A Good Guy & A Bad Boy

Ch. 7

Later that day, Nick walked up to Jake while he was at his locker. Nick's hand were placed on Jake's biceps.

"Hey, Boy Scout," he said. "I heard that Troy, the school's quarterback, is throwing a party at his family's beach house Friday night. He invited half the school."

"Did you get an invite?" Jake asked.

"No, and most likely, I'm not gonna get one."

A chubby, but husky, guy approached Jake and Nick. His hair was black and curly, his eyes were dark brown, and he was wearing a blue and white Letterman's jacket with a shark on it.

"Hey," said the boy. "You're Jake Arnette, right? I'm Troy Taylor, the quarterback."

"Nice to meet you, Troy," Jake replied.

"Listen, I'm throwing a party at my beach house Friday, and I was... wondering if you'd like to come?"

"Can my friends, Nick and Erica, come too?"

"Sure. I don't see why not. See ya later, Jakey."

Troy walked away, looking back at Jake and Nick for a second before looking straight ahead.

"Um..." Jake said. "Did Troy just-"

"Call you 'Jakey'?" Nick continued Jake's question. "He sure did."

Meanwhile, on the football field, Trina was sitting in the bleachers and saw their mascot, Spike the Shark, sitting down on the bence. He got up and went to the locker room. A tiny lightbulb went off in Trina's head. She called Andre, and minutes later, he arrived.

"What, Trina?" he asked.

"I got a plan to get back at Jake," Trina said. "Come on!"

Trina and Andre sneaked into the locker room and saw the mascot costume on a bench. They grabbed Spike's head and ran out the locker room. They headed to Jake's locker, secretly carrying the mascot's head.

"Andre, you can lockpick. Break into Jake's locker," Trina said.

Andre listened to Trina, opening the locker in seconds. They shoved the locker inside and closed it.

"Now will you tell me the plan?" Andre asked.

"Are you that dumb?" Trina rhetorically asked. "Someone will let Boswell know that Spike's head is missing. Jake's gonna open his locker, and Spike's head is gonna fall out. People will assume Jake stole the head, and Boswell will punish him."

"Oi vey..."

During free period, Boswell was on the school intercom, sounding angry but professonal.

"Attention, students," he said. "It have come to my attention that someone stole the head to our mascot, Spike the Shark. Whomever is responsible for this will receive a two-day suspension.

"Two days at home for stealing Spike's head?" Erica asked. "That's-"

"Stupid, right?" Nick interrupted. "I agree."

They walked towards Jake's locker, seeing a crowd of students surrounding him. They rushed up to him, seeing Jake's locker open with him standing beside it and Spike's head on the floor.

"Jake, what's going on?" Erica asked.

"Everyone thinks I stole Spike's head," Jake explained. "Someone must've shoved his head in my locker. I'm gonna be punished for something I didn't even-"

"We'll figure this out, Boy Scout," Nick wrapped his arms around Jake, who did the same to him.

"Who would do this to Jake?" Erica asked.