Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [23]
“Son of a bitch!”
Gotcha!
Jack wanted to pump a fist but restrained himself. Stay off his radar—stay off everybody’s radar.
Toliver grabbed the spider and ripped it free of the masking tape, then threw it down the hall. Red-faced, teeth bared, he turned and scanned the crowd of passersby who had stopped to watch. He looked ready to explode but, with visible effort, caught himself. Instead of raging, he swallowed and laughed. Jack didn’t know what his real laugh sounded like but was pretty sure that wasn’t it.
“Okay, okay. You got me. Very funny. Who was it? You look over my shoulder and steal my combination? Good one.”
No one said anything and Jack was very careful not to make eye contact, afraid the dark elation bubbling within would seep through and give him away. Instead he concentrated on helping the two girls pick up the last of their spilled belongings.
As Toliver turned back to his locker and started to pull out a couple of books, he looked down and froze. Jack craned his neck to see.
A dirty, pink scrunchy sock had fallen out. After staring at it a second or two, Toliver snatched it up and shoved it into his pocket. He looked around, as if to see if anyone had noticed. His expression seemed embarrassed but tinged with something else Jack couldn’t identify.
The embarrassment Jack could understand. Physically Toliver hadn’t been touched, but his pride was wounded. Someone had dared to play a practical joke on the much-admired and beloved Carson Toliver. This demonstrated a humongous lack of respect.
The guy loved attention, but not the kind he’d received in the past few minutes. Soon it would be all over school that he’d been pranked, and everyone would know that someone at SBR didn’t love Carson Toliver.
And worse, his spaz reaction had been anything but cool.
Think you’re embarrassed now? Jack thought as he watched him relock his locker. Wait. This is just the beginning.
Jack had an escalating series of embarrassments planned.
“That was really stinkacious,” Eddie said as they turned away and headed for class.
“Yeah?” Jack tried to sound as noncommittal as possible. “How so?”
“What sort of dork does something like that to Carson? I mean, he’s the coolest guy around.”
Jack glanced at his clueless friend, thinking, If you only knew, Eddie.
“Maybe it was one of his football buddies,” Jack said. “You know how those guys are always goofing on each other.”
Eddie nodded, looking relieved. “Yeah, that has to be it. Who else would have the nerve to try something like that?”
Jack shook his head. “I can’t imagine.”
4
When lunchtime rolled around, Jack went looking for Toliver to continue his shadow routine, but couldn’t find him at first. Not in the caf, not in the halls, not by his locker. Jack even wandered over to the gym to see if he might be working out. But no Carson Toliver anywhere.
He was about to end his search and head for class when he spotted Toliver striding in through the front entrance. He looked his usual confident self as he strolled toward the senior locker area, nodding and smiling, bouncing a new-looking combination padlock in his palm.
When he reached his locker he removed the current lock and replaced it with the new one, then made a big show of tossing the old one in the nearest trash can.
Toliver walked off with a satisfied, I’ve-got-everything-under-control expression. As he passed a white-haired girl, she shrank against the far wall, as if to stay as far as possible from him.
That odd, albino piney girl, Saree … she seemed afraid of him. Jack remembered what she’d said about Toliver …
He’s all sorts of dark, almost black as night.
Whatever that meant.
Jack was strolling toward locker 791 to check out the new lock when he saw Saree stop before it. He slowed, watching as she reached a hand out toward the door. Her palm approached it in slow motion, hesitated, then pressed against the metal surface.
With a sudden small cry she snatched