It Started with a Bet... (Watty Awards 2011)

I head to my car to drop my backpack off...

Chapter 22: I head to my car to drop off my only to find it littered with sticky notes.

I shut the door and start walking through the near empty halls. School's over, so there are only a few people in the hallways.

"Haley, you're coming to tryouts, right?" Trevor's walking through the hallway, Christa by her side. Her face drops when she sees me. I take one quick look at the supply closet.

"Yeah, maybe for an hour or so. I'll be there in a minute." He nods and the two walk away. I head to my car to drop off my backpack only to find it littered with sticky notes.

"Keep away from Trevor, you whore."
"What makes you think you are worthy of Corey, bitch?"
"Corey and I are soulmates, don't you dare interfere."
"Stop bewitching Trevor!"
"You are fat, ugly, stupid, and disgusting. Stay in your league."

Remember when I said 99% of the single female population would date Trevor in a heartbeat? And that 20% of the taken female population would dump their guy for him? Apparently that population comes with a hell of a lot of crazy possessive people. I would say they were overreacting, but there's something else going on here, too.

I mean, one crazy possessive girl isn’t going to do this on her own. It’s only when she meets another crazy possessive girl. And another. And they get together and decide “Hey, let’s torture Haley!” Which means that someone, or a bunch of someones, planned this. And the first person I can think of is Christa.

I'm heading over to the field when my phone rings.

"Hey, it's Clarice. You can let us out of the closet now." Eh?

"I didn't lock the door."

"Yes you did." I start walking over to the building with the closet. Why is the building locked? This isn't the building with the front office, so I can't just tap on the door to get the attention of the secretary. I explain the predicament to Clarice and tell her not to worry. I hang up.

I knock on windows, hoping a teacher will answer me. It's been 30 minutes since school ended, so there are still a couple on campus. But the blinds in each room are drawn, so they can't see me. It must seem like random mysterious knocking noise, if anyone’s even there to hear it. No one comes to the window. So I text Christa saying it might be a while before I can get into the building. An hour after waiting at the door, I get in when one of the teachers is leaving.

“Mr. Hudson, I accidentally left something in the janitors’ closet. Could you open the door for me?” My history teacher shakes his head.

“Only the janitors have the keys. Sorry. There should be a janitor around sometime soon though. What did you leave in there?”

“A couple friends.” He laughs and shakes his head.

“Nicely done.” And he leaves. I love how oblivious adults can be sometimes. I text Clarice again saying I’m in the building. Now to find a janitor…

There aren’t any in the building, so they must be cleaning elsewhere. I consider leaving the building to go find one, but if I don’t, there’s no guarantee I can get back in. So I sit outside the janitors’ closet, talking to Clarice and Matt. At first I was afraid I’d disturbed them, but I can hear them talking inside anyway.

“So, Clarice, want to explain everything to me?” I ask. I hear Matt’s deep, angry voice answer me.

“The picture is from when Janice and I were dating. She’s still mad at me for dumping her a while ago.”

“How did you guys get locked in?” There’s a long pause.

“I don’t know,” Clarice finally answers. “I asked Matt to explain himself and he did and then we…made up. We decided to go get pizza or something but the door was locked. So we called you. I’m so glad we get reception here.” I nod.