Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 32
I was sprawled across my bed with my history textbook balanced on my knees when Mom’s screaming at me from downstairs made it impossible to concentrate.
“Blake! Get down here!”
I recognized the tone. She had one of her headaches again. I sighed and dropped my book to my side. Pushing off my bed, I left it there and headed downstairs, finding her in the kitchen with one hand pressed against her temple and the other gripping the counter.
“I can’t take Joshua to youth group,” she said without looking up. “My head is killing me. I can barely see straight.”
Joshua appeared in the doorway, already dressed and ready to go. “What do you mean you can’t take me?”
“I mean, I can’t drive like this.” Mom’s voice was strained. “Everything’s too bright and I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
“But they’re doing the fun stuff today!” Joshua’s voice rose. “I can’t miss it!”
“Joshua, I’m sorry, but...”
“Fine!” he crossed his arms. “I’ll just walk there myself. It’s not that far.”
Mom winced at his volume.
“You’re not walking across town by yourself.”
“It’s not fair,” he whined.
“Joshua,” she said, frustrated. “I ... Blake, you take him.”
“What?”
“It’s not that hard. Just walk him there and wait, then walk him back.”
“Mom, I have homework. Yesterday’s scrimmage ate up most of my weekend, and I’ve got a bunch of assignments due on Monday.”
“Blake, just do it and stop being difficult.”
I sighed. I knew I wasn’t going to win.
I never did.
“Fine.”
I grabbed my shoes from by the door and put them on.
“Come on, Josh.”
He shot me a look like I’d personally ruined his day, but he followed me outside. We walked in complete silence. Even if Josh wasn’t radiating anger the whole way, we wouldn’t have had a conversation.
But he was extra quiet this time.
Surprisingly, his mood didn’t last long. By the time we got to First Baptist Church, ten minutes later, he’d stopped sulking and looked almost ... eager.
Which was weird. Knowing the kind of freak he was, I never understood why he was so into church youth group. It wasn’t like he was there for friends.
Josh didn’t have any friends.
“You can just come back and get me at six,” he said, reaching for the door handle.
“Mom said I have to wait,” I said, following him inside.
The fellowship hall was filled with kids ranging from about eight to maybe thirteen, but most of them were on the younger side. And then I saw why Josh liked to come to youth group. A collection of girls, about his age, were off to one side, and they were exactly the type of girls Joshua seemed to fixate on.
Quiet girls. Rule followers.
And Josh was drawn right to them. He looked past the other kids, the louder ones all talking in a group. His attention went straight to them. Worse, the group included the same girl from his birthday party. The one who’d been wearing a blue dress and who’d looked so uncomfortable around him.
“Blake!” Pastor Green said from behind me, making me jump. “What a pleasant surprise!”
He had his usual wide smile, extending his hand for a firm shake. Pastor Green was one of those men who took up space without trying, commanding attention through sheer enthusiasm.
“Hi, Pastor Green. I’m just dropping Joshua off.”
“Nonsense! You should stay. We don’t get many high school students at youth group these days. Having someone like you here might make the group seem more appealing to other teenagers. You know how kids look up to football players.”
The transparent attempt to use my social status for church recruitment made me cringe internally. “I appreciate that, but I’ve got homework...”
“Just for today,” he interrupted. “Consider it community service. These younger kids could really benefit from a positive role model.”
I glanced over at Joshua, who was already making his way toward the group of girls. The expression on his face had the same focused intensity I’d seen when he was watching Li through her bedroom window.
“Actually,” I said, making a quick decision, “maybe I could stay. Just this once.”
Pastor Green beamed. “Wonderful! I knew you had a servant’s heart.”
If only he knew. I moved toward a group of kids a few years younger than me, positioning myself where I could keep Joshua in my peripheral vision while appearing to participate normally.
“Hey,” I said to a boy who looked about thirteen. “I’m Blake.”
“I know who you are,” he said with obvious excitement. “You’re the quarterback, right? I saw some of your games with JV last year with my dad.”
“Oh, cool,” I said, but the kid’s enthusiasm was genuine enough.
I found myself answering his questions about football while keeping one eye on Joshua, which made it hard to do either well.
My brother had successfully integrated himself into the group of younger girls, sitting in the circle as we began Bible study. The whole time, he had an expression of rapt attention that I knew was completely fake.
Pastor Green led us through a lesson about kindness and helping others, and Joshua nodded along like he was absorbing every word.
The irony was so thick I could taste it.
After about thirty minutes of Bible study, Pastor Green clapped his hands together. “All right, everyone! I appreciate you sitting through that, now we can get into what you actually came for. Let’s break into smaller groups for games.”
The kids scattered around the fellowship hall, and I watched Joshua maneuver himself close to the girl from his birthday party. She was maybe eleven, with brown hair in two neat braids and the quiet demeanor that seemed to attract him.
I drifted closer, pretending to help some of the kids setting up a board game while keeping track of Josh. He was being subtle about it, gradually separating the girl from the larger group.
After a few minutes, with him talking to her the whole time, they wandered off from the rest of the group. I abandoned my pretense of watching kids play and followed them as Joshua led the girl toward the back of the fellowship hall, toward what looked like a storage closet.
I reached the storage area just as Josh was guiding her inside, his hand on her back in a way that made my skin crawl. He was already starting to close the door behind them when I grabbed it and pulled it open.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
The girl looked confused and uncomfortable, pressed back against the shelves while Josh stood close to her. Too close. More troubling, he had a small pocketknife in his hand. I didn’t even know he owned a knife.
I snatched the knife from him before he could react. “What the hell is this for?”
“For cutting poster board,” Joshua said quickly. “For the craft project.”
“They have scissors for that,” I said, and then looked at the girl. “Go back to the other kids.”
She didn’t need to be told twice. She practically ran from the storage closet, leaving me alone with Joshua.
“Give me my knife back,” he said, reaching for it.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the storage area. “Not a chance.”
“You’re being stupid,” Joshua said, but he was starting to get that angry flush in his cheeks. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“Then why were you trying to close the door?”
“Because it’s loud out there and I was trying to talk to her about the project.”
He was a terrible liar. I dragged him further away from the storage area.
“Let go of me!” His voice was getting louder. “You’re embarrassing me!”
“Keep your voice down.”
“No! You always do this!” Now he was really yelling. “You always pick on me and try to ruin everything I do!”
Several kids were starting to look our way. I tried to maintain my grip on Joshua while putting the knife safely in my pocket, but he was getting more agitated by the second.
“Give me my knife back! It’s mine and you can’t just take it!”
“You don’t need a knife.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” His face was red now.
“What’s going on here?”
Pastor Green appeared beside us, his usual jovial expression replaced by concern. Several other adults had also started moving in our direction, drawn by Joshua’s shouting.
I needed to get things under control. The last thing I wanted was to have to leave and not be able to keep an eye on Josh for the rest of the night.
“Sorry for the disruption. I saw two kids alone together in the storage closet and felt uncomfortable about it.”
Pastor Green’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
“I’m sorry, I could have handled it better,” I continued. “But I wanted to prevent anything ... umm, inappropriate from happening. Josh’s been overly interested in girls for the past year, and we’ve already had some issues with him, at home.”
“No, I haven’t!” Joshua protested. “Blake’s lying!”
But Pastor Green was buying it. “I’m actually surprised to hear a high school athlete still holds those kinds of values. Too many young people today don’t understand the importance of proper boundaries and supervision.”
“Uhh, thanks,” I said awkwardly.
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