Chapter 15

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Chapter 15! Woohoo! :)

Beckham O’Neil

I walked out of my bedroom with a small smile on my face. I could hear Paul’s laugh echo down the hallway. Paul watches the morning news religiously. “Good, Morning Beck.” He said with his mouth full of cereal.

The past few days Jane had been sick with some sort of flu thing. So it was fend for yourself in the Westcott household, which meant cereal every meal and heating up chicken soup for Jane. “What are you laughing at?” I said as I grabbed a bowl and made my breakfast.

Paul swallowed, ‘Apparently Longview has become a crime scene.” He let out a small chuckle. “They found blood and are testing it now and here in a few minutes they are going to show footage from the camera on top of the stop light across the street.”

I sat down on the couch next to him. “Oh, yeah” I said, trying to feign a little surprise.

Paul shushed me and turned up the volume of the television. “Well, Chad, we just received video footage and it appears like it’s nothing more than a prank by a couple of kids. It looks like this case is closed.” The newscaster with great hair smiled and then it cut to the video footage. I had anticipated them finding footage, hence the shirts and blacked out license plates.

Paul and I stared blankly at the TV screen as we watched the group hop out of the minivan, decorate the school and the speed off. “And there you have it folks.”

”Wait a minute,” Paul growled as he hit rewind on the remote to go back to the grainy black and white image. Right about now I was wishing TiVo was never invented.

He pushed pause at the scene when we were running out of the van. Paul had gotten on his knees, planting his face inches from the screen. He was concentrating so hard that I was afraid the vein in his forehead would burst. Then all the sudden he started laughing.

“What?” I stood up next to him. I wasn’t expecting this reaction. I thought he had figured us out and was about to blow a casket, but he was rolling on the floor laughing.

“The kids… are… football… players… from… Longview.” He said between gasps for breath.

I sighed quietly in relief. “How do you know that?” I asked the question that he would expect me to ask, but I already knew the answer.

“Their shirts. Those are their football shirts. Oh, man, I have to call Todd. Go ahead and get your stuff ready to leave.” He walked over to the phone and started dialing. I put our bowls in the dishwasher then went to go brush my teeth. I could hear Paul talking to Todd on the phone.

“Man, are your boys stupid! I mean who in their right minds would wear their own football shirts while vandalizing?” He chuckled, “Ha ha. I guess you’ll be down a few players tonight.” He paused while the coach from Longview said something. “Okay, bye, Todd.” I heard Paul laugh some more. "Hey, Beck, are you ready?”

”Yeah, give me a minute. I can’t find my backpack.” I called back to him from my room.

I could hear Paul coming down the hallway. “Where did you see it last?” He asked as he stood in the doorway.

Last night, while we were committing a crime. I knocked myself on the head, “Oh, I left it in Michaels’ minivan last night.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Minivan?”

I nodded, “Yeah, he wrecked his truck so he was driving his mom’s car. He gave me a ride home after the dinner last night.”

Paul still had a confused look on his face, “Isn’t his mom’s minivan gold?”

I nodded, “Yeah, why?”

He shrugged, “No reason. So who else did Michaels give a ride home?”

I made it look as if I was trying to remember who was in the minivan when I clearly saw each face in my mind. “Um, well, it was Me, Tyler, Larry, Travis, and Jake. I think.”

“Oh, okay.” He looked down at his watch. “Oh, we better go. Without Jane, I always lose track of time.” He smiled an clapped me on the back just a little too hard.

We sat at our usual table in the cafeteria during lunch when Paul walked up. “I need to see you six, now.”

We shared a look that said ‘oh shit he knows’ before getting up and following him out of the cafeteria and back to his office. Paul was intimidating on the field when he was yelling, but he was even scarier when he was quietly escorting us to our death sentence.

He sat down at his desk as we gathered around. “So,” He started, “I understand that you six were together last night after the team dinner.”

We nodded, some even threw in a “Yes, sir.”

Paul continued, “Michaels, you were driving, correct?”

“Yes, sir, my mom’s minivan. I wrecked my truck last weekend.”

Paul nodded. “Okay then. After dinner, what did y’all do?”

”What do you mean?” I inquired. This felt like we were under arrest and Paul was trying to get us to confess.

“Well, you weren’t home until one last night, and Adam says that the dinner ended at about 10. So, tell me, what were you six doing from 10 until 1?

Tyler sighed, “Okay. You caught us.” Larry hit Tyler in the back of the head like we had planned. “Dude,” Tyler turned around, “We have to tell him now before things escalate.” Tyler didn’t even know what that meant until Larry, the human dictionary, clarified things for him. Tyler turned his attention back towards Paul. “Look, Coach, we want to apologize. After the dinner we invited some of the girls to a bonfire and there was alcohol involved, but nothing happened, we were just hanging out. We just had a few beers and talked, that’s it.” We all waited patiently as Paul mulled over our rehearsed excuse. We even convinced Lacey and her friends to tell the same story if they were asked about our whereabouts. We didn’t tell them the true story, but they were wiling to help anyways.

Paul still had a suspicious look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but someone interrupted him. “Hey, Craig, I need you to sign this.” We all turned to look at who had stopped Paul from killing us with his voice. It was her.

I hadn’t even notice Coach Stevens sitting at his desk until he replied. “Oh, yeah. Sorry Emma, I forgot.” She handed him a piece of paper which he looked over before signing. I looked at the two of them. They looked nothing alike. The hair and eyes were different as well as their mouths, but their noses were identical. Coach Stevens handed her the paper back. “Here you go.”

She smiled, “Thanks Craig, sorry to interrupt Coach Westcott.”

Paul smiled back even though I could tell he was still mad at us. “It’s alright, Emma.” He waited for her to leave before he continued. “Now, back to you guys.” Paul’s tone and expression changed in a split second. I heard Travis gulp. “I’m very disappointed that y’all were drinking. All six of you should be suspended from the rest of the season.” He sighed, “However, I know that ya’ll are good boys, and I’m willing to over look your bad decision making skills this one time. But so help me if I find out that you six did something stupid again.” There was a warning hi his eyes that sent chills down the whole groups’ back. Every body faked relief as he dismissed us to go back to class.

Paul made it seem like he bought our story, but something also told me that he knew it wasn’t the Longview football team.

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