Page 21 of Echoes of Us

I look up at Devan. “Did you see her and Grace? How the hell did they become besties in one day?”

“Oh my goddddd,” Devan groans in frustration, “Are you going to talk about anything else this week? Just kiss me. I have to go to practice.” He leans back down and pulls my face toward his.

I push him off, shaking my head. “Thanks for listening.” I turn to walk to my locker. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Devan shoving books into his backpack, then slamming his locker closed. He can really be a selfish jerk.

Does no one else understand how hard this really is for me? Not one person has asked how I feel about all of this. My life is being turned upside down during the most important year of my life so far and no one cares. If all of this change wasn’t happening, I would consider breaking up with Devan because of how he is acting. Would it be this bad if that girl wasn’t around? She is the reason most of our fights even start. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, shoving back tears. I grab the books I need for homework and slide them into my backpack.

Walking toward the athletics building, I spot Mills coming around the corner from behind the cafeteria. She sees me and runs over.

“Jesus, Em. You have got to smile at least once today. You’re really bringing down the vibe,” she says with a sigh. I just stare at her, glowering.

“What were you doing behind the cafeteria? Please tell me that isn’t a new meet up for you and Gabe. It is disgusting from all of the dumpsters. You smell horrible, by the way.” I lean in and sniff her, recoiling from the smell.

“Ew, no. I just needed something from back there, that’s all. I need you to tell coach I have girl problems or something to get me out of PE. I have something to do and then I want to shower before Gabe gets out of practice.” She wiggles her eyebrows.

“Gross, Mills. Coach won’t care anyway. We could get away with murder during PE and she wouldn’t know. She spends too much time writing new game strategies and practice sessions,” I snicker.

“Thanks, Em! Meet me at my locker right after PE. I have something to show you!” She leans in to hug me, knowing she smells horrible, and runs off laughing.

Crap. I forgot to tell her. I whip around to face her as she runs in the opposite direction and yell, “Mills! Don’t mess with Teagan!”

She turns around, gives me a thumbs-up, and keeps running. Thank God that is handled.

I find Coach in her office before PE starts. She looks up from her playbook and gives me a half smile. “Hey, Em. I tried talking to Roberts today, but he still didn’t budge. He told me you can check out the tutor center or try studying harder. Sorry, kid.”

“Thanks for trying, Coach. By the way, Mills is having… lady issues today so she headed to the nurse for some meds and a heating patch. I doubt she will make it back for the run today,” I say.

“I know that has to be code for meeting up with that boyfriend of hers, but I will pretend to believe you.” She smiles and winks. “Go get ready, we are doing two laps around the school grounds today and I want you finishing first.”

I nod and head toward the locker room. The team locker rooms are down two separate hallways. The coaches’ offices are in the back of the athletics building. The right hall takes you to the various boys’ locker rooms and the left to the girls’. Each team has its own locker room with showers, bathrooms, lockers, and an ice bathroom. If you go straight down the hall when exiting the coaches’ offices, it takes you to the training rooms and fitness center.

I am almost to the lacrosse locker room when the door to the soccer locker room flies open. The soccer team piles out in their practice gear and, of course, I run into Grace Hoffman. She looks at me with an eyebrow raised and nods to her crew to continue without her. Once they are gone, she looks down and examines her nails before saying, “You know, Briggs. I thought maybe your family was going broke or something and needed a foster kid to cash in some easy income, but now I think they just wanted a smarter kid to brag about.”

I glare at her, taking in a deep breath. “That’s funny coming from you, Hoffman. Isn’t your mom your dad’s office manager? Can he not afford to hire outside of the family? Or is your mom worried he will like a young secretary more?”

Grace scowls, but quickly fixes her face. “They like spending time together; my mom doesn’t need to work unlike yours. Anyways. I think it is great they took in Teagan. It is a win/win for me. You look like a loser having someone like that live at your house AND she is a million times smarter than you. At the end of the day, she makes you look like shit no matter what. Plus, you clearly love us being friendly. Maybe I’ll even come over sometime.” She smiles and raises her eyebrows, waiting for a response. I have nothing to say to that. For the first time ever, I don’t have a witty response to a Grace Hoffman insult. Her grin widens as I remain quiet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have to go meet up with my bestie Teagan to take her to the Music Hall before practice.”

I roll my eyes and shove past her toward my locker room.

I’ve never been more unsure of myself.

Chapter 23

Teagan

The Music Halls looks way different than all of the other Halls I’ve been in today. At the front, there are four huge doors around a semi-circle bend in the walls. Grace notices me looking toward the doors as we pass.

“That is the Concert and Theater Hall. All of the music programs, ballet recitals, and plays are performed there,” she says.

As we continue down the hall, there are classrooms filled with instruments, some with mirrors on all four walls and ballet bars, and some with mini stages in each corner. I look into each of them as we pass until we reach another rotunda. There is a woman looking at a large shelf labeled ‘Sheet Music Library’.

“Ms. Thatcher,” Grace’s voice echoes throughout the rotunda and the woman turns to us in surprise. “This is Teagan Parker. She is new to the school and Headmaster McNeely added piano as her seventh-period class. Also, if you don’t mind taking her back to the lockers after that would be awesome. She still isn’t familiar with where things are yet, and I have practice.” Ms. Thatcher nods. “See you tomorrow, Teagan.”

As Grace leaves, Ms. Thatcher looks me up and down, so I do the same to her. She’s not at all what I expected. Every other teacher I’ve met has been nicely dressed and older. Except for the AP Calc teacher—he dressed kind of frumpy. Ms. Thatcher is much younger. She has a pixie cut and is wearing jeans and an oversized sweater.

“Have you played before, or did you choose this thinking it was going to be easy?” she asks.

“I’ve played, but I don’t plan to play for you. The headmaster forced me to take this elective,” I say flatly.

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