“Um . . . would you believe by . . . accident?”
“By accident?! But, HOW?”
“Well, I was looking for my, um . . . math book, and I leaned over and fell in, and, um . . . somehow the door slammed closed and I ended up trapped inside. That’s exactly what happened. Kind of . . .”
Erin just stared at me in disbelief like I had a two-pound booger dangling out of my nose.
“Oh, really? Puh-leeze, Max! You actually expect me to believe that?”
Then she rolled her eyes at me so hard, I thought they were going to pop out and roll down the hall.
“Look, I don’t mean to get into your business, but if someone did this to you, you owe it to yourself to report them. If NOT, lurking inside your locker like some kind of creepy, freaky . . . locker vampire could be dangerous! I suggest you get some psychiatric help. FAST! At least maybe talk to the school counselor or someone. I really need to get going. I think I left something in the library, and my parents are going to have a meltdown if I don’t find it. Bye.”
She turned and rushed down the hall.
“Erin, wait! I, um . . . just wanted to let you know that I’m still willing to help out with your play. I can stay after school next week. And I paint really fast, so . . .”
Erin stopped and spun around to face me.
“Thanks, Max. But the play . . . it got, um . . . canceled,” she answered, and stared at the floor.
“Oh, I didn’t know! I’m really sorry to hear that,” I muttered, wanting to kick myself.
“Hey, I gave it my best shot. Besides, there’s always next year.” She shrugged. “I guess I owe you an apology for the way I acted. I had just gotten the bad news from my advisor and was a little upset. But still, that’s no excuse.”
“No problem at all.” I smiled. “I was just trying to help.”
Then we both just kind of stood there, looking at each other and not saying anything.
AWKWARD!!
I was about to mention the fact that I was seriously thinking about joining the computer club, when Erin finally broke the silence.
“Well, be careful! And don’t go accidentally falling into any more lockers. Because, dude, that’s just BEYOND WEIRD. See you.”
I watched as she disappeared down the hall.
Did Erin just call me . . .
Yep! She DID!
Okay, so why did I suddenly feel like crawling BACK into my locker and slamming the door?
I sighed and grabbed my backpack.
As I looked at the clock near the main office a new sense of dread spread over me, and my stomach started to churn.
I had gotten to school twenty minutes late and had been stuck in my locker for almost twenty minutes, which meant I had missed most of my first-hour math class.
I didn’t have a choice but to drag my butt back to the office and request a SECOND slip.
For being even MORE tardy! . . .
And since I’d probably already missed our math quiz, I was going to get an F and a note home to my parents.
Which wasn’t quite as horrible as the fact that Erin, the ONLY person in the entire school who’d even bothered to talk to me in the past two weeks (well . . . other than Thug), thought I was some kind of psychotic LOCKER VAMPIRE WEIRDO.
I hated to admit it, but maybe Erin was right about talking to someone about my Thug Thurston problem.
And since I was already in the office, I could just skip my science class and ask to see Ms. Robinson, the school counselor.
After I explained what happened to me this morning at school, she’d probably give me an excused pass AND authorization to make up my math quiz.
Everything would work out just fine!
UNTIL Thug found out that I’d RATTED on him!!
And BROKE BOTH MY ARMS!
The last thing I needed was for my parents to pull me out of middle school to be homeschooled by Grandma until I graduated from high school.
Suddenly, being stuck in my locker seemed like the LEAST of my problems.
The first class period wasn’t even over yet!
And my day was already in the TOILET! NOT going well!
