4. Jace
JACE
Dad
You were slacking today in class, it was pathetic. Get your head out of your ass, Jace. You better not waste my time after school like you did then.
Igrit my teeth, reading the text under the table even though we’re not supposed to have phones out in school—which he knows since he's a teacher. But rules don’t apply when he’s the one breaking them.
I already know what he wants to hear, and as much as it pains me, I respond.
Jace
Yes, sir. I won’t waste your time.
Doesn’t matter that I was one of the first guys to finish on the track. If I don’t meet his impossible standards, I’m a letdown.
“Did you see this shit?” Leo, one of my teammates, asks, as he slides me his phone, pulling me back into the conversation. The screen’s small, but it doesn’t matter; it’s unmistakably Kieran. I could spot him from anywhere.
He’s in a fully sparkly—I think I’ve heard my sister call them sequins—shirt, and his face is covered in very glittery makeup too. In the photo, he’s with Olivia, who’s in a sequin dress with similar makeup, so they probably coordinated.
Sparkles thinks he’s hilarious, picking the loudest, most in-your-face outfits he can find and posting them online. Doesn’t he know that’s permanent? Once it’s online, it’s out there for good. I’d think someone would’ve explained that to him, like my dad’s drilled it into me.
I’ve had my Facebook account for a month, and my dad’s already made me untag myself from three pictures and change my privacy settings twice.
He checks my account like it’s his job. Says scouts are watching and colleges check, that one post could tank everything I’ve worked for.
He flipped out over a comment from David that said “ur dumb” and told me not to let people make me look weak publicly.
I asked for almost a year if I could create an account like all my friends and I thought he’d actually make me delete my profile over that.
I never got to have a MySpace, and I really didn’t want to miss this either.
And yet Sparkles is out here willingly uploading photos that are basically the embodiment of the nickname he pretends to be so bothered by, and no one is stopping him. He walks into school every day dressed like he’s daring someone to say something—and somehow, I’m the only one who ever does.
Then he acts like I’m the problem.
If he really didn’t want the attention, he’d knock it off and would have quit wearing that crap by now. I’ve made it so clear, and yet, he doesn’t care. I don’t know how many more times I can shove him into a locker, but if I have to keep doing it, I will.
I haven’t got in any trouble yet, but there’s only so far I can escalate things.
Getting into a fight wouldn’t look good to the MLB, and I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the kind of guy scouts want to sign, whether I like it or not.
But something about Sparkles sends me from zero to one hundred so quickly that I can’t hold myself back.
No one has ever caused this type of visceral reaction in me or made me feel this out of control before.
I hate it, and I don’t understand it.
My anger used to stay focused on my dad.
On how he’s always breathing down my neck about every single thing I do—what I eat, how I play, how I walk, even how I talk when I’m around coaches and other adults.
He’s never like that with my sister. She gets everything so damn easy, which only pisses me off more.
When I asked why she didn’t have to wake up early and work out, he said it’s because she can’t get into the MLB, and Mom wants her to focus on other things. Whatever that means.
But now, Sparkles has all my attention.
At this point, every girly thing he wears, every bit of makeup he puts on, and every time he shows up with painted nails, it feels like he’s taunting me personally. He knows it pisses me off, and it’s like he’s seeing how far he can push me before I completely snap.
Everyone else in this school tries to suck up to me, either because of my dad or just because I’m friends with the other popular kids, but not him. Not Sparkles. He acts like the rules don’t apply to him.
It’s infuriating.
He’s driving me crazy, consuming way too many of my thoughts as I consider ways to get him to fall in line without risking my father’s wrath if I’m caught.
“Hey, that guy’s in our math class,” David comments, looking over my shoulder at the phone.
“What’s his deal?” Leo asks with a laugh, looking at the picture again after we hand back his phone.
“He wears shit like that all the time,” David explains.
“Even the makeup,” I clarify.
“Wow, so he’s basically asking to get harassed?”
David and I both nod our heads. “Yup.”
“Does he think he’s a girl?” Leo asks with another laugh.
“I asked him that on the first day, and he tried to tell me makeup was for guys too. I’m pretty sure he likes the attention,” I sneer, loving the excuse to finally voice my frustrations and talk about him with my friends. Shit talking Kieran has quickly become my favorite topic.
“You know what would be funny?” Leo prompts, already looking smug.
“What?” I ask, desperate for a way to mess with him that won’t end up with me in the principal’s office or worse, my father’s.
“What if you borrowed your dad’s master key to the locker room and swapped his gym uniform for a girl’s? I can give you my sister’s old one.”
Well, shit, that might actually work. David is already cracking up over the idea, smacking my arm and insisting that “You gotta do it, bro” as I consider the specifics of pulling it off.
We have uniforms for gym class so people can’t complain about getting in trouble for breaking the dress code.
We purchase them at the beginning of the year and are responsible for taking them home and washing them ourselves.
If someone’s went missing, it’s not like they could just grab a different one.
It would be a pretty good prank, actually.
We have the same gym period, so I doubt it would be hard to watch him put his locker combo in and swap his uniform before school the next day.
I probably wouldn’t even need my dad’s keys for this; I could just say I forgot something in the locker room during our weights session.
He has keys for a lot of things around the school though…
Maybe there’s more I could do. Eh, I’ll save that thought for another day if this doesn’t work.
Maybe switching his uniform will be enough to finally teach him to stop being so obnoxious and distracting all the time. He’s the reason I can’t focus this year, doesn’t he get that? He could potentially fuck up my future, and that’s why I can’t leave him alone.
The more I think about this prank, the more I like it because the odds of me getting in trouble are pretty slim.
Even if another teacher caught me, they’d start by telling my dad, and honestly, with how much he complains about the gay kids at our school, this would be one of the few rule-breaking activities he’d probably approve of, maybe even laugh about.
“Hey, isn’t that him?” Leo asks, tipping his chin up to where I already knew Kieran was sitting a couple of tables away from ours.
He’s standing up, gathering his things even though we have a few minutes before the period is over.
He always leaves lunch early, which is weird.
And a totally normal thing for me to notice.
“Bring the uniform tomorrow, and I’ll let you know when I do it,” I murmur to Leo right before Kieran turns our way. He’s on the path to walk right past me to exit the cafeteria.
God, he looks so obnoxious. Is he somehow wearing more makeup today than he normally does?
I attempt to focus on Leo’s reply, but the thought of Kieran taunting me with even more girly shit has my blood boiling.
At the last second, I stick my foot out from under the table to trip him as he walks past. He falls to his hands and knees, and the water bottle that had been in his hand rolls under our table after he drops it.
“Ow, what the fuck?” he gasps.
I bend down to grab the bottle as he quickly scrambles to stand again, cheeks red, eyes darting around to see who just witnessed his fall.
A few people are staring at him, but it’s so loud and packed in the lunchroom, it seems like a majority of the people didn’t notice. But my table clearly did with the laughter behind me.
His gaze locks on mine, and I can see the moment he realizes what actually happened. I extend my arm, offering his water back to him. “You should really be more careful,” I warn with false concern.
“God, can’t you just leave me alone, Jace?” he says, snatching the drink and storming off without a word as my friends all burst into more laughter around me.
“Make sure you film his reaction to the uniform thing.” Leo laughs, and I nod. I’m sure it will be funny, but I also hope it’s enough to finally convince Kieran to just blend in.
Maybe then I can finally focus on something other than him.