Polaroid // Reggie Mantle (2)

Chapter Seven

Caia bit her lip and locked her phone, Archie's face disappearing from the screen. She had no idea what had gotten into his head. Was he asking for a target on his back? At least the rest of the boys in the video had had the sense to put on masks. However, everyone had a good sense of who they were anyway.

And one of them happened to sit next to Caia the very moments after she had finished the video. "'Sup," Reggie greeted. He slung his arm around the back of the couch.

Caia turned to him, her back straight. "Reggie, I'm going to ask you a serious question, and I want you to answer it honestly." She paused. Reggie nodded, urging her to go on. "Were you in that video?" Caia didn't even have to specify the video she was talking about. Reggie immediately knew.

He took a deep breath, retracting his arm from the back of the sofa. "Yes," he answered. "And I know that it's dangerous, but-"

Caia put her finger to Reggie's lips, silencing him. "I get it. You're trying to keep the town safe. But was this really necessary? If you guys aren't careful, especially Archie, you're gonna get yourselves killed. This black hood dude is no joke. He shot people!" Caia widened her eyes as to make her point more clear to the boy sitting next to her.

Reggie ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I told Archie it was a bad idea." He paused. "I'll talk to him, alright?"

Caia gave a nod of approval. "That would be a good idea."

*

"Damn it, Andrews," Reggie cursed as he took in the news of what Archie had just informed the football team of. "I told you we shouldn't have made that video. And now Weatherbee suspended the team? What if he comes after us next?" Reggie reciprocated Caia's fears from the morning into his angry speech.

Archie lifted his head out of his hands. "That's why you were wearing hoods, Reggie. So that all the heat falls on me."

"But it's not!" Reggie yelled. "It's falling on all of us." He motioned around to the other guys in the locker room. "So, please, bro, sign the letter," he begged.

There was a pause as Archie thought of his answer. "No."

The word sent Reggie into a rage. He kicked the lockers he was standing next to, livid.

"We disband the circle now, what message does that send to the Black hood?" Archie questioned. "That we're weak. Helpless. No, we wanna force his hand." Reggie hand begun to pace back and forth, raking his hand through his hair.

"By doing what exactly?" Questioned Carter, a kid on the football team.

"By going to his home terf, the South Side," Archie replied.

"What? Are you insane?" Reggie questioned.

"No. I've gone over this," Archie began. "Mrs. Cooper is convinced that the Black Hood is a Southsider with an axe to grind." Reggie turned away, a little exasperated by Archie's far reaching logic. "Which makes sense when you think about the people he's attacked. My dad, a northsider. Moose and Midge, both Northside kids."

"Grundy was in Greendale," Dilton pointed out.

"Yeah, but before that she taught here, Doiley," Archie elaborated. "Everyone has seen our video and is riled up as hell, right? We can only assume the Black Hood is too. If there's even a chance that he a Southsider, us going over there, into his territory, making our presence known, could draw him out."

"And the hunters become the hunted," Dilton mused. "That's one way to find him."

Reggie stared at the floor, thinking about what Archie had just said. Then he thought back to what Caia had said that morning and he was reminded of his priorities. Safety. "No," he answered shortly. "I'm done." Archie hung his head in defeat. "We're done," he finished, motioning around to all the other boys. "C'mon guys." He made his way to the door, taking the rest of the bulldogs, minus Doiley, with him.

Reggie was not going to ruin his chances with Caia by making some dumb ass decision. Not again.

*

Reggie had told Caia that he had disbanded the Red Circle after Archie's crazy talk of going into the Southside to confront the Black Hood. So Caia was a bit horrified when she walked into school the next day to find a whole sea of students all wearing the same white tee shirt with what seemed to be a red target on the chest.

She stood stock still with her mouth hanging open. What the hell was going on? She was still standing in the same spot when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She slowly turned around to face a cheery Veronica, who was also dressed in one of the terrifying t-shirts. Veronica held another shirt in front of her, identicle except for the fact that this one had a much higher v neck line. "I figured you wouldn't like the scoop neck look, so I custom ordered this one special for you." She crumpled the shirt into one fist and held it out of Caia to take. "Here. Take it."

Caia just stared at the shirt, making no move to accept it. "Did- did you organize this whole thing?" She questioned, motioning to the group of matching students behind her.

Roni nodded, smiling proudly. "In fact, I did." Caia sighed. She could've guessed. "Well?" Veronica prompted. "Aren't you going to take the shirt?"

Hesitantly, Caia took the shirt from Veronica's hands. She didn't want it, but she also didn't want to seem rude. Smiling, Veronica said her goodbyes and continued down the hall, leaving Caia to stare and the shirt she held in her hands.

Again she wondered, what the hell was going on?

Caia did not put on the t-shirt she was gifted. In fact, she chucked it in the depths of her locker, hoping to never see it again.

Archie and Veronica were crazy for doing this. She already knew that Weatherbee was going to hate it just as much as she did. She also knew that Reggie was going to despise it as well.

Or, at least she hoped he would.

*

To keep her mind off the horrible Red Circle business, Caia threw herself into an activity she hated even more. Trying to save her house.

She went through all the bills and totaled up the amount she needed to somehow dig up in the next few weeks. With all the bills combined, the amount came to $1,920 total. That was not counting the mortgage, which had almost all been paid off, thank goodness.

She searched her house for all the money she could find. She emptied her old piggy bank and dumped out the change bucket that she had kept in her closet. Adding together all her savings and spare change, she had a grand total of $122.76.

Caia sighed in exasperation at her dismal survey of the situation. She owed almost $2,000 in bills, and had barely any money and no way to get any more.

Well, wasn't this just dandy.