Cheap Shots

00:04

UNEDITED

4.

Beckett and I were sending hateful glares towards each other from across the makeshift bench. Principal Daley was slumped in her chair, with empty coffee cups scattering the space around her chair. She was holding the microphone lazily in her hand and it was almost comical how bored and out of it she looked.

I looked over at Beckett, who was already staring at me weirdly. "Ready to lose?"

"I should be asking you that," I told him cockily, crossing my arms and reclining in my chair, crossing my feet underneath the table.

"Let's get on with the last round!" Someone yelled from the crowd, which sent an undeniable roar through the crowd, in agreement.

"Yes please," Principal Daley said into the microphone angrily, causing humorous laughter to be heard throughout the room, and small chuckles coming from the teachers off to the side. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she started to talk, speaking fast. "This round will be a little different, there will only be one question and whoever has the right answer will win!"

My eyes widened a little and I looked over at Jacque, who was sitting next to a couple of the other field hockey players. She raised her eyebrows at me and mouthed something I couldn't make out to me before I turned around and thanked the teacher that handed me a white index card and pencil.

"Which is the word in English that has nine letters, and remains a word at each step even when you remove one letter from it, right up to a single letter remaining?" Principal Daley asked, before saying that we had two minutes to figure it out. "There will be no help from the crowd!" She said, glaring at the crowd with her beady eyes.

What the hell? I hated English, let alone riddles! I looked towards Beckett who was staring intensely at his index card while he turned his pencil around in his fingers, the silence of the crowd making me more nervous than I was before. This is not what I signed up for when I was becoming a captain, I thought bitterly.

"One minute remaining!"

Fuck. I watched in horror as Beckett smugly smiled and wrote down a word on the card, turning it over and flashing me an arrogant grin as he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, flexing his biceps.

I scratched the back of my neck anxiously; staring at the mockingly white paper in front of me, blank. I wrote my name on the card so it looked from far away like I actually tried, and flipped it over as Principal Daley called time.

She read over the cards and a small smile appeared on her face as she read mine, shaking her head slightly and turning towards the crowd. I felt my heartbeat quicken and various disappointing scenarios flashed through my mind, and sadly, the one I didn't want came true. "And the winner is, Beckett and the ice hockey team!"

***

"How the hell was I supposed to know that?" I mumbled to myself as I walked to Wilderness during seventh period, Jacque struggling to keep up with my pace on crutches.

"You tried, at least. What was the word you wrote anyway?" She asked me curiously, holding open the door for me.

I shrugged guiltily and turned away from her, walking over to my teacher, the crutches getting caught on the rug multiple times.

"Orion! What happened?" She asked concerned, abruptly standing up from her chair so she could see me.

I smiled shyly, "Sprained my ankle pretty badly, Ms. B. I don't think I can go on our hikes anymore."

"Obviously," she laughed. "Well I'm sorry that you had to sprain it, but I can't give you free periods for the rest of the day, you'll have to do some assignments for me."

I nodded, expecting this much. "Okay, what should I do today?"

"You can take today off," she said.

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes at me, "Yes, Orion, you can take today off. I don't have anything for you to do."

"Thanks, Ms. B!" I called as I walked towards the door of her room, winking at Jacque and Lauren as I walked by, knowing they hated this class and only took it because I convinced them too.

I lazily walked to the library, the only sounds in the empty hallway were the clattering of my crutches and my incoherent mutterings about how much of an asshole Beckett was, having the nerve to beat me at the captain's battle, successfully achieving his ultimate goal: to have more fans than us.

But I was going to make sure that didn't happen.

I walked into the library, taking a seat at one of the secluded booths, grabbing my MacBook Pro out of my backpack and setting it up in the cubicle, quickly logging into Facebook and the school Wi-Fi so I would be able to spoil Beckett's chances of having a huge crowd.

I sneakily typed up an anonymous event, setting the administrators as Beckett himself, and typed in the game to be an hour after it's scheduled to start.

It did cross my mind that what I was doing was unmoral and I could probably get suspended from sports for doing it, after all it was going across the code of conduct that our coach made us pathetically familiar with, reminding us of the repercussions of every single possibility of what we were doing on the weekends (which in her mind was drinking, partying, and clubbing all night long). But I miserably did it anyway, desperate to get back at Beckett, although I didn't exactly have the best reason for my pitiful revenge.

I made the event open and clicked Okay, smiling slightly as the notification popped up on my newsfeed, "Beckett Manno has administered an event, JJIH AGAINST ARDALE ACADEMY. FRIDAY @7."

It didn't even mention my name.

***

A/N: Sorry that it's a shitty filler... Been really busy lately but the drama'll start soon (;