Page 49 of A Scandal in Homeroom
He wasn’t wrong. It was starting to feel like all of it was over my head. That just meant I had to work harder and be smarter to stay out in front of it.
“One week. That’s it. Then next week the game is back on. Only switch up is, we’re moving the Sunday game to Friday night going forward.”
I blinked. “That’s crazy. Friday Night is football night in this town.”
“Exactly. Everyone’s attention will be elsewhere.”
“I have to cheer,” I said. “My absence would be…noticeable.”
“Come immediately after the game. No stopping at The Woods. Your party days are over.”
He started to walk backwards toward the classroom door. I shook my head. “This is a mistake.”
“It’s not your call. Remember that, Adler. Moriarty owns your ass.”
I waited to give him plenty of time to leave. He’d been stupid to seek me out here, but Coyle was stupid, so I didn’t really expect more from him.
An exchange student. That’s what Coyle had said. Why would Moriarty be worried about an exchange student?
I hadn’t said anything about Locke on my message. Just that we were getting some attention and needed to lay low. So how did Moriarty know about Locke?
More importantly, had I just put Locke in the path of trouble?
My kind of trouble.
11
Monday
Locke
“Ifigured it out,” Irene announced.
I shut my locker door and turned around. Irene was in her cheerleading uniform, short skirt edition, which meant I had to work to keep my eyes from taking in her long, exposed legs. We hadn’t spoken since last week in gym class and I assumed I was once again on her shit list. Somehow it didn’t bother me like it had the last time.
Because something in me knew she would be back. And here she was.
“Figured what out?”
“Your little clue about how the List was expanding. I told Beth on Friday she’d been targeted, and she figured out that was why Fitz was freezing her out. He was doing the whole noble, let-me-save-you thing. So totally dumb, by the way. Guys can be so stupid about what a girl wants. Thankfully, he got a clue and he’s not doing that anymore. They are officially a couple.”
“I heard.”
“You could have just told me about her being added to the List,” she insisted.
“Where would the fun be in that?”
The bell rang, and since we were both headed toward our Chemistry class, we walked together. I had a strange desire to take her hand. Which, of course, I knew was forbidden.
“It’s kind of unheard of in this school. Someone like Fitz dating someone like Beth.”
I shook my head. “Why? Beth’s smart, funny and cute.”
She stopped walking and I stopped with her.
“What?” I asked.
People passed around us in the hall as I tried to decipher the look on her face.
