Chapter Thirty-five

Ever Heard the Word “Bail”?

“...this is our territory so we gotta win,” Coach Justin McIvor pepped talked his team. “Captain! Floor’s yours.”  

Second quarter ended leaving the score of 12-6. Mapleton High was the leading. An intermission did by the cheerleaders pumped up the energy of both schools. Each team huddled up.

“You heard coach,” Jude O’ Brien, the Quarterback, said. “We gotta win ‘cause this is our territory. It’ll be a slap-on-the-face if we lose.”

His team was looking at him eager to win the next set.  

 “You were awesome there, man.” Jude O’Brien complemented Richard and gave him a high-five, “we can totally win this thing!”

“Thanks, man,” Richard said, “You were awesome too!”

“I know!” Jude smiled. “Follow Grayson’s lead.”

Leonard Becker was so pumped up to beat the opponent. He was jogging in place feeling ecstatic for the next set.

“Yo, Leo!” Jude pointed him, “bring it and kick their butts if it’s necessary!”

Leonard laughed. “Kick their ass!”

Then, the Cougars reached their hands in and shouted, “COUGARS!”

Afterwards, the drum and lyre restarted.

Back at the janitor’s closet, Louis used a brick to block the door to make sure that it will not suddenly shot to lock them in. It was dim lighted inside. Louis looked onto his bag and tried looking for something. “I forgot my torch!”

Claire’s left eyebrow raised like

WHAT?

“I don’t think a torch will fit in your bag. What will do with a torch in the school?”

Louis had no idea about Claire’s argument was. “Duh! To light the room?”

Claire laughed. “Uh, duh? You could just use a flashlight?”

Louis suddenly burst into laughter. “I get it! Well, the torch is the British-term for flashlight. That’s why!”

“Oh!” Claire was a little bit embarrassed. “Silly me!”

Then, Louis and Claire resumed in wandering around. Claire suddenly bumped a stack of containers and everything fell over like dominoes. Suddenly, a man in a football uniform fell on her. She landed on the floor screaming in fear.

Louis saw his girlfriend panicking. Something was on top of Claire. Louis immediately helped her up. He grabbed the man and it was just a dummy dressed in a football uniform. He recognized the number 5 on the uniform. “This is Edward’s.”

Claire got a little bit traumatized. “Can we go back now?”

Louis looked at his girlfriend who was so traumatized. He decided to wait for five minutes. There was nothing special inside the janitor’s closet. It just full of cleaning materials and part of it had a pungent smell of burning rubber. They put all the things that fell right where it was especially the mannequin with Edward’s uniform on.   

The clock kept on ticking in his Seiko risk watch. He looked at it and it was already 5:16 in the afternoon and E hasn’t shown up.

“Who are we kidding, Lou?” Claire said. “Let’s go.”

Louis thought that E bailed on him. So he decided that they should go.

After doing an intermission number, Ismail and Travis quickly headed to the school for Louis’s back-up. They ran as fast as they could.

Suddenly, they bumped in with Louis and Claire in the hallway who were just about to head back to the football game. They all landed on their butts on the tiled floor.

            Ismail clutched his head that got slightly pained. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised in seeing Claire Summers. “What is she doing here?”

            All of them were still on the floor, though.

“I wanted to help, actually.” Claire answered for Louis.

Louis stood up and helped her up. “I’ll just tell everything on the way.”

Ismail reached his hands to helped Claire as well. Then, they headed back to the game. They reached the entrance hall of the field.

Ismail doesn’t want Claire to know about E. “Um, Claire?”

“Yeah?” Claire turned to Ismail as her blonde hair followed her move.

“Will you please go ahead?” Ismail gently asked, “We really need to talk privately.”

Louis gave her a puppy-eye look.

Claire looked at the guys. She felt a little bit left-out but she understood them. “Sure, I’ll be fine.” Then, she went to Louis and gave him a sweet kissed.

Ismail was surprised in seeing them kissed. “I thought you and Claire split up?”

“Well...” Louis happily said, “we made up!”

“That was fast,” Travis said. “So, what happened?”

Louis, Travis and Ismail went to a nearby bench and sat on it. “E ditched me.”

“What?” Travis fretted.

“You heard him, right?” Ismail added. “Probably, because Claire was there?”

“That’s what I thought too,” Louis replied. “He did not just ditched me but he bailed on me. We also found Edward’s football uniform dressed on a dummy in the janitor’s room.”

“Why would the janitor keep Edward’s uniform?” Ismail curiously asked.

“Maybe the janitor was an avid fan of Ed’s?” Travis hypothesized. “Ed does not only have the ability to make students love him, also the janitors! No big deal.”

“I think you’re right,” Louis said. Then, he remembered seeing Mr. Jones a while ago. “By the way, I saw Mr. Jones in the main building and he told me that you should report to him about something, after the game.”

“You saw him, there? In the main building?” Travis surprisingly asked.

“No Travis! Louis saw him in the field!” Ismail sarcastically annoyed Travis.

Travis gave Ismail a glare. “I was just confirming!”

Suddenly, Louis’ phone tinkled. Ismail and Travis turned their attention to Louis’s phone thinking that E might have texted him.

Louis grabbed his BlackBerry. The Caller ID was blocked. He slowly pressed Read. And their inference was right. He read the message aloud.

 I told you to bring nobody. –E

Louis breathed out and got totally worried.

“Wait a sec,” Ismail paused, “How did E knew that you were the one who was coming?”

“That’s what I thought too,” Louis said.

The three exchanged looks.

Suddenly, they heard the audience cheered as if the match was on its climax. So they ran inside to see who scored.