After School Activities (3 page)

watching Adam bullying some poor little kid two years younger than

us, a kid who had no chance of defending himself, was torture. The

worst part was that I was doing it to spare the
bully’s
feelings. What the fuck was wrong with me?

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After School Activities

Right then, the new kid’s lunch tray flew through the air, knocked

out of his hands by Adam. From the table of freshmen, one of the kid’s

friends finally jumped up to go tell a teacher—things had gotten serious. I

saw Adam step closer to the kid, using his height to menace, a mean grin

on his face. Before I knew it, I was on my feet and halfway across the

lunchroom.

Behind me, I heard Kai mutter, “Finally.”

“You know what we do to little fag boys around here?” I’d gotten

close enough hear what Adam was saying. The new kid looked like he was

about to wet himself. Adam towered over him threateningly. Of course,

Adam wasn’t really gonna do anything. He’d never been one to actually

attack a kid; his bullying stayed purely in the realm of the verbal. But

while I knew this, the new kid definitely didn’t.

“Oh, Adam, when will you learn?” Adam turned to me, malicious

grin turning into a baleful frown. The new kid didn’t need my prompting

this time. As soon as his bully’s back was turned, he ran. “Beating up on

some poor kid will never make up for all the hugs Daddy never gave you.”

It took me a minute to piece out what happened next. The first thing

I noticed was that I was on the floor. The second, that everyone was

yelling. Pain came third. I looked up at Adam, shock and rage playing

across his face in equal parts.

“You punched me,” I finally managed to say.

“OF ALL the stupid thing you’ve done, Mr. Anderson, this has got to be

the worst.” Mr. Hayes had been berating Adam for the past five minutes

straight. We were back in his office, sitting in those same chairs. For a

second I could almost believe it was still yesterday, if it weren’t for the

pain in my jaw. “Coach Miller is going to have my head for this, but

unless you can think of a
very
good reason for me not to, I’m going to have to suspend you.”

“It wasn’t his fault.” I immediately regretted saying it. Talking hurt a

lot
right then.

“What?” Mr. Hayes and Adam said in unison. Their disbelief

sounded so identical I almost laughed. Almost.

“I moved forward at the last minute. I wasn’t supposed to. We’d

practiced this for weeks, but I got a little carried away and stepped

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Dirk Hunter

forward. And BAM, right in the jaw. Stupid mistake, really. That’s what I

get for being a little
too
into character, you know? Didn’t hit my mark, though Adam hit his perfectly. All my fault.” I realized I was babbling, so

I snapped my jaw shut, getting another wave of pain for my effort.

“What are you saying, Mr. O’Connor?”

“It was a fake punch. Or it was supposed to be. Thought it’d be

hilarious. We had this whole routine worked out. I was even gonna break a

chair over Adam’s back, just like in pro wrestling.” I could feel Adam

staring at me, but I kept my eyes fixed on Mr. Hayes. “No one knew, not

even Kai. It was going to be the best practical joke ever. No one was

supposed to realize it was fake until the chair bit. We’d have been the

coolest kids in school.”

Mr. Hayes passed his hands in front of his eyes and sighed.

“Fighting is no laughing matter, Mr. O’Connor.”

“Oh, I get that now, sir. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, right? It was

just a stupid drama-club bet, see who could do the most convincing scene

in public. Thought for sure I’d win; no one would suspect I’d team up with

Adam. Heck, maybe I’ll still win. Do you think a real punch disqualifies

me?” Mr. Hayes studied me intensely. I think he was waiting for me to

break, start laughing—something that would give away that I was lying. I

kept my face serious.

Finally he relented. “Alright, Mr. Anderson. Looks like you’re off

the hook. Next time, though, you might want to use a little bit more

common sense when it comes to what’s appropriate for the lunchroom.”

“Thank you, Mr. Hayes. I will.” He left.

“I don’t know what you’re playing at, Dylan—”

“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”

“—and I don’t want to know. I said I’d give you detention if you got

into any more shenanigans with Adam, and I meant it.” I winced. This was

exactly what I needed today. To my surprise, however, Mr. Hayes smiled.

“But it looks like you’ve gotten enough punishment for your foolishness

already.”

“Oh, I have. Honest.” I said with a laugh, which only hurt a little. I’d

figured out the trick of talking without moving my jaw very much. I

probably sounded more than a little mumbly. I stood up to leave, but Mr.

Hayes stopped me at the door.

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After School Activities

“Oh, Dylan,” he said, “next time I see you across my desk,

consequences will be dire.”

Outside the principal’s office, I found Adam waiting for me. He

didn’t say anything, though, just fell into step beside me as I made my way

to my locker. He kept glancing around the halls as though expecting

someone to jump out and catch him at something—hanging out with me, I

guess—but class had already started, and the halls were empty.

Finally, he opened his mouth to speak, stopped himself, looked back

at Mr. Hayes’s door, saw it was closed, and said, “Why did you do that for

me?” I was surprised to realize that I didn’t even need to think about the

answer. I had acted on instinct back there, without really knowing why.

But something about the way Adam asked—I’d never heard him speak so

softly before, so completely without scorn—made me realize in an instant.

“We’ve known each other since kindergarten, Adam. In all that time,

you’ve called me names, fired spitballs at me, shoved my head in a toilet

once, and you gave me wedgies for a week until I convinced everyone you

were secretly gay and just wanted your hand down my pants. You’ve

tripped me. You’ve pinched me. You’ve dumped things in my locker. But

you have never, ever hurt me.” I stopped walking, turned to Adam. He

refused to meet my eye. “See, I think I did something wrong. Crossed

some unwritten line of our little back-and-forth. I have no idea what that

line was—the whole lunch seems like a blur to me right now—but I think

I must have crossed it.”

Adam met my gaze for a second and looked away. He nodded. “It’s

not entirely your fault. I haven’t been myself lately.”

Wow. Was that magnanimity, from
Adam
? “Listen, if you ever need

someone to talk to….” What was I even saying?

Adam laughed bitterly. “Yeah, like I could trust you. Anything I told

you, you’d just throw back in my face, probably in front of everyone.”

I bristled at the accusation. Sure, I liked poking fun at Adam—who

wouldn’t?—but I’m not cruel. “Last December, you were a superdouche.”

Adam gave me an annoyed look and started to interrupt. “Let me finish. I

saw you go into the bathroom down by the band room, so I followed you

in to, I dunno, tell you that you had a stupid face or something. It was

probably really clever. But when I opened the door, I heard something I

never expected. I heard crying.” Adam was staring at me. It seemed he

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Dirk Hunter

remembered the day. “There was no one else in the bathroom, I’m sure of

it. I shut the door as quietly as possible, so you wouldn’t know you’d been

heard, and I left. I have never, until right this second, told anyone about

that. And I certainly haven’t thrown it in your face to score cheap points.

I’m not that guy. I
am
a good listener, however. Besides—” I smiled. “I already hate you, so you don’t have to worry about what I think, unlike

with your friends.”

Adam was giving me an inscrutable look. “Why do you care all of a

sudden?”

I shrugged. “I’ve always cared—hated, yes, but that’s still caring.

Hating you has been one of the most constant things in my life. I’d be

lying if I said I didn’t look forward to our verbal sparring every day. Over

the summer, I write insults on note cards to prepare for the school year. I

guess I just—” I hesitated. “—don’t want to lose that, okay?”

For the barest fraction of a second, it looked like Adam was going to

open up to me. But then the bell rang, the halls flooded with students, and

the spell was broken. His face hardened, and he practically ran in his haste

to get away from me.

“Weird,” I said aloud, to no one in particular. Were Adam and I

almost becoming friends? I laughed at the thought. Of course not. This

was
Adam
we were talking about here. At best we were negotiating a

truce.

14

After School Activities

CHAPTER THREE

AFTER SCHOOL there was a drama club meeting. Nothing important was

discussed; it was mostly a chance for us all to hang out, sometimes play

some improv games. For probably the first time, I found I didn’t really

want to be there. Not only did my jaw hurt, but I was too distracted; I

couldn’t seem to focus on anything. Eventually I just sat in the back of the

auditorium and waited. Kai was my ride home, so I couldn’t leave.

Whenever anyone would ask why I wasn’t participating—I’m usually the

life of the party—I’d point to my jaw and wince dramatically for effect.

Finally four thirty rolled around, and even the most die-hard drama

kids were ready to go home. We all sat outside in the grass surrounding

the auditorium as, one by one, parents came to pick up their kids. Soon it

was just me, Mel, and Kai, waiting for Mel’s parents to show up. They had

this bad habit of not showing up until well after five, but also forbade Mel

from riding in any other kid’s car. They didn’t even trust Kai. Or, perhaps,

especially
didn’t trust Kai. Even my two best friends seemed to believe that my silence stemmed from my jaw pain, so they let me sit in solitude.

“Tom was saying we’re going to be doing another musical,” Mel

said. “Oh God, that means we’ll all have to deal with Bitch Kathy acting

like a diva again,” Kai complained, lying on his back in the grass. Mel

punched him. “I mean, if you don’t get the lead, of course. Who knows?

They could choose
Screeching Harpy, the Musical
.” She punched him

again, laughing despite herself.

I watched a car start driving over from the direction of the football

field. When he heard it approach, Kai sat up, probably thinking it was

Mel’s parents. It was obviously not their car. The window rolled down. It

was Adam.

“Get in,” he said, looking right at me.

Kai scoffed. “Yeah right. Like that’s going to happen.”

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Dirk Hunter

“Come to think of it,” Mel said, her voice dripping in sarcasm,

“Dylan could use a matching bruise on the other side of his jaw.”

Adam gave no sign that he heard them. He just kept looking at me,

waiting. So I stood up and walked over.

“Dude, you can’t seriously be thinking about going with him.” Kai

jumped up and grabbed my arm. “He’s probably going to murder you and

use your skull as a football helmet.”

Normally Kai’s attempts at humor would at least make me smile, but

right then it just annoyed me. “Well, when they find my body, you’ll know

who did it. Case closed.” I got in the car and slammed the door. Through

the window, I said, “I’ll call you tonight.” Kai was staring at me like I’d

sprouted wings and started breathing fire. Mel was giving me that narrow-

eyed look she got when she thought she’d figured something out. I rolled

up the window, and Adam drove off.

He didn’t say anything. I didn’t either. What could I say? Clearly

he’d chosen to take me up on my offer. Well, if he wanted someone to

listen, then I’d listen. But as the silence stretched on and on, I began to get a little uncomfortable. He didn’t even have the radio going to relieve the

monotony. There were only the sounds of the car and the wind rushing by.

I looked over at Adam, but he kept his eyes firmly on the road ahead of

him, his jaw clenched so tight I could see his cheek muscles popping. Out

my window I noticed we were getting to the edge of town.

Okay, so maybe I hadn’t quite thought this through. Where were we

even going? To Adam’s house? It dawned on me I had no idea where

exactly that was. We weren’t headed toward a coffee shop or anything; the

only buildings we were passing were houses, and those were becoming

fewer and farther between. I thought about asking Adam where we were,

but I stopped myself. He seemed to be working something out in his head,

arguing with himself. So I decided to wait.

I didn’t need to wait much longer. We had entered a small wooded

area, the road becoming all long and winding. Eventually the woods cleared

a bit, leaving an open area maybe twenty yards across overlooking a small

lake. There were no houses on the lake. This spot seemed to be totally

secluded.
A perfect spot for a murder
, Kai’s voice whispered in the back of my head. I ignored it. Adam pulled off the road—there was a patch of