newspaper club | spot conlon au

36. Trapped

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Grace stared at Racetrack from across the circle. 

"How could you let him do this?" 

"Wha--me? You're closer with him!" Race says. "Which, by the way, maybe we should discuss 'cause I'm not too comfortable with--" 

Grace gave him a look. "Look, the point is, we have to be careful--" 

She was cut off by the door opening. Alice walks in. 

"Alice!" Sarah smiled. 

"What is this?" Alice looks at the circle of her friends. 

"Just talking about the newspaper club--how are you?" Grace widens her smile. 

Alice glances at all the blank expressions before furrowing her eyebrows. "I'm fine, you?"

"That's good to hear! I'm doing alright," 

Alice thins her lips into a line before Mrs. Denton walks in. 

"Hi, kids!" She sets down stacks of paper. "Today, we're going to make posters for the fundraiser we talked about yesterday. You can take what you want, I'll just take attendance really fast." 

The kids all grab markers and paper, scattering around the room. Grace and Sarah follow Alice to a table. 

"Wait, where's Spot?" Mrs. Denton calls from her desk. 

"Probably fucking Stacie--" Alice mutters. 

"I saw him a couple periods ago," Jack says. 

"I'll notify the office," 

Just then, the door opens. 

Spot. 

"Mr. Conlon, glad you joined us. Grab some pens and start making posters," Mrs. Denton smiles. 

He glances at Alice, who quickly looked back down at her paper. He proceeds to get his materials and sits next to Mush and Jack. 

"Why are you late?" Jack whispered. 

"Is that your business?" Spot sharply said. 

Race and Jack looked at each other. "Well, you should've used more eye drops." Race deadpans, referring to Spot's red eyes. Grace scoffs, disappointed.

Spot sighs, not saying anything. He again glanced at Alice, but was met with a death stare from Grace. 

"So, there's a huge sale at the mall this weekend," Grace starts. "Maybe we could all go," 

"Shopping isn't really my thing," Alice says. "But you guys have fun." 

Sarah sighs. "Alice, we're worried about you," She says in a low tone. 

"You have literally no reason to be worried. I'm fine."

"We know this is probably really hard on you--"

"Do you?" 

Sarah looks at Grace. "Well, we--" 

"I didn't think so." Alice snaps. 

A silence falls upon the girls, not going unnoticed by Race and Jack. Grace glances at Race, giving him a raised eyebrow. He nods, looking back down at his work. 

Soon, the bell rang. 

The students all organized their stuff and shuffled out the door. Spot looked down for a second to zip his bag, and as he looked back up, she was already gone.