Crenshaw had blue eyes and a short haircut styled with gel. He stroked his goatee, which was no more than the thin beginnings of a bird nest. “Now we get to know each other.”

“You’re not gonna make me lay down on a couch and have me tell you about my mother?” Danny had seen shrinks on TV.

Crenshaw’s face became serious. “Do you want to tell me anything about your mother?”

“No.”

“Fine.” Crenshaw leaned toward him. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

Danny snorted softly. “I’m fine, so . . .”

Danny made a zero with his thumb and forefinger and looked through the hole at the counselor.

Crenshaw was unfazed by Danny’s refusal. He leaned back and sat watching and smiling. Danny put down his zero and smiled back until he got annoyed. “This is what you do? You sit and stare?”

“I’m happy to do whatever you’d like to do. This is your time. Would you like to go to my office?”

“Why?”

Crenshaw shrugged and looked around. “It’s a little less sterile. I’ve got some games.”

“Games?” Danny wrinkled his face. “What, like Chutes and Ladders? Hungry Hungry Hippos?”

“No, but I could get those if that’s what you want.” Crenshaw said it with a straight face.

“I bloodied someone’s face,” Danny said, wanting to provoke him. “You think I play baby games?”

“I prefer Rummikub or Yahtzee, but I’m happy to do whatever.”

“Great.” Danny stood up. “Whatever is I go to the library and you play . . . What’d you say? Rummy Cube? Or Kamikaze? Whatever floats your boat. Sound good?”

Crenshaw stood up too. He walked past Danny and opened the door as the principal began the announcements. “Come on. We’ll go to my office.”

“I thought you said ‘whatever’?” Danny followed him into the hall, feeling free already.

“Whatever, together.” They didn’t go far before Crenshaw used a key to open a faded wooden door with no lettering. “Come on in.”

Crenshaw’s office was cool from the AC. It had one shaded window and a fish tank on top of the bookshelf. Along one wall was that couch Danny expected, but in the corner opposite Crenshaw’s desk was a table with two chairs. A plastic chess set showed a game at its midpoint. On the shelves beside it were other games Danny didn’t recognize. Board games were for kids. “No Xbox?”

Crenshaw took the chair behind his desk and put up his feet. “No electronics. School rules, not mine.”

“Otherwise you’d have, what? A computer chess game?” It bothered Danny that the school counselor was so calm and comfortable. “Some lame TV show? Family Feud?”

“Nah, I’m an Xbox guy. Assassin’s Creed, some NBA2K. Halo if I’m on with my brother. He lives in Seattle.” Crenshaw pointed at the shelves. “But here it’s all chess and Rummikub.”

Danny flopped down on the couch. “No thanks. I’ll just sit.”

“You can read.” Crenshaw pointed at the books.

Danny laughed out loud.

“No?” Crenshaw looked at him sharply. “That’s not something you do?”

Danny felt his spine stiffen.

“We could talk,” Crenshaw said.

Danny scowled. “I’ll read.”

“Have at it.” Crenshaw held out an open palm toward the books.

Danny saw a purple cover. He pulled it out. A knight on horseback with his sword drawn surveyed a distant castle where a dragon sailed among the clouds. Danny opened the book, studying the words.

Crenshaw sighed and took out a book of his own.

Every so often, Danny would turn a page. In between he thought about what happened to Markle, how it was just a fight, how he felt fine and didn’t get the big deal. He thought first period would never end.

Finally the bell rang and Danny scrambled for the door.

“You’ll need to check into the office to get your locker.” Crenshaw lowered his book, but otherwise sat unmoving behind the desk. “And I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Danny broke free and put distance between him and the counselor’s office because no way did he want people thinking he was a mental case. His teeth were clenched and he hammered a random locker with the soft part of his fist. It produced a satisfying crash, drawing stares from students entering the hallway. Danny warned them with a glare. He knew how quickly word of his thrashing Markle had spread. It would get out even quicker about Crenshaw.

He stomped toward the main office. He’d get his locker, dump his stuff, then find Janey as soon as he could. Janey was smart. She was clever. She’d know how to help him, because he was pretty determined that he was not going back to Crenshaw’s.

Even if it meant doing something extreme.