“Thanks, Patty,” I said, feeling much better. If anybody could read another person’s emotions, it was Patty.
Patty turned back to Kristen and said, “We’ll find out the problem, Kris. I’ll see you when class is over.”
Kristen nodded, her eyes still flashing their anger, obviously thinking about Dale.
The two of us watched the red head leave the lunchroom.
“I need to get to gym,” I told Kristen.
“Yeah,” Kristen said, anger still in her voice.
Gym was uneventful, and I put thoughts of Sherry behind me during the class. I attended French class afterward, and thought a bit about Sherry, but figured that either Patty or I would get to the bottom of things by the end of the day.
As I was leaving French, my seventh period class, I found Camille waiting for me at the door to my classroom.
“Jim!” Camille said. “I need to speak with you.”
“Sure, Cammy,” I said. “I’m heading to English…”
“You’re going to have to skip it, Jim. It’s very important.”
This was a day of mysteries and “very important” things.
I sighed. Camille was a real friend, however, and I could never turn her request down.
“Let me find Sherry and tell her that I’m not…”
“No, Jim,” Camille said. “This is important, and I’m pretty sure it concerns her.”
Now I was really interested. Maybe Camille could explain Sherry’s weird behavior.
Camille and I went toward the band room. It was one room that I had access to, and I knew that it was empty after seventh period, which is when the orchestra rehearsed. Mr. Ryan, the orchestra leader, might still be there, but he never had any problem with me coming and going at any time.
I passed Amy Grant on my way into the band room. She gave me a shy smile as I passed her.
The band room, as it turned out, was empty, and Mr. Ryan was just leaving the room. He smiled at me and didn’t say anything about me using the room with Camille.
I turned to Camille. “What’s up…”
“Jim, something terrible has happened… is happening right now!” Camille looked frantic.
“Tell me what it is.”
“Do you know Tim Hawking?” Camille asked.
What a coincidence! I had walked in on Tim getting a blow job in the boys’ room earlier and now Camille just mentioned him.
All of a sudden, I realized where I saw those athletic legs and the short white skirt. Sherry was the girl in the bathroom with Tim!
Camille must have seen the expression on my face. My blood ran cold as I realized that Sherry was the person who Tim referred to as a whore and how her oral talents sucked.
“Tim Hawking and Sherry Jordan,” I said.
“Tim Hawking and almost half of the entire fucking cheerleading squad,” Camille said.
“What?” I nearly shouted. Tim was not the kind of person who would attract the amorous attentions of most of the cheerleaders. Well, neither was I, although most of the cheerleaders were quite friendly to me after Kristen’s Halloween party, Sherry’s initiation, and Kristen’s birthday party.
“Well, with what I’ve heard of his attitude, he won’t be with many of the cheerleaders for long,” I said.
“You were there with him! I saw you come out of the boys’ room!” Camille said.
“I walked in and heard he was doing something in the bathroom. I discreetly left as soon as I noticed. I didn’t realize he was with Sherry until just now.”
Camille shook her head, as if I wasn’t getting it. “You don’t understand, Jim!”
“Huh? What don’t I understand?”
“Tim Hawking has tickets!”
I felt the blood drain from my face as Camille uttered those words to me.
I steadied my breath. “What do you know about Tim and the tickets?” I asked.
Camille spat out. “That mother fucker gave one to me!”
“Oh, no…”
“No, Jim,” Camille said. “I mean, he looked so confident when he gave it to me. I looked at it for a second, not believing it, when I realized that if I didn’t pretend to react, he’d know that there’s something special about me.”
“You went along with it?”
“He just asked for a blow job. He told me to go into the bathroom and blow him. I’ve done worse before.”
“And you did?” I asked, looking at Camille’s outfit. Although I now knew that it was Sherry with Tim during lunch, it seemed to be an automatic response.
“He tried to make me go into boys’ room, but since he wasn’t specific when he asked me, I told him that I’d only do it in the girls’ locker room,” Camille explained. “He almost gave me another ticket, but decided that he wouldn’t mind visiting there after all. I chose that room because I knew the coaches don’t have class during second period. Anyway, I did him, and he wasn’t very nice about it. He has a mouth on him. I would be damned if I gave him anything good, though, which is probably why he complained so much.”
I shook my head.
“Fuck him!” Camille spat again. “Anyway, he tells me that he heard that I should be better, and that I’m a prissy cunt. He then gives me another fucking ticket, and tells me to practice improving my oral skills every night, to learn how to deep throat, and to be ready for him on Saturday.”
“Saturday?” I asked, confused.
“My cousin Jackie is throwing a party, and he must have found out from one of the cheerleaders. I was going to invite you and Kristen, and then this asshole comes up and makes me blow him during second period. I was steaming mad when I got to the lunch room during the next period, when Maria told me to tell Jackie that she invited Tim Hawking.”
“Oh, fuck! Maria, too?”
Camille nodded. “I went looking for you during fourth period. I saw Kristen and Patty, but you were nowhere to be seen. Then I saw you come out of the boys’ room. I was about to run after you when I saw Sherry leave, closely followed by Tim! I hid so that Tim didn’t see me, but I was floored—I thought you and Tim were in cahoots, trying to bang the entire cheerleading squad. I was about to figure a way that I could slice the dicks off of the two of you when I realized that you knew that the tickets don’t work on me.”
I winced at Camille’s description of her concept of vengeance. Camille and Lynette were both quite protective of their squads.
“I didn’t have any idea about Tim, except that I heard him with somebody when I was in the boys’ room. He was quite rude and it embarrassed me. I left before he knew I was in there—it was uncomfortable for me to be there. I didn’t realize he was with Sherry until just now.”
“How the fuck did he get your tickets?” Camille asked.
My eyes shot open—Camille was right! I fumbled for my attaché case, and opened it. I looked for and found my tickets. “They’re here,” I said. “Did the tickets that Tim give you disappear?”
“Um, no,” Camille said. “They only disappear when they’re used. He didn’t use his…”
Camille opened her purse and pulled out two tickets. I looked at the numbers. “196 and 197.”
I looked at my roll. I knew that I didn’t use nearly two hundred of them. I saw that the first one was 38.
“He didn’t get them from my roll,” I said.
“There are two rolls of tickets?” Camille asked, suddenly horrified.
“I don’t know,” I said.
For all I knew, there could be hundreds of them. I didn’t want to consider that right now in front of Camille, who felt herself a victim of them. Even two rolls were bad enough.
Suddenly, something else fell into place. “Wait. Did you say that Tim asked you to practice giving head?”