My Deadly Secret Admirer..

Chapter 10: Not Clark!

Chapter 10

Not Clark!

After School, I was packing up my backpack at my locker when Sami came running up to me."You aren't leaving are you?"

I zipped my backpack shut. "Yes. Leaving." I said. "That's what I usually do after school."

She said something else, shouting over the loud voices in the crowded hall. I didn't hear her. I was watching a scene at the other end. Two girls held a boy by the arms while a third poured a bottle of water over his head.

"What is that about?" I asked nodding my head towards the scene.

Sami glanced over her shoulder as the boy grabbed the bottle away and began spraying it on the girls. She quickly turned back to me.

"Freshmen," she muttered. "They're animals."

"Sami, what do you want?" I wasn't in a good mood. Clark and I haven't talked to each other in a week. Plus Matt has been in a pleasant mood lately, despite the bruises on his face. And then Mr. Sarchard gave us a pop quiz about the problems.

Sami tugged my arm. "You can't go home, Nikki. You have to come to the gym. It's the team's last practice before the tournament!" She exclaimed cheerfully.

"No I can't. I have to study for the trigonometry quiz this coming Tuesday. I can't afford to fail on this one," I insisted. "And I have to give Clark's stupid sweater back."

"Still mad at each other?" Sami raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," I said flatly. "He's such a jerk. He knew that if he kept going he-" I lower my voice "was going to kill Matt."

"Must have been a good fight," she grinned. "But what I still don't understand is how Matt could have left without you noticing. I mean the only way going out of the girls locker room is by passing the office and you were there."

"Weird," I wondered. I kept thinking about it over and over since it happened, but I still couldn't come up with an answer. I saw Matt unconscious on the floor! Next thing I knew he wasn't there anymore. What's worse is that Ms. Harris thought I was hallucinating or something. She probably thinks I'm drugs. The only thing we saw there instead of that bloody Matt was the towel, folded nicely...

"Come on," Sami urged tugging my arm. She had her pleading looking. "The guys need a big send-off. A lot of kids are there already. Come on, Nikki. Do it for Clark, okay?"

"Okay. Okay," I said irritated. I glanced at my watch "I'll stay a short while."

"Excellent!" She pulled me to the gym. "See you in a minute. I've got to round up some others."

I watched her run through the hall. Weird, I thought. Since when does Sami get excited about sports?

I pushed opened the double door to the gym. I was greeted by cheers from the bleachers and the thud of the basketball being dribbled up and down the count. On the corner of the bleacher a group of boys were huddled together as they passed down a small brown paper bag. One of them kept glancing both ways nervously.

Clark caught a glimpse of me and waved to me as he dribbled slowly to the foul line. I hurried across the floor to the bleachers on the other side of the gym. I saw twenty or thirty kids spread out on the metal benches, cheering the team, talking, and laughing.

Four guys were huddled together at the top, passing a big bag of potato chips back and forth, not paying attention to the practice.

Halfway up, I spotted Justin and Richard Garvin. Kristen sat one bench below. Justin kept messing up her hair, and slapped his hand away.