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On Monday morning, Emily found a very excited Chloe in her classroom.
“Guess what!” Chloe chirped.
“What?”
“Thomas asked me to go to the prom with him.”
Emily was stunned. “Really?”
“Really. I mean, he didn’t do it romantically or anything. He just said, ‘Hey, you wanna go to prom?’”
“And you said yes?”
“Of course.”
“Whom did you go to prom with last year?”
“Thomas.”
Emily laughed.
“What?” Chloe asked, looking suspicious.
“Nothing. Just island life is all.”
“We’ve been friends a very long time.”
“I see. And how long have you wanted to be more than friends?”
Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know. Not sure I do want that.”
“Can I ask, Chloe, does your mom mind you hanging out with Thomas?"
Chloe looked confused.
“I mean, because of all the windmill stuff. I have surmised that she’s not a big fan of Travis.”
“Oh, she hates Travis. But she doesn’t mind Thomas. She was friends with his mom.”
“Interesting. Well, good. Where is Thomas anyway?”
“I don’t know. He’s here somewhere; he gave me a ride.”
Thomas never appeared before class, and then he was late for second period. When he did show up, he wouldn’t make eye contact. Emily got the sense that she’d done something horribly wrong, but she couldn’t imagine how she’d offended him. He was still behaving strangely during seventh period, when he came back to her room for creative writing.
Even Duke noticed. “Why so quiet, Payne? Windmill stress got you down?”
Emily didn’t like his tone and told him as much. “None of this is Thomas’s fault, Duke. He’s not putting up windmills.”
“No, but he’s certainly going to benefit from this island’s destruction.”
Thomas didn’t even flinch at Duke’s attack, so Emily let it go. When the bell rang, she said, “Thomas, can you hang on for a second?”
He stopped, but he still didn’t look at her.
“Are we OK?”
He gave a fake laugh. “Of course.”
“OK, because if I’ve done something to upset you, I don’t know about it.”
He didn’t say anything.
“And I would want to know about it. So I could apologize.”
He finally looked at her but the usual spark in his eyes was replaced by an uncharacteristic sadness. “You didn’t do anything.”
“OK,” Emily said and then, because she didn’t want to give up, she said, “you can talk to me about anything, you know. I will try to help, whatever it is.”
“I know,” he said and made a beeline for the door.
He didn’t show up to practice either. Emily called Chloe over. “Do you know what’s wrong with Thomas?”
“No?” Chloe looked alarmed.
“I don’t mean to scare you. I’m sure it has nothing to do with you. But he swears he’s not mad at me but acts like he is. I just want to know what’s wrong, so I can help. Even if it’s none of my business, I still want to help.”
“OK, I’ll ask.”
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The next morning, Chloe came to Emily’s room alone again. “How are you doing, Chloe?”
“OK, but you’re right, something is up with Thomas. He swears up and down he’s not mad at you, but he wouldn’t tell me what’s going on either.”
“OK,” Emily said, pushing her chair back from her desk and standing, “where is he?”
“In the gym, I think.”
“Let’s go get him.” Chloe followed her out of the room. Emily looked back at her, “Or if you’re embarrassed to be part of this intervention, I can do this alone.”
“Don’t be weird. I’m not embarrassed.”
But Thomas certainly appeared to be. “I really can’t talk right now,” he said, looking around nervously.
“What? Why?” Emily asked. “You’re standing here all by yourself.”
Thomas looked at her. “Please,” he said gravely, “just leave me alone.”
“If I leave you alone, I’m calling your dad. I am genuinely—”
“No, don’t call my dad. Fine. I’ll come talk to you. Just go to your room.” He looked tortured. “Please,” he added.
Emily and Chloe returned to Emily’s room and waited. But he never showed.
Chloe reappeared after first period, though, looking considerably more somber than she had earlier. “OK, he told me what’s going on. And I get it. I get why he can’t tell you. And I am begging you to stay out of it. I am begging you to just trust us.”
They stared at each other for a moment. Then Emily said, “No.”
“No? You can’t trust us?”
“I do trust you. Now you need to trust me. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“We do trust you. That’s why we can’t tell you. I’m sorry, Miss M, but this will all be over soon.” And she was off down the hall.
Thomas skipped his English class altogether, so at lunchtime, Emily wandered down to the gym to see if he was eating. He wasn’t there. Emily saw something else interesting, though. A bunch of kids were crowding around Tyler, looking at something on his phone and laughing. Emily snuck up behind them to take a peek. And though she couldn’t get a good look, she thought she was seeing two people, one holding the other up, the other appearing unable to hold themselves up. “I’ll take that,” Emily said and reached for the phone.
A few kids made dramatic ooooo noises, as though Tyler were in big trouble, but most of the kids scattered silently. Emily saw Chloe looking at her, and she looked as though she was going to be sick. Emily moved the phone closer to her eyes, rewound the video, and pressed play.
Oh no. It was Juniper. Her legs like floppy puppet legs, her mouth hanging open, one hand still clutching a forty, her neck like jello, her head resting on a shoulder that wasn’t quite in the frame—and then it was. The shoulder belonged to her first baseman. You’ve got to be kidding me. And then on the heels of that, This is what Thomas couldn’t tell me. She was struck with a sudden fear that her entire team had been at this party, and she exited out of the video to swipe left and then right. Lots of pictures. A few more videos. Thomas was in one of them. But none of her other girls were featured. Just Juniper and Jasmine. She looked up at them, and they were looking right at her.
Her first thought was that she needed advice. She wished she had an athletic director. She wished James wasn’t out in the middle of the ocean. But then she thought, I can do this myself. I know what I have to do. I don’t have a choice. There’s nothing to debate. But first, she had to review the athletic contract they had all signed.
Trouble was, she’d turned them all into the office, she didn’t know where Thomas had gotten a blank copy, and she couldn’t exactly ask him right then. For lack of any better options, she went to Kyle’s classroom. “Hey, what’s the consequence for breaking an athletic contract?”
“What, you mean, here? Nothing!”
“That’s not true. The kids all sign a contract that says they won’t smoke or drink during the season. What happens if they do?”
He snorted. “And I’m telling you that no matter what they sign, nothing happens. Milton used to drink with the girls.”
“I’m not Milton,” she snapped.
“No, indeed you are not. Don’t you have a copy of this contract?”
“I do not,” she said, embarrassed, “and I don’t want to have to ask Julie for a copy, because then she’ll want to know why I need it.”
He stood up. “I’ll go find one.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know—who are we kicking off the team?”
She scowled at him.
He laughed. “Yeah, I’ll go get one. I’ve figured out how to charm Julie after all these years.”
She was skeptical. But she was also grateful. “I’ll be in my room.”
“OK. But then you’ve really got to tell me who we’re kicking off the team.”
