Watchers

The Abominable Ham

So Wednesday of the last week of school, Adam and I sat perspiring in detention. Neither one of us was too happy to be there. School was almost out; all the other kids were off swimming or studying for finals. We were both cooped up in a room with a bunch of brain junkies and a crotchety old teacher. It was the day after we'd skipped school. Adam and I hadn't spoken to each other since Mrs. Nyler had taken us back to the building, where we'd had to embarrassingly explain to the office where we'd been. Without a word, the counselors had shucked us into Wednesday detention, a blistering blow when we realized that the lack of air conditioning in the Goldenrock Middle detention room made the atmosphere comparable to a sauna full of sweaty old men.

Behind me snoozed a guy with a hoodie pulled over his head, even though hoods were strictly off limits. To my slightly diagonal left was a bleach-haired boy wearing a greasy white T-shirt and slouching so low in his chair that his head was barely visible over his desktop. A big girl was filing her two-inch nails a few desks ahead of me; she'd been chewing the same piece of gum for an hour-and-a-half, and I was about ready to pull it out of her smacking mouth myself. Adam and I were the only two normal people in there, and that was including the moley teacher, who I suddenly realized had begun to doze off in his swiveling chair.

"Adam!" I whispered quietly, leaning toward him. We only had another twenty minutes to go. "Why'd your mom have to turn us in, man?"

When I'd first called his name, he'd turned attentively toward me. After I mentioned his mom, a snooty look crossed over his face and he turned back around. I probably hadn't started a conversation in the best way possible, I thought. Because of that, I didn't think he'd say anything else to me, but all of a sudden, he was whispering back in my direction.

"I went back last night," he hissed, turning the topic in another direction.

"Back where?" I questioned.

"That tree!"

The girl paused in filing her nails. Adam stopped talking abruptly and widened his eyes. We saw her examine her cuticle, then start sanding down her finger again.

I sighed real softly. "The tree?" I said, pretending not to care at all.

"Yeah. Figured out how to put that rope up around the branch. Got it all hooked and everything. But I didn't go up inside. It got too dark and I didn't bring a flashlight. So we can go back today."

I was annoyed. Annoyed that he'd gone back without me. I was glad he hadn't gone up, but still . . . why couldn't he have waited? He lived closer. I was about a ten minute walk from his house, and a hike to that tree would have been another ten. So if I'd wanted to go back to it yesterday, I would've had a longer walk. Plus, my parents hadn't been too happy to hear about my detention, so they were keeping a pretty sharp eye on me; I couldn't have escaped the house if I'd wanted to. And then there was Corey, my little brother. My mom's faithful watchdog. I swore he slept at my door the night before, making sure I wasn't going to try and sneak out. Not like I would have. I've never had to sneak out in my life. My parents trust me—most of the time. Corey was the one they had to watch, I always told them. But did they listen? Course not. That's parents for you.

Adam crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair real slowly. He was trying not to make any fast moves because of the heat. It was so hot that I could feel sweat sliding down the back of my neck into my shirt collar, but there was Adam, sporting the same enormous pants he always had on. Today, he was even wearing long sleeves and this gray knit hat that covered down over his ears and made his longish hair stick out funny. I was ten degrees hotter just looking at him.

"I'm heading back today," he told me. "After we bust out of here."

He made it sound like he was itching to break out of jail. That was kind of how I was starting to feel. "I can't," I whispered back to him. "I'm grounded."