Chapter 25

"How'd your meeting go?" Robbie asked.

"Not great," I said and sat between the two girls. Robbie and Tami were sitting on the stone wall outside the side door. Thirty-seven-and-a-half percent of the cheerleading squad were sitting on the other wall. I gave Mikee, Allie, and Darlene big smiles. Beyond the overhang the rain was coming down. Mr. Nye, the science teacher, said we might set a record. I didn't want to set a record, I wanted football practice, and if it didn't lighten up soon, practice was going to be in the gym or canceled all together.

"So Luke's off the team again?" Tami asked.

"No, he's on. But Coach Vickers and Mr. Reed are not my biggest fans at the moment."

Yesterday when I'd gone out to the field, Coach Vickers hadn't been very happy to have Luke back, but he let himself be convinced to wait and discuss it with Mr. Reed and me. Robbie had been less than thrilled, though I don't think anyone realized it but me. Last night, when she joined Tami and me for our walk, I kept waiting for a sucker punch.

Today I'd met with Coach Vickers and Mr. Reed at the beginning of second period. Coach Vickers left for his class at the beginning of third, but Mr. Reed and I had just finished. I'd missed most of lunch.

"Does he have to take a drug test first?" Robbie asked. She knew the deal I'd made with Luke.

"Nope. I convinced Mr. Reed that the whole team would walk if one player was required to take a non-random drug test without any evidence that he's been using."

"We would?"

"Yep. I figured I could convince my co-captain it was the right thing to do, and she'd lead the team. They kinda like her."

"What if your co-captain isn't sure it's the right thing?"

I put my arm around Robbie and gave her a squeeze. "She would be. Luke got caught in Texas and paid the price." Officially he wasn't Texas all-state. He gotten caught right after the season, and they stripped him of the title. "In Washington, he's never been caught."

"Never been caught. That's what worries me. I don't want to play the season under a cloud."

"This is Washington. There's always clouds." Her elbow caught me in the stomach, but I'd been expecting it and tensed up.

"You know what I mean," she said with a touch of spite.

"I know what you mean, and the universe will make sure that the cloud doesn't hang over us too long. Mr. Reed added Luke's name to the drug list himself."

"The universe, huh?"

"Yep, that old justice-loving universe." With a touch of help from Kelly Dubrey. The district used a computer program that WSAA provided. All the names of athletes in fall sports were input, and the computer spit out a random list of seven percent. This morning, before my meeting, she'd hacked into the computer and added a worm to the program that would keep Luke's name off the list for two weeks, then make it come up every week after that. It took her about fifteen minutes. It was great having a genius on retainer.

"And Mr. Reed bought that?" Tami asked.

"I gave him my personal guarantee that Luke was clean." Or would be when he tested.

"And he bought that?"

"Yep." After two hours. I knew he wanted to pin me down about how I knew Luke would get tested. But he knew the only way I could guarantee that was to fix the system, and I was trying to give him some plausible deniability. I think he finally got that.

Tami asked the question that I knew everyone was thinking. "And what if he's still using?"

"Then I guess I hang up my white hat and six-shooters and stop trying to save the world.

"But you'll still save cheerleaders, right?" Allie asked.

"I'll always save cheerleaders."

"Save them from what?" Paula asked stepping out the side door.

"Save them from slave-driving captains. They want to transfer to football, 'cause they heard that Robbie's not nearly as tough."

I was saved from Paula and Robbie's comebacks by the bell for our next class.

I watched Robbie walk away with relief.

"Think it's no football?" Tami asked, reading my mind.

"That's part of it." There'd been no football practice Tuesday or yesterday because of the rain. We couldn't even use the gym because of other activities. "She's just been a..." I stopped before calling my best friend a bitch.

"Totally," Tami agreed. "She barely ate anything at lunch. Maybe she's just hungry."

I couldn't blame her for that. Tuna noodle surprise. The surprise was if you could keep it down.

"Must be her time of the month."

"Nope," Tami said, slipping her arm around me and her hand into my back pocket. "Too early. Next week."

Oh goody. Something to look forward to.

"Maybe she just needs to get laid."

"Is that a suggestion, oh love of my life?" I leaned to the side and kissed her nose.

"You better believe it," she said with a grin. "See if you can get Mark Russell off his butt and into her pants."

Not exactly what I had in mind, but on the other hand, not a bad idea.

"Maybe she's just nervous," I suggested.

"Robbie?"

"She gets nervous. She just usually hides it well. This time she wants it too bad."

"I wonder why. You shouldn't have told her about losing by a vote."

"She needed to know."

Tami sighed. "I guess she did. So what's going to happen?"

Now it was my turn to sigh. "Officially, we have three chances in ten. In truth, probably three out of five, straight odds."

"So better than fifty-fifty."

"Maybe."

Tami tilted her head but didn't say anything. "Leslie probably has one slot locked. After all, she won last year. I think Jeremy Wilkins is gonna get a slot. That leaves one."

"One out of three." I nodded.

"What do we do if we don't get it?"

"You and I get some free time. And Robbie we keep sedated and away from other people."

"How long?" Tami asked with a sly grin.

"Probably not more than two, three years. She should be over it by then."

"You're a good friend."

"I try."

"You still clean?" I asked as I pulled a jersey over my head.

Luke looked irritated. I'd arranged for me and him to be the last ones out of the locker room. "I said I was," he snapped.

I didn't bother tucking in my shirt and stepped over in front of him. "Slick, you haven't earned trust yet. Mine or anybody else's. I don't know if you believe it or not, but I want you to succeed, to pass your test. And you WILL get tested. Since I don't trust you, I'll nag you. Still clean?"

Luke's fists were clenched, and I was ready if he took a swing. "Yes," he said finally.

"I don't know a lot about those Winnies. But I've heard that steroids can cause increased aggressiveness, so either uncurl those fists or use them."

Luke looked down at his hands as if he hadn't realized, then relaxed them.

"We might as well get this straight," I said, relaxing a little myself. "I'm not your friend. I probably won't be. I'm your team-mate and your captain. And I will nag you, bug you, and bully you to get what I want. If you don't like that, or you can't handle that, you know where the door is."

Luke tensed again, his fists half closing, but nodded.

"If you need help, ask. If it's medical I can call Wynter."

"No, I... is that chick really thirteen?"

I laughed and slapped him on the back. "So she tells me."

"She sounded like a cross between my doctor, my mom, and Mr. Lansing, my old vice-principal."

"That's my Wynter. Now get out there. Four laps."

"The team did two."