Walking along, I searched for the door he’d mentioned. And right on, that door was just behind the lockers. Not that I actually believed he had passed across the wall. From the outside, it carried the sign Cleaning Department. It turned out that the one where I actually expected Grayson to enter was the back door of the cleaning department.
Oh, great. Next time, I should read the signs first.
And KN was right again. The gym locker room was on the other side. Without another thought, I hurriedly ran towards it. It was already seven-fifteen in the morning. I was supposed to meet Grayson at seven.
Opening the door, I scanned the room. There were about ten heads in the room, but no Grayson Phillips.
“Hey, man!” Jayden, who was shirtless, greeted me.
“Hey,” I said back, walking around to see if I’d missed Grayson or something. Ending up with no Grayson in the room, I sighed. There was no point in finding Grayson now, anyway. The room wasn’t as vacant as it supposedly was at seven in the morning. I knew I should have picked a less conspicuous spot. However, I didn’t, thinking that maybe Grayson would think I was some freak who wanted to corner him in the middle of nowhere.
But hey, Grayson already knew I wasn’t capable of hurting a fly. I couldn’t even punch. Anyway, it was now a lost cause. I was the one who had picked this spot. It was also I who had gotten confused and ended up in the cleaning department.
“You’re up and early,” Jayden noted, as he put his shirt in place and found me standing still in one spot instead of moving around. Jayden having his shirt on was better. I couldn’t possibly hold my breath for long.
“Yup, early,” I repeated, anxiously smiling. I had my fair share of reasons why I was always more or less late for class, like the alarm clock terminator sharing the same room with me.
“People have a thing for their first PE class this year? Grayson’s surprisingly early, too.” Daniel got out of the shower, and he only had a towel hanging around his hips. “Water’s broke in my room.”
“You should have showered after the first period,” Jayden said. “Our instructor’s Mr. Flitch.”
“Damn, it’s him? This will be a good year!” Daniel said eagerly, walking towards his locker. I knew I should really get out of this place. Daniel was already in front of his locker, with his hands on the towel that was safely covering his lower body. Any minute now, my eyes would invade someone else’s privacy.
“Gotta go first. I’ll wait for you guys outside,” I hurriedly said.
Jayden was still saying something, but I hadn’t heard the rest of it. I just nodded and pretended to be in a real hurry to get out for whatever reason. Some other guys were changing as well. And with due respect, I shouldn’t be looking at their things, so I stumbled my way out of the room to the gymnasium.
I breathed.
Looking around, I couldn’t help but think how much I hated the gym. It was all about sweat, and nothing within that line that made me like it.
Feeling down for not being able to talk to Grayson this morning and having PE today, I found my way to the bench instead of joining the rest of the class gathering around in the center of the court. Since the instructor was finally back from attending a convention, the seniors got to have their PE class this year for real. We still had this period vacant for the past few weeks.
“Someone’s here early.”
“Surprisingly.”
I looked up and saw the most well-known senior duo: Austin and Christoffer. If they went to Heatherville High School, people would categorize them as heartthrobs, or simply guys that you would throw yourself at, no questions asked. But here, they just blended well with the rest—sluggish shirts and messed-up hair.
Christoffer asked me as he took a seat, “What’s with the paint on your shirt?”
“Paint?” I echoed, looking at my shirt. It was a blue paint on my left sleeve. “Where did I get this?”
“Beats me,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “So you like PE?”
I half-heartedly nodded, not wanting to elaborate the reason I was here this early.
“Then you must be the only one,” Austin said, sliding against the bench.
“There’s Daniel,” Christoffer commented. “He loves PE. He’s insane.”
“Only Daniel? You guys don’t like it?” I asked. In my old school, PE class was the only time that most of the guys had been attentive for the entire period. It’d never happened to any other class.
“Hardly,” Austin muttered.
“I’d rather sleep,” Christoffer said, stretching out his arms. And really, I felt the same way. I’d love to go back to bed.
“How about the quarterback? MVP?” I questioned them instead, suddenly feeling interested. No school would be complete without one of the major components of a school system—the jocks.
“None,” they both replied at the same time.
“Wait, I think we have one before.” Austin gave it a thought.
“Can’t remember,” Christoffer said.
“Why?” I asked again, completely unable to find a suitable reason for what they were saying.
“No one to impress, no effort needed,” Christoffer answered, folding the sleeves of his shirt and displaying his solid upper arms. They might not be interested in sports here, but they were all surely keeping their body in good shape, I noticed.
Picking himself up from his sluggish position, Austin looked in his bag. “Chris, did you bring the bottled waters?”
“It’s not there?” Christoffer turned his gaze to him, bending a little since they were sitting apart with me in between.
“Nope.”
Christoffer pulled his bag that was slacking near my feet. He unloaded everything by turning it inside out. One by one, his things fell to the ground. Now that was one quick way of finding a missing water bottle. “Not here, either.”
“Man, we got to have one!” Austin looked as if it would be the end of the world if he didn’t have a water bottle with him.
“What’s with the water?” I asked the two, looking from one to the other.
“You don’t know Mr. Flitch. He’s a monster,” Austin said. “Gonna grab two. Want one, Jules?”
“Sure,” I needlessly replied. The look on his face was earnest, like we desperately needed those bottled waters. “Um, thanks, man.”
“Is he that bad?” I asked Christoffer. “Mr. Flitch?”
After waving to Jayden, who was heading in our direction, Christoffer answered, “You just have to know for yourself. Do you have stamina? You’ll need it.”
“Stamina?” I repeated. “Nope, I don’t have that. I have the stamina of an old lady. Not a sports guy.”
“Good luck with that,” Christoffer said, getting up from his seat.
I stood up as well.
Jayden joined us. “You’re up to no good, Jules. You’ll wish that you’re Daniel when you’re in this class.”
“Is this class that bad?”
“Oh yeah,” Jayden said, putting his arm over my shoulders and pulling me to the rest of the group. Christoffer followed along, leaving their bags on the bench.
I saw KN from the group that had just entered the gym. He was walking alone, ignoring others like always. He was really one snob human being. Nobody acted friendly with him, either. The deadly look in his eyes could shoot someone dead.
A loud whistle resounded, and everyone gathered in the middle. I saw a glimpse of Mr. Flitch. He wasn’t as horrifying as I’d assumed him to be. Not a monster, either. He had the same uniform that we had, but his shirt had the word Coach behind it. It wasn’t until he spoke that I came to know why they had said that I was up to no good, especially if I had the stamina of an old lady.
“Twenty laps around the court. Go!” Mr. Flitch announced. Everyone groaned, except for Daniel, who was enthusiastic about the whole thing.
“Twenty?” I asked Jayden, wondering if I’d only heard it wrong. We were not varsities out here. We were normal students who had to endure a two-hour PE class every Tuesday morning, especially since it was scheduled for first period.
“Come on, boys! Pick yourselves up. The gym will be decorated for the exhibit. They won’t wait for you to finish those twenty laps,” Mr. Flitch shouted, whistling after.
I heard a few more groans before someone started moving. Namely, it was Daniel. It was really a good thing that I’d accidentally found that the cleaning department had a nice and usually vacant bathroom, as KN had indicated a moment ago. I would need that after this period. Going back to the dorm would be a hassle, and that would definitely make me late for the next period.
And so I breathed, deeply. I had a few things bothering me right now: Grayson’s knowing my secret, my portrait by the masked guy to be revealed in that exhibit, and the twenty laps that I had to finish in whatever way possible.
Yes, I’d probably crawl.
FINDING FINN JOURNAL NO. 9
-talk to grayson
-save my face from being exhibited
-crawl a mile
Comments (0)
See all