6 CHAPTER 5: Boo

I huffed, letting myself be dragged up the stairs to the second floor where we had our next class. People were blatantly looking at us, staring longer than they should where Draven's hand was clasped like an iron band on my wrist. This bastard has issues, I tell you. Major control issues.

"Everyone's looking. Will you cut it out?" I grumbled after a couple of minutes. I felt tired. Between Chloe Warren’s stint earlier this morning and Mr. Paul, my patience and energy had officially worn off for the day. Adding Draven to the mix was not kind to my mental health. "You don't have to drag me all day to classes; I won't skip on you."

“Does it look like I care, firecracker?” Draven looked at me plainly and made the correct left turn.

"You got this school memorized?" I asked, pleasantly surprised. He seemed to need no direction at all and made me wonder if he'd been through these halls. But that can't be. Unless...

He shrugged. "I came in early. I had time to memorize the routes towards our classes and every main facility."

"Wow,” I honestly said. “Control freak much?”

He made a face before taking the empty seat next to me yet again. I rolled my eyes. As I did, I saw someone that caught my eye. "You play football right?" I confirmed. I remember Mom mentioning it in passing during dinner the other night. "What position do you play?"

Draven didn’t miss a beat. "Wide receiver. Why?"

Ignoring him, I whistled then yelled out Drew Hayes' name. He was at the front of the class, goofing off with his best friend and stunt-double, Vincent Gable. Drew looked my way and grinned his usual grin. A.K.A. his I-will-make-your-underwear-drop-in-a-snap grin.

"Hey, Tati," he said, using the stupid nickname he came up for me when he learned of my job Underground. It was inconspicuous enough but the questions I kept getting about it were too much. His eyes sparkled with the charm he uses on just about every girl other than his twin sister that he talks with. "What's up?"

"I heard James quit the team. What happened?"

Drew scowled. Perfect. My sources were spot on. "That irresponsible dumbass got his girlfriend pregnant and has to work to be able to support them," he explained, rubbing his hand over the back of his head. "We can't play this season if we don't find another player. Vincent's been practicing out of his linebacker role but he's too big for it."

To my surprise, Draven interjected in the conversation. "What do you play?” he asked, curious.

"I'm the QB and captain of the team," Drew replied, standing a little straighter.

I smiled. "Drew, meet Draven Carter. He played wide receiver at his last school."

"It's Blade, actually," Draven corrected with a slight frown.

Drew's eyes lit up, accepting the outstretched hand of Draven. "For real, bro? Where’d you go?"

There was a haughty smirk on Draven's lips when he answered. "Uppercrest High in LA. If you heard of the Mud Hound, that's me."

Mud what? I was a fan of our school team, but only because Drew hosted great parties when they won. By the dewy-eyed look on the Captain's face, whatever Draven just said made a whole lot of sense to him. Hell, I’d even bet my allowance that it just made Drew's entire freaking year.

Mrs. Andrés walked in and told the class to settle down, in Spanish, of course. Drew then immediately fell to his knees, hands clasped in front of him. I blinked, as did everybody else.

"Please, please, please join our team. We need to smash Hilton and make it to our very first regionals," he begged.

Mrs. Andrés was at a loss. “Signore Hayes, qué estás hacienda? Levántate!”

Everyone ignored her. Draven's eyebrows were raised, amused. "Yeah, sure. No problem," he said, completely without inflection. I was surprised at how fast he answered. He really liked to play then?

When Drew squealed, he trumped every girlish squeal out there in the history of squeals. Mrs. Andrés gave him her death glare, started shrieking at us in Spanish, and sentenced him to detention for two days. Drew couldn't give a rat's shit; he just found his ticket to regionals.

We watched as he slapped Vincent upside the head, who was wearing headphones and only saw Mrs. Andrés then. I turned to the slumped boy beside me. "I thought you were supposed to be an asshole."

He smirked. "I am."

"To who, then?"

"You, of course."

I rolled my eyes. Typical.

The rest of Spanish and Algebra died with each passing second, only to be reincarnated tomorrow. Draven and I were oddly silent through most of it, me being so tired, and Draven because he was just quietly looking around meanly. Sasha and I have different lunch periods so I was stuck with Draven and the stares everyone was giving us.

Normally, this wouldn’t bother me. But it was... awkward, to say the absolute least. I did not understand why. We were best friends and he was new. The whole student body was expected to act like their weird selves and stare. Draven, being the insensitive bitch that he was, continued to bulldoze his ham and turkey sandwich while I had to deal with all the negativity that later on threw me off my mac n' cheese. And it was very good mac 'n cheese. Mom had made it from scratch.

I kicked Draven under the table. His eyes snapped up all deadly to mine.

"Ow," he said, void of emotion.

"You're making people stare," I pointed out through gritted teeth.

His forehead creased. “And it’s my fault?”

I rolled my eyes as if to say ‘duh’. “Have you forgotten you are new? I don’t like being stared at while I eat my mac and cheese.”

“You are ridiculous.” When he saw I was serious about it, he cursed and sighed very heavily. “What do you want me to do?”

I thought about it. "Scare them."

A moment passed as he stared, face blank. He's probably thinking of how much of an idiot I have now grown into. I didn't care. As long as he got rid of the prickly feeling off my back. I didn’t think he would follow through, though.

So I jumped a little when he stood up noisily, the bench scraping against the floor. By this point, people weren’t even trying to hide the fact they had been looking all this time. Draven stared everyone down with his menacing glare. My eyes followed the way his fists clenched and the muscles in his arms flexed and bunched, making the veins more prominent. It looked hot on him, not at all freaky, and he looked like a guy who knew just what the hell to do with those hands... if you know what I mean.

The whole cafeteria turned deathly silent, all ashen and quaking in their boots because of the imposing beast that was Draven Carter. The football team, who were on the opposite side of the lunch hall, were waiting in anticipation of what their new teammate was going to do with awed looks on their faces.

Draven moved, removing his other leg from the other side of the bench. The ones occupying the tables closest to ours, a bunch of freshmen judging by their young and happy faces, shrunk further back. One boy even fell off his seat. If I wasn't too busy being fascinated with the command Draven currently had over a hundred or so students, I would have laughed.

But then I did anyway. Once Draven did what he did next, that was. Infuriating as he was, the boy had one hell of a sense of humor. One he did not share with our fellow schoolmates. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasha walk through the doors just before Draven delivered the final blow.

"Boo."

One magic word, and everyone was out of their seats and racing and pushing for the exits. Even the lunch monitors left their food and pushed their way out.

I was laughing so hard I was silent, unable to make a noise. My lungs burned from lack of oxygen, saline fell down my cheeks in streams, and hell, I'd be surprised if I didn't have abs after this.

How could someone other than Casper the friendly ghost and a lunatic with a machete clear a whole room with a single word, 'boo'? It was unreal! Dare I even say cool?

Draven sat back down with a satisfied smile on his face before he tore off a huge chunk off his sandwich. He was watching me laugh my ass off. Then with the stub of his shoe, he tipped me off the bench and sent me to the floor. I must admit I laughed a whole lot harder.

***

Later that day, Principal Chadha was blowing steam out of every pore of his body from anger.

At least that was what Draven said after he was called to the principal’s office after the Cafeteria Scaring as I called it. Sasha introduced herself to Draven (she called him Blade because he insisted on it and the little shit wouldn't admit it but she was too scared of him to call him otherwise) because I obviously couldn't be bothered from laughing on the floor.

Draven didn't get any kind of punishment though, because what had he done really? The way he walked out unscathed made my respect for him inch a little higher. Just a tiny bit. And in the eyes of the football team, he had become a legend in and out of the field. Ew.

Naturally, like any other teenager out there with nothing better to do, Drew decided to throw a party in Draven's honor this Friday.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't complaining. Drew took his reputation for throwing the best parties seriously so he has never let me down. Plus, it was another reason for me to get bone drunk with Sasha without shedding a single cent in my wallet after a trying week in school. Win-win, if you ask me.

Mikee joined Draven and I on our way home. He asked if what happened at lunch was true since he also had a different lunch period, and if so, congratulated him anyway because he got in the football team. He also asked how he liked Stanton so far, and Draven said it was school so there was nothing to like. I said amen to that and we continued home with Eminem blasting from his speakers.

Mom was almost done with dinner when we got home. She was already setting the table and muttering about how dad had been locked in his office for a while now and did not even offer a finger to help. That was Mikee and I’s cue to set down our bags and make ourselves available to whatever bidding she had in mind, because if we ignored her like dad, she would never stop hounding us for the rest of the evening. Like she did with Dad.

And when she still wouldn’t stop when Dancing With The Stars was on, dad barked: “Hazel, Derek is dancing. Will you stop yapping about dinner? I already said sorry!”

Mom: “I don’t care about that stupid Derek and that stupid Pussycat Doll! I care that I slaved away for dinner and you had the gall to tell me it lacked salt!”

Dad, almost bursting a vein: “I just asked you to pass the salt!”

I went up to my room after Derek and Nicole finished their routine, disappointed that they didn’t take the top slot and annoyed that I missed half of it because I listened to mom and dad’s fight. Draven’s curtain and window were open and he was on his bed with his phone in one hand. I had nothing better to do so I pushed my window open and called him.

Draven sat up and padded off to his window. He had changed into a tank top and sweatpants. It was a weird combination for me.

“What’s up?”

“Not much,” I said. “Mom and dad’s shouting over salt downstairs.”

He chuckled. “We are neighbors. I could hear them and probably everyone else a few doors away.”

I sighed. “Well, I’ll turn in now. Sorry for the noise.”

“No problem, firecracker.”

I shut off my window and double checked before I stripped down and searched for my night clothes before laying under my thick comforter. Today was several notches more stressful than a normal school day. But to be honest, I quite liked having a break from my usual routine. Draven was an interesting person to have around and just the type of person who opened lots of doors for adventure. And he was still cool. Really cool. Although, I thought as my eyes closed to tiredness, I will never be caught dead admitting that. Never.