Don't Tell Mother (8 page)

“Why do you care?” I spat.

He stood, looking down with a scowl, his gray eyes darker than thunderclouds. “Because you’re my girlfriend. I’m
supposed
to care.”

I wasn’t intimidated. I’d battled much scarier beasts on the court. “Don’t give me that crap. If you really cared, you’d clean up for my mother.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Bob narrowed his gaze. “I’ll think about it.”

If he could swallow processed, petrified puke, he could tone down his hair and change his clothes—just around my mother.

“Gee, thanks.” I turned, needing to get out of the freak pit before I said anything more. Knowing Sophie and Krysta would be at my heels, I stormed through the door and sat at our usual table. Resting my head in my hands, I rubbed my throbbing temples.

How could he eat meat and then just blow it off? How could he commit to a cause one minute and forget about it the next? If he couldn’t stick to his lifestyle, how else would he flake? Would he stay true to me? Or was I just another bowl of salad he’d toss when he got the urge for a Barfy burger?

Burning questions I should be asking my friends. I looked up, expecting to see them, but they weren’t there.

Nice.

Even my BFFs thought I was old lettuce. Only one thing left to do. Athletic period was after lunch. Might as well get a head start on the game. Tonight we had a tough match against Quinten Junior High, the team we beat in overtime last year during the first division playoffs. The rest of my team didn’t care if they looked like idiots on the court, so it was up to me to bring on the game.

****

Walking toward the locker room, I thought I heard voices. As I drew near the entrance, I recognized the sound of Paige’s high-pitched, girly giggle, her new irritating habit in trying to mimic Lowe.

Was my team practicing at lunch?

No way!

They didn’t have the drive. Not now Carter was gone. Whatever they were doing, nobody invited me. Curiosity, and maybe a little bit of annoyance, got the best of me.
What is going on in the locker-room?
A sinking feeling in my gut told me Lowe had something to do with it.

Stopping by the door, I opened it a crack and listened. Yeah, call it spying. I didn’t care. The team shouldn’t be meeting without the captain, anyway.

“Okay, so here’s the deal,” Paige squealed. “Coach said she’s not buying us beer for the party. She did say she’d have beer in her fridge, and if we took some, she wouldn’t notice.”

“Cool!” Several voices, who I recognized as my teammates, yelled.

“She could get busted.” That was Keysha. Her voice was easy to pick out. She knew how to lay on the attitude.

“No, she can’t,” Paige whined. “She’s not
giving
it to us.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Keysha spat.

“How’s she gonna get busted?” Paige said. “No one’s gonna tell.”

“AJ will tell.” Carly bawled.

“AJ doesn’t even know about the party.”

Who does Paige think she is? She excludes me from the party and then gives orders like she’s in charge. She’s not the captain—I am! I was so pissed I could feel the heat rise into my chest and swell my brain. I restrained my impulse to storm in there and give Paige the smack-down. I wanted to hear more.

“The captain doesn’t know about the team sleepover?” Keysha asked.

Well, at least one teammate was on my side.

“Coach doesn’t want her there,” Paige said. “AJ’s not a team player.”

Not a team-player, my butt! Besides Keysha, I’m the only one on the team who plays! What Paige meant to say was I’m not a Lowe groupie, butt-kisser.

“AJ’s the reason we have a team,” Keysha barked.

“Look, Keysha,” Paige groaned, “are you in or out?”

“I don’t know if my parents will let me go.”

I knew Keysha’s parents would let her go. Unlike my mother, they were pretty trusting. Keysha didn’t want to go. Was it because of me?

At least one good thing came out of this. I knew I had one teammate I could count on.

“Whatever.” Paige took on the voice of a ditzy cheerleader. “But don’t go ratting on Lowe and ruin our fun.”

No, Keysha, don’t. That’s my job.

The bell sounded, signaling the end of lunch. I raced out of the gym before my team caught me spying.

Let them have their party. Let their supposed-to-be-a-responsible-adult coach get them drunk so they’d think she was cool. So she could pretend to be sixteen again and chill with her buds. So she could turn all of them against me. If this woman refused to grow up, maybe she needed a little help from the authorities. I just had to find out the date of the party.

Lowe was so busted.

****

Fifth period was English honors, a class I shared with Keysha. She was my best bet for finding the night and time of the party. I didn’t know how to get to coach’s house, but was pretty sure I could Google her address.

Still not totally sure Keysha was on my side, I had to be cautious when asking her questions. I didn’t want her warning the team I was onto them. Lowe needed to get fired, and catching her giving beer to minors was one sure way of doing that.

Keysha was sitting in her desk, reading from her literature textbook when I walked into the classroom. She sat on the opposite side of the room. I had three minutes until the tardy bell, so I had to act fast. Taking a spot in the empty seat beside her, I cleared my throat to get her attention. “Hey, Keysha.”

“What’s up?” she said with a disinterested tone and keeping eyes glued to the pages of her open book.

What was that all about? The book couldn’t have been
that
interesting.

Pretending not to notice, I kept my voice upbeat. “Ready for the game tonight?”

“Yeah,” her voice trailed off as she turned a page.

Total blow-off. Grrrr. Her behavior was beyond irritating, making me want to slam my fist on the desk to get her attention. That would only piss her off, and then I’d never get her to tell me about the party.

I tried another approach. Maybe if I bashed our coach, I’d know for sure which side she was on. “I don’t know if the team’s ready. Lowe doesn’t work us hard enough.”

She shrugged. “Nope.”

Okay, enough was enough. She was obviously trying to get a rise out of me, although I didn’t know what I’d done to make her act this way.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, totally aware my voice was laced with just a hint of attitude.

“No,” she replied flatly.

Fine, if that’s how she wanted to act. No use farting around with her. Might as well get to the point. “Okay. What are you doing after Friday’s game?”

Since we had a game tonight and another on Friday, I was pretty sure the party would be after the next game so they could have Saturday to recover from their hangovers.

“Look, I can’t talk right now.” Keysha looked up from her book long enough to roll her eyes at me. “I didn’t finish last night’s reading assignment.”

“Whatever!” I huffed, heaving myself out of the desk and storming back to my seat.

Whatever side she was on before, I knew where her loyalty lay now. One more friend lost to Lowe. One more reason to get her butt canned. This wasn’t a popularity contest. This was basketball, but for some reason, my immature coach had found a way to make it personal.

Personal!

A smile came to my face as I thought of a brilliant plan. Lowe wanted to make it personal, so be it. I had just the friend who knew how to get very personal. One little slip into Lowe’s mind, and Sophie could tell me exactly when and where to bust the party.

****

“You want me to do what?” Sophie looked at me like I’d just asked her to French kiss Grody Cody Miller.

I had drug Sophie behind an empty bus, which was parked just outside the gym. As people were piling inside the gym for the game, I knew inside would be too crowded.

Looking over both shoulders, I had to make sure no one was within gossip distance. “Find out about the party,” I whispered.

“Okay, I get that part.” Sophie cocked a brow. “But how do you expect me to do it?”

Grrr. Why was she acting like this was so complicated? “When you’re taking pictures at the game tonight, just pop into Lowe’s head.”

Sophie smirked. “So you want me to log in to your coach’s brain and download the file marked
Don’t tell AJ
.”

I exhaled a low, frustrated breath. She still hadn’t said sorry for picking Bob over me at lunch today. Now she was baiting me with stupid jokes. “Very funny.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can’t just dig around for old thoughts. She has to be
thinking
about the party when I’m in her brain.”

“Then pick Paige’s brain or any of my teammate’s brains.” I threw my hands in the air. “Everybody knows about the freakin’ party but me.”

“Okay.” Sophie’s gaze narrowed. “Let me get this straight. You want me to forget about my yearbook assignment, which is to take pictures of the game, and keep invading brains so I can find out about a party which you’re not invited to.”

Why was she making this so difficult? She was my BFF, after all.

Folding my arms across my chest, I leveled a hard stare. “Yep.”

Sophie mimicked my posture and returned my stare.

Gawd. Did I really look that mean?

Cursing, I deflated my arms and rubbed my throbbing temple. My day was getting suckier by the minute. To make matters worse, that dizzy nauseated feeling was growing and I had a feeling it was directly related to the hollow in my gut.

“What’s the matter, AJ?” Sophie placed her hand on my shoulder.

Just that little show of affection from my best friend and I almost lost it. Turning from her, I choked back the mounting frustration from my crappy day. Taking a deep breath, I slowly exhaled. I wasn’t going to cry. Crying was for wusses.

“AJ…” Sophie came up behind me, her voice laced with concern. “What’s wrong?”

Forcing the tension from my balled up fists, I faced my friend. Although I was afraid of the answer, I had to know the truth. My entire team hated me. Did Sophie and Krysta feel the same way? “Why did you stay with the freaks at lunch?”

Sophie quirked a brow. “The freaks? You mean Bob?”

“Yeah.”

“You seemed pissed.” She shrugged. “We thought you wanted to be alone. Besides, Pharoah showed us a cool magic trick. Wanna see?”

A smile sliced through my ebbing tension. Sophie would never hate me. I didn’t think she could hate anyone. “Not really,” I laughed. “So you’re eating with me tomorrow?”

“Duh.” Grinning, she rolled her eyes. “Yeah.”

“Cool.” I nodded while straightening my shoulders. I was acting like a stupid little whiny girl over nothing. Must have been the hunger pains.

“Is that what’s been bothering you?” Sophie asked.

“You know, the usual.” Okay, enough talking about my problems. I didn’t want to get worked up again. Motioning toward the gym, I pointed toward the back entrance. “I need to get ready for the game.” Turning on my heel, I nearly ran head first into Krysta.

“What’s up, girlies?” A smile stretched across her face.

I rolled my eyes at her cheesy Coach Lowe attempt. “Ha, ha.”

“Good luck tonight.” She jabbed me in the ribs. “So I take it you’re not going to the team party this Friday.”

My jaw dropped, a million questions racing through my mind at once. “Who told you about the party?”

Krysta cocked her head to the side. “Alisha told me she heard it from Victoria who heard it from Kurtis, who’s going out with Paige.”

Information overload. I shook my spinning head. “What did Alisha tell you?”

“They’re going to celebrate the game and get wasted.”

My insides rumbled, a mixture of hunger and annoyance. “What are they going to celebrate if they suck at the game?”

Krysta shrugged. “Paige told Kurtis you don’t need to win to celebrate, as long as you try.”

I swore, loudly. “What kind of crap is Lowe feeding them?”

Sophie grinned. “Beer, Friday night.”

Who needed meat? I had enough anger to fuel a lifetime. “Not if I can help it.”

****

Prep time before the game was tense. All the girls in the locker room averted their gaze whenever I looked in their direction—kind-of like they had a dirty little secret. They were unusually, quiet, too. Were they afraid of getting their butts stomped by our rivals or by me?

Finding a private corner in the locker room, I stretched my muscles, trying to ignore the gnawing hunger in my belly. Only a few more hours, and what the heck, I was going to the snack bar and eating a big hamburger. Forget what Bob thinks. He didn’t care that I’d changed for him. In fact, I was beginning to wonder if he cared for me at all.

Fighting a yawn, I rubbed my eyes. Why was I so tired all of a sudden?

“Okay, girlies, let’s go have some fun.” Lowe hopped on a bench, hooting and pumping the air with her hands.

Puke.

I barely had the energy to give her a dirty look.

The team jumped up and down, high-fiving each other and giggling. Maybe we should suit up the cheerleaders and have the team do the cheering. Honestly, I didn’t think it could get any worse.

I stood quickly, trying to shake the fatigue out of my limbs. That’s when a rolling wave of dizziness hit me. Instinctively, I lunged for a locker, using it to steady myself while the room spun around me.

“AJ, you okay?” Keysha said at my back.

“Yeah, I just stood up too fast.” I shook my head, allowing a few moments for my body to regain balance. Once again, the room was in focus.

Whew.

I reminded myself not to stand up too fast during the game. Probably just a little dizziness because I didn’t finish lunch. Maybe at half-time I’d ask Sophie to go get me a snack.

Heading out the door, I saw the Quinten team was already warming up on the court.

Not good.

Their coach was barking at their heels and they responded with a look of fear in their eyes. Ahead of me, Lowe and the girlies were skipping toward the sidelines.

Oh, God, we were so skunked.

Trailing several yards behind, I hung my head, pretending I was with another team. I almost made it to the sidelines before running into a tall, dorky kid.