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Gabriel smirked and let me go, a hand remained on my back until my knees stopped shaking.
“That’s all it takes?” Nathan called out. He had the ball in his hands at that moment. He laughed, tossed the ball right at me.
Surprised, I took it back, not understanding what he meant. He raced across the court after me. I half cried out, trying to run and dribble at the same time. I couldn’t get away from him. He hunched down, grabbed me by my thighs and hefted me up until I was sitting on his shoulder. He carried me that way until I was close enough to the basket and I could drop the ball inside easily to score.
“Hey!” The coach called. She pointed at Nathan. “That’s it. I warned you. Detention. Put her down.”
Nathan laughed, bending over and putting me down gently. He beamed. “I’ve got detention. I’ve got detention,” he taunted at me, wiggling his fingers in the air. The silver brace on his right hand glinted under the gym lights.
I tucked a hand to my side, laughing. Gabriel was, too. The others in the group stood by, shaking their heads and trying to understand what was so funny.
C Hange o f P lans
After gym was over, I changed quickly and waited in the hallway for the guys. Nathan and Gabriel came around the corner and I breathed some relief that they weren’t held up by more taunting bullies.
Nathan brandished his detention slip, beaming.
“What do we do?” I asked. “I’ve never been in detention before.”
Gabriel smirked. “And you assume we have?”
Nathan read his slip. “I don’t know. It doesn’t say where to go.”
“Let’s go to the main office,” Gabriel said. “Someone there should know. Text Kota.”
Nathan fished out his phone as we walked against the flow of students. He sent a message to all the other guys about where we were headed.
We collected outside of the main office. Kota was the last to arrive. My heart started to thud. I would miss the bus. Marie would notice. What now?
Kota opened the main office door and motioned to North and then to me. “We’ll go ask what to do,” he said. “The rest of you stay out here until we figure it out.”
While the others remained in the hall, I filed in behind Kota and North. We stood together in the main office as there were a couple of other students at the desk. The boys stood so close to me and they both had serious expressions on their faces. I wasn’t sure what they were expecting, but I wondered if they were waiting for Mr. McCoy or Mr. Hendricks to appear at any moment.
We waited until our turn to talk to the secretary, who informed us that detention was held in the auditorium. “I think you all are the first this year.”
We left the office and told the other guys. We moved as a group to find the auditorium. When we were halfway down the main hallway, I realized the guys were surrounding me. Kota and North walked ahead, Gabriel and Nathan hovered close on either side of me, the other three trailed behind us. I was in the middle again. I didn’t know if they realized they’d done it. Maybe they did. They seemed to do everything with purpose.
When we got to the right hallway, the doors to the auditorium were locked.
“Does this mean we can go home?” Gabriel asked. He hooked an arm around my neck, half hanging off of me. “If no one shows up, how will they know if we’re here?”
“I think our bus is already gone,” Nathan said. He leaned against the metal door, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “We can wait. If we don’t do it today, we’ll end up having to do it tomorrow anyway. I don’t want to do this twice if we don’t have to.”
We all watched and waited next to the doors. I was starting to stare off at the wall when Kota cleared his throat. He tilted his head toward the end of the hallway to get us to look.
Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green marched down toward us. The guys straightened. Gabriel let go of me to stand tall. The others, while they weren’t saluting, stood still, posture perfect. While I was confused, I followed their example, trying to look humble.
Mr. Blackbourne continued to walk past us. Dr. Green stopped in mid-step, motioning with his head at us. “Let’s go,” he said.
I pushed a finger to my lip, unsure if he meant me.
Dr. Green caught my hesitation. “You, too, Miss Sang,” he said calmly.
What about detention? I glanced at Kota and the others, but their faces were all the same granite expression. Now I regretted telling Mr. Blackbourne. Were they displeased that he knew? Wouldn’t he have found out anyway?
We collected our things and followed them outside. The temperature had changed from uncomfortable to broil, and the humidity was turned on maximum sweat guaranteed. We were led out to the old wood benches at the abandoned baseball field. Mr. Blackbourne pointed at the seats and the others clustered together on various levels of the benches and faced Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green. I slipped onto the edge next to Victor, feeling the heat radiating through my skirt.
Mr. Blackbourne crossed his arms over his chest, standing in front of us with that steely gaze. Dr. Green stopped beside him. Dr. Green put his hands behind his back and his face became unreadable. This was business.
Mr. Blackbourne stared down Kota. “Start talking.”
“Mr. McCoy isolated out Sang,” he said. “We needed someone to go in with her. I think otherwise it would have been her and McCoy alone.”
“It’s not the first time,” Silas spoke up. “He bumped into her the first day of school and started to blame her for it. He wanted to give her detention then, too.”
All of the guys turned to me. My face was radiating as I kept my finger at my lip, pushing it to my teeth. “I don’t know why,” I said. “I’ve been trying to avoid him since the start of school.”
“We’ll have to figure out why later,” Mr. Blackbourne said. He jabbed a finger in the air toward their faces. “We’ve got other things to do, and so far Sang is the one doing your job.”
They had a job? What were they supposed to do other than be good students and set an example to the others? I was the worst example so far. Fighting. Detention on the first week! And I got all of them involved.
“Gabriel, Luke, I need you two to work out a uniform. Victor, make the calls to find out who will produce seven by tomorrow morning. Kota and Nathan, go tail McCoy and see if he’s still here. Give me updates. North and Silas, you’re with me.” He pointed at Kota, and made a motion with his hands.
Kota pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It looked like the notes I had written that morning about Mr. McCoy’s office. Kota handed the paper off to Mr. Blackbourne. Kota and Nathan left their bags and started sprinting to the school again. North and Silas followed Mr. Blackbourne in the same direction.
I folded my arms around my knees as I watched Gabriel and Luke moving together to get started. Victor had his phone out and was thumbing through it. I felt useless. Were they going to go wire McCoy now? Could they get into trouble? This wasn’t a student, it was the vice principal.
Plus, Mr. Blackbourne had to deal with Mr. Hendricks’ demands. With uniforms, they’d get into more fights. What was I going to do? I didn’t know how to help or even if I should. It all felt like my fault. M
aybe if I wasn’t in the middle, Mr. Blackbourne would have stuck to his insistence that the guys couldn’t wear uniforms.
“Miss Sang,” Dr. Green called to me. He was still standing where he had been in front of the benches. “Would you like to take a walk with me?”
My eyebrows lifted. I glanced at Victor. He had the phone pressed to his ear but he nodded to me, silently confirming with me to do what I was told.
I left my things on the bench and stumbled down to Dr. Green. He smiled pleasantly and I felt a little better that I was being told to walk with him instead of Mr. Blackbourne. We started away from the others, walking around the rusted fence of the baseball field.
Dr. Green was quiet until we were out of earshot off the others. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It looks like I might have made you a target.”
“With the vice principal?” I asked. “He was the one that started it at registration.”
“Yes,” Dr. Green said. Locks of his sandy hair fell into his eyes and he brushed them away. “But maybe if I hadn’t intervened, he might not have been so determined to come after you.” He dipped his hands into his pockets. “What do you know about us, Miss Sang? I believe they’ve mentioned the Academy, right?”
“It’s a private school,” I said. “They normally attend there and this year they’re on loan to try to be an example. If you can help improve the grades, there will be some approval for more money to build a second school.”
“Right,” he said. He unlatched the gate of the baseball field. He held it ajar for me and I entered. He closed it behind himself and strolled toward the pitcher’s mound. “Although I think we’ll have to make a change of plans. Mr. Hendricks wasn’t very happy that we stepped in. He would never admit he needed us. Since we’re here, though, I believe he has developed a new idea on how to utilize us.”
“And he wants uniforms to get other students to pick on them?” I asked. “I thought the point of the boys being here was to try to get the good students to do better. Like setting an example?”
