The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (59 page)

“I'm passing, Dad.”

He grunted.

I thought of Smith showing up at the crime scene. I told them about that.

“Seems like he was terribly out-of-line going there,” Mom said.

Dad palmed his chin. “Let me know if there are any other untoward details popping up with regard to Mr. Smith.”

“Okay.” I pushed my chair out and brought the empty plate to the sink.

“Use the...”

“Mom! I got this.”

Dad laughed.

Life as Usual.

CHAPTER 22

I was stuffing all my crap in my locker when Jonesy came up behind me, “Hey...”

I swung my head in his direction. “Hey.”

He shuffled around looking uncomfortable. “What?” I asked him from the ground.
Jonesy was never uncomfortable
, something was up.

“I don't know if my mom can come to the thing this weekend.”

Huh, that sucked, she was helping my mom with The Birthday Feast. Critically important: food.

Jonesy saw my expression. “I know dude, but she's barfing up a lung right now.”

Huh?
“Why?”

I didn't think Jonesy could blush. “Remember, she's pregnant.”

Oh, right.

“So? What does that have to do with the food?”

He shrugged. “I don't know, she says she can't even stand the smell of her own pee.”

“God-
damn
, that's a total over-share, Pal.”

“So shoot me, I'm so thrilled about it too,” he said, somewhere between pissed and mortified.

The rest of the gang showed up and he told me with his eyes to stay silent.

No way
, too precious for words.

“Listen, John, do you think your mom can make some food and crap for the party at Gramps?”

John looked at Jonesy, who was being uncharacteristically silent. “I don't know, she is so
her
...”

“Andrea will make something,” Jade said helpfully, sensing (no Empath skills needed) there was something brewing.

Sophie said, “My mom will pitch in too.” She shrugged and I thought Jonesy would break down and french kiss her on the spot, he looked
that
grateful.

John frowned but it was Bry and Tiff that said, “Our mom can, hell, she makes ten pounds of potatoes a day anyway.”

“Really?” Alex asked.

Bry nodded.

Holy shit, that was more food than I could wrap my head around. I started to get a dreamy look on my face and Jade elbowed me. “Snap out of it, stud.”

I smiled down at her, she just didn't understand the importance of feeding.

The guys looked damn serious; they understood the food program. Hence, Jonesy coming to me
in advance
, in order to outline the dilemma.

“I thought your mom was gonna help Caleb's?” Bry asked logically. His tone said,
it's no problem that she can't, but let me know what to tell my mom.

All comedic quips absent, Jonesy opened his mouth and closed it again.

Like sharks sensing blood in the water, the kids closed in.

“What's going on, Jones?” Tiff asked.

“His mom's doing a puke-a-thon whenever a smell bugs her,” I said.

“Oh yeah, your dad knocked her up,” Bry said tactfully.

John looked at him. “Not helpful, dude.”

He shrugged. “What's the big thing? I mean, I've got four younger brothers. And a sister,” he tacked on before Tiff could ream him.

“Yeah, but are your parents still breeding in their forties?” Alex asked.

This was going so well, I hated to break up the,
let's nail Jonesy fest
, but...“Yeah, the food thing is going to be okay, the girls have manned up.”

Alex pushed up his glasses and I thought we'd escaped extreme awkwardness when he blew us away with, “So, is it you
visualizing
your parents having sex that's the problem or maybe it's because the pregnancy
proves
it?”

This from the inflatable doll fan,
eff-me.

Jonesy's veins were standing out on his head and he looked, pissed, ill, or both. “I do not, for shit's sake, visualize
jack
about my parents!”

“Huh, well, I wasn't saying that you were. Just that it was a possibility...”

Bry interrupted, a grin spreading over his face. “You know, Sims, your social skills are really interesting.”

Alex smiled, affirmed for the next half year from the oldest male in the pack.

Nice.

Jonesy had a cool rebuttal for sure but the bottom-feeders came by just then.

Great timing, as usual.

Must be done with their involuntary vacation from school, I thought dismally. Things had been so righteous without their skulking asses lurking around.

“I guess you heard what happened,” Carson strolled up, his butt-buddies tagging along behind him. “After your abusive grandpa man-handled my dad.”

Brett smiled, he loved the thought of Jade getting the idea that there were problems in my family too.

“Well, he didn't have the right to come over to his house and try to start something with my dad, Carson. He started it all,” I pointed out.

“He escalated it,” John clarified.

“You think you're
so
smart,” Diego said, striding over to John and getting right up in his grill, same height,
big poundage difference.

Bry walked over to the two of them. “Knock it off, Diego. Don't be a tool.”

He turned to Bry. “Listen Weller, I'd shut the fuck up if I were you, after the way you treated Christi.”

Bry looked surprised. “I didn't treat her bad. She broke up with  me. It was her choice.”

Word traveled fast on the high school gossip highway.

Brody looked in Bry's direction. “She doesn't want to hang around weirdos. She's got taste, is what she's got.”

Ah-huh.

Jade and Sophie were hanging back, uncertain of the outcome with an all-guy group.

That was probably smart.

Jonesy wasn't unsure, he had rebounded from his earlier awkwardness. “She's the one that didn't fit. Did she tell ya about the IQ relative-to-sibling statistic.”

It was the quintessential moment
: Brett, Carson (with Ceci), Brody, and Diego waiting to be Informed by the Jonester.

John actually groaned out loud.

“What are you saying?” Brody asked, fists clenched.

The first period bell shrilled but we ignored it.

“I told her that siblings only have a difference of fifteen IQ points.”

“So?” Diego said, like,
WTF?

Jonesy smiled.

Well hell.

“I told her that since I knew you guys were as bright as shovels, that put her, ya know, like dog IQ”

“Hey!” I said, insulted for Onyx.

Jonesy caught on quick. “Except Onyx.”

Alex slapped his forehead and Bry sighed.

“You stupid shit, you got some kind of a death wish? Come on guys, let's see how he likes being a punching bag,” Brody said.

“Don't you touch him, you delinquent!” Sophie said.

Wow, didn't she know the Rule?
Do not engage a violent guy.

“Yeah!” Jade added.

Cripes!

Carson and Brett looked at her. “Stay out of it, Jade,” Brett said, his face worried.

Brody walked over to the girls. “You bitches shut up.”

A red haze made a reappearance, momentarily blinding me. I forgot I was in school, I forgot where I was, I forgot everything but getting to Brody.

I two-strided it over to him, never breaking stride and took the flat of my foot and drove it into the back of his knee, a new favorite move of mine, collapsing him where he stood. He folded like a deck of cards. I was grabbed from behind and threw my head back into the skull that was inches behind mine, hearing a satisfying crunch, arms loosening their hold. I turned around and crouched down, getting into classic Judo defense position.

They weren't going to catch me from behind again.

Jonesy was wading through the fray, a huge-ass grin riding on his face. He moved directly to where John was, giving me a look to see if my ass was going down but I was still standing. He rushed Diego, body surfing the air, tackling him mid flight and the two of them went down together with a crash, backpacks flying.

Jade and Sophie squealed and Ceci yelped, Carson and Brett wading in, their eyes trained warily on Alex, they switched their attention to Bry.

I guess they weren't such slow learners after all.

Brody was howling and clutching his nose (which was oozing blood between his fingers), my imminent demise filling his eyes.

Diego was trying to pound on Jonesy but John rode him Bronco style, and Diego was desperate to shake John off like a worrisome gnat. But John clung, both hands buried in Diego's hair. (I guess if he wasn't such a girl about it, there wouldn't be any hair to hang onto.)

Dave Smith, my weird-ass AFTD teacher, came into the circle of struggling kid., Bry took a good one from Carson in the jaw even as he blasted a fist in about the same place on Brett, who stumbled back, losing his balance and falling on top of John, who was riding Diego, who was trying to beat the snot outta Jonesy.

Wonderful.

“Okay, what in the world? Boys!” Smith grabbed Brett off Diego and pushed John off Diego and jerked Jonesy to his feet by the hood of his hoodie.

He looked at Diego and Brody. “Do I need to get a Null here boys?”

“I'm a Null,” John said.

“And you've been so helpful, obviously!” Smith said.

John blushed and became interested in his shoes.

“Are we in high school here? Because, I was thinking it was middle school again. Explain. In fact, explain on the way to the Principal's office.”

Everyone made groaning sounds.

“You deserve it for acting like five-year olds.”

He turned to Ceci, Jade and Sophie. “You girls get to class, I will get someone for you if there needs to be a story corroborated.”

They took off, Jade giving me the sympathy look.

****

My mom was talking to the principal and was so unhappy.

“I recognize, Mrs. Hart, that there will be a scuffle or two, even  with the upperclassman. But, you understand our policy...our zero-tolerance stance on violence here.”

“Yes, I am aware, Ms. Chen.”

“Then you would understand why Caleb will get a warning only because of the event of last week, in which the same group of young men was involved in the attack on your son.”

“What will be done with them?” Mom asked.

I watched the Principal's almond eyes narrow on Mom momentarily. “They are under the 'three strikes, you're out' policy like everyone.”

“So what offense is this?”

“This is their first offense on school grounds.”

Mom humphed. “What about the attack on Caleb?”

She looked apologetic. “We are aware that these boys have a record now with the police. But we can only manage what happens here.”

“What about me? I want to tell you what they did,” I interjected.

She held up her hand, and as she lowered it, she brushed a large paperweight that held papers anchored on her desk. Actually, they were my friends' records.

“And you will. Right now, as I have the story it appears to me as if you were the instigator.”

Mom leveled me with the Death Glare and my palms grew damp. I wiped them on my jeans.

“It's not like it sounds, Mom.”

“What was it like then?”

“That turd Brody,” Mom scowled, I forged ahead, “he called Sophie and Jade, 'bitches'.”

Mom made a lowbrow on her forehead. “
Well, really
? How's your tolerance for sexual harassment, Ms. Chen?”

Mom was on it, Chen was in trouble. Maybe Dad could show and they could tag-team her.

It made me smile, which was not the appropriate response.

Chen looked at me sharply, her black hair swinging as her face whipped in my direction. “I hope you do not find our interchange amusing, Mr. Hart?”

“No...” I stammered, and I could feel the need to Laugh at Inappropriate Times coming on. Mom saw this and became alarmed.

Mom distracted her with, “That boy is dangerous. He was obviously trying to incite violence from the others by engaging the girls negatively.”

My face was contorted and I was doing the crooked mouth to keep from laughing.

“What's wrong with your mouth?” Chen asked.

That was it, the dam burst and I started howling.

Chen looked at me like I had lost my marbles, which made it worse.

“Caleb!” Mom nearly yelled.

“Sorry Mom,” I said, wiping the streaming tears. It was just too much. Here was Chen, with her panties in a colossal wad over me inciting a riot (right) when the older boys were obviously the problem. It was just perfect.

“What is wrong with him?
This is serious,
” Chen sputtered.

“I understand but this happens sometimes, when he's under duress.”