Full Court Press Read online

  Upon entering the classroom, she found an empty seat toward the back, along the wall. Beck walked in, but instead of finding a seat, he went to the teacher’s desk and handed him a note. They spoke quietly for a moment. Beck pointed to something on the note and then to the backpack he had in his hand.

  The teacher nodded and gestured for him to find a seat. Beck ended up sitting in the row beside her but toward the front more. Had he been there yesterday? He didn’t look at her as he sat down.

  She shrugged to herself and pulled out her notebook in case she needed to take any notes. Once she was situated, she found herself staring at Beck, who pulled a laptop out of his backpack and cracked it open. Were laptops allowed in this school? Was that what he had been talking to the teacher about? She hadn’t seen anyone else with one in her first two days of school.

  As the lecture started, Carmondy could see Beck’s screen pretty clearly from her position. She expected him to pull up a game or something but surprisingly he only had a word processor open and was actually taking notes.

  Throughout the class, Car found herself contemplating all the reasons that Beck would use a laptop rather than taking notes like normal. The one that she found most plausible was just that Beck thought he was special and his parents were loaded. Another reason she came up with was that he was an environmentalist and refused to use paper, but that didn’t seem very plausible since he drove an SUV. The last reason she came up with was that he had some sort of issue that impaired his ability to write notes by hand, like dyslexia or something. Her friend Sarah had a mild form of dyslexia and she preferred laptops over writing longhand. Most likely, Beck just thought he was special.

  Class ended and Car looked down at her notebook. She hadn’t written a single thing. She had been staring at Beck the whole time. She wasn’t even sure why.

  She followed him out of the classroom and down the hall to where their lockers were located. While she put her things away, she contemplated what she was going to do for lunch. She figured it was about time to try to tackle the high school lunchroom scene.

  “Car!”

  “Shit!” She dropped half her books and other school work onto the floor. “Great.”

  Anderson laughed. “You know, you’re really jumpy around me. Maybe that should tell you something.”

  “It tells me that you have a habit of sneaking up on me.” She knelt down and started gathering her scattered papers.

  Anderson joined her, picking up the textbooks. “What are you doing for lunch? You’re eating with us.”

  “Did you just ask me that, and then tell me what I’m doing for lunch?”

  “Sure.”

  “Who is ‘us’?”

  “Oh you know, mostly the boy and girl varsity b-ball players along with some random hot chicks and things.”

  They stood up and Car took the books from him, putting them back in her locker. “Ahh, the jock table?”

  “Yeah, okay, Miss I-get-up-at-five-in-the-morning-to-go-running. You are a jock. Come on, Beck will be there.” He nudged her ribs with a wink.

  “What is with that me and Beck thing? Do you have a fetish?”

  “I think it’s funny how you adore him so much even though he’s a total jerk.”

  “I don’t adore him! I don’t even know him. And he’s not a total jerk. You should know that, you’re his best friend.”

  “Oh yeah? Why isn’t he a jerk?”

  “I dunno, he’s not a jerk when he plays basketball.”

  Anderson waved the comment away. “Yeah, yeah, that’s different. See, there is ‘Beck A’ and ‘Beck B’. Beck A is around most of the time and Beck B is around when he plays basketball. He has split personalities.”

  “Really?” She gaped.

  Anderson laughed. “No, not really, but it sure seems like it. I still haven’t figured it out yet. Anyway, even when Beck A is around, you still like him.”

  “I don’t like him. I’m saying that he’s not a complete jerk.”

  “You’re standing up for him,” Anderson teased.

  “You are annoying.”

  “Hey now, be nice. I’m letting you live with me.”

  “Whatever. I told you if it’s going to be a problem I can find somewhere else.”

  “Like Beck’s house? I’m sure if you fucked him, he’d give you a room.”

  Carmondy closed her eyes and took a deep breath to keep from punching him in the face. She opened her eyes after a moment. He was still standing there. “Okay, I’m done with you for right now.” She turned and headed down the hallway but he caught up with her and grabbed her arm.

  “Aw, come on now. I was just messing around. Come eat with us. I promise not to make any more cracks about Beck.”

  “Ever?”

  “Well...no, just not during lunch.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “You don’t really have a choice. I can get the football jocks to hunt you down and drag you back.”

  She sighed and nodded. “Fine, but I’m warning you, say one thing about me and Beck and I’ll season your steak with arsenic tonight.”

  “Aww, you do love me!”

  Ten minutes later, Carmondy found herself with a tray of food in one hand and pulled along by the other, toward a table filled with people. These people were all definitely jocks. She recognized a couple guys from the boys’ team and several girls from the girls’ team, including Kendall, Alli and Sydney.

  Anderson sat down beside Kendall and pulled Carmondy down beside him. “Sit, sit, Craig won’t bite...scratch that, he will bite. Just don’t try to steal any of his food and you’ll be fine.”

  She glanced at the boy beside her. He was shoveling food into his mouth faster than any human could possibly chew, all the while making some odd growling noise. Car scooted a little closer to Anderson

  This caused Anderson to slip an arm around her, seemingly an unconscious move since he was talking to someone across the table. This was one of the main things that Car missed about a boyfriend; the casual touches, the small displays of affection...and the sex of course, but that was a different matter altogether. Anderson wasn’t her boyfriend, but that didn’t make his arm feel any less warm or solid. She almost laughed. She had been trying to tell herself she wasn’t lonely for weeks. Now, it was obvious how wrong she was.

  She pushed a fork into her side salad but suddenly felt very uncomfortable, like someone was watching her. She looked up and met with an intensely cold stare coming from Beck. She looked around quickly. Everyone else seemed to be preoccupied, but he was still staring. Well, he was not so much staring as boring his eyes into her. He wasn’t glaring. There was no expression, no hint of interest. It was just a look.

  Car fidgeted and looked away, attempting to eat her salad again. It didn’t taste good so she moved on to her piece of chicken.

  The next time she looked up, he wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was now giving the same treatment to his food while pushing it around on his tray.

  Anderson squeezed her slightly and then whispered in her ear, “You’re staring.”

  Car refocused her attention back to her own food, grateful that Anderson had pointed it out. She didn’t want people to start thinking things.

  Chapter Three

  That day’s practice was a very good one for Car. The girls really seemed to be accepting her, and she could feel her team skills getting better and better. She had already picked up the offense and most of the plays. Now she was just working on understanding all the ins and outs of their many full-court presses. According to the coach, their full-court presses were their trademark, and no team had a good offense against it.

  The girls left the gym as the boys where coming in. As Car pushed her way through the wave of boys, a hand slapped her ass.

  “Nice practice, babe.”

  The slap was a lot harder than the playful one Anderson had given her before. She narrowed her eyes and whipped around, ready to give him hell. It wasn’t Anderson. It was some tall
blond guy she didn’t know.

  “Did you just slap my ass?” she asked, her anger building as a smug look came over his face. He nudged his friends.

  “No need to get too excited, baby. You’re gonna have to wait your turn like every other slut.”

  She almost gagged as he licked his lips and surveyed her body. “Don’t ever touch me again.”

  “Whoa.” He and his friends laughed. “Look at her getting all worked up! Why don’t you and that fine ass of yours just get going like a good girl?”

  “Fuck you.”

  “That’s my plan eventually. I’ll let you know when I’m feeling generous enough to screw a bitch like you. I’ll get to you someday. I got some whores higher up on the list though, so you’re gonna have to wait. Lose some pounds while you’re waiting, will you? I’m not sure if I wanna fuck a girl with so much meat on her anyway.”

  When she didn’t reply, the guy just started laughing harder.

  “Hey there, fuckhead, how’d you like to get bumped from second-string down to JV?” Anderson’s tone was dangerous as he moved in between her and the other boy.

  “Fuck you, Davies. You don’t have the authority to do that,” the blond guy said.

  “Team captain does.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s a good thing Nicholson is team captain and not you.”

  “Beck would drop whoever I asked him to drop, especially a weak-ass post like you.” Anderson turned to where Beck was lacing up his shoes on the bleachers. “Hey, Beck. How do you feel about dropping dickwad over here down to JV?”

  Beck looked up to see whom Anderson was talking about, then shrugged. “Actually, Coach has been looking for someone to drop, and he was on the top of the list anyway. He was just waiting for my decision. Consider it done.”

  “What the fuck!” the blond boy exclaimed. “Just because I called her a fat slut?”

  Beck hopped down from the bleachers casually. “She’s the fastest goddamn player on their team, probably faster than you. And if you think she’s fat then there’s something wrong with your eyesight, so maybe you should be off the team altogether. How’s that sound?”

  The boy was now a deep shade of red. His friends had disappeared. “You can’t kick me off the team.”

  “In case you didn’t know, I’ve got a little pull with Coach. You’re not good enough for varsity and you know it. You’d spend the entire time on the bench. JV will get you playing time and game experience. Take it or leave it.”

  “You can’t do that,” the guy sneered.

  “Try me.”

  The guy looked furious. “Fuck you, Nicholson! Fuck this! I quit! You can go to hell, you and that fucking psycho retarded sister of yours!”

  The entire gym went silent. Beck’s expression was far from blank. If she thought he had been scary looking before, this was downright terrifying. He looked ready to murder the guy.

  “Get out of this gym, right now,” Beck ordered, his tone chilling.

  “What? Did I hurt your feelings too? By telling your big, dark secret? Well, fuck you and your retard sister, I’m out—”

  Beck closed the distance between them in a second, grabbing the guy’s shirt. Car was sure he was going to hit him, but he didn’t. Instead he dragged him out of the gym. Everyone followed nervously as Beck dragged the guy, fighting and screaming, across the hall and directly outside.

  “Get the fuck off me!”

  “Shut up,” Beck snarled harshly.

  Beck kept pulling him along, looking murderous. He pulled him across the narrow street and released him with a shove. All the boys and girls from the gym were standing on the school side of the street watching, curious as to what exactly Beck was doing.

  “What the fuck, man!” The boy straightened himself and adjusted his shirt. “You’re just as psycho as your sist—”

  Beck punched him. The first blow threw the guy to the ground. His lip started bleeding right away. Beck didn’t stop. He yanked him back up and started punching him in the face repeatedly.

  Carmondy gasped and watched, horrified, as Beck landed punch after punch.

  Anderson and a couple other guys from the team knew it was time to intervene. They grabbed Beck after he got his sixth or seventh punch in and hauled him away.

  Once they got him off, Beck didn’t fight. He shrugged them off and walked away. As he passed Carmondy, she could see that his face was tight, jaw clenched. He didn’t meet her eyes so he was impossible to read but she could tell that whatever this thing was with his sister, it really affected him.

  Beck walked back into the school. Anderson jogged after him. Car heard someone say they were dialing 911 and a couple girls crowded around the semi-conscious boy on the ground. Carmondy was dumbstruck. She wasn’t sure what to do.

  Kendall and Alli appeared beside her, looking just as surprised. “Uh...wow.”

  “Yeah...that was insane. God, this is all my fault,” Car said.

  Alli shook her head. “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, it’s my fault Anderson got Beck involved in the first place.”

  “This wasn’t your fault at all. That guy said what he said, knowing that it was going to make Beck angry, so that’s all on him. And Beck, of course, for beating the shit out of him.” Alli chuckled a little bit.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Car asked.

  The boy was sitting up now but didn’t look good at all.

  Kendall nodded. “Looks like Beck broke his nose. That’s what most of the blood is from. I think he deserves it anyway. He’s always been a jerk, especially to girls.”

  “What was he talking about? Beck’s sister?”

  Alli shrugged.

  Kendall looked like she knew something. “It’s really not a subject many people know about. I only know because I dated Anderson. Just don’t...he doesn’t talk about it to anyone except Andy and Andy’s mom. I don’t know how that kid found out, so just...I’d forget about it. Okay?”

  Carmondy nodded. “Yeah, of course. It’s obviously something really personal. People have a right to their privacy.”

  Kendall nodded and they all headed back inside together. They heard sirens in the distance and as they reached the school doors, the police and an ambulance arrived.

  In the end, it was a big ordeal. Everyone who saw the fight, if you could even call it a fight, had to give a witness statement. Beck got arrested. Car saw him getting into a police car with handcuffs on. He looked calm, not at all worried that he had just beaten a guy up and was getting taken to jail for it.

  As the police car and ambulance drove away from the school, Anderson found Carmondy.

  “Hey, pretty crazy huh?” he said. “That’s the first serious fight action we’ve had in a while.”

  “I can’t believe Beck flipped like that.”

  Anderson scoffed. “I can. That fucker deserved it.”

  “Yeah, I don’t really know what that whole thing was about but the guy knew that he was making Beck mad and he kept pushing.”

  Anderson nodded. “Yep.”

  “I kinda feel like it was my fault.”

  “Don’t.” Anderson touched her arm. “Honestly, I’m not trying to be rude, but Beck couldn’t have cared less about what that guy said to you. All of that was between those two.”

  Car nodded. “Well, that makes me feel a little bit better, I guess. Are you guys going to have practice?”

  “Nope, Coach canceled it. It’s kinda hard to practice when your team captain just got sent to jail.”

  “How much trouble is he going to be in?”

  Anderson shrugged. “I don’t really know. They are probably gonna try to charge him. I’m sure he’ll get off though. His dad owns the biggest law firm in the state. I’m sure bail won’t be a problem either. He’ll be out of there within a couple hours.”

  Car sighed. “Well, that’s good, I guess...but hey! What about with the school? Is he going to get in trouble? I know there’s something in the athletic code of conduct about fightin
g.”

  Anderson laughed. “There is, and it’s ground for getting kicked off the team and out of the school.”

  “What!”

  “Chill, Car. Your fantasy boy will be back.” He grinned and threw his arm around her shoulders. “He was smart about it. He dragged the guy off of school grounds before he got to poundin’ on him.”

  “Ahh, so that was what that was about.”

  “Yep, Beck knew what he was doing. I know he didn’t look in control, but he was. He could have done way more damage and done it right in the middle of the gym. But he had thought it through so that he wouldn’t get in trouble from the school and his dad will get the charges dropped.” Anderson shrugged. “Just like nothing ever happened.”

  “Wow.”

  “Anywho! Ready to get to gettin’? No practice and I don’t feel like hanging out here all day.”

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Home, duh. I got a hoop in the backyard. We can start your private lessons today since we have time. And you can get that steak started for me too.”

  “Sure.” She pulled out from under his arm. “Just let me get my stuff.”

  * * *

  After Carmondy and Anderson got back to his house, they played basketball in the backyard until Anderson stated he was starving. Before they reached his back door, his cell phone went off and he paused to dig it out of his pocket.

  He looked at the screen. “Hmm. That’s weird. It’s Beck’s home phone.”

  “Why is that weird? Don’t you guys talk to each other on the phone? He should be out on bail by now, right?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he’s out, but he never uses their home phone.” He shrugged and answered the call. “Hello? Hey, Mrs. Nicholson!”

  Carmondy leaned against the house, listening as Anderson spoke to Beck’s mom.

  Anderson ended the call and sighed.

  “What was that all about?” she asked.

  He was frowning, still looking at his phone. “Beck’s dad won’t post Beck’s bail because he’s a total asshole and thinks Beck needs to learn a lesson or some shit. His mom is freaking out, and she wants me to post it.”