Sympathy For The Devil

6. What to Do

"Oh, here's an idea. How about you use your brain and stay the hell out of it?"

After all the confusion and incongruousness that Kevin had been contending with over the past few days, it was a comfort to know that at least Nat was consistent.

School had let out for the day, and after making absolutely sure that neither Eddward nor anyone likely to eavesdrop and pass it along to him was within hearing range, Kevin had confided in his friends about his intentions. Well, "intentions" was the wrong word... at this point it was really only a notion. In any case, the reactions he was receiving were more or less what he had expected.

Nazz shook her head, clearly perplexed. "Seriously, Kevin, what brought this on?"

"You know that conscience I have?" Kevin answered dryly. "It's starting to get to me." He had yet to tell them about what he had accidentally walked in on.

Beside him, Nat executed a flawless facepalm. "Oh dear God, no, Kevin, don't listen to your conscience. Those things are evil."

"I thought the point of a conscience was not being evil," Kevin pointed out.

"Rolf believes this will only end in tears," Rolf said, clutching his pig as if for security. "Please let Rolf be mistaken in his thinking that Kevin will do something silly."

"I don't even know what I'm going to do yet," Kevin protested. "I mean, just because I know where they are doesn't mean I can just waltz in and take them. I knowI have to be smart about this, because if I'm not, I don't actually accomplish anything!"

"Wait, wait, just-" Nat broke in. "Answer me this. Even if you do pull it off, even if you do find some way to-" He dropped the volume of his voice. "-to return the tags, so what? What are you hoping to accomplish at all?"

Kevin opened his mouth to reply, and hesitated for a moment. "Uh... integrity?"

"To be fair, integrity is doing the right thing when no one's watching," Nazz admitted.

"But why?" Nat demanded. "Do you think he'll stop being a dick to you if you do something nice for him?"

"Not really," Kevin said with a shrug. "I mean, best case scenario, he never even finds out it was me."

Nat threw his hands upward. "Then what is even the point?"

"What part of 'my conscience is getting to me' don't you understand?"

"The part where you're planning on getting involved in jock pissing contests! Don't you get it, Kevin? If you do this, not only are you picking a side, but you're siding with Eddward."

"This-" is more than just a pissing contest. Jocks don't cry over pissing contests. Something held him back from explaining exactly what had made up his mind. There was something... private about it. Part of him still felt guilty that he had seen it at all, and he didn't feel right about telling everyone that he'd walked in on Eddward crying in the locker room. It felt so cheap andpetty, and... well. He had no desire to be either of those things. "Look, I'll figure something out, okay? I probably won't even have to do anything dumb to pull this off. I mean, like I said, it's not like I can just barge into a locker room I don't belong in and start ransacking the place. Because that's probably a suspension, and my conscience is not worth that."

"Rolf is more worried about other suspensions," Rolf interrupted. "Such as suspension of Kevin, upside down, over the second floor railing."

"It's not gonna come to that," Kevin assured him. "If I do this right, he's not even gonna know I was invol-"