DELINQUENT | C. SPRINGER

The Equipemnt Room

Sasha pulls out a small balloon pump from the plastic bag of goodies, but it's really just an air mattress pump. It'll do the same job though.

"Jean and I will get started on this if you guys want to go into the equipment room and grab the stake driver for the pencils to be hammered into the dirt. I forgot I said i'd drop them off with Eren and the others," Sasha tears open the bag of balloons.

"Isn't it locked?" You question, hoping she doesn't assume you're going to break into the building. You draw the line at that.

"No, I got the master key from Marco's dad," she holds up a silver key.

"So you're telling me that we didn't even neeed to hop the fence since you had the Superintendents key?" You glare at your friend because you could've avoided all of that embarrassment with Connie.

"If I lie and say it doesn't open the gate, will you hate me less?"

"No.." you grab the key and stomp off. "I didn't even want to come tonight-"

"Talking to yourself now, weirdo?" Connie comes up beside you.

"I can get this by myself," you glare at the boy. "No reason for you to come."

"You're not scared of the boogie monsters?" He smirks, a playful tone edging his voice. "I came to protect you."

"You're the only one monster I see," you scoff. "So run along, I'll be fine."

"Do you even know what you're looking for?" He speeds up so he can turn and walk backwards while talking to you. You secretly hope he trips so you can laugh at him.

"Yes, I'm not stupid Connie."

"Yeah you make that painfully clear to everyone," he rolls his eyes. "That's why everyone calls you the teachers pet."

"Better than a delinquent," you hiss. "Mr. doesn't-give-a-crap-about-anything-but-making-stupid-
jokes."

"And how many friends do I have compared to you?" His words hit you pretty deep whether it was a joke or not.

You decide to stop engaging because you'll never win with him. However, he is right about the not having friends part. You know that his life is probably way more fun than yours and you're starting to regret being such a stuck up, but at least you have the best chance of getting out of this sorry town.

"I'm sorry," Connie falls back beside you as you reach the fence on the edge of the outfield. "I didn't mean that."

"Yeah you did," your voice is quiet and slow, reality setting in. "You're not wrong, I know I don't have friends."

"You have Sasha," he opens the gate that leads behind the baseball field. "I can be your friend too."

"I think I'd rather not have any friends," you step through the doorway and roll your eyes at him, hoping he knows you're joking.

"Oh I see you can make jokes now," he shuts the gate and then leads you through a small amount of trees and shrubs until a shed comes into view. "Maybe we're more alike than you think."

"This is such a creepy place for this," you take out the key from your hoodies pocket and unlock the padlock and open the door as you ignore his comment about being alike. You'd hope that never comes true.

It's dark inside and you wipe your hand over the wall to your left, looking for the light switch but are only met with cobwebs.

"Ew oh my god," you cringe, hoping there's no spiders hanging out in them.

Connie slips in beside you, his shoulder rubbing against yours as he pulls the string light in the middle of the 12x12 room.

You spot a shelf full of buckets that have baseballs softballs, and then also some practice wiffleball's with a rack of bats beside it. On the other side of the room is random equipment that the football team doesn't use anymore, like tackle pads and then there's a few mats for the pole vault and high jump for track.