Changing Echo

Chapter 02 - The Party

The rest of the school week went by pretty smoothly for Echo. The Mean 3 didn't really mess with him, although he did catch them giving him the evil eye from down the hall a few times as they were changing classes. He noticed that Osara seemed to have a bit less evil in her eye than usual. He thought back to Monday, when Arwen had shoved him onto the ground so hard and he had started crying. After Harlen ran the Mean 3 off, he could've sworn he saw Osara looking back at him with a remorseful expression on her face. He still found it impossible to believe that one of the Mean 3 could be experiencing a change of heart. All three of them were just too cold, too icy, too downright mean. None of them had ever shown any remorse for their actions.

When Echo got to school on Friday morning, Harlen was there waiting on him, as always. As they slapped five, Harlen asked, "So you wanna just ride with me to the party tonight, or you wanna drive yourself?"

"Um... well, how late do you think you'll be staying?" Echo asked as they walked into the school.

Harlen laughed and said, "You know me, bro, I probably won't leave til Saturday morning."

Echo smiled. He did indeed know Harlen well, and he could've predicted that answer without having to ask the question. "In that case, I think I'll just drive myself. The chances of me staying even half that late are slim to none, leaning toward none."

"Figured as much, my dude. No worries. How about this, let's pick a time to meet out in the parking lot, then we will go down to the beach together and see what's going on."

"Yea, sure, that'll work. Text me this evening," Echo said.

Just then, they ran into Knox by his locker again, although he was considerably calmer this time. "How's it hanging, Knox? We gonna see you at the party tonight?" Harlen asked as they walked up to him.

Knox pushed his glasses up on his nose and said, "I uh... no. I don't believe you will." His cheeks began to flush slightly and he turned to his locker and made a show of digging around in it, seemingly looking for something important.

Harlen leaned against the lockers and checked his watch. "You sure? Echo is gonna be there. Think it's gonna be a pretty good time, man."

Knox leaned back out of his locker and looked at them suspiciously. "Seriously? You're going to that... party, Echo?"

Echo shrugged and said, "Seems that I am. Harlen here said he'd protect me from all the mean ol' party people."

Knox grabbed his backpack off of the floor and slammed his locker shut. "Well, that must be awfully nice for you then, huh?" he said, his voice sharp. He spun on his heels and walked down the hall without saying another word to either of them.

Harlen looked at Echo. "Man, Knox is on edge nowadays, huh? Hope everything is okay with him."

Echo watched thoughtfully as Knox walked on down the hall away from them. "Yea, me too."

~~~

As Echo drove home from school that afternoon, the sky was cloudless and the sun was shining bright. It was early October, so even though it was reasonably warm during the day, he knew it would definitely cool down later on in the evening, and maybe even get downright chilly after the sun went down. "Looks like a good evening for a party, at least," he thought to himself as he pulled into his driveway.

As he got out of his car, he saw him mom's car through the little window in the door of their garage. He frowned to himself, wondering why she was home so early again. He opened the screen door and prepared to let himself into the house when he heard his mom on the phone with someone.

"No, no... you're right, of course..."

"Yes, I understand..."

"Ten hours? How am I..."