Obsession

Secret: Chapter 7

"Shoot it, Gabe!" Chris encouraged, kicking the ball across the field, and watching as his friend and teammate successfully intercepted it.

Under the midday sun on a Monday, the boys had decided to play a friendly game of soccer to pass the time even though later on that afternoon, when the final bell rang, they would have an official practice session. Soccer was in their hearts, in their minds, and in their blood. They loved the game, and even as they played leisurely, they had gathered a small crowd.

Soccer ran through the veins of every Shaw resident like it was the lifeline.

Gabriel showed off his footwork, dribbling the ball around another boy, kicking the ball between the legs of another and dancing around him skilfully to apprehend the ball again, keeping it in his possession. He kicked the ball toward the net, but its trajectory was intercepted when a teammate on the opposing side blocked it, the ball bouncing back.

Gabriel reached for it and headed the ball back onto its trajectory. It swivelled past the other boy, and the goalkeeper missed it by mere inches.

Applause and cheers rang out as the boys celebrated their victory even in the friendly game of soccer between the team itself.

"Guys, I'm back!" Josh Hart hollered as he came running onto the field. His announcement caught the attention of his teammates, Gabriel and Chris coming to meet him halfway. "Sorry about the wait," he apologized. "What'd I miss?"

"Other than Gabe scoring us one," Chris replied, "not much." The team's captain then raised an eyebrow and turned to look at his friend. "Why'd you take so long? I thought you went to pee."

Josh nodded, grinning widely. "I did, but then I realized I needed to do a number two, as well."

"Well –" Gabriel began but was cut off when one of their teammates called out to them. The team wanted to continue playing for a while again before the lunch period ended.

The three boys returned to their teammates and played until with ten minutes to the hour of one o'clock when the bell would ring, signalling the end of the lunch period. They retreated, then, from the field and to the boys' bathrooms where they washed their faces and put themselves in order for the last two classes of the day.

Gabriel had Chemistry and AP Calculus that afternoon, and he shared those classes with his friends – Josh Hart, Chris Choi, and Rebecca Stroup. The three boys met Rebecca on their way to the Chemistry lab where their class would be held, and upon arriving there, Gabriel frowned when he caught something peculiar at the bench where he usually sat.

There was a cup of Jell-O, and it was Gabriel's preferred flavour. Accompanying the snack was a slip of paper. Like the one he had received on Saturday afternoon following the game, this one was also an A4 sheet of paper folded into quarters with his name scribbled onto it. Like the previous one that had his name carefully stencilled, this one shared the same characteristic, and he received the eerie feeling that the letter – if it were one at all – came from the same sender.

He wasn't looking forward to it, and he remembered the unusual text message from the afternoon before. It had come from whomever was the sender of the first letter and he wondered if he knew the person. It couldn't be anyone he was close to because Gabriel was sure he would have noticed something. Perhaps he knew them, but they weren't close. Maybe acquaintances or knew each other in passing.

Whichever be the case, Gabriel knew that it had to have been someone who was at the game, and at diner on Saturday in order to witness Nico Hoffman's gross demeanour toward the letter.