League of Strays (8 page)

“Not if you do it when no one’s looking,” Kade said.

I turned his words around, looking for a chink in the logic. Revenge was wrong, immature. Everyone knew that. But I also knew that if I said that out loud, Kade would ask me to explain why. And I wasn’t sure how to answer.

Nora raised a finger. “As the president’s younger brother, whom our illustrious school is named after, once said, ‘Don’t get mad, get even.’”

“You’re a walking encyclopedia, aren’t you?” Zoe said.

Nora laughed. “I’m trying to break the habit.”

“What about karma? Won’t they get their punishment in, like, a spiritual sense?” I reasoned.

“That’s just something we tell ourselves to make it feel better,” Kade said. “But we can
be
their bad karma, if that’s how you want to think about it.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“We’re going to have a great time coming up with creative ways to get our point across,” he said, folding his arms on his knees. “I suspect you guys haven’t had a lot of fun lately, but you deserve to. And the people who’ve stepped in your way need to get what they deserve, too.”

“Um, does that include teachers?” asked Nora.

I held my breath.

“Madame Detroit can be first, if that’s OK with everyone. Then Dave Harper. And Wanda. And we won’t forget Tiffany.” He winked at me. I glanced away, but when I looked back, his eyes were still on me. “Subtle and swift, Charlotte. I bet you’d like to knock Tiffany off her pedestal.”

“
I’d
like to see that,” Nora said.

I nodded, but I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t make decisions quickly, which had always been my problem. I could see all sides to a story, which made it hard for me to come up with a definite opinion.
She lives in a bubble, her every move dictated by Mommy and Daddy
. Kade had been right: I had no clue how I felt about a lot of things. Not even Tiffany.

Kade straightened, hands intertwined. A king on his throne, surveying his subjects. “So, who’s in?”

His face seemed friendly, serene even, as he waited for our response. Like a row of bobbleheads, Richie, Nora, and I nodded.

Zoe didn’t move. I half expected one of her protests, but she stared ahead like she was hypnotized. Finally, she said, “What the hell, sign me up. Anything that gets me out of the house is good.” You’d think someone had just asked her to join a softball team.

Kade slapped a hand on his thigh. “I knew you guys had it in you! You’re awesome. Completely and utterly awesome.”

I felt a surge of pride, like when I was younger and my parents gave me double stars on my behavior chart for every A I brought home.

Tiffany was a loser, I thought. Maybe it
would
be fun to return
some of the favors she’d given me over the years. If I could only loosen up.

“We’re anonymous, but powerful,” Kade said, shaking his fist in the air.

“So that’s why we can’t be seen together,” Nora said.

I had a few more questions. “But why—?”

A grin spread across Kade’s face. “Answers will come in time, Charlotte. It’s my turn now. Ready?”

No, I thought. I wasn’t ready for anything he said to me.

“Tell me, do I scare you or thrill you?”

My face went to five alarms. I couldn’t speak.

He kept his eyes on me, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. Make that six alarms.

“Truth, Charlotte,” Nora reminded me.

I floundered. “You make me nervous. Intrigued, I guess, but nervous.”

Oh God, had I really just said
intrigued
?

“Sounds to me like a love-hate thing,” Zoe said.

Richie smirked, and Kade smiled.

“It’s like you have multiple personalities,” I told him.

The others joined in on his laughter like backup singers. As much as I didn’t want to, I smiled at my own assessment. It did sound a tad melodramatic.

“My therapist—a condition my parents made in exchange for an extra hundred per month—says if I don’t express my emotions, I could make myself sick. He says it’s dangerous for me to keep things bottled up inside.”

Kade scaled three more rows of bleachers and sat down. He
leaned back, resting his elbows on the row behind him. I twisted around to see him. “We’re going to send a message to the people who need to hear it.” His voice was soft as a purr, like he was sharing a secret with me.

Nora’s eyes sparked with interest. “What do you have in mind?”

“For starters, Madame Detroit’s going to learn that it’s not nice to knock down someone’s hard work.”

“This is really going to happen?” Nora spun a pearl earring in her ear. A tentative smile spread up her face, settling in her eyes. “Really?”

“Um, what if we get caught?” I asked him.

“Stupid people get caught. With our combined brainpower, there’s nothing to worry about.”

I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience, hovering overhead as the others cheered. I didn’t really know what I was signing up for. All I knew was that Kade was part of the package deal, and that was a compelling enough reason to sign on the dotted line. I heard myself agree to meet back, same location, late Sunday night.

At least it wouldn’t be hard to get out of the house. My parents would be out cold by ten thirty.

I JOGGED TO KEEP UP WITH KADE’S LONG STRIDES AS HE
stomped through the brush behind Kennedy. A massive tree root gripped my foot and I stumbled, falling to my knees. I cried out, feeling a warm trickle of blood down my leg.

Kade lifted me up as if I weighed nothing. “You’re fine.”

He was right. With his arm molded to my waist, I felt better than ever.

The sliver of a moon ducked behind the clouds. I could only make out the rocks and sticks right in front of me. I grasped the back of his jacket. He reached around, unhooked my hand, and twined his fingers through mine. His thumb nestled in the crook of my palm.

I closed my eyes, allowing him to lead me. I imagined it was the middle of the afternoon and we were walking down the street together. Like normal friends, hanging out.

We emerged in front of a window at the back of the school.

The glass was new—the window company’s sticker still on the pane.

Kade let go of my hand, and the night air swarmed in to take its place, harsh and cold. As I was considering how a hand could feel so lonely, Kade punched his foot through the window. I winced at the explosion of shattering glass, then stared at him. I’d never imagined that we’d actually have to
break
into the school. With all the hundreds of windows around, I figured there had to be at least one that was open. He hadn’t even bothered to check before he’d sent his foot through it.

Kade reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of cotton gloves from his pocket. He slipped them on and rooted through his other pocket for a bunch of latex gloves. “Make sure you don’t touch anything unless you have these on,” he instructed, giving each of us a pair. “They’ll check for prints.”

I stared at the pads on my fingers, tough from nine years of viola practice. Kade thought the
police
were going to be involved? But of course they were, now that there was a broken window. I imagined them dusting the window frame, searching for clues.

The gloves were a size too big, but I struggled to slip my sweaty hands inside the rubber. Oh God, why had he broken the window? There was no going back now.

Kade kicked at the remaining shards of glass until the rim was clean. Then he rapped on the wooden frame. “Hello? Anyone home?” He turned to me. “After you,” he said, as if he were holding the door open at a fancy restaurant.

“No way,” I protested. “After
you
.”

“No problem.” He swung his legs through the opening and dropped from view. A moment later, he called, “All clear!”

One by one, we shimmied onto the basement floor, glass crunching under our feet. I swept the cobwebs off my jeans.

“This is so cool!” Nora gushed, sidling up to Kade.

Zoe laughed. “We’re a bunch of lunatics.”

We lined up single-file and moved toward a light that fanned out from under a closed door.

“Wait, what if someone’s there?” I whispered.

It can’t be the police, I told myself. Not yet. But it could be a janitor. Or a teacher.

“Don’t worry, Charlotte,” Richie assured me. “They always leave the lights on in the storage room. We have to cut through here to reach the stairwell, and then we’ll be right outside the gym.”

“How come you guys know so much about breaking into the school?” Zoe asked.

“I like to be prepared,” Kade said. “We don’t want to stumble around in the dark all night trying to find the gym.”

Something scampered across my sneakers. I hopped back. “I, for one, appreciate that. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.”

We hadn’t actually discussed what we were going to do to the gym teacher’s office. I hoped it would be quick. Maybe throw a few files around. Empty some drawers. Spill a rack of basketballs on the ground. Then get out.

“Come on, you chickens,” Nora called over her shoulder. She pulled the door open.

“No more Miss Perfect,” Zoe mumbled under her breath.

“Here’s to the new-and-improved Nora,” Kade said, taking her hand as they entered the storage room. I stared at their braided fingers. My heart felt squeezed like a stress ball.

The room was stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes of vending-machine food. Kade ripped one open and lobbed snack-size bags of Oreos to each of us. Under the buzz of fluorescent lights, I took a moment to examine myself. My clothes were covered in dust bunnies. Dirt under my fingernails. The blood from my injured knee had soaked through my jeans. I was sure that the damp air outside had turned my curly hair into a web of frizz. I hoped Kade wouldn’t look too closely.

I followed behind everyone, groping my way up the dark stairwell, until Kade opened a door, sending welcome shafts of fluorescent light at my feet. “We’re here.” He stepped into the familiar school hallway.

“Time for fun!” Richie called, his normally meek voice reverberating against the concrete walls. I shrank at the volume. Without the usual bodies in the hallway, there was nothing to soak up the sound.

“It’s all right,” Kade said, noticing my terrified expression. “Reid’s always the last one to leave, and he never works past six. Trust me.”

I wondered if he ever missed anything. “My mother says never trust anyone who says ‘Trust me,’” I told him.

His hand wound up my arm like a snake. “What do
you
think, Charlie?”

I frowned, but it was just an act. Secretly, I was thrilled.
Charlie
.

A few times, people had tried to shorten Charlotte that way. I’d always corrected them, but not this time. The way it rolled off Kade’s tongue, the nickname took on new luster.

Richie slammed his small frame against the lockers, calling out every bad word in the book. Coming from him, they sounded like endearments. I couldn’t help but laugh. One by one, we all started screaming obscenities at everyone we’d ever hated. Or rather, they did. I hadn’t been at Kennedy long enough to hate that many people, but their list was longer than the hallway. “I hate you, Tiffany Miller!” I finally screamed.

I turned around to find Kade. His eyes latched on to mine, and he gave a slow, determined nod.

When we reached the double doors of the gymnasium, we collapsed on the floor from post-adrenaline exhaustion. Maybe it was the thrill of breaking and entering, or the power of belonging, or the release of pent-up anger. Whatever. It felt amazing.

Richie offered me a hand, lifting me to my feet as Kade rattled the gym door. It didn’t budge. He turned to Richie, who flashed a shiny key in his palm. Kade punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“I borrowed it,” Richie told the rest of us, beaming. “It’s from Reid’s office.”

“Oh, great,” Zoe muttered. “The cops will be waiting for us on the other side.”

I pictured Richie in his red-and-white striped Grant’s Drugstore uniform. Two months ago, I’d gone to make a copy of our house key. When I’d seen Kennedy High’s drug dealer behind the register, I changed lines.

“He made a copy at Grant’s,” I guessed. “He probably put the original back.”

Kade drew a finger down my back. “Can’t pull one past Charlie.” He lowered his voice, for my ears only. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Nora wiggled her way between us. “What are we waiting for, Harlin, a formal invitation?”

Richie inserted the key. After some jiggling, the door clicked open.