AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What happened?”
“Ryan Stacey.”
They tore through the halls, shoes squeaking on tile as they skidded around corners. A teacher yelled at them to stop running, but Gabriel didn’t recognize her and they were well past before the words registered in his brain.
The gym: empty, aside from a few girls hanging a banner for a bake sale next week.
The locker room: empty. Boys’ bathroom: empty.
Gabriel swore again. The school was huge they could be anywhere.
“Wait.” Hunter caught his arm. Gabriel froze and listened for a moment, but he didn’t hear anything.
Hunter stepped across the narrow hallway and pushed on the door to the girls’ locker room, opening it a few inches. The lights were off, revealing a well of shadowed tile and the edge of a trash can, but he yelled through the gap. “Anyone in here?”
Silence.
Hunter hit the light switch. Pink tile came to life, leading to pink steel lockers.
Empty but Hunter strode forward anyway, rounding the corner into the girls’ shower area. That’s where they found Simon, shivering behind one of the pink shower curtains, sporting a black eye and a split lip.
o;Hey!” said Gabriel. “You touch him, I’ll break your goddamn arms off.”
Someone hit him in the back of the head, sending stars across his field of vision. Ryan caught up to Simon and gave him a solid shove in the chest, hard enough to knock him to the court.
Simon scrambled backward, but Ryan was leaning down, a hand drawn back, ready to slam a fist into Simon’s face.
Gabriel redoubled his struggles, but he’d never be fast enough.
“Hey!” a new voice yelled from the corner by the bleachers.
An authoritative voice.
The coach’s voice.
The guys holding Gabriel scattered and ran. Ryan tried to follow, but he was under the net, and the coach beat him to it, even while dragging a full mesh bag of balls. Though he wasn’t a big man, Coach Kanner could be plenty intimidating, and Gabriel enjoyed watching Ryan’s face go pale under those bruises.
Until he realized Simon was just as pale, his breathing quick.
“Come on, Coach,” said Ryan. “We were just messing around.”
“You don’t mess around on my court. You’re out of the next two games.”
Ryan’s eyes just about bugged out of his head. “What? But that’s not ”
“Want to make it three?”
“Whatever.” Ryan turned away.
The coach called after him. “Stacey!”
Ryan looked like he was going to keep walking but he must have wanted to stay on the team. He turned. “What?”
The coach raised an eyebrow.
Ryan sighed. “Yes. Sir.”
“See you on the bench at four.”
