“Don’t care about her. Why didn’t you tell me right away that you are the assistant captain?”
“Didn’t have time. I was gonna tell you when she came up.”
“You don’t seem too happy with it,” he said. He could read between the lines with her and knew something was wrong.
“Seth, I didn’t vote yesterday. I put in a blank piece of paper. I didn’t want the squad voting again. I just wanted it to stay the way it was. Now once you’re gone I’ll have to put up with her.”
“Well it’s still something to celebrate about.” he said giving her a hug.
One of the football players said, “Hey let’s celebrate at the party tonight after the game. We’ll celebrate you and Tasha getting captain.”
“Sounds good to me,” Lia said.
Nothing else happened the rest of the day at school. She went home and told her Mom, “Hey Mom I made assistant captain,” she said gloomily, thinking about all the trouble Courtney can cause.
“Really that’s wonderful, but I thought you guys already picked the captains this summer?”
“We did, but Courtney had said some things in homeroom that really ticked of the other girls and they wanted a re-vote. So Mrs. Smytheson let them.”
“I’m surprised she let them. You know if someone says something they don’t like they need to suck it up and work through it. They can’t go through life expecting everything their own way all the time.”
“Yeah we know Mom and the only reason she let us was because over half the squad was going to quit. So she couldn’t ignore it and had to investigate what happened.”
“What happened? Courtney was after you again wasn’t she?”
“Yep, but don’t worry I handled it. It wasn’t my idea about the re-vote either. In fact I put in a blank piece of paper.”
“You ok about all this? You know it’ll anger her even more,” Mrs. Lombardi questioned gently.
“I’ll handle whatever comes my way with her, I guess,” she replied.
Chapter 8
Seth picked Lia up and drove to the school for the game. They walked up to the school. There was some kind of commotion going on. “Is it a fight Seth?” Lia asked.
“Don’t know. Come let’s go check it out,” he said pulling her along faster.
“Slow down your pulling my arm out of the socket,” she complained. “Do we really have to?”
“Yeah we have to. Tasha’s up there,” he replied.
“Wonder what’s going on?” Confusion settled on her.
They got to the outside door of the locker-rooms. “What’s going on Tasha?” Lia asked.
“I got here about ten minutes ago and found our lockers trashed, just yours and mine. When I told Mrs. Smytheson, she called the principal and they are looking for whoever did it. My guess is Courtney.”
“It makes no sense. Why would she go to that extreme? What was done to the lockers? Will they let me go in and see?” fear ripped through her. A lot of her personal stuff was in that locker.
“I don’t know if you want to. Everything in there was sprayed with paint and stuff was written.”
“Like what?” Seth said.
“Stuff like, you’ll get yours and you better watch out,” Tasha said.
“The same thing she said to you at lunch,” Seth said turning to Lia, anger seething from him.
At that time Mrs. Smytheson saw Lia. She came walking up, “I’ll see if they will let you in Lia. See if anything was taken other than your uniform.”
“My uniform wasn’t in there it’s in my bag here,” Lia said pulling it out of her bag.
“Wish I would have taken mine because mine’s ruined,” Tasha said.
“I guess in this one instance procrastination was a good thing. I didn’t wash it till last night.” Lia said.
“Who was it Mrs. Smytheson?” Tasha asked.
“Girls I don’t want to spread rumors till we have all the facts,” she replied as the principal motion to her. “Come on girls let’s go in, Lia check to see if anything’s missing and Tasha double check everything. The police where there checking everything out and taking pictures.”
“Can I go in with her, Mrs. Smytheson?” Seth asked.
“Yes, no one else is in there,” she replied. “I’ll let Principal Norris know you’re going in with her.”
As the cheerleading coach went over to the principal the two girls and Seth walked through the door. When they got to the row of cheerleaders lockers Lia saw for the first time what was done.
She stood there for a second or two not moving. “Oh Seth” she cried turning toward him putting her head in his shoulder so she didn’t have to see it. Seth held her as the anger filled his whole body. He started shaking with the rage. Lia felt it, she had to pull herself together or she knew Seth would do something they would all regret. “Seth calm down please. Your anger right now won’t help. Tasha come on let get this cleaned up as best we can. Don’t want everyone else seeing this.”
The three of them walked over to the lockers and stood for a second written in black spray paint were the words ‘I’ll get you for this’ ‘You’re a ho’ and ‘bitch’ and everything in the locker was sprayed red. Nothing was written on Tasha’s locker but everything was sprayed red too, like it was an afterthought. Lia said as much, “You know it looks like there was more time taken with my locker than yours Tasha.”
“Yeah you’re probably right,” Tasha replied.
“Oh shit, what the hell happened here?” Cris demanded as his anger reached the boiling quickly.
“How did you know?” Lia asked.
“I was just leaving when Mom got the call.”
“They called Mom great is Dad here too?”
“On his way,” Cris replied.
“Great. Help me get this cleaned up quick. It’s bad, but if he doesn’t see it this bad he won’t be as angry.”
“Babe it’s not your fault,” Seth said.
“I know that, but when he finds out it all started because you’re leaving and Courtney was mad about that. It’ll be one more reason to hate you for it.”
“Seriously, Sis how can he blame that on Seth,” Cris said. “Be reasonable here.”
“I am,” she replied gloomily.
“She is Cris. It’s just the way it’s going to be. Come let’s help her.”
A police officer came in a few moments later and asked, “Do you know who would do this?
“No not really,” Lia replied.
“No one at all?” he asked. “You didn’t have a fight with anyone lately?”
“Why don’t you just tell her who you think it is,” Seth shot back. “She doesn’t think anyone would do this. Even if she did have a fight with someone. It’s not in her to do this so she thinks no one would do it to her.”
“Seth you better stay out of this,” the policeman warned.
“I’m in this, she’s my girlfriend and I will stand by her any time and there’s nothing you can do. You will not make her to feel like she’s to blame here. There was some tension on the squad caused by one girl.”
“That led to that girl losing her spot as captain as I’m told and your girlfriend took her spot,” the police stated.
“No she didn’t, I did,” Tasha said. “Lia took my spot as assistant.”
“For your information Lia didn’t even vote. She put in a blank piece of paper,” Seth replied.
“You didn’t,” Tasha said.
“I didn’t feel I should vote. I didn’t feel like I had that right, since Courtney and I were the one to have the disagreement. If you remember I said I didn’t want her not to be captain and I didn’t want the re-vote.”
“I remember. I guess you did the right thing by not voting if that’s the way you felt,” Tasha said.
“Tasha it’s not that I didn’t want you for captain I did and do. Hell I voted for you the first time,” Lia said.
“You did!”
“Yeah still don’t know how Courtney won the first time everyone I talked to said they voted for you,” Lia said.
“Ok girls were getting away from the subject at hand here. Who do you think did this?” the policeman interrupted.
“Courtney” Tasha and Lia answered in unison.
“Is there anything missing?” he asked.
“Yeah come to think of it all my pictures of Seth by himself. The one with me in them are here and sprayed heavily with paint. Looks like everything else is here.”
“What about your uniform I see Tasha’s is ruined, but your uniform isn’t even in your locker.”
Lia pulled it out of her bag, “It’s because mine wasn’t in here, it was at home with me.”
“Ok well we’ll question Courtney and see if she has an alibi. Just be careful for now until we get this solved,” the officer stated.
“Cris can you get the trash can so I can throw all this away?” Lia asked.
He pulled the trash can over to the two lockers and the girls went through to see if anything could be saved. Nothing from Lia’s locker could be, everything was picked up and spayed on. Tasha could salvage some of her stuff. He then took the can outside for it to be dumped in the dumpster.
As he walked back to the locker room he saw his Dad and walked over to him. “Dad don’t go ballistic over this. It’s not her fault and it’s not Seth’s either. I heard Courtney threaten her.”
“I know I heard everything Seth said in there. I was walking through when the officer was in there. He really does love your sister doesn’t he?”
“Yeah Dad since we were little kids. Does this mean you’ll give them a break now?” Crisr asked hopefully.
“We’ll see. How much are they going to be together? What right does he have to make her wait for him?”
“He’s not asking she’s demanding. She won’t give him up no matter what happens and if you don’t change your mind about them, you’re going to lose her.”
“Upm” was his dad’s only answer.
Tasha and Lia came out of the locker room and waited for the rest of the squad to get there. They had to address what happened and then they had a game to cheer.
Cris and Seth had to go get ready for the game. They left and went to the football locker room.
When Courtney walked up to the squad it was quite a surprise. One of the girls asked “What are you doing here?”
“Came to get my stuff out of my locker. It seems I’m being blamed for what happened to your lockers and I’m kicked off the squad.”
“Who kicked you off?” another answered.
“Principal Norris, he said he didn’t want someone like me representing the school any longer. Nice job Lia,” Courtney retorted angrily.
“That’s enough Courtney get your stuff and get out. You were told to get it out next week not right now,” Mrs. Smytheson said.
“Yes Madam,” Courtney replied sarcastically.
“Everyone on the bus, we’re running behind now,” Mrs. Smytheson said. She pulled Tasha aside, “I’m staying here till Courtney is finished and then I’ll meet you there. Do you think you and Lia can get them through warm ups and ready by the time I get there?”
“Yeah it’ll be no problem,” Tasha replied.
~~*~~
After the game, which they won, everyone was at Paul’s house, a football player, sitting around the fire discussing what happened to Tasha and Lia. They had to rehash the story over and over as new people came to the party. After about an hour of re-telling the story Lia refused anymore and asked, “I thought this party was to celebrate Tasha becoming captain?”
“Your right. Hey congrats Tasha may your rein be better than the last one,” A guy at the fire proclaimed.
“Yeah, hope you do a better job than the last one,” a girl replied.
And a whole bunch of congratulations went around wishing her the best and hoping and praying she’s better than the last one.
Seth and Lia moved away from the fire putting a blanket on the ground back by the tree line to get some privacy. They were kissing when they heard someone remark at how Seth only has one more week there and how sad it will be for all of them once he leaves. No one knew they were within hearing of them.
Someone suggested a going away party for him all day Saturday. It was short notice but they were getting their plans in order for it.
Seth felt Lia stiffen; he knew she heard it too. “I’m sorry Babe, you want to go home?” he asked.
“No I have a little time yet and I want to spend it here with you.” she said cuddling closer to him.
“Let’s go over to the fire,” Seth suggested.
“Don’t want to be here with me in a secluded spot?” Lia asked teasing.
“Not right now,” he moaned.
Laughing she got up and went over to the fire. “What’s this I hear about a going away party tomorrow for Seth?”
“Yeah I just asked my Mom and she said it’s fine to have it here,” Paul said.
“Good, if everyone here can bring some food it won’t cost one person a fortune. Let’s make a list,” Tina offered.
They past a list around and everyone put stuff on it. It was time for Lia to go home, “I have to leave everyone, but I’ll be back here tomorrow at around eleven if that’s good. Seth has to work till twelve so he’ll be here after that. Can someone call the kids that weren’t here so they know? I’ll post it on my facebook when I get home.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tina said. “Yeah we’ll text everyone since it’s so late. See you tomorrow Lia.”
Chapter 9
On the way home Seth asked, “Why do they have to have a party for me? It’s just going to end up being depressing.”
“Only if you make it,” Lia replied. “They just want you to know how much you mean to them. It’ll be a blast. Come off it how many times did we go to a party with all of them and not have a great time?”
“Yeah, but there was always suds there and I know there won’t be tomorrow. Not with all the parents there. Before you say anything, no I don’t need it. After this last time I don’t want to drink like that again.”
“Yeah you were pretty bad this last time. Just be glad no one found out,” Lia said.
“Oh my Dad said something to me. He knew and I guess he’s real disappointed that I chose that over talking it out with you,” Seth said.
“You talked to him about it?” disbelief coursed through her.
“Yeah, that night after I left your house. I was cleaning up after replanting those stupid ferns of yours. He came outside and questioned me about that night. He said that’s one of the reasons he wants me to move with them.”
A renewed anger at his dad surged through her emotions, “He can’t control you now. How will he when you’re in New York?”
“It’s not a matter of him controlling me; it’s more the fact that you’ll hide me, or try to get me out of trouble and in the process get yourself in trouble was his explanation.”
“Oh bullshit, he wants to break us up almost as bad as my Dad,” Lia retorted. “Maybe, even more.”
“Yeah I think so, but not for the same reasons. He hates the way your Dad treats me, and he’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop so your Dad can get me in trouble. He said the effects of someone constantly being berated can make you drink more. He’s afraid that will happen to me.”
“I don’t think my Dad would go that far. If that was the case he would have tried it sooner. If he does it’s the end of us, me and him, I wouldn’t ever speak to him again and he knows it. Besides you promised me that you wouldn’t drink anymore and you have never broke you promise to me,” she stated.
“Even still, my Dad waits for it every night, he waits for the phone call that I’m at the police station or waits for the call from the hospital. You have to understand he’s a recovering alcoholic and he knows the repercussions of drinking and what people
will do to you. I’m not sticking up for him, but he made some sense that night. I have to watch everything I do around you,” Seth said.
“Oh bull shit, no you don’t! You better be the same way around me as you always have been. I don’t care what anyone thinks. We are staying together and we’ll work this all out!” Lia screamed.
“We’ll work it out somehow. I want that as much as you. I don’t want you to be sad or crying at this party tomorrow. I don’t even want to go,” Seth sighed.
“I won’t, look it’ll be fun for us to get together with our friends and have one last blowout party. Then we’ll take care of the future later. Okay?”
“Yeah I guess,” he said as he pulled up outside her house. “I’ll call you later.”
“Alright, I have to go online and put the posting on my facebook,” she said starting to get out of his car.
“Hey come here,” he said tugging on her hair. She sat back in the car and turned to him giving him a kiss. He pulled her close, as close as he could in the front seat of his car. “I love you.”
“I love you too Seth,” she sighed. Thinking of only having eight more days to tell that to his face when he dropped her off, but she was not going to let that spoil this party for him.
He held her close drinking in the smell of her. God how he was going to miss this most, dropping her off at night and getting to hold her close. No matter what, he always knew where she was just by the smell of her perfume. She had been using the same one all these years; it was the one he got her for her birthday years before they started dating.
“Bye, Babe, I have a lot to do for tomorrow, and I need my beauty sleep,” she teased.
“Yeah like hell you do, you’re so beautiful,” he said twisting her hair between his fingers.
“Aww, flattery will get you everywhere. Now I have to go.”
“Do you need my car tomorrow? You can take me to work and then I’ll find a way to the party.” Seth asked.
“Oh no you don’t. Your coming to that party, Seth, it’s for you.”
“Then you’ll just have to pick me up to make sure I get there.”
“Yeah I could use your car tomorrow to get around. What time will you pick me up?”
“Auto Parts opens at seven,” he teased.
“Ugh!”
“I have to be there at eight,” he said.