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To provide for more electives, Southeast worked their classes in a block schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, a student could attend the first half of their classes. Then, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they’d finish off taking the last half.
The next week, the schedule would switch, and all the classes a student had on Monday, Wednesday and Friday the week before would then fall on Tuesday and Thursday. Likewise, with the last Tuesday and Thursday classes, they would then turn into Monday, Wednesday, and Friday classes.
One week was called Purple Week, the next was White Week—in honor of their school colors, I presume.
As I entered Southeast on the Tuesday after my first day there, it was a white week. I felt a little more reassured, and yet a lot more anxious. I’d connected with a few people last night. But I still wasn’t sure if they were the type of crowd for me. Actually, I was almost positive they weren’t. Mindy was nice, and Todd was—
Well, I didn’t want to think about Todd this morning. And I certainly didn’t want to think about Ryder. My best plan of action was to simply step away from both friends. That way Ryder wouldn’t be weirded out, Todd wouldn’t have any more reasons to gloat, and I wouldn’t be stuck in some icky triangle I wanted nothing to do with.
My decision firmly in place, I hunted up Laina and found her in the same spot she’d been sitting the morning before, her face hidden by an open book. I checked out the title. It was a popular novel, something Schy had read and raved about, but I wasn’t much of a reader, so I shrugged.
“Hey, Laina,” I said, grinning down at her.
She jumped, lowered the book enough to see me, and then gawked. “Oh! Umm…hi.”
When she glanced both ways as if she wanted to make sure no one saw us together, I frowned. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Fine.” But she still had that jumpy, I-want-to-flee presence about her.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She sighed and lowered the book another inch. “Look, you probably don’t want to be seen with me.”
Something plopped deep into my belly. Dread. This was just great. What did she know that I didn’t?
“Why wouldn’t I want to be seen with you?”
“Well…you’re dating the Stang now.”
My jaw dropped. If she’d punched me and then pulled my hair, I don’t think I would’ve been any more shocked than I was in that moment.
Sputtering, I demanded, “What? Who? Who’s the Stang?”
“The Stang,” she repeated, staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Short for Stangman.”
I shook my head. “Okay,” I uttered, hoping she’d elaborate.
She didn’t.
“I’m not exactly…part of that group,” she tried to explain, looking panicked as if she wanted to break up with me but didn’t want to hurt my feelings. “If you’re seen around me, they…they might not like you anymore.”
Still reeling in confusion and utter shock, I opened my mouth to demand answers, an explanation. But it struck me Laina was an innocent bystander here. If I wanted the truth, I’d have to seek the source. And I had a sneaking suspicion I knew exactly who held all the answers.
“Excuse me. I have to…” Go kill someone. Brushing past her, I marched toward senior hall. As I stormed, a group of boys stood chatting in my path. About to dodge around them, I inadvertently made eye contact with one boy who looked up. He saw me and pushed his friend out of my way so I could keep going straight.
“Dude, get out the way of Stangman’s woman.”
Grinding my teeth hard and not even caring if I ended up with braces over this, I rushed past. As soon as I entered senior hall, I glanced in the direction of Ryder’s locker since that was the only place I’d ever seen Todd in the hallway. Hoping his locker might be located close, I frowned, muttering under my breath when I didn’t see him or anyone from the night before lingering in the vicinity.
“Morning, Grace,” someone said behind him. “You look a little…upset today.”
I whirled around and glared up at Ryder. He wasn’t exactly the one I planned to murder, but I’d settle for him if I had to. By the mocking little gleam of joy in his eyes, I didn’t think I’d feel so bad about his death just then either.
“What’s Todd’s last name?” I demanded.
He laughed the same delighted musical sound from the night of the Hillsburg/Southeast game. But this time, I wanted to strangle instead of kiss him.
