Fitting In

Chapter 13 - The Aftermath

"Hattie, I forgot something in my locker. I'm gonna go back and get it," I lied.

"Okay," Hattie said turning to talk to some random people on her right, "Oh my gosh, I wonder who did this. A real snake? It has to someone who knows Tyler well. You didn't know? He's terrified of snakes. And, to get the snake in the school, without getting caught? It has to be someone who's been here a while. Honestly, it's kinda fitting that it's a snake because he..."

Hattie's voice got lost in the background as Macey pulled me into an empty corner.

"Okay, first you bail on me yesterday, and somehow you did it today? Alone? What's happening?"

"It's a long story."

"Everything is a long story."

"I can't tell you all of it," I warned.

"Fine. Give me the short, vague, condensed version of whatever narrative you have. I'm so curious right now... Wait, you did do this right?"

"Well, yes. I just decided that it was too risky yesterday."

"And it was less risky today without a lookout?" she asked skeptical.

"I really can't tell you anything, but I can tell you this. Something changed, and I couldn't do it yesterday. I almost got caught. I needed to make sure that you didn't end up getting in trouble, and today I just didn't want to get you involved again because I was worried about actually getting seen this time." It wasn't a total lie, but it also wasn't the truth.

"You still could have told me. I thought you had chickened out. I was gonna ask for the snake so I could do it myself."

"Why? Do you hate Tyler too?"

"He's never done anything to me personally, but he's messed with you and Hattie. He's trouble, and he could use being taken down a few notches. Plus, the snake idea was so good it would be wasteful to not go through with it."

We both chuckled a bit at that, and then we headed off to our separate classes. When I walked into mine, Hattie was waiting for me.

"You get it?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said holding up a pencil, that with all of the excitement I hoped she hadn't noticed.

"Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but hear me out. We need to figure out who did this. Obviously we aren't the only people who dislike Tyler. I wonder what other things he's done, but never got exposed for because. Anyways if we can find whoever did this, we might be able to find more dirt on him. Oooh, what if it as a group?"

"Why do we need dirt on him?" I asked, hoping that she would just drop the whole thing. Before I figured everyone would know, but now with all of the latest gossip, everyone has forgotten that he also spray-painted my locker. Now it could be anyone who is mad at him (and the list is long), and I'm starting to think I want my involvement in this to stay a secret.

"Because I feel like we need to take Tyler down. He's too popular. He's too... influential. If we don't, no one will."

The same could be said about Hattie. They both took rejection badly, were popular, and they both were annoyingly arrogant. I don't think either of them realized that other people have different opinions, and that others feelings were valid. This didn't make them bad people, but it did make them rude. I had seen both of them making fun of people, and both of them make others feel uncomfortable. I just nodded along. I figured it was best to go along with Hattie's plan to go searching for the prankster. It was better to keep her close, and make sure to steer her in the wrong direction.