobby. And it made me smile. Storm
walked up behind us, put his hand on our shoulders and said half
laughing “Good job Addie, way to end it with Cale!” As quickly as
he said it he was gone. He had his brother's red leather coat on,
and it reminded me of the first time I saw Jett. Storm had some
room to grow into it. Nic had to explain the Cale thing to
Shelby.

As the players were going through the gate
Declan came up to us, studied me, his lips drawn into a thin line
which grew into a smile, “Nice job with Cale, I heard you knocked
him down.”

“How did you hear that already?” Nic
asked.

“You're the story of the night!”

“Nice!” Nic said in an upbeat tone. Then we
gave him a quick version of what happened.

“Well, if you run into trouble you come get
me or any of the wrestlers. You know your kind of
our girls
now and any one of us would help you out.” He walked out onto the
field, and stood behind the team. Yeah you know he was reporting
back to them on what happened. I wonder if my parents were getting
wind of this, as they were at the game tonight.

We found my parents in the
stands, wondering what they would say about all this, and my dad
started laughing. He said “I heard you're beating up boys
again.”

“What!” I retorted.

“Kit told me you hit a boy in the gut and he
went flying.” He was still laughing and holding his gut.

“Oh that...” I said “I think I just caught
him off guard.”

On that note, Nic and I went to walk over
toward the entrance, “You were being a bit modest weren't you?” Nic
asked. I just shrugged my shoulders.

Two Richfield police cars pulled up to the
gate, one marked and one unmarked, no lights though. Four guys got
out, two plain clothed and two in uniform to match their cars. They
went to the gate and chatted up Nurse Melinda who was manning the
booth at the entrance. We walked a little closer; Nurse Melinda
came out and pointed to Nic and me. I wondered if they had
questions for us or any ‘ole students in general.

“I didn't think they'd come here.” Nic
said.

“Who, the police? You know why they're here?”
I looked at Nic “Oh No! What did you do?”

“I told you at practice the other day, you
know, after the hallway thing, that I was going to give the police
all the info we could on Cale. I told you I'd do it the next day,
you said okay, so I did. And I didn't mention it to you afterward
because they looked at me like I was crazy. Plus, I thought you had
enough on your mind – sooo – I didn't report back to you.”

“What did you tell them?” I said out of the
corner of my mouth as I watched them walk directly toward us.

“Just the clues, not that you dreamt it.” She
said in a panic.

“I didn't agree to this.”

“Well, that's not what you said before!” She
exclaimed.

I thought I would have been more nervous but
found myself checking out the cop in jeans, cowboy boots, a black
leather jacket and brown wavy hair. He was a big guy, tall, looked
ruggedly handsome with green eyes, he looked familiar but I
couldn’t place him. It looked like he hadn't shaved in a couple of
days but it definitely looked good on him. “Oh lordy is he hot.”
I'm not sure if those words passed my lips or Nic's, but he was
hot.

He looked like he was just out of college. He
walked right up and introduced himself “I'm Detective Grey and this
is Detective O'Connor.” We shook their hands and said “Nice to meet
you, I'm Addie Gellar and I guess you've met Nicole Newland,” I
said pointing toward her. They shook her hand and introduced
themselves and said “No we haven’t met yet.”

“Do you ladies have a few minutes so we can
ask you some questions?” Detective Grey asked. We both shook our
heads. “We aren't charging you with anything nor do we plan to, so
there is no need for adult supervision or a lawyer. We just want to
ask some questions.”

Nic and I looked at each other and agreed. I
looked behind him, the policemen in uniform were chatting, looked
pretty casual. Without moving his feet Detective Grey twisted
around to see what I was looking at.

“Protocol.” he announced.

“Hmm.” I said. Checking him out as I said
it.

”Detective Grey smiled and looked down,
giving us an '
Awe shucks moment.
' “Ma'am.....”

I interrupted “Ew, Ma'am is for my mom.” My
smart mouth said.

“Sorry,” he looked down at his pad of paper
“May I call you Addie?”

“Well that's my given name, so anything else
would be inappropriate. And that's the last sarcastic remark I'll
make.” I said smiling.

Nic interrupted, thank goodness, “She's very
sarcastic and just can't help herself, she gets that way when...
well all the time.” I nudged her.

They asked us questions for about half an
hour and only finished with us five minutes before the game was
over. However, they asked why Nic went in to the station to talk to
an officer and not me.

Then they asked us if we were eye witnesses
to any of the incidents we told them about, of course we had to say
no, we weren't. They asked us questions that verified the
information that Nic gave them. Since she looked at me for every
answer and I answered most questions, I think they knew something
was up. Another question they had for us was how we came about the
leads and information that we gave them.

Nic nudged me “They said leads”.

“So we helped you get leads on the
investigation?” Nic said nudging me in the ribs again “Good job
Addie.” I let out an exasperated breath, now they're gonna find out
I'm a whack job – I'll have to tell them how I know.

Detective Grey asked if he could talk to me
alone and he put his hand on my shoulder and we walked only a few
steps away, I turned around and gave Nic a wink, she gave me the
thumbs up. Detective O'Connor just rolled his eyes.

“So Addie, I have a feeling you're the one
who came up with all the information we received from Nic. I need
to know your source so we can get to the bottom of our
investigations.” Now that I was looking at him, I realized, if he
didn't have that scruff on his face he actually didn't look that
much older than us.

I crossed my arms and thought for a minute,
“Aren't I allowed to be kind of like a reporter who reports
information to you and I keep my sources confidential?” I started
talking slowly but picked up speed as my thoughts formed. “I mean,
if I tell you my source maybe it'll dry up.... and I'm certain they
won't talk to you. And then my reporting days would be over.”

I was watching his facial expression and he
didn't seem bothered by this too badly. He rubbed his chin with a
finger and thumb on either side. “Are there any other details that
we didn't cover that we need to know about?” Grey asked.

”Besides the location of Jewel's bracelet?
No.” I said nonchalantly and realized we hadn't mentioned the
bracelet before. I quickly replied with “Do you know where Jewel
was killed? A while ago the news said Jewel was killed in another
location and then dumped in the park? I may have an address for
you, I can ask my source..... Just so
I know
, if I give you
an address and it turns out to be the wrong address, how bad would
that be?” We hadn't mentioned Cale's name either but somehow I got
the impression he was on their list.

Grey replied “As long as you give us the
information in good faith and you truly believe the information is
correct nothing will happen to you.”

“Okay, I'll see if I can get you the address
in question.”

My dad came up and put his hand on my
shoulder. “Can I help you officer? Has my daughter done something
wrong?”

“No sir.” Detective Grey replied and
straightened up in respect for my father. “These two young ladies
have given us some information on a couple of ongoing
investigations and we were just asking them some questions. And we
may need to talk to them more later.”

“That's fine, you let me know if we can be of
further assistance,” my dad said shaking Grey's hand. And with that
they left. But the look on my dad's face said it wasn't over.

My dad, along with my mom, grilled us with
lots of questions on the ride home.

That night I had a dream where I remembered
Tori losing her boot in the quicksand. When I woke up it was
3:17a.m.

Saturday was the big day for the dance. Nic
and I were going to get ready at her house. We were both asked to
the dance by boys but since we weren't interested in them we
decided to go by ourselves – well in a big group. I didn’t hear
from Cale, thank god, and though how he had never asked me I
realized he didn’t go to any school events, just another weird
notch to put on his belt. I’m glad he didn’t ask me though, because
I would have had to back out of that one.

An hour before the dance Storm, Shelby, Tori,
Alec, Declan and his date came over, their parents came too and we
all took pictures and had some snacks. My sister even brought a
bunch of mint gum to take with us. The parents trickled in and out,
and finally it was just us kids left. We were waiting for Nic's mom
to grab her purse while we were checking our make-up in the mirror
and the boys were straightening ties when a car we didn't know
pulled up.

Nic and I walked out to see who it was and
out stepped Topher. “Holy shit.” I said in a monotone voice.

Topher looked down and around “What? Do I
have food stuck in my teeth?” He bent down to look in his side
mirror, “they look good to me” he said, then retrieved a couple of
packages from the back seat.

“Now that definitely deserves a holy shit.”
Nic said.

Topher walked over to us and said “Now you
two knock that off.”

Tori came out of the house and said “Holy
shit.”

Nic and I both said “I know!”

“Jinx”

“You owe me a coke.” We both giggled.

He was holding two corsage boxes, and held
them out to the two of us.

“How nice, thank you” I said. “Boy did I date
the wrong guy. You're hot in school but hotter, like James Bond out
of school.” I pointed my hand toward him “and you're so
considerate!” All the girls ‘awwwed.’

He helped me take out my wrist courage and
put it on. Then he helped Nic do the same, but when he helped Nic,
I saw something in his eyes. They didn't have an official date but
I knew they'd be dancing tonight. Topher gave us a ride, letting
Mrs. Newland off the hook. Storm and Shelby drove with Declan and
his date and the rest of us piled in Topher's Car.

The gym was all decked out with disco balls,
balloons, streamers and lights. We had a DJ that was actually
played good music. Everyone was congratulating me for turning Cale
in for hurting me when really, I didn't. I guess when they saw the
police at the game they assumed that's what was going on. It was
too long of a story to rectify, so I let them think what they
wanted because frankly I am glad I am done with him.

I guess now that Topher showed up I was a
fifth wheel, but no one in my group left me alone. We all went out
and danced together. Tables and chairs were set up around the
perimeter of the designated dance floor. When we were sitting we
would chide some of our fellow classmates for dance moves or the
apparel they chose and we'd do the same to ourselves.

I can't help it, but every time Jett walks
into a room I get all choked up. As soon as I set eyes on him, I
couldn't talk or pay attention to anything but him. He looked sharp
with a navy suit, light blue shirt, designer tie, shiny black shoes
and a gorgeous smile. He walked in with a slutty looking chick, her
skirt so tight I bet you needed a crow bar to get it off and so
short you didn't need the crow bar. I doubt she could sit, plus,
she had three pounds of makeup on.