The Locker Wars

But thinking up plans wasn’t going to help. The weeks passed by, and nothing else seemed to happen. Everything was at a neutral, but neither of the groups expected it to last for long. Especially with Adele’s cat’s fate still dwindling in the middle of the two.

On a particular October Tuesday morning during English, Riley didn’t show up because she was sick, and Adele was pretty much alone for the class. But being alone never worried her, because she could get work done faster that way. And getting work done faster was always a goal of Adele Bradlee’s.

But suddenly, in the middle of the class, the teacher stood up and told them to put away their books, because he was announcing a reading assignment due at the end of class.

“Now, you’ll be working in partners,” the teacher told the class, and each of the students turned their heads eagerly to make sure that they had partners. “No, I’m afraid I’ll be making the pairs.”

He started reading down the attendance list. “Okay, we’ll go in alphabetical order.”

Adele groaned.

“Let’s see... Mark Adams, Janie Bates, you’ll be working together,” the teacher sighed. “William Beckett, Adele Bradlee, partner up, please. Rebecca Doran, Kelsey Good...”

As the teacher read out the next pairs, Adele put her head down on the desk. Not another partnership! Did these teachers just plan these things to be cruel? They always just seemed to smile whenever announcing something like that.

“So, please sit with your partner and discuss,” the teacher waved his arm, and everybody started to get up to move to sit beside their partners.

William poked Adele in the back. “Hey, partner, you’re supposed to sit with me.”

“Can you not?” Adele huffed, but got up and sat beside William. He grinned.

“Cheer up,” William laughed. “At least we know we’ll get perfect on this assignment anyways.”

Adele ignored the stares of the other girls in the class. Apparently, in ninth grade when William came to the same high school as Adele, he went through puberty and girls started deciding that he was really hot, even though he was still kind of a nerd. Adele just couldn’t see it.

She took out a spare sheet of paper and wrote their names at the top. “Any ideas in that thick head of yours yet?”

“Ouch,” William pretended to be taken aback. “I have all my information in my perfect-sized head. Unlike you, however... your head is kind of huge.”

Adele stared back at him with wide eyes, and leaned on the desk. “You are an ass! I can’t even believe you.”

He shrugged, a small smile still on his lips. “So, let’s get on this project before you start to turn really red again like you did in tenth grade when Kyle Walters totally rejected you at the school dance.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

* * *

Adele made her way down to lunch, fuming when she sat beside her friends.

“Someone’s not happy,” Kirsten pointed out, tearing off a bit of her sandwich. “Wanna talk about it, or no?”

“It’s William Beckett! He thinks he can totally just prance around and make fun of me and have his stupid high average. He didn’t even come up with one smart idea for the assignment during class. Who’s the smart one now?”

“Adele,” Diane warned. “I thought your doctor suggested a diary for writing down your feelings? Do you really have to unload them on us? I mean, we already know that William’s an asshole, so...”

Adele looked up, glaring. “Oh, so it’s that answer, is it? Well, I’m going to go eat my lunch somewhere else!”

She took her brown bag and stomped away, but she didn’t know where to sit. She looked around the cafeteria until she spotted Adam Siska’s table. That would be fine.

She took a seat next to Adam. “I’m sitting here today. Any of you little bitchy freshmen argue and I’ll have my ninjas on you.”

Adam gulped, and his friends nodded.

“Actually, can you get them to go away, because I need to talk to you,” Adele sighed, and his friends were quick to leave the table. “Hm. They’ll never last. So, got any news?”

Adam laughed nervously. “Well, we don’t have meetings for the group. It’s just usually passed through the members—”

“If I wanted to know how the group worked, wouldn’t I just spy on them myself?” Adele snapped. “Okay, what’s passed through the members?”

“News.”

Adele rolled her eyes. “You can tell me the news, Siska; don’t forget who you’re working for.”

“Um, actually,” Adam trailed off. “Well, I, um, kind of decided that I shouldn’t tell you the news and stuff. You know, to be faithful to the group and stuff...”

“Oh.” Adele turned her whole body to look at him. “Then I’ll just have to tell William Beckett you were spying for me. We already know who’s going to win in this situation. I mean, sure, he’ll beat my ass too, but it won’t be as bad as you. You have your brother on the team with you, but what’s his opinion going to do?”

Adam thought to when they were stealing Adele’s cat. Jason’s opinion hardly fazed William.

“O-Oh. I guess I’ll, um, work for you then?” Adam asked feebly.

“You better,” Adele glared, standing up from the table. “Just remember how much your ass could be whooped if I tell him. You’re already in too deep.”

Adele walked away to maybe go back and talk to her friends, but she was unaware of another pair of eyes looking at her as she passed by.