On Wednesday, it snowed for the first time in two years. It was comforting for the students to wake up to a snow covered morning, although school wasn’t canceled to everyone’s dismay. Less than an inch stuck – but more than enough for a snowball fight at lunch. Rey wore his Timberland jacket thinking the added padding might compensate for the school’s inadequate heating. Most of the ninth grade stayed inside for lunch, but some students, Viola Specks among them, stayed outside for the snowball fight, with no idea what they were missing. As if the Ms. Parker scandal wasn’t enough to keep Rey’s mind occupied, lunchtime would prove to be a once in a lifetime experience.
What had happened yesterday, after Ms. Parker realized Brianna wasn’t all she seemed, was that Ms. Parker had gotten the class to confess everything Brianna said and did: how she used Rey’s relationship with Christy and Carolyn’s past to convince the class to meet her in the woods. Ms. Parker was devastated. For the first time, the class saw a woman teetering on the edge of breakdown. It was as if a wall in front of her had been demolished and her true self could be seen for the first time.
She said that she couldn’t imagine Brianna had anything malicious in mind. Maybe, she said, it was some sort of a prank put on by her friend at Leander. She said she didn’t think the ninth grade would take her seriously if they knew the truth about her past. She said that it was almost fifteen years ago, and if Brianna’s intentions were malicious Brianna would have a difficult time convincing the administration to even get her fired. “Okay,” she said, “Let’s do what Brianna wants as long as it’s not illegal. Then we’ll deal with it right here, right after.” Ms. Parker simply didn’t want it to escalate.
She told them the truth about the Father Muncie rumor, how Huxley was speaking about getting a tattoo of a dog’s paw and how Father Muncie had told Marv Core that he’d learned from the Vatican the tattoo would bring iniquity to Pemota. As the class filed out, Blair echoed the class’ sentiments, saying, “I can’t even believe this.” But all Rey could think about was Christy, and the power Radelle held over her life – the power Brianna Lane held as well -- and if they could fall into a forbidden relationship as a result, or a completely dead one.
Rey had already decided not to tell Christy about what Brianna had done. She couldn’t be counted on not to detonate the already tenuous situation. But Rey needed to do damage control. He’d thought of a stealthy apology in advance and thought Christy might go for it. But the mere mention of Brianna’s name could blind her with hate, and Rey couldn’t allow that to jeopardize their situation.
Rey was staring at the stencils on the ceiling of the cafeteria for the first time this school year, wondering how he’d never noticed them before. They depicted students staring at open textbooks. As he was caught up in this trance, he thought about Brianna. He decided he could try asking Christy about why Brianna might have hated Ms. Parker. But he reminded himself to be careful. Christy might grow suspicious.
Rey took his attention off the ceiling as Christy sat down next to him. She opened a carton of orange juice and drank letting out a sigh of pleasure. “Bad news,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Okay, I will. You first.”
Rey wondered if she already knew. He waited a few seconds to watch her reaction. She turned to him inquisitively. He took a sip of his juice box unsure how to broach it.
“I saw your sister talking to Ms. Parker in the hallway. How do they even know each other?”
“My sister hates Ms. Parker,” Christy explained. “Because the only A- she ever got was in ninth grade health.”
Rey nodded. “That’s interesting.” His heart was racing. “Father Muncie made up the rumor about Huxley,” he said disinterested.
“The administration always takes pity on him. I guess because of who his Dad is. So what happened on Sunday?”
“I met him.” He told her about Frank Brule. When he reached the part about the vile of purple fluid, Christy seemed skeptical.
“It’s probably water with purple dye in it,” she said. “I bet like Aba is crazy and so is her husband and they want to see what you’ll do.”
“What about book number 98 and the purple writing.”
“That’s probably Aba Brule’s math book.”
Rey took his math book out of his backpack. “We have a list here of everyone who’s ever used this book. Aba’s name isn’t anywhere. Unless she used to be named Nick Lesley or Jim Diddeon.” He looked around to make sure no one was watching, and pulled out the vile of purple fluid. “Maybe I could ask a scientist about it. I wonder if I could ask Mr. Chandon.”
Christy nodded. “He makes us do reports on substances. They call it a substance evaluation report. We have to check the melting point, solubility, and conductivity, and stuff. Do you know him?”
“Yeah, he sits with us at lunch sometimes. He’s cool. Can I use you as an excuse and tell him you want to see what a really good report looks like.”
“Sure. Well the bad news is: Huxley is putting death threats in people’s lockers. Yoshi was absent on Tuesday because she’s afraid Huxley is going to kill her. A bunch of people were saying it’s our fault. And Der hates us also.”
“So?”
“So Jason Masago told me that Der’s going to do something to get back at us today.”
Jason Masago was three tables away talking with Peter Laft
about his latest chess tournament. Apparently, Peter had just won fifty bucks in a chess game because his opponent was drunk. Jason was laughing hearing the story.
“What did Jason say?” Rey asked.
“Nothing really. Something about a piece of tape covering the lock on the nurse’s door.”
Rey understood it immediately. The tape would stop the door from locking, and if the nurse didn’t notice it on her way out for her lunch break they could easily get into the office. There were only two places to broadcast messages from in the school: the front office and the nurse’s office. Once inside, they could play anything they wanted over the loudspeaker, and the administration would be helpless until they came out of the office.
Christy seemed to know what he was thinking. “Do you think they would really do that?”
“What would they say?”
“I don’t wanna know. Maybe if we went down there we could stop them.”
At that moment, the loudspeaker came alive. “Testing. Testing,” Der said. If Rey’s guess was correct, Der was going to use this opportunity to promote his newsletter and if he could hurt Viola Specks, he surely would. Rey’s guess was exactly right. “It’s the twelve o’clock lunch hour,” Der said. “With all your requests. Where we share our stories of heartache and heartbreak. For that special someone. A lovely song now requested for two struggling lovers out there. A song from Sam Patton to Viola Specks. Oh my love, my darling, I’ve hungered for your touch.”
Unchained Melody, by the Righteous Brothers, began playing over the loudspeaker.
Rey looked around thankful Viola wasn’t in the cafeteria. She would be mortified, having never had a boyfriend before or even being looked at by a boy. It would be the ultimate embarrassment. Christy picked up her tray and slammed it on the table. Christy worried that when Viola found out she would be devastated. She knew her main question would be: “Were people laughing?” The answer Christy realized as she looked around was a resounding ‘yes.’
Annette was looking over at Christy and Rey. She held up two middle fingers and flicked off the loudspeaker. Christy nodded. Rey was watching Jason Masago who seemed to be having the time of his life, laughing and slapping the table. Christy turned to Rey.
“It just goes to show how immature we are that people are laughing,” Christy said.
“They’re trying to embarrass her,” Rey said as he looked around. “And she’s not even in the cafeteria.”
Annette mouthed to Christy, “He’s in so much trouble.”
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Christy nodded.
The song faded out, and the laughter slowly faded away. Der came on the loudspeaker again. “This is Nadine’s Puppies telling the cold truth. Today, we want to tell the entire school that we had nothing to do with the Avocadonine graffiti at the beginning of the school year. We’re uncovering new information, a conspiracy that has to do with Avocadonine in the ninth grade at Pemota High. Many members of the ninth grade are reporting psychological disturbances. And it all seems to point to two key people: Rey Naresh and Christy Lane. As always, this is Nadine’s Puppies keeping you in the loop, and making you aware of the freaks at Pemota High.”
The entire school heard the sound of the phone being hung up and then silence. Christy stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. Rey decided to follow. He caught up with her and they walked down the hallway, Rey with his arm around her.
“Do you want to go find Viola?” Christy asked.
“What do you want to say?”
“I just want to break it to her gently.”
“Are you Rey Naresh and Christy Lane?” It was a junior journalism teacher named Mr. Penn.
Rey and Christy nodded worriedly.
“We need to ask you some questions,” Mr. Penn said.
They followed Mr. Penn down the hallway. Rey put his finger to his lips and Christy nodded. They were in agreement on keeping closemouthed about the house with the turret and their relation to the graffiti.
“Who would do this?” Mr. Penn said.
“His name is Der Kath,” Rey said. “Him and his friends hate us.”
“Unbelievable. Ms. Shumana is going to want to ask you some things. She’s the dean.”
“Are we in trouble?” Christy said.
Mr. Penn opened the door to the front office. “Shouldn’t be,” he said.
Principal Claudette Laurie was finishing up her own loudspeaker announcement. She had hardly said anything as she was unsure how to handle it. “We will resume now and make a statement about this offense first thing tomorrow in homeroom.”
Ms. Shumana had dark red hair, and thick black glasses. She
could have been mistaken for an alien easily. Mr. Penn left them sitting in her office. A couple minutes later, Ms. Shumana opened the door and sat behind her desk. She said. “Do you know who did this?”
“It was Der Kath,” Christy said. “His friend Jason told me he was going to do it.”
“Why don’t they like you?”
“They just think we’re not very cool,” Rey said.
“Do you know anything about the graffiti during the beginning of the school year?”
“No. We didn’t do it or anything,” Rey said.
“Do you know who did?”
Rey shook his head. Christy did the same.
“We’re going to require some information. What do you know about this Avocadonine business?” Miss Shumana said.
Rey swallowed. “Not much.”
“What’s ‘not much?’”
“I mean we saw the graffiti,” Christy said, trying to save him. “And that’s it.”
“Do you know Viola Specks?”
They nodded.
“How do you feel about what they did?”
Christy’s eyes filled with tears. “Not cool,” she said emphatically.
“We have reason to believe these boys are in a lot more serious trouble than you realize. And you don’t want it to involve you. My best advice is to just go your own way. If you see them in the hallway, look the other way and walk by.”
Rey nodded. “Okay.”
“Fine,” Christy said. “But we don’t want them writing
anything about us in that stupid paper.”
Ms. Shumana pointed to the door rudely, and Rey and Christy stood up and left. As they did so, Der came into the office escorted by Nurse Jean. She had her hand on his arm and seemed to be trying to ignore his snide smile. Christy glared at him. Der smiled back.
Rey spent the next two periods waiting for the axe to drop. Fynn suggested they eat lunch in wood shop with him for a few days, just until things quieted down. Rey thought it sounded like a good idea.
When school ended, Rey decided to skip going home on the bus. He wanted to talk to Mr. Chandon. When he walked into Mr. Chandon’s class he saw David Benson was doing a lab after school with Jose Fraser. When Mr. Chandon saw Rey, he smiled big. “I think that’s a great song.”
Rey lifted himself onto one of the stools necessary for sitting at the high table. Rey grimaced. “Everyone laughed.”
Mr. Chandon nodded. “Well, you know what else is a great song. ‘Everyone Plays the Fool.’” He sang, “‘sometimes. There’s no exception to the rule.’”
“Must have missed that one,” Rey said.
“Your girlfriend skipped class.”
Rey thought he better cover for Christy. “I don’t think so. I think she had something like band practice or some...”
“No need. I’m going to let it slide.”
Mr. Chandon was becoming one of Rey’s favorite people. “Anyways,” Rey said. “We were talking and she was saying that you always give her B’s or C’s on her reports and she wants to know what an A+ report looks like.”
“Well, there’s students she can ask.”
“Actually,” Rey said, feeling brave, his heart thumping powerfully. “There’s a substance we wanted you to do the report on. And give it to us.”
Mr. Chandon gave Rey a confused look.
“It’s kinda important to me ... and Christy.”
“Okay. Let’s see it.”
Rey pulled the vile of purple liquid out of his backpack.
“What is it?” Mr. Chandon asked.
“We want you to tell us.”
“You want me to tell you in an A+ substance evaluation report.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell ya what. I’ll do it tonight and give it to your girlfriend
first thing tomorrow. Cool?”
Rey nodded. “Cool.”
Rey left Mr. Chandon feeling a sense of accomplishment. The school was deserted, and a turn around the corner at the end of the cheese wedge revealed Huxley, Der, and Joe weren’t on the Smokers Corner. Instead of calling Isabel, Rey had decided that he wanted to go check out the house with the turret, see what the pictures on the stained glass windows were of, and maybe even take a look inside.
The day was surprisingly warm given the snowfall and the walk was pleasant. Under the Ponderosa Pines in the forest the leaves were wet, and snow clung to the branches making the trees look like standing faceless angels. As Rey walked deeper into the woods avoiding sticks in case someone could hear them crunch under his feet, he thought back to that day a few months ago when he’d ran through these woods with Christy. It seemed a lot had changed. He no longer felt burdened with the constant need to be with people as if they were some natural Prozac that made him normal. He could sit home at night and do his homework without worrying the teacher would call on him the next day.
He saw the yellow home approaching, the stained glass windows surrounding it, and the turret. He ran towards it, leaves and sticks crunching underneath his feet. Then he heard the faint murmur of voices from inside. He slowed down to a careful light walk and stepped forward until he was a seven or eight feet from the back of the home. The stained glass windows all seemed to depict images of avocados. Different types of avocados. Rey scanned them hoping for a clue that would reveal their meaning but coming up with nothing. He walked closer and put his ear against the back of the home.
Huxley was inside. Rey recognized his voice. “I’m gonna need another swig before I can go on,” Huxley said.
Then Joe: “You guys are crazy.”
Rey rounded the home and walked over to the metal doors that led into the turret. Rey opened them quietly and hurried down the steps. He closed the doors behind him for a moment having a claustrophobic fantasy of Huxley st
anding on the doors. Reminding himself that a sound could give him away, he headed up the steps and looked out the window. Through the skylights he could see Huxley, Der, and Joe standing around a card table that was surrounded with lawn chairs. Viola was bent over the table, her shirt pulled up, leaving her bra clasp showing, and her pants pulled down. Rey’s heart began making its presence felt. Huxley had a tattoo gun in his hand and was giving Viola a tattoo on her buttocks. It was a tattoo of a dog’s paw. Father Muncie’s rumor was starting to show its effects.
“Marked for life,” Huxley said, with a grin.
Rey pulled a cell-phone out of his backpack and turned on the camera option. He snapped a couple pictures of the image – Huxley, the tattoo gun, and Viola. Only Joe’s legs and Der’s feet made it into the frame.
“Huxley lend me a cig,” Der said, sitting on a chair and watching.
“They’re on that chair,” Joe said who was already smoking.
Rey wanted to help Viola, but it looked like Huxley was through. Huxley pulled her pants up and Viola stood up revealing her face strewn with tears.
“You guys are so mean,” she said.
Joe smiled. Der laughed. And Huxley pushed her hard almost knocking her over. Rey watched telling himself that if it wasn’t over he’d barge in and help Viola fight them off. But Viola was fastening her belt and wiping her tears away. Viola walked towards the door and stepped out of the home. Huxley picked up a shot glass and drank it. On the corner of the table was a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“I hate that girl,” Huxley said.
“I think she knows,” Der said.
This made the three of them laugh hard again.
Rey sat up and began to step down the steps but he was interrupted by a ringing. It was his cell phone in his backpack. He almost went into cardiac arrest. He took his bag off and unzipped it, jostling papers and pens, in search of the phone. He found it and popped it open.
It was Christy. “Hey Rey.”
“One sec,” Rey said whispering.
He went and looked out the window to see if they had heard the phone ringing. They didn’t. Joe was putting the bottle of Jack Daniels into his backpack, and Der was lighting a cigarette.
“What are you doing?” Christy said, whispering also.
“I just got out of school,” Rey said, looking over his shoulder.
“Oh. My Mom wants you to come over for dinner Friday. My Dad won’t be there but my sister will. I promised my Mom you’d say ‘yes.’ Okay?”
Rey felt like fainting. Brianna. He racked his brain for an excuse and came up empty headed. “Sure.”
“I gotta go write my paper,” Christy said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Later,” Rey said.
She hung up. Rey watched Viola running away through the woods. And Huxley, Der, and Joe rounded up their belongings and headed out. Now, Rey had Friday night to look forward to. He hit his head on the wall behind him as the weightier thought hit him.
Now, enter the seniors.