The Resident Badboy

Chapter 20 • Griseo

           "Hey, brother," Evo greets and half of the school bus chuckle. This boy is a natural.

           "I kind of miss Jace," Bridget murmurs so low so that only I could hear. But as I look up, mighty Grayson is eavesdropping.

           The door of the school bus opens and speak of the devil, Jace Whitely should appear. He has his duffel bag strap across his body and his eyes are half-searching for a place to sit on and for us, his girls.

           As his eyes land on us, he sighs in relief. He walks his ways towards us only to sit down to a vacant place five or six seats away from us. Bridget nudges me, telling me she sees it too. I did my best not to react because that's who I'm supposed to be.

           If the two of them are thinking that I'm going to break and buy their new level of pettiness, then they got another thing coming. They're the ones who suddenly distanced themselves to us without a solid reason. If it's all because I watched what happened between Aust and Grayson, they're delusion if they think I care.

           "Okay okay okay, that's enough, you monkeys," a girl appears in between of Jaron and Evo.

           She's one of Grayson's friends, one of those who seem to look at me like I'm a meal or I've grown a third head. A tough tomboy, as I see.

           "Thank goodness for you, Sam," Evo sighs in relief and briefly hugs her before facing us again.

           A hand grabs poor Evo by the collar and drags him to the adjacent seats. We all look at Grayson who's eyes are hard at him. "You're sitting with me."

           I choose to ignore the suggestive looks, the wiggling of eyebrows and the silent chuckles from his friends. And even from my own bestfriend.

• • • •

It was a long and excruciating bus ride. Especially when you're surrounded by not just one but two fellow athletes who happen to have motion sickness. Even though you don't have one, once you get a sniff of their gut contents... you'll sure want to puke as well.

Evo's eyes are already forming tears due to his attempts of stopping himself from following suit. It's a hard thing to do but hello, his pride and dignity are in line if he didn't.

As the bus slowly stops, Coach rises from his seat at the very front and clears his throat. Now all eyes are on him. As if I'll listen to every word he'll say.

"House rules first people before I set you all out of this bus!" he shouts. He holds out a finger, gesturing for his first rule. "One, no one dares to come late tomorrow for the show game. Two, no lurking out the halls at night and sleep as early as possible so you're all in the right condition for tomorrow. And three, no one is to get out of the four corners of this building and do as you pleases without coming through me. Understand?"

No one murmurs an agreement. Not even a single person nods. Coach looks at each of us, hoping to gain even just a slight movement of agreement but nobody moved a muscle. He claps his hand and up we all go.

"We'll train before dinner," he announces and that's when everybody responded with groans of protest.

Bridget, unintentionally, let out a small laugh. Loud enough to catch everyone's attention. And since she is standing next to me, all eyes divert to me and are asking me the question, 'do we have to listen to Coach about tonight's practice?'.