The Locker Wars

The next day, William was up at the crack of dawn. It was strange that when he got fired up from having a prank pulled on him, he got even more fired up to study.

“William?” He looked up from his textbooks to see his mom standing in the doorway of his room. She looked tired, peering into his bedroom. His mom frowned upon all the posters he’d decided to put up against the white walls of his room, because she thought he’d better waste his time working for school than worshipping music.

“Yeah?” William asked, scratching his ear with is pen. He was working on some extra math problems to make sure he’d gotten the formula right.

“Honey, have you been up all night?” she rubbed her eyes. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’m sure you’re well into your schoolwork by now. You should sleep.” She often wondered why her son wasn’t as rebellious as she thought he’d be.

William sighed. “I just got up. I mean, I slept. Now I’m studying. I really want to have the highest average.”

Again, his mom was puzzled. She thought that teenagers would want to slack off, especially William with his singing. But oh well, she’d take this instead of a high school drop-out.

“All right then,” she yawned. “Breakfast will be in five hours.”

“Thanks, mom,” William called as she shut the door and he turned back to his books.

* * *

It wasn’t like Adele wasn’t used to this, because she was.

“You know we’d love to take you along, sweetie,” Adele’s mother sighed. “We wouldn’t want to disturb your studies. We know you’re going to do fine here, it’s just a week.”

Just a week my ass, Adele thought to herself as she pouted. Her parents were taking another vacation to make sure that they got space and relaxation (as if Adele was much to worry about, but their motives were never questioned). Usually, it was leaving her alone with the house for a week, tops, giving her all the trust in the world.

Adele was surprised at how much they trusted her, but then again, she thought to the many parenting books that her parents read (her parents had her early in their marriage). So she didn’t know who or what to trust, suspecting that they’d pop up and stop her from partying. She mostly stayed at home, nose buried in textbooks to study hard. Perhaps those parenting books weren’t so wrong.

“I trust my little girl to keep the house clean,” her father chuckled in that fatherly tone.

“Dad,” Adele rolled her eyes. “I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m going to graduate... with the highest average.” She added in the last part, imagining William staring at her with a jealous look during graduation.

“All right, then, just take care of the house,” her mom warned. “A week, that’s short enough for you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Adele nodded. “I’ll be just fine.”

“And I want you to cook at least one healthy meal, not too much take-out,” her mom continued.

“Okay,” Adele sighed. “You’re going to miss your plane.” She nearly shoved them out the door, their suitcases followed behind them. As soon as she made sure that they had driven out of sight, she plopped on the couch, her phone already in hand.

She dialed Riley’s phone number first. “Hey, Riles? There’s going to be a party at my house tonight.”

“Are you finally starting to rebel? You know, regular people go through this stage when they’re twelve.”

“Oh, shut up,” Adele sighed. “Anyways, I need all those... um, drinks.”

“You don’t even drink.”

“Yeah, well!” Adele bit her lip. “Other people will. And I can’t even pass for twenty-one even if I did have one of those fake IDs.”

“Fine, I’ll ask my sister,” Riley groaned. “And next time, don’t call me at eight in the morning.”

“Thanks Riley! You know you’re worshipped by me,” Adele giggled, and hung up, quickly dialing another number.

* * *

It was after lunch time, and William was in charge of taking care of his baby brother for the afternoon. The phone had rung just as William put him down for a nap, so he sprung up to answer the phone.

“Shit! You know, I have to do this right if I’m going to get paid,” William sighed. “What do you want?”

“Chill out,” Jason laughed on the other line. “Well, I heard from Mike who heard from Michael who heard from Kirsten who heard from Adele—”

“Oh, come on! Don’t give me the chain of people,” William sighed.

“Fine. Adele Bradlee’s having a party.”

William quirked an eyebrow. It wasn’t like Adele Bradlee to have a... party. She probably wouldn’t know what to even do at a party. Her idea of fun was doing homework with her friends. And if she were being a rebel, the most she’d do was leave a project or some schoolwork to the last minute.

“Really? Like, a house party? Like, with drinking and stuff?” William laughed. “No way. No way. This has to be another one of her pranks, or something.”

“But would she really come up with something for the next day?” Jason questioned. “Exactly. I heard her parents were out of town. Maybe she’s finally becoming a real human being for once.”

“As if,” William scoffed, heading into the kitchen. “Adele Bradlee is totally not human. She’s a fucking freak of nature, that’s what she is.”

“Well, I was thinking we could crash her party then,” Jason suggested. “Come on, there’ll be free drinks, loud music, and maybe since she won’t know what she’s doing, we could watch her get taken away by the cops or something.”

“Psh,” William shrugged. “I don’t know, I hate parties like that. I mean, it’s just... disgusting, some of the things that happen there, you know.”

“Oh? What’s that I hear? Are you turning into a clone of Adele?” Jason gasped. “Oh well. At least we know that she’ll actually be letting loose for a few hours, unlike you.”

William sighed. He was still bewildered that Adele was having a house party. Of course he didn’t want to go, because he was still sort of shocked that she’d totally owned him with her prank yesterday. And since the rules stated that another attack couldn’t be made within twenty-four hours of the last one, sabotaging her party was definitely out of the question.

“I don’t know. I’ll see if I can come. I still gotta take care of my brother,” William mumbled.

“That’s the shittiest excuse you’ve ever pulled!” Jason exclaimed. “Is William Beckett losing his coolness? I mean, what are you planning to be, winner of the Locker Wars or a parent?!”

“I...” But William didn’t have a good comeback for that. Jason was right.

“Coming to your house at eight,” Jason informed as he hung up.

William sighed. He didn’t feel like partying at all.

The front door opened, revealing his parents. “Oh, William honey? Oh wait, are you on the phone?” his mom asked.

“Uh... yeah. No, well, I’m not anymore,” William mumbled.

“Oh? Well, are you going to be busy tonight? Because your dad and I have some dinner we have to go to at the neighbour’s, and we need to know if we’re taking your brother or if you can sit for him.”

“Jason just invited me to a party. Um, Adele’s party,” William tried to mention as casually as possible. He didn’t know why, but his parents were always talking about Adele and how she was so nice, and how she was so smart and (William gagged) what a beautiful girl she’d grown up to be (it was his mom who always said this; because they’d known her since they were in kindergarten together).

“Oh? Adele’s having a party? Like, one of those parties?” his mom asked, worry lines decorating her forehead. “I didn’t think she was like that.”

“She isn’t, mom,” William snorted. “She’s trying to be cool.”

“Well, are you going to the party, then?” she asked. “Because I think you should. You know, to make sure she doesn’t overdo it.”

William’s eyes widened. “But mom! She has friends for that!”

“You’re her friend. So look out for her.” He hadn’t exactly ever gotten to tell his mom that they had a thing at school that was a war more than a friendship...

“Seriously?” William groaned, because there was no use fighting his mom.

“Do I look like I’m kidding?” his mom questioned, and his dad only shrugged, telling his son with his eyes that he had to listen to his mother.

Looks like he was going to Adele’s party after all.