2. Reese
Fire alarm—the best sound to hear in high school, especially in the middle of math. As long as it’s a drill, obviously. Which I’m assuming this one is, at least until the sprinklers start, and before I know it, I’m soaked.
“Alright, come on,” Mr. Hart grumbles. “Everyone outside.”
It’s the last hour of the day, and with only twenty minutes of class left, this couldn’t have happened at a better time. Of course, I hope it’s nothing serious and no one gets hurt, but it’s still great timing.
Spring hangs heavy in the air, not hot but not winter cold either. Being wet from the indoor sprinklers is uncomfortable, but at least it’s a nice day. Things are finally beginning to turn green, which means summer is almost here—my last summer at home. Thank fuck. After graduation next year, I plan on traveling with the money I’ve saved from lawn care over the last five years, then head to college. Hopefully with a hockey scholarship.
Someone slaps a hand on my shoulder, bringing me out of my head. Elijah halts next to me, grinning like he usually is.
“You look too happy about our school possibly burning to the ground.”
“How sick would that be? Never have to go to school again.”
I don’t have it in me to tell him that’s not how it works, and the school burning would cause several issues for our town, but he’s onto a new subject before I can anyway.
“Let’s get out of here. I’m starving.”
“We can’t just leave. They would go looking for us.”
He drops his head back and groans as if that’s the worst news he’s ever heard. There is no way he’s that hungry. Lunch was three hours ago, and I saw how high he piled his plate.
Elijah is a nice reminder not to take life so seriously. I’d like to say we balance each other, but I don’t think I have any influence on him. He says my “broodiness” is a “sweet personality trait.”
Teachers come around, taking attendance; it’s not a big school, so it doesn’t take long. I know there can’t be more than ten minutes left of school now, considering buses have started to line up, so they gotta let us go soon, I hope.
“Let’s find Win so when they release us, we can g-t-f-o.”
Now, that’s something I can agree on. Students are divided by classes, so we wander down to the cluster of freshmen. After a quick scan, I come up empty on a short redhead. Elijah frowns from across the group, twisting my stomach.
I raise my hand in question, and he shrugs, but worry tugs his brows low on his forehead. If there is anything that can make Elijah flip the serious switch, it’s Winnie.
“Hey.” I grab the shoulder of some lanky kid standing with the freshmen. He looks up at me with wide, scared eyes, but I ignore that. “Where’s Winnie Lewis?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
Annoyance growing at an exceptional rate, I look for anyone familiar who might hang out with Winnie. She’s a bit of a solo bird, but someone has to stand out. Elijah is chatting with Mrs. Duck, most likely asking her since she teaches Freshman English.
Eventually, I find a girl in the sophomore class I think I saw Winnie talking to once and wander her way. Minutes have passed, and I still haven’t seen a flash of red hair. I don’t think it’s a real fire, but I definitely have real worry. Where the fuck is she?
“Hey.” I don’t grab the girl like I did the dude—that seems inappropriate. But I raise my voice to get her attention. The friends in front of her pause, their mouths open and makeup smeared down their faces from the sprinklers. “Where’s Winnie Lewis?”
The girls’ mouths snap, and one of them leans closer to the other, whispering in her ear. They both giggle at whatever is said, and holy fuck am I glad Winnie doesn’t act like this.
The brunette spins, and her blue eyes widen in surprise. My irritation grows while I wait for an answer.
“She excused herself during class, and I haven’t seen her since.” She has the nerve to shrug like it’s no big deal she’s missing.
“How long ago?” I bark, unable to mask my worry but able to shift it into anger.
“Like five minutes into class?” She lifts her shoulders in a shrug, and it’s obvious she has no actual clue where Winnie is.
I push by, but a hand snaps out and grabs my wrist before I can pass completely. That same brunette is holding on to me, and I scowl down at her fingers.
“What?”
“I’m Zoey, by the way.”
I know her tone and the look in her eye. She’s pushing her small tits out, trying to get my attention. Her shirt is white and wet, basically see-through, but it does nothing for me. I don’t understand why she thinks I give a fuck about her or her name.
“Great.” I pull my arm back and turn to go find Elijah.
My stomach bottoms out seeing bright red hair wrapped up in his embrace. Thank fuck.
“Where the hell were you?” I snap once I’m close enough.
Elijah ignores me completely, used to my anger by now.
Winnie turns her face just enough for me to see. She’s waterlogged like the rest of us, but maybe even more so. Her face is clean and free from makeup, unlike her friends. She looks fine and unharmed.
“Shh!”
Shh? Did she just shush me?
I’m about to reem her when Elijah cuts me off. “You getting some young pussy?”
I look around, confused about who he is talking to, but he’s looking at me. “Huh?”
“That girl?”
The three of us look over my shoulder to where he nods. That brunette, whatever she said her name was, stands in the same spot, wiggling her fingers in our direction.
“No. I don’t even know who the fuck she is.”
“Seems like she knows who you are.” His voice is light like a tease.
She can know who I am all she wants. I’m not interested in fucking a sophomore—or anyone, for that matter. The last thing I need is a distraction right before I graduate. I’ve always said once I hit college, I’ll think about dating, but until then, I’m not interested in being tied down. I have a goal, and a relationship isn’t going to help me get there.
Winnie has pulled away from Elijah and is staring—or glaring is more like it—at the ground in front of her. Using her hair like a shield to conceal her expression. But I know her better than that, and the only time Winnie would hide her face is when she’s embarrassed of her reaction. I’m just not sure what she could be embarrassed of in this situation.
The school bell rings, and we are free to go.
“I gotta grab my shit. Meet you at the truck.” Elijah runs for the school doors. Apparently, there wasn’t a real fire if they are letting people go back inside. It’s odd there was a drill at the end of the day and that the sprinklers went off if there wasn’t, though.
Winnie hasn’t said a word since we got in the truck, and that’s not like her. Did my snapping really bother her that much? I try not to get angry with her often, and it’s usually not hard because she seems to be the only person in my life who doesn’t piss me off.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you. You just had me worried, Win.”
A heavy silence stretches between us—something I don’t experience often with her.
“You want to tell me where you were?”
“Are you going to date Zoey?”
Huh? Who the fuck—oh, the brunette. “Uh, no? I’m not.”
Her ginger hair tumbles behind her when she lifts her head to look at me. Narrowing her eyes, she watches me for an entire minute before sighing.
“She talks about you, you know?”
Why does she talk about me? “I don’t even know who she is. I was only talking to her because I thought you guys were friends.”
She scoffs at that idea. Apparently, I was way off about the whole friends thing. “The only friends I have are you and Eli, Reese.”
I don’t know how. Winnie is one of the best people I know; she should have people knocking on her door wanting to be her friend. Honestly, I thought Elijah and I were going to have to beat the shit out of guys wanting to date her, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“We’re not friends. If you saw us talking it’s only because I know you.”
Me? What the fuck is this girl’s obsession with me? I hope she doesn’t become some weird stalker. I can’t express how uninterested I am in all that. She couldn’t be barking up a worse tree.
“Well, if she bothers you again, tell her I’m not interested.”
“Yeah, okay.”
I don’t know what her attitude is about, but okay. Christopher tried warning us that Winnie would change like a flip had been switched one day. Is this that day? Mrs. Lewis passed Winnie a tampon while we were out once, so I thought she started her period a few years ago, if that’s what he meant. But what do I know?
“But since you asked.” Whatever caused her mood to sour slips, and she grins like she has a secret to tell. Winnie’s secrets are always unpredictable. “I lit a match and stood on the toilet to set the alarms off.”
Like I said, unpredictable.
“Winnie,” I gasp. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because I heard you and Elijah talking about how you are starting frog dissections tomorrow and that they were delivered today. You know they come in alive? Yeah, me either, and that’s so sick. Anyway, when I saw that, I waited until I knew Mr. Stevens had a free hour, set the fire alarm off, and released all the frogs.”
There aren’t many things Winnie could do that would surprise me, but this definitely did.
“No you didn’t.”
She bites her lip and nods, a look of pride blossoming on her face. “Yep, I did.”
“I cannot believe you did that. You know you can get in trouble for faking a fire?”
“Yeah, that’s why I did it in the bathroom where there are no cameras, duuuh.”
Smart, but still dumb.
“They will probably just get more frogs.”
“Then I’ll release those ones too.”
I can’t stop a laugh from tumbling out of me. Wrapping my arm around her neck, I pull her into my side and ruffle her hair until she pushes away, pretending to be mad. “You are such a softy.”
“I prefer Frog Savior.”
“Yeah, I’m not calling you that.”
“Suit yourself.”
Someone shouts out, and we follow the noise to find Elijah slapping the back of some random kid and shouting something about a long weekend.
“Oh.” Winnie lifts her brown eyes to me. “Please don’t tell Elijah what I did. I don’t need a brotherly lecture about safety and whatever else.”
I don’t have many secrets from my best friend, but the ones I do have all involve his little sister.
Elijah hops into the truck and cranks the radio. Drumming on the dash to “1985” by Bowling for Soup. “I heard them talking,” he shouts over the music instead of turning it down. “The sprinklers caused a mess, so there’s no school the rest of the week to give the janitors time to clean up.”
Winnie freezes. It’s obvious she didn’t consider the cleanup, because she never would have wanted to cause a mess for anyone else. She was only thinking about the frogs.
“That right?” I throw my arm behind Winnie’s head to back up, and Winnie shoots me a look that’s a mixture of a scowl and regret.
“Yeah. And apparently, there is some kind of frog infestation in front of the school.”
A heavy chuckle bursts from me before Winnie elbows me.
“If only there was a frog savior to make sure they got somewhere safe.”