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“Some spy you are. I was hiding behind there.”
“What did you mean about me lying?” I stop and put my hands on my hips, not willing to take any shit from his guy.
“That you would do anything to get the job done. You just said you were grateful you were interrupted.”
“Just because I was grateful doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have done it. Have you seen the dude? Sucking his cock would not be fun. I wonder if I could even find it under his pot belly?” Lathan and I shudder in unison before laughing at ourselves, while Miller scowls at both of us.
We start walking again, but before I can grill the two of them any further, I notice that some of the senior class has stopped. Jessica has noticed Miller’s absence and is looking around for him.
She sneers when she sees both of the guys with me. “What are you doing back there with the trash? If you want to raise your standings in this town, then you need to be seen associating with the right kind of people.”
“Is that what you’re doing? Because as far as I can see, there’s no difference between you, Miller, and me,” I retort, already over all the petty teen bullcrap. If this is what high school was like, then I didn’t miss out on a thing. Katie is going to tell me she told me so.
Before she can answer, Ryland joins the conversation. “Come on, if we don’t keep going, we will be late even with the shortcut.”
It’s only then that I notice the small trail leading off the main one. The rest of the people who stopped and waited start down it. It’s not easy, and we have to watch where we go, stepping over fallen branches and ducking under the low hanging ones. We’re silent, the single path not making conversation easy for any of us. I think we’ve been walking for fifteen minutes or so when the trail opens up into a clearing. It’s weird! There’s this one open spot in the forest, and there’s a wooden house in the clearing. There are a few deck chairs on the front porch and some beer bottles scattered around what would be the front yard, but mostly it has a run-down, abandoned look to it.
Bishop must see me studying it, because he stops and waits for me to catch up to him. We don’t need to stay single file in the clearing, and no one else seems to pay attention as they keep walking until the trail starts again.
“It’s the old ranger’s home. He died a few years back, and the city didn’t bother hiring a new one. They cleaned out his personal possessions but left some of the furniture. The teens in town use it to throw parties. Someone managed to have the power and electricity turned back on, but I’m not sure how. There is a party coming up at the end of the week after the football game.” He keeps his voice down, his slight accent melodic in the quiet clearing.
“And the adults don’t know about it?” I sound skeptical even to my own ears, and he shrugs.
“If they do, they turn a blind eye to it.” He doesn’t seem particularly suspicious about it, unlike the weird vibe I feel just from looking at it. The location appears to be so very out of the way. Unless you knew it was here, you would never find it, and the forest surrounding it is so dense. “We’ve had a few here already. Lots of sex, alcohol, and drugs. It’s a blast.”
I can’t stop my mouth from dropping open in surprise. “Are you here to work or to have fun? What the fuck, man?” I ask, unable to hide my annoyance.
His grin drops, and he sneers. “Why can’t I do both?” He whirls around and follows the rest of the crowd as I shake my head in disappointment. His attitude is becoming a problem. I look back at the cabin, trying to picture it surrounded by drunk teenagers.
From what I know about this town already, that seems to be weird, but what the fuck do I know? Maybe that’s what happens in small-town America. I just get the vibe that this place is rather straightlaced. Church and Divinity of Morality Club all point to it, or it’s a carefully cultivated facade to hide the dark underbelly of what’s really happening in the town.
“Come on, the trail isn’t well marked, and I don’t have it down completely yet.” Lathan grabs my hand and pulls me across the now empty clearing, following after the rest of the senior class. His hand is warm in mine, and it feels nice. I leave it there and let him help me over a big log not far into the track. My ribs are starting to ache even more now, and having someone to boost me means I don’t have to scramble over it, possibly hurting them more if I were on my own.
“Thank you.” I smile at him on the other side, and he smiles back, although there is still a wary light in his eyes, like he’s not sure if he can trust me yet or not. I know how he feels. This whole assignment is going to be full of uncertainty until we decide we can. I just hope their problem with me doesn’t interfere with finding justice.
“Hey, what is Bishop’s malfunction?” I ask, and he sighs deeply.
“He has a big ass chip on his shoulder, and he was the last person to join the team, so I think he feels like he still has something to prove. Truthfully, he does. He hasn’t impressed any of us so far.”
Oh wow, okay. I didn’t expect him to say that. We fall silent as we catch up to the larger group. I don’t want them to overhear anything relevant.
The rest of the walk is quiet aside from an occasional murmur or two breaking the eerie silence of the thick forest. Sporadically, other trails break off from this main one, but we don’t detour. Finally, it opens out onto the bigger track. I guess we cut across where it looped around. The football boys are just passing where our trail ends, but Billy sees us and stops, jogging on the spot.
“Just give it another ten minutes. If you arrive straight after us, the coach is going to be suspicious, and she’ll make us do extra sprints,” he huffs out, his chest heaving and sweat beading on his brow.
I guess not everyone cheated, and I have a small amount of begrudging respect for the athletes for taking it seriously, unlike the rest of the class who treated it as a blow off session. Maybe in the future I’ll ask if I can jog with the athletes. I can’t afford to let myself get lazy, though with my injuries, it was nice not to have to today.
The ten minutes pass quickly, and soon enough, everyone starts jogging. I’m not sure how the coach doesn’t suspect anything, since no one is breathing hard and there isn’t a drop of sweat to be seen, but she hardly pays attention to any of us as we enter the gym since she’s too busy barking instructions at the football players.
“So you can probably guess that unless you play football, you don’t register on Coach Bartlet’s radar,” Lathan tells me as we cool down after our run, stretching out on one side of the gym.
“That’s a nice change from my first couple of classes. I got the feeling that Mr. Turner and Ms. Standish are going to be hard taskmasters.”
Lathan grins at me. “Well, it seems like you’re smart enough that it won’t matter.”
“Hey, Lathan, let’s go,” Miller calls across the gym, where he’s waiting with Bishop and Ryland.
Bishop doesn’t acknowledge me, but Ryland gives me a small wave. Of course Miller just scowls.
