Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

17: smithereens

"Wait- where's all our stuff?"

Ester, Bianca and I stood in front of our gym lockers after volleyball, the last class of the day, dressed in our gym attire.

A single, empty tennis racquet case without a tennis racquet, sat alone in Ester's locker. There was no sight of her uniform.

In Bianca's locker, was nothing but a pack of tissues she carried around in her bag.

In mine, was a balled, crumpled piece of rough paper.

"What the hell? Our stuff did go missing, right?" Bianca opened the other lockers, and did a double take at ours, as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

I glanced at Ester, who had picked up her tennis racquet case and was examining its insides, as if she couldn't internalize the fact that her racquet was missing.

"It's because of me. Sorry, guys."

With a hard swallow, I pulled out my phone, and showed them the picture I'd taken of the letter that had been left in my locker.

"Reneé did this to my locker yesterday. I checked with the security. I can't be sure it was Reneé this time too but-"

"Sure it is." It was the first time Ester had spoken up so passionately.

With quiet heat in her calm voice, Ester continued, surveying our lockers, "She was targeting you with the ball the entire gym session today." 

Bianca's lips twisted into disgust as she examined the photo in detail. "Fuck the sorry. Why didn't you tell us? I would've helped you pull out every single strand of her hair from her scalp-"

"Or reported her to teachers," Ester suggested with a slight wince, and admitted after some thought, "Although that wouldn't help much."

After looking around to make sure we were alone, Bianca, hesitantly, said, "Look. Clare. Of all people, I know you did nothing wrong. All right?

"Don't get me wrong, but I think you dating Elliot, is going to make the rest of your senior year difficult. I know- everyone knows- he's a real nice guy. But he's too nice.

"I'm not sure if he can do anything to make sure you don't get any more of this childish shit from Reneé- and possibly a lot of other kids who're against your family.

"He seems too nice- you know, the kind who would even forgive and be friends with someone who beat him up or something."

Beat him up. How darkly ironic.

"I did take pictures. At one point." He comfortably took a turn, obviously accustomed to driving. The first night I'd seen him, he'd been without his car. "Video recordings too. But I deleted them."

Was that because he had a soft spot for Landon? Or was it because he had another plan to get back on Landon?

"I agree." Ester zipped up her empty tennis racquet case and shut the locker. "But I'm not sure if things will get any better for you if you break up with him, either."

"Part of the reason we're dating is precisely for that purpose- for me to act as your shield at school."

"Yeah," I mumbled distractedly, closing my own locker.

"It's probably going to be useless trying to find our things. Whoever did this- Reneé or another bitch- would've put them away somewhere we won't be able to find.

"Bloody hell, 'Stuff in my locker got stolen' is a higher level than 'My dog ate my homework'. I won't have to do my Chemistry worksheet," remarked Bianca jocularly, nudging me with a grin. "So don't feel so bad."