Monday Morning: April 4th
“Hey killer.”
I didn’t have to look around the door of my locker to know Alex was leaning against the expanse of gray metal running down the hallway.
“What’s up?” I didn’t bother with any sort of enthusiasm, not even to glare at the sophomore girl in an almost-too-short-for-the-dress-code khaki skirt giving Alex a shy smile as she walked by. His spine straightened slightly as he noticed, but otherwise he didn’t react. He didn’t push one of the curly strands of chocolate brown hair off of his forehead, or flex his arm muscles like he’d done last year before he started hooking up with Sarah.
“You’re looking good these days,” Alex said. He eyed my fitted red button-down shirt where it fastened across my chest. I regretted stuffing my navy school cardigan onto the top shelf of my locker instead of wearing it.
“What do you want? And chill with the flattery. It won’t get you anywhere.” I shut my locker after shoving my American History textbook into my bag.
“So I have an idea, and since you’re the devious one in the group, I wanted to talk it over with you,” Alex said. “Plus, flattery will get me everywhere. Got me out of a pop quiz earlier today.”
“Coach Johnson’s health class? Please.”
“Nah, not his class. Ms. Erikson’s English class. She practically swooned when I told her I was taking care of my sick mother instead of studying last night.”
“Your mother moved away years ago!”
“Erickson’s new, and doesn’t know that,” Alex said. He had his I’m-king-of-the-school look on his face. He followed alongside me as I walked toward my next class. His mother escaped town when we were nine and left Alex with his dad when she took a job in Panama. Or Peru. Some country that started with a P. She stopped by every summer and sent a gift on his birthday.
“Really, let’s talk.” Alex shoved me into Coach Johnson’s office, which was empty, even though the door was open. He followed me in and pulled the door shut behind him.
“I have to get to class. If I get detention, I’ll be late for practice,” I said. My soccer coach was serious about us being on time, and being late usually meant you’d be benched for the next game. There’s no way I’d open the door to Sarah starting before me, even though our coach would pull her after a few minutes and put me in after he’d made his point.
“Don’t worry. I know where Johnson keeps his excuse slips, and he signs them in advance. You’re covered.”
I sat on Coach Johnson’s desk as Alex sat down in his chair across the small office. “Go for it. Although if I get in trouble I’m taking you down with me.”
“I would expect nothing less,” Alex said. “So—my idea.”
He glanced at the door, and scooted closer to me. “We’ve hit up all our houses, right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“So we need a new challenge. Something more difficult than just entering our own homes,” Alex said.
“We need to be careful,” I said. “Someone’s going to catch on. The police will connect the break-ins back to us. Eventually. Someone’s going to figure out we’re all friends.”
“You’ve already been thinking about this.” Alex sounded like he approved. “I’ve thought of that, too. Which is why I have a new idea. Something that will throw suspicion off of us.”
I motioned for him to go on.
“We need new targets. Options not too close to us. But look around—we have plenty of leads.”
“Explain.” I crossed my legs at the ankle, and Alex leaned in so closely he was almost touching my khaki encapsulated knee.
“It’s simple: let’s find out who’s going out of town, and break in to their houses,” Alex said. “If we listen, we can find new houses.”
“Hmm.” My legs brushed against Alex’s shirt as I recrossed my ankles and leaned back against the desk. “You know, the girl whose locker is next to mine is going to Disneyworld next week. I know her locker combo—and she keeps a spare key in there.”
“How do you know her combination?” Alex asked.
I shrugged. “She kept whispering it at the beginning of the school year. She’s not very good with locks—she still has trouble opening it. She wanted to get her lock swapped out with a key. She’s in my Web-design class and asked for next week’s assignments so she won’t get behind.”
“Do they have an alarm?”
“No idea. But we can always bolt if they do.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alex said. “But we should up the ante a little bit. Steal some bigger items.”
“But with the same terms.”
“Do you mean only stealing replaceable things?” Alex turned his head slightly as he studied me.
“Yeah.”
“For sure. Those are easier to fence anyway. Less distinctive. Unlike the stupid Rolex Sarah stole. Did you know those have registration numbers? I checked. It’d be traced back to us so I need to figure out how to offload it.”
I shrugged. “Put in a donation box or something?” Its not like we needed the money, although it would buy a lot of beer. Since it was the offseason for Alex, and always the offseason for un-athletic Benji and Paisley, they could take something stronger without running the risk of failing a team drug test. Not that I did drugs, period.
“Nah, that’d be a waste. I’ll think of something.” He leaned in closer to me. “I’m taking some stuff from Sarah and Benji’s hauls to pawn to the city tomorrow. You want to come?”
I shook my head. “Practice game against the B-team.”
“That’s why I stopped playing soccer. You’re crazy for playing year round.”
I shrugged. “The Earth would stop rotating if I quit.” My father’s if-you-quit-soccer-my-head-will-explode expression from when I brought up not playing spring soccer crossed through my mind. I knew he wanted to be able to brag about his daughter getting a full athletic scholarship to school, and playing for the best club in the area along with being a four-year-high school starter were the first steps.
“So when does what’s-her-name fly to Florida?”
“Saturday morning.”
Alex’s smile was feral. “Then let’s hit it up Saturday evening or Sunday. I’ll text later and we’ll set something up.”
“I’ll need to get the key,” I said, thinking of my weekend plans. I was supposed to take Maggie to her soccer game on Saturday morning. Other than that the time spread out before me in a blank canvas. A project with Alex sounded like the perfect way to fill some time until Gin returned.
“Can you get it Friday afternoon after practice?” Alex asked. “After she leaves for the week?”
“We’re practicing across town.”
“Maybe you can leave a book behind and have to swing by? Doors don’t lock until five, and besides you can always sweet-talk the janitor into letting you in again.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said. “Now write me a pass so I can get into class.”
“What’s the rush?” his voice was a little husky.
I laughed. “Drop the Don Juan act and help me out. I need to do well in this class.” I didn’t add that history was actually my favorite. I even finished the reading ahead of time.
“If you insist.” Alex’s hand brushed my knee as he reached under and pulled open a drawer. He extracted a stack of yellow slips, and filled out my name. He was right; Coach Johnson had already signed them.
“Here you go.” As he handed me the slip, he gave me the same look I’d seen him give Sarah before, as well as countless other girls crushing on him. “Although we could have some fun.”
I stood up, and pushed him backwards. “Save it for someone else. Your charm doesn’t work on me.”
Alex gave an exaggerated sigh and put his hands over his heart, but stepped out of the way. I left the office without looking back.
***
Later Monday Evening
I’d left my laptop open on my desk and facing the bed. The icon for a video chat program popped up. I dropped my novel for English, which I hadn’t opened, although I’d stared at the front cover of hypnotic circles-within-circles for a while, and jumped across the bedroom.
I accepted the request from “SuperGin” and swiveled my laptop to face the other direction so I could sink down into the leather desk chair.
“Hey.” Gin smiled at me from some ski resort in Canada. Light green walls behind him showed off his skin, permanently a few shades darker than my summer tan. A knit navy beanie covered his close-cropped black hair. A white headboard and a painting of a sunset adorned the wall behind him.
“Hey, yourself. Having fun on the slopes?”
“You know it. Snowboarded from eight a.m. until they closed and kicked me off of the mountain.”
“Wish I was there.” I smiled back at Gin, feeling the sun had just come out after a thunderstorm.
“Maybe I’ll convince my parents to invite you next year.”
I laughed before being able to gasp out, “Good luck.” I imagined Gin’s dad’s reaction to bringing his son’s girlfriend to something he referred to as “family-time.” I’d long ago realized that was code for “no Harper.”
“So how’s it going? You piss anyone off since we last talked?” His eyes studied me, clearly expecting me to answer yes.
I relaxed into the chitchat, recounting my day to Gin, until he asked the question I’d been waiting for. I stiffened in my chair.
“So did Sarah do it?” He glanced around and relaxed slightly, like he was confirming he was alone.
“Yeah,” I said. “She kept to the rules, and returned your key and code to Benji. It’s back in the box. So we’re all good.”
“What’d she take?”
“Well…” I picked up a pen from my desk and clicked it open, and then clicked it shut.
“Come on, Harper, don’t fail me now. Just say it.” There was a serious note under a joking tone in Gin’s voice, like he’d wanted me to bring this up ever since we started chatting. I put the pen down and picked up a pencil sharpener shaped like a robot, and then put it down, too. I took a deep breath and heard Gin take a similar breath on the other side of the connection.
“Your mother left her diamond watch behind.”
“Fuck.” He squeezed his eyes shut and tapped his head in the palm of his hand.
“Want me to return it? I can.” I almost added, “Just like the flash drive,” but I bit the words off before they exited my mouth. Gin didn’t need to know we’d seen some bam chicka bam bam photos of his mom. I crossed my fingers under the desk, hoping he wouldn’t work out that I was accidentally-on-purpose leaving something out.
Gin eyed me across our respective WiFi networks like he knew I was leaving something out. “Maybe…”
My voice sounded slightly breathless as I broke in. “Alex still has everything. He said he was going to pawn it later this week. The rest of the stuff wasn’t that big of a deal. Some candlesticks. Small stuff.”
Gin was silent. He sported a pensive look as he weighed his options. I wished he was close enough to touch instead of having to talk across hundreds of miles.
“You’re so good at the whole thinking before leaping thing…Sorry, didn’t meant to say that out loud,” I said.
Gin snorted. “Don’t worry about the watch,” he said. “It makes the burglary believable.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t sound sure to me, and he still looked tentative. I was about call him out on it but then he said, “So, you have a game tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah, and Maggie’s playing on Saturday. She might even start.”
“Fantastic! Tell her—”
“Gordon, I need you. Now.” Gin’s mother’s voice screeched through the speakers. She must have been standing on the other side of his laptop because I could see her reflection against the wall like a shadow puppet show.
“Sorry, I have to go. See you Sunday?” He leaned in closer. His face covered my entire screen.
“Of course.” I said, even though Sunday was six long days away. “Let me know if you change your mind—” He winked at me, and was gone.
I sighed, wishing we’d had our usual game of “No, you log-off first.” The heaviness surrounding me all day fell over me again like early morning fog. Should I really break into Marisa’s locker, let alone her house? I should have asked Gin what he thought. He always sees things I miss.
Why was I worrying about this? It’s not like we were hurting anyone. Look at what happened when my house was hit. Daniel would have gone back to rehab anyway. Granted he hadn’t stolen anything this particular time but it’s not like my parents would ever have trusted him again anyway.
It’s not like he hadn’t stolen from me before. Like the birthday and Christmas money I’d saved up when I was fifteen. The Vicodin from when I’d broken my arm. Besides, he needed to go back to rehab. He had slid back into his world of hard-core drugs. It was inevitable.
Marisa’s house was a challenge, and like Alex had promised: We wouldn’t liberate anything her family couldn’t replace.