I called Adrienne back and updated her. She made plans for us to go out Friday and Saturday nights. I told her that if Tyler wanted to take the night off from cooking, I would do that for her. I could hear Adrienne teasing her about dumping her for me since I could cook. She gave me Tyler’s number so I could work it out with her.
Monday January 27
I FOUND CASSIDY AT our locker when I got to school Monday morning. When she saw me, she acted funny and tried to duck out. I suddenly felt my stomach tighten up.
“Freeze,” I ordered.
She wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“Tell me,” I said.
She took a deep breath and then it came out in a rush.
“We went to the party on Saturday and April had a few drinks. I don’t think she’d ever done that before,” Cassidy said, barely above a whisper. Then she straightened up. “Luke was hitting on her and tried to get her into a back bedroom. She didn’t know what she was doing. I kind of got in trouble.”
I saw red. I was going to kick the living crap out of Luke. I slammed my locker and went to where I knew he would be before school. I suddenly found myself face down in the hall with a sharp pain coming from my wrist. Cassidy had put me down in the blink of an eye. I cried out in pain.
“Oh God! I’m so sorry,” she said as she let my wrist go.
April walked up then and saw me on the floor cradling my wrist, and Cassidy crying. To April’s credit, she didn’t overreact. She sat down next to me on the floor and checked my wrist. She then helped me up and Cassidy took off to the bathroom. April guided me to an empty classroom.
“I take it that Cassidy told you what happened Saturday,” April stated.
“Some of it. Are you okay?” I asked.
“More embarrassed than anything else, but you were right, Luke did ply me with alcohol and try to take advantage of me. Thank you for sending Cassidy with me,” April said, and then took a deep breath.
“We’re both grounded for life. At least that’s what our dads told us when they had to pick us up at the police station.”
“What! What did you two do?”
“We ... well, I guess really Cassidy, beat Luke up. I would’ve been fine, but someone called the police. Luke, Cassidy, and I were hauled in. Cassidy told them what happened. I think they wanted to hold Cassidy, but Luke refused to press charges. He told them that he didn’t want to do anything for fear it would get his scholarship pulled. When our parents showed up, the police turned us over to their custody. I was scared I was getting in trouble for underage drinking. It would wreck basketball.”
“How bad was Luke hurt?”
“Not too bad. He’ll be walking funny and has a black eye.”
“We can talk about this later. Let’s go get our little ninja and make sure she’s okay.”
We found her in one of the girls’ bathroom, washing her face. She gave me a curious look.
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Cassidy said.
I just walked up and hugged her. She stiffened and then wrapped me in a fierce embrace.
“Daddy said I wasn’t supposed to hurt any more boys this week.”
I started laughing. What the heck, only this week? I guess she was over her quota.
“Thank you for protecting April. Thank you for stopping me from making an ass out of myself. I think your dad would approve of what you did to me in the hall,” I said, and kissed her on top of her head.
“Do I get one?” April asked.
I winked at her, she came over, and I gave her a real kiss. Cassidy finally let me go. A couple of girls came in and started giving us shit about having a threesome in the bathroom. I asked them if they wanted to join us. April and Cassidy pulled me out into the hall before I could get anything going. The bell rang, and we hurried off to class.
AT LUNCH, KENDAL TRACKED me down. You wouldn’t believe all the stuff we had to go through to allow her on school grounds last year. With all the problems since Sandy Hook, school security had been tightened up. Kendal even had to get a background check. I was relieved when she didn’t turn up on the sex-offender list. I teased her now and then that I’d be willing to help her get on it. She never thought that was a good idea. I didn’t see her coming, and she snuck up behind me and put her hands over my eyes.
“Guess who?” she whispered in my ear.
“Hannah? Is that you, Hannah?” I asked hopefully.
I got whacked for my troubles. It was never Hannah Minacci.
“You wish. Do you have a check for me?”
“Yep, it’s in my locker.”
As we walked to get the check for last weekend’s commercial, we talked about Adrienne’s plan to open her own agency.
“Do you think you’re interested in working with her?” Kendal asked.
“Oh, unquestionably. It’s a great opportunity. I learned a ton from her on Saturday,” I told her, and gave her exaggerated sexy looks.
“You’re such a dork,” she laughed at me. “Seriously, though, do you want to do this?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to Tom and make sure you’re not about to have a problem with your Ford contract.”
“Speaking of which, they’re greedy little cusses. I tried to get them to sign off on my shoot Sunday, and Deb Thomas wanted to charge me full boat. We need to work something out where someone can help me on weekends if you’re not around.”
“Funny you should mention that. We’re having a meeting today to discuss that very topic. Tom got called on the carpet Sunday night for no one being around.”
“Are you coming with me this weekend?”
“That’s the plan. Why, did you miss me?”
“Actually, I did. My security guy was great when I went to California. He played football with me and took me to a bar,” I said. Kendal gave me a horrified look. “But he’s a total wuss. I guess his boss read him the riot act about how to behave in front of Adrienne. He acted like he was really my bodyguard. I needed a wingman to protect me from all the girls Adrienne was throwing at me.”
“I bet. Did she happen to have any cute guys hanging around?”
I rolled my eyes.
“I did see Kara and Adrienne dancing with some men. I guess if you’re into tall, dark and handsome, they were alright.”
“I think that would be okay. So, when are we leaving?” Kendal chirped.
I opened my locker and gave her the envelope with the check in it. It was still sealed. She gave me a funny look.
“Did you even look at this?”
I just shrugged. I trusted Kara and Rafael.
She opened it up and her eyes got big.
“They paid you too much,” Kendal said.
A note fell out of the envelope and landed on the floor. I picked it up and read it.
‘Just a little thank you for getting Adrienne involved in the project. I tried to pay her, but she said to give it to you. I look forward to working with you again.—Rafael’
“Well, I’ll be danged. I’ll have to thank Adrienne when I see her.”
The bell rang and I hurried to PE.
WHEN I GOT TO DANCE class, the girls wanted to teach me a dance they’d been working on. They put on Carly Rae Jepsen’s song Call Me Maybe. I looked around and our teacher gave me a small wave and disappeared after she saw the girls had everything in hand. They’d obviously been working on this song. The girls soon had me up to speed, and we were having fun. My job was to take my shirt off and let them dance around me. I have to say I did my part very well.
I told them about my weekend in New York and going to the club to dance. They spent the rest of the hour teaching me some new moves. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this class. I had to laugh at several of them, they were being such flirts.
IN ART CLASS, WE WERE drawing hands. It’s much harder than I thought it would be. I couldn’t seem to get the fingers right. I looked over at the girl next to me and her drawing was great. I snapped my pencil in two in frustration.