"Sawyer Armstrong, please report to the principal's office."
I had waited patiently all hour to hear those exact words. I knew they were coming but as I sat on the edge of my seat anticipating the loudspeaker to buzz, I couldn't help but feel excited. And yet, even as the words played over the loudspeaker, my body did the exact opposite of relax. I sat up further in my seat and followed Sawyer with my eyes as he walked over to the door with his usual swagger before disappearing into the hallway.
Alright, Danny, channel your inner third-grade Peter Pan acting part.
I leaned back in my seat and turned my body toward Josh, whose eyes were glued to the seat that Sawyer had vacated. "Did you hear what happened?"
Josh's friend looked between the two of us with wide eyes. "Apparently he got caught sending dirty text messages to a teacher. I heard she's getting the cops involved," I told them.
Josh's face was priceless. "And I heard another student was involved! Isn't that sick?"
Before I gave myself away with the smile that was starting to tug at the corner of my lips, I turned to the front of the room and waited. It would just be any minute now.
"Josh Palmer, please report to the principal's office."
Oh, the benefits of being friends with the office lady.
Josh's chair squeaked as he stood up.
"I told you not to send him the number," his friend whispered.
"Coach is going to kill me. If I can't play during baseball season, then—"
"Josh, shouldn't you be heading somewhere?" the teacher said.
I turned around just in time to see Josh slowly nod his head. His feet dragged against the floor as he moved closer and closer to what I assumed he thought was his impending doom. As soon as he was out the door I was up and walking toward the teacher's desk, a fake smile plastered across my face.
"May I please go to the bathroom?"
She looked up at me from her computer and nodded her head, barely glancing back as I hurried toward the door. Truthfully, I had no idea what Sawyer had planned after this point. We had only begun to draw out our plans when my mom called and asked me to get home and take care of Leah. She was having terrible mood swings and morning sickness all throughout the day and my mom couldn't get anyone to cover her shift at the hospital. I begged Sawyer to text me the final plans but he said he'd take care of everything on his own.
The anticipation was killing me.
"Screw you!"
My ears perked at the sound of someone shouting, shouting that sounded an awful lot like Josh.
I rounded the corner in the hallway just in time to see Sawyer launch himself at Josh, their bodies colliding with a sickening crunch as they crumpled to the floor in a heap. Sawyer moved much faster than Josh did, landing three hard punches to the second baseman's jaw before he could even move his hands up to protect himself.
"What the hell is going on!" I screamed.
Sawyer looked up at me just as I pressed my hands to his chest and shoved him off of Josh. He was so surprised that he lost balance and stumbled back, his hands coming up to break his fall.
"Stay out of this, Danny," he seethed. Sawyer jumped back onto his feet and moved toward a cowering Josh.
"Oh hell no," I said, moving in front of him. "This is not a part of the plan. You said—"
"I didn't want your help in the first place. This was my plan all along. Now get out of my way."
Sawyer's eyes were clouded with anger as he pushed me aside and lunged for Josh. The door to the front office swung open and a teacher rushed out just in time to stop Sawyer from causing permanent damage.
Both boys were fuming with rage as they were pulled off in different directions. I hadn't even noticed the crowd that had formed behind me. All of the classrooms had emptied out into the hallway to watch the fight. Ty and Porter were standing at the front of the line of people waiting to get a view of the commotion, both of them wearing the same confused expression.
Great, I thought.
How was I supposed to explain this to them.
**
"You are an idiot, you know that, right?" Ty said for about the tenth time.
I shot him a glare from the other side of the couch and slouched further in the cushions. "I don't think repeating it will make her feel any better," Porter pointed out.
"What did she do?"
Leah stood at the entrance to our family room wearing her favorite pink apron with her hands rested on her hips. Her curly brown hair, the hair that our mother had passed down to both of us, was pulled up into one of her amazing messy buns. I had yet to master her technique and I didn't think I ever would.
"She made a deal with the devil," Ty told her.
He, Porter and I were all squished together on the couch watching old reruns of Criminal Minds. While most kids our age were out on a Friday night getting wasted or doing something under the influence of something, we liked to spend our time sitting on our asses and stuffing our bodies with crappy food and sugary drinks. Ty and I would go out every now and then but Porter couldn't risk it. I swear his mom implanted a tracking device in his body while he was still a baby. She always knew where he was and what he was doing, even if his phone was off.
"Who's the devil?"
"No one—"
"Sawyer Armstrong," Porter said, interrupting me.
Leah's eyebrows shot up in what looked like surprise. "You and Sawyer?"
"Eww not like that," I assured her. "We were helping each other out and the plan went south. No big deal."
"He was the one sexting her," Ty said.
I reached over and smacked him on the top of the head, hard. "My little sister does not need to hear about this stuff."
"Your little sister is pregnant and she's not so little anymore," Leah said, referring to herself in the third person while motioning to her protruding stomach.
Before any of us could reply the front door banged open and footsteps sounded from the hallway. My mom appeared behind Leah, clad in her usual light green scrubs. "Do you two not have homes?" she joked, looking at Ty and Porter with a teasing expression.
"We don't have little sisters that cook us yummy food," Ty said sweetly.
"I'm so glad my friends use me for food," I stated, mostly to myself.
Porter nodded his head as if he agreed with me. "And as an escape from crazy mothers."
"Well that's acceptable."
"I brought ice cream," my mom said, holding up a bag with two cartoons of creamy, cold goodness.
"Your mom is the best," Porter said with a sigh after my mother exited the room and disappeared into the kitchen.
It was true, my mom was pretty darn cool. She must have passed that onto me too.
"So, why did you sell your soul to the devil? What happened?" Leah questioned, going right back to the subject of Sawyer.
"Is something burning?" I asked.
Leah's eyes widened and she rushed into the kitchen immediately. "You're mean," Ty told me.
I smiled. "I know, but it got her to leave. Now no more talk of Sawyer. I told you the whole story and I regret making a deal with him. It was stupid but it's over."
Porter looked as if he were about to say something else but I gave him a warning look and motioned for him to watch the TV. There was a blissful few minutes of silence as we watched before Leah hollered that dinner was ready. Porter and Ty were already off the couch and in the kitchen before I could even move to turn off the TV.
Typical boys.
"How are you two so hungry?" I asked once I saw that their plates were piled with an unusually large amount of mashed potatoes, green beans and chicken. "We literally ate an entire bag of chips and a box of Oreos like an hour ago."
"Their stomachs are infinite," my mom pointed out. "That's why I was glad that I had two girls. But now I end up feeding two teenage boys, two teenage girls and an extra little mouth anyway."
Ty and Porter both shot my mom thankful looks as they dug into their food. "Maybe you guys should start paying rent," I suggested.
"Remember who drives you to work and school," Ty said through a mouthful of potatoes.
Leah handed me a plate and I scooped a generous amount of potatoes onto it, skipping over the green beans because they were green and I usually strayed away from eating things that were green. That is, unless they were green from food coloring and resided inside a bag labeled "jelly beans".
"Danny, your phone."
My mom was looking between me and the kitchen counter, motioning to my phone which had begun to vibrate. I got up from my seat at the table and unlocked my phone, more than surprised to see I was getting a call from my mysterious sexter, aka Sawyer Armstrong.
What the hell did he want?