Page 4 of Scoring Chances
“Did you hear that Mr. Grisham from the corner store got picked up by the cops?”
“Old man Grisham? What did he do?”
“Gambling ring.”
“Really?”
My mom always acted shocked. Like she couldn’t believe the things people were capable of. To her all people had the capacity to do good so when they didn’t live up to it–she’d just be sad for them.
Disappointed, really.
And I never wanted to be a disappointment. To hear her voice hitch for me like it did for all the people they mentioned in their whispers to each other.
Needless to say, I knew everybody’s issues. Even if I didn’t want to.
I knew whose husband was sleeping with whose wife. And whose son was just picked up for petty theft and whose daughter got knocked up.
I didn’t think much of it growing up. I was always the quietest of my siblings. All nine of us.
As the middle child that was too old to play Candy land with the youngest and too young to hangout with the oldest at teen nights–I read in quiet corners and overheard town gossip.
It really wasn’t a big deal. Until I got to high school and realized the power of my eavesdropping skills. And the power I wielded in just knowing things others didn’t.
Stephanie Murray came bursting into the girl’s bathroom in between periods one day. I just so happened to be in the stall when she and her older sister, Gigi, stormed in.
“I will murder that boy. If he hurts you–”
“Nothing happened, Gigi. We barely made it to second base.”
“Then why were you crying?”
Oh boy. I tried to melt into the bathroom seat. I tried to be invisible. I swear I didn’t go looking for these things.
I lifted my feet off the ground and tried to balance on top of the toilet so they wouldn't see that I was there.
“I just thought he really liked me, you know. But that was dumb. I’m just a stupid high schooler and he’s–”
“Too old for you,” Gigi cut in. “I can have him arrested for touching you.”
Stephanie sniffed. “He didn’t know my age.”
“Exactly, he’s irresponsible. He should’ve asked. If I tell Dad, Steph, he’ll find a way to have him kicked off the team. You know he will.”
I saw through the small slit of my stall that Stephanie was holding the edges of the pedestal sink, her head dropped, blonde ponytail bobbing side to side. “I lied to him about my age.”
Gigi huffed, but put a sympathetic hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Then let this be a lesson. No more messing around with Dad’s players. Especially none by the likes of Joshua Hicks.”
My shoe slipped at the mention of his name, and the toilet sensor went off at that moment, automatically flushing. It startled me and my foot landed right in the toilet.
“Who's there?” Gigi banged on the stall. She was a senior. One of those that are pretty and scary. The kind you know could rip you to shreds with mere words. “Hello?”
I stuck my foot out of the toilet and it flushed again.
Sighing, I opened the stall door and they both looked down at my wet pant leg and shoe.
“Great! The PK. Don’t you go blabbing to your parent’s about my sister you hear me, Jones?” Gigi wagged her purple polished pointer finger in my face.
I held up my hands. “Why would I?”