Oh, boy, that couldn’t be good.
“What about?” I asked.
“I don’t really want to know. She just asked me to tell you.”
“Couldn’t she have just left me a note in my locker like all my other stalkers?” I asked.
“Girls leave you notes?”
“I have a whole stack of them,” I admitted. “I can’t imagine why I would want to talk to my little brother’s ex. Speaking of which, do you know what’s up with Angie and Greg? Greg sent me a text that he wanted to talk to me.”
“I don’t really know,” Cassidy said, looking guilty.
Apparently, she knew something, but wasn’t talking.
“What about you?” I asked Paul.
“Your mom gave us orders not to talk to you about it. She said if you asked, to send you to her.”
I would wait to talk to Greg.
◊◊◊
We found Dare waiting for us at the back door. There were still people showing up at school, so my security team had been given keys to this door so I wouldn’t have to face the gauntlet out front. I noticed he didn’t have his coat on was as he stood there, shivering. By now, it had stopped raining, but it was cold enough he needed his jacket.
“Dare, where’s your coat?” I asked.
I had a moment of clarity in my relationship with Dare. It was almost as if I were practicing to be a dad with him.
“I forgot it,” he mumbled while looking at his feet.
“Darius,” I said with more authority because he was obviously lying.
This was good practice for when my munchkins got older.
“Pete took it.”
“Pete Yoder?” I asked.
He nodded. Pete was the bully who’d harassed Dare last semester. Pete and his posse had been warned what I would do if they continued to bully Dare.
“I’ve got this,” Cassidy said as she pushed past us.
It was probably best that she took care of it because I would have ended up suspended when I got hold of him.
Dare and I had just cleared the door when we heard the commotion.
“It’s mine now, bitch!”
“Fu …” I said and ran down the hall.
I arrived in time to see Pete take a swing at Cassidy as his two butt-buddies closed in on her. A white-hot rage filled me when his fist clipped her temple and staggered her. Just as I started to launch myself into the middle of the fight, Wolf tackled me. He almost got his butt kicked as we tumbled down in a heap.
From under Wolf, I heard the screaming start. It sounded like someone was gutting little girls. Wolf got tossed aside as I leaped up to go save my friend.
What I found was carnage. Pete was screaming as he held his arm, which stuck out at a funny angle. Butt-buddy One was clutching his throat as he turned purple, while Butt-buddy Two was curled up in a fetal position, gripping his crotch. Cassidy had a cut over her eye that bled profusely.
I got pissed when I spotted several of my teammates with their phones out, videoing what had happened instead of stepping in and helping Cassidy. I took my t-shirt off and pressed it to her eye because she was bleeding pretty bad.
Dare walked over to Pete and took his coat and book bag back. I shook my head in amazement when Dare scurried off to his locker to get ready for class. I guess he got what he needed. Yep, just like a kid.
◊◊◊
By lunchtime, news of the fallout from today started to leak out. Of course, everyone had been suspended for a minimum of three days because of the ‘no tolerance for fighting’ rule. Pete’s arm was broken, and both his accomplices had some bruising but would be fine. Cassidy had to get three stitches over her eye.
I secretly wanted to give her shit about letting Pete lay a glove on her. Cassidy had preached to me many times to take an opponent down hard to end a fight. From what I saw, she could have easily avoided Pete’s clumsy punch. I say secretly because I didn’t need her to show me the error of my ways if I pointed out what she’d done wrong.
When I got to lunch, I whistled loudly to get everyone’s attention.
“I want to make something clear to everyone. If you see a guy punch a girl and you do nothing about it, you will answer to me.”
“But it was Cassidy, and she had it taken care of,” someone was brave enough to say.
“I don’t care. Even Cassidy shouldn’t have to face three guys alone,” I said, showing my displeasure.
Everyone became silent until I moved to sit down. Tim, Wolf, Yuri, and Roc wouldn’t meet my eye because they could have helped.
“Gina, what dumb thing did Wolf say or do today?” I asked to change the topic.
◊◊◊
For tonight’s game, we were playing St. Joe’s B team. For some reason, they must have had most of their boys go out for baseball. They fielded three varsity-level teams, and this one was supposed to be their second best. All three St. Joe teams would be at our tournament this weekend.
We’d gotten off to a great start at 6–0. We’d won our game on Saturday 3–1 on Justin’s arm. Tonight, we were sending my brother Phil to the mound for his varsity debut. I wandered out to the bullpen to check up on him as he warmed up. The JV game had nearly finished, so we would play shortly.
“I hear my ex wants to talk to you,” Phil said and glanced over at me to gauge my reaction.
