It Started with a Bet...

I shut the door and start walking through the near empty halls. School's over, so there are only a few people in the hallways.

"Haley, you're coming to tryouts, right?" Trevor's walking through the hallway, Christa by her side. Her face drops when she sees me. I take one quick look at the janitors’ closet.

"Yeah, maybe for an hour or so. I'll be there in a minute." He nods and the two walk away. I head to my car to drop my backpack off, only to find it littered with sticky notes.

"Keep away from Trevor, you whore."
"What makes you think you are worthy of Corey, bitch?"
"Corey and I are soulmates, don't you dare interfere."
"Stop bewitching Trevor!"
"You are fat, ugly, stupid, and disgusting. Stay in your league."

Remember when I said 99% of the single female population would date Trevor in a heartbeat? And that 20% of the taken female population would dump their guy for him? Apparently that population comes with a hell of a lot of crazy possessive people. I would say they were overreacting, but there's something else going on here, too.

It's mob mentality. Take a feeling most people have in moderation. Then use the excitement and passion that comes from being in a group of people who feel the same way to direct these hateful acts against me. This isn't a bunch of crazy people doing funny things on their own- it's a bunch of crazy people with some kind of direction, planning attacks on me. Is Christa behind this?

I'm heading over to the field when my phone rings.

"Hey, it's Clarice. You can let us out of the closet now." Eh?

"I didn't lock the door."

"Yes you did." I start walking over to the building with the closet. Why is the building locked? This isn't the building with the front office, so I can't just tap on the door to get the attention of the secretary. I explain the predicament to Clarice and tell her not to worry. I hang up.

I knock on windows, hoping a teacher will answer me. It's been 30 minutes since school ended, so there are still a couple on campus. But the blinds in each room are drawn, so they can't see me. It must seem like random mysterious knocking noise, if anyone’s even there to hear it. No one comes to the window. So I text Christa saying it might be a while before I can get into the building. An hour after waiting at the door, I get in when one of the teachers is leaving.

“Mr. Hudson, I accidentally left something in the janitors’ closet. Could you open the door for me?” My history teacher shakes his head.

“Only the janitors have the keys. Sorry. There should be a janitor around sometime soon though. What did you leave in there?”

“A couple friends.” He laughs and shakes his head.

“Nicely done.” And he leaves. I love how oblivious adults can be sometimes. I text Clarice again saying I’m in the building. Now to find a janitor…

There aren’t any in the building, so they must be cleaning elsewhere. I consider leaving the building to go find one, but if I don’t, there’s no guarantee I can get back in. So I sit outside the janitors’ closet, talking to Clarice and Matt. At first I was afraid I’d disturbed them, but I can hear them talking inside anyway.

“So, Clarice, want to explain everything to me?” I hear Matt’s deep, angry voice answer me.

“The picture is from when Janice and I were dating. She’s still mad at me for dumping her a while ago.”

“How did you guys get locked in?” There’s a long pause.

“I don’t know,” Clarice finally answers. “I asked Matt to explain himself and he did and then we…made up. We decided to go get pizza or something but the door was locked. So we called you. I’m so glad we get reception here.” I nod.

“Hella lucky. I’m surprised, actually. I wonder if it was just an accident…”

“Probably not,” Clarice answers.

“Why not?” Matt asks. I snort.

“Well, you obviously haven’t noticed, but Janice is kinda out to destroy your relationship.”

“And pretty much every girl on campus hates Haley,” Clarice adds.

“What does this have to do with Haley?” Matt asks. I agree.

“Well, is it normal for the building to be locked 30 minutes after school ends?” I think about it. “Usually they lock it after the janitors are done cleaning or when all the teachers have left.”

“So you think both the building and the janitors’ closet were locked on purpose?” Matt asks.

“Someone really wants to keep you in the closet,” I say.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Matt says suddenly.

“Why not?”

“Because, the building doors only lock from the outside. You can’t be locked in, only locked out.” Clarice sighs.

“Forget it, I’m confused. Let’s change the subject.” So we talk for another hour until I see a janitor approach the closet.

“Hi…” he says uncertainly.

“My friends are locked in,” I say quickly. “Would you mind opening it?” He unlocks the door, staring at me suspiciously. Clarice and Matt stumble out.

“Thanks, man,” he puts a hand on the janitor’s shoulder, who gives them both a dirty look.

“What went on in there?” Clarice turns bright red.

“Nothing! We just got locked in!” The janitor looks over both of them. Not much out of place, really. Even the hair is perfect. He nods.

“Good. Now go home.”

“Such a friendly man,” Matt mutters as we leave. He puts his arm around Clarice. “Pizza?” She nods and looks at me.

“Wanna come?” We’re in the parking lot and I can see the soccer field from here. I sigh.

“Gah! I was supposed to watch an hour of Trevor’s tryouts. He’ll be pissed. How long are tryouts?” Matt looks at his watch.

“It’s been almost three hours since school ended. Tryouts should be finishing soon.”

“I guess I’ll give Trevor a ride home,” I say, looking at my car. “But first I need to get rid of all the sticky notes.” Clarice and Matt give me a hand. Matt is incredulous.

“They’re seriously that pissed?” But Clarice has the same idea I did.

“Girl hate is normal. Organized girl hate…I have a feeling Janice is behind this, too.” I shake my head.

“No. Probably Christa.” I explain about her threat. Matt just ruffles his hair.

“Why are girls so devious and weird?”

“Because we can’t beat each other up properly, we have to divert our energies elsewhere,” I explain. Clarice nods.

“If we were all to join an enormous girls’ boxing thing or a girls’ football team, this wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Though fists are always a good option,” I mutter, putting a particularly nasty post-it in my pocket. Soon the car is clean.

“Thanks for helping out, guys.” They nod and head off for pizza. I go to the field to find Trevor, but one of the team mates says he already got a ride with someone. I start to head to my car, only to smack into Corey.

“Hey, how were tryouts?” I ask.

“Meh, not bad. You weren’t there, though.” I nod.

“Yeah. I was going to come, but Clarice needed my help with something.” I don’t feel like explaining right now. I have this feeling in my gut that something’s wrong. Trevor should have seen my car. He should have at least texted me asking where I was. After all, I didn’t even text him. And when I left the house with Corey he texted me right away. Something’s not right. I excuse myself and call Trevor’s cell. It goes to voicemail on the second ring. He just pressed ‘ignore’ on me! I find myself speeding on the way home. Why am I so nervous?

I throw open the front door. I hear thuds and look to my left. Trevor’s bounding down the stairs, a towel around his shoulders. He just got out of the shower. He glowers at me, his eyes sad.

“How was your date?”