Page 9 of Puck Shots
“Oh, but I am, and if you want to stay around through rush, you’ll do it and when someone asks why you’re on your handsand knees crawling around the frat house, you can tell them, you broke rule seventeen of the KOK code.”
“What’s that?” Toby asks, and Eli whispers.
“No pledge or first year brother can harass, haze, or “mess with” another pledge or brother in any way, and any such action will be seen as a violation of fraternity values and will result in disciplinary action or expulsion from the house.”
Seriously, was that like the full rule word for word?
“Nice to see someone knows the rules,” I say, and Toby rolls his eyes and lowers himself to all fours. “That’s a good pledge. Now, on you go, both of you back to the house. If you find the stick, I might consider letting you stand up again.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Eli says, stepping around me.
“You just recited rule seventeen, so I’m guessing you know the rest of the rules, right?”
He nods.
“Then you know I had to. Besides, those guys are dicks. So any luck out here?”
He rubs the back of his neck with one hand, his face getting a little flushed.
“Yeah, but it’s up a tree over there.”
Fuck, okay, so he found it. Up a tree maybe wasn’t the best hiding place after all.
“So are you going to get it?”
“I’m really no good at all that stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“You know, coordinated movements, sports and that.”
“You never climbed a tree as a kid?”
“No.”
“So you’re giving up then?”
“I didn’t say that,” he replies with a small smile creeping onto his lips, and he starts searching the ground for something.
“What are you looking for?” I ask as I lean against a tree.
“You’ll see.”
He grabs a few sticks and seems to be checking their weight when he settles on one.
“Perfect, okay, now…” he mutters as he moves into position, lining himself up. Is he going to try to knock the lacrosse stick out? I climbed up pretty high and wedged it across two branches with the netted part resting in a bunch of leaves to help camouflage it. Not that it apparently helped all that much. But still, I can’t see how he could knock it out of there, especially with the branch he’s chosen. It’s only about as thick as my thumb and has twigs sticking out at all angles, the leaves it once held long gone.
Maybe I should offer to climb up and get it. He still found it. But that would be technically cheating. Why am I even considering this? Sure, I told Calvin I would look out for Eli, and I did that by stopping those dicks who were hassling him. I did what I said. But for some reason, I want to do more. I want him to win this, to show those other pledges that he is the kind of guy who does belong here. He’s tilting his head to the side a little like he’s confused by something, and then he pushes his glasses up his nose, smiling, and creating an adorable dimple in his right cheek. Fuck, this kid is actually kind of cute.
I’m about to offer my help when he swings back the branch and tosses it up high above him.
It sails past the height of the stick. He was right, he’s not the athletic type. But he doesn’t look disappointed, he watches with a soft smile as the stick makes its way back down, only as it does, the twigs sticking out of it catch on the netted section of the lacrosse stick and the added weight of on that end has the handle lifting until the whole thing comes tumbling down to the ground.
“Well, I guess you don’t need my help after all.”
“I guess not,” he replies, grabbing the lacrosse stick and untangling the twigs from the net.
“You better get that back and claim your prize then.”
