School Activities

The Bet

Jack sat down for lunch across from Adam. The rest of the team was out practicing. Adam was suspended from football for a few days until he aced a test he was retaking that afternoon. Jack thought about offering to tutor him but knew Adam would just decline since he was tough enough to do his own work. He didn't need Jack's help with everything.

"The rest of the team came up with a game," Adam said, looking up from his textbook after Jack had sat down and started eating. Today's meal was meatloaf, green beans, and a biscuit. "Of course, no one's got the balls to go through with it yet."

Jack took his bowl of green beans and switched it with a biscuit from another student's tray beside him when they weren't looking. The idiot didn't even notice. "Why not?" he asked. "They've got the balls to pummel each other to a pulp and laugh about it later. Unless the game is a suicide run--"

"They're actually just afraid of what it might do to their reputation."

Jack paused in peeling his biscuit apart and looked at Adam. "What's the game?" he asked. "Dress up like a bunch of chicks and parade around school grounds?" He took a bite of buttery, flaky biscuit.

"The object of the game is to become friends with someone unpopular," Adam explained, tapping his pencil lightly on the pages of his book. "But not for real. You just have to make them believe that it is. You can go on with it for however long you want and then at the end, you humiliate the person."

"Might be fun," Jack said, sticking some of the meatloaf between two pieces of biscuit. "If you didn't have to pretend to be some geek's friend."

"There are other people besides geeks."

"Ain't they all the same?"

Adam shook his head then turned his attention back to his work. Jack ate in silence until Adam looked back at him. "They'll do it if you do it."

"What?"

"You got the balls for it, right?"

"Sure," Jack said with a shrug. "Unless you send me to the virgin group." He pointed a finger at Adam. "No balls for that." He lowered his hand.

Adam nodded his head, gesturing over Jack's shoulder. "How 'bout him?"

Jack paused and looked over his shoulder, seeing a guy sitting alone at a table with just his girlfriend. Both of them just stared down at their food. He looked back at Adam. "C'mon, they're close to becoming the emo group," he said.

Adam rolled his eyes. "Then take the game as a dare," he said. "Or, better yet, a bet." He grinned, pointing his pencil at Jack's chest. "I bet you can't get that guy to believe you're his friend by the end of the week."

"How much ya bettin'?"

"Fifty to a hundred," Adam replied. "Make it interesting. Conditions: you obviously can't tell him, you have to hang out with him whenever you can--"

"What about you and the guys?"

"That's what makes it fun."

"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna--"

"If you bang that pussy, would it make up for not hanging out with us?"

Jack looked over his shoulder again, his attention focused on the girl. Her brown hair had a twinge of red to it and it fell down to her shoulders. She had a nice face and wore the sort of clothes you'd find on a 90s teen from a teenage drama show. He was so turned off by her that he didn't even want to imagine thinking about undressing her in his head.

He looked back at Adam. "I'd rather hit a dead monkey."

"I bet Fred can hook you up."

Jack glared at him, throwing his biscuit at Adam. "I'll take the bet," he said. "Fuck the conditions. Other than getting him to be my friend by the end of the week." He was pretty sure that would be easy. Anyone saw themselves as lucky whenever he even talked to them. This would be like taking candy from a baby.

He went back to eating then paused when Adam was just staring at him. "What?"

"It's already the middle of the week, Jack."

Jack cursed under his breath then got to his feet. He left his tray as he walked over to the shut-in table. "Hey," he said, sitting down next to the guy, who didn't even react to his presence. "Jack Twist." He held his hand out. "I'm sure you've heard of me."

"Yes, the Suicidal Depressed Shut-ins have," the girl said, an attitude in her tone.

Jack lowered his hand and looked at her, leaning forward and propping both arms on the table. He opened his mouth to give her something to hold her tongue next time then remembered the bet. He drummed his fingers on the table then leaned back. "Sorry about that," he said since that nickname for them had once been spray-painted on this very table. It had been funny at the time. Jack had nearly gotten expelled for that.

He looked back at the guy. "Got anything to say for yourself?" he asked. "Or are ya havin' a good talk with that meatloaf?"

The guy stopped picking at his food and lowered his fork. Jack noticed his eyes were brown. He struck Jack as the sort of person who had lived on a ranch his whole life. The guy also had to be a year or two older than himself.

"Got a name, at least?"

"Ennis," the guy said in a surprisingly deep voice. He didn't look at Jack.

Jack sat there, waiting for more, but he was obviously not going to get it. "Yeah, I don't like last names either," he said with a slight shake of his head. He looked over at the girl again. "What's your name, princess?"

"Alma."

Jack smiled. "Now, then, ain't this fun?" He looked back at Ennis. "I wanna make up for what I said the other day." He held his hand out again. "Truce? I promise you won't hear another rude peep outta me."

Ennis hesitated a moment and Jack thought he was just going to ignore him completely. Then Ennis shook his hand, but Alma looked like she didn't trust the whole thing. She was definitely the type to think that something was up with just about anything.

"Wanna hang out after school?" Jack asked. "There's a great movie place down by the bar."

"I bet that's where all the 'cool guys' hang out," Alma piped in sarcastically.

Jack looked at Alma as she spoke up. He looked back at Ennis. "I bet you'll have a great time there."

Ennis shook his head. "Not my kinda thing," he said, standing up and picking up his tray. Alma followed suit.

Jack felt that this was going nowhere. He stood up and followed after them, giving Adam the finger as he walked by that table. "Then what's your kinda thing?" he asked, pretending to act interested.

"Ennis, ignore him," Alma said quietly as they put their trays away.

"Aw, Ennis, don't do that," Jack pleaded. "I can promise you, you won't regret this." Until the end of the week, but that was where the fun happened, right?

Ennis looked at Alma then over at Jack. He was an inch or two taller than Jack. Jack got the sudden feeling that this guy could be so much more than the shut-in he was. He had the sort of look about him that could make him popular. And he had the looks to top Jack in anything. If Jack wasn't at the top, he'd try to make this guy popular instead of make fun of him.

"At least think about it?"

"Alma and I are gonna be at the park after school," Ennis said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other a bit nervously. "With the weather recently, the park's been empty."

"Ennis," Alma said in that 'that's our spot' tone.

Jack gave a nod of his head though he wasn't interested in spending his after-school hours in a boring park. "Yeah, I might see ya there," he said then turned and went back to the table with Adam.

"Like taking candy from a baby?"

"A wailing baby that has the grip of a two-ton gorilla," Jack said, looking down at his now-empty tray. He looked at Adam. "He suggested the park. What the hell am I gonna do at the park?"

"What do they do?"

Jack shrugged. "Almost afraid to find out," he said, glancing over his shoulder just in time to see Ennis and Alma leave the cafeteria. "I'm already goin' through hell. For all I know they just sit on the grass and have their own pity party."

"Go and find out."

"Fuck you," Jack said then grabbed his tray and stood up.