The Consequences of Hell Week (Blue Ridge)

Chapter 4: Confrontations

"Morning dad" I kissed him on the forehead the next morning before grabbing a banana.

"Can you believe this?" he violently jabbed the newspaper on the table in front of him.

"What?" I asked absentmindedly as I dug through the cupboard looking for the jar of Nutella I always hid in the back. I don't share my Nutella very well. I grabbed a spoon out of the silverware drawer and used it to plop a generous scoop of Nutella into my mouth.

"Some kid won $2,000 in scholarship money from some snowboarding competition. He only beat five other people and they give him two grand?" my dad proceeded to mumble about the lack of skill required in snowboarding and how ridiculous the whole thing was.

"Dad why does it matter how much money they gave the kid? He deserves to go to college even if he is a 'no good snowboarder'. He did win" I pointed out. When I turned to see the scowl on his face I slowly pulled the spoon full of Nutella out of my mouth. Not a good time to be logical. Oops.

"I'm going to work. Have a good day at school" he threw the newspaper on the table. A few minutes later I heard the back door slam. I reminded myself that he wasn't frustrated with me, it was just the Hell Week effect.

I sat down at the table and looked over the article that had him in such a bad mood. The picture of the competitors on the podium was a little blurry, but one of them looked familiar. I looked closer and sure enough the winner was none other than Turner Sorenson. The picture was in black and white, but I swear I could still see the irritating green color of his eyes.

The article said he was undefeated for his past eight races. Well that explained why he was so angry yesterday. It didn't excuse what a jerk he was, but at least I knew the reason.

Maybe I misjudged him and overreacted? He was angry that his streak was broken. It had nothing to do with me personally.

Later that afternoon I walked into the library during my study hall and saw Turner sitting at one of the back tables with headphones in.

His dark hair, green eyes, and the scowl on his face made him easy to recognize. Did the guy ever smile?

"Hey Turner can I talk to you?" I asked. He looked up from whoever he was violently texting and seemed surprised to see me. You and me both kid. I still didn't know why I thought talking to him was a good idea or what I was going to say. I just hated being on bad terms with people, even people I barely knew.

"What's going on? Did Mason get suspended again?" Turner seemed unsurprised by the idea.

My cousin had an uncontrollable attraction to trouble. Junior year he set up a mini grill in the cafeteria and started a whole business selling kids burgers and hotdogs for ridiculous prices. He had so many customers the cafeteria service quit due to a lack of profit, and Mason refused to give the money back to the school. When they suspended him he got two hundred people to sign a petition in protest. It's safe to say he and the admins did not get along.

Marcus had been suspended annually, but was clean so far senior year. I was just waiting for him to do something stupid again, and clearly so was Turner.

"No he hasn't been suspended yet, at least not that I'm aware of. I wanted to talk to you about yesterday" I tapped my foot against the leg of the table nervously.

"It really doesn't matter" Turner checked his phone before angrily responding. He had me wondering if it was possible for a person to poke holes through a phone screen.

"I saw an article in the paper this morning about your undefeated streak so I get why you were so upset yesterday. It wasn't the fact that it was me, it was just the loss in general. I realize I initially judged you for being-"