Page 19 of Spencer and the Younger Girl
The vice principal’s kids were pulling a prank on the school?
Damien bounced on his toes beside Spencer, nervous energy rolling off him in waves.
“You up for this, bro?”
Damien only looked at him, his eyes wide, until Hadley stepped in. “Of course, he’s up for this. Your brother is kind of a bad ass.”
“My brother?” That didn’t sound like him at all. The Damien he knew was the quiet kid who loved hockey and horses and fixing cars.
Hadley released an exaggerated sigh. “I don’t have time to explain his awesomeness to you.” She hooked her arm through Damien’s and pulled him into the school while leading the goat with her other hand.
Roman clapped Spencer on the back. “She’s not wrong, man.” He paused. “Watch out for Hadley. That girl… she’ll eat you alive.” He walked past him into the school.
The door shut behind Spencer, leaving him in a dark hallway alone with a goat. There was a joke in there somewhere. He didn’t know where the others went, so he pulled on the lead. His footsteps echoed against the tile, a sound from his past.
He could almost hear the lockers slamming and his peers talking as they walked the halls between classes. Ghosts of the past he’d long suppressed reared their heads. Back then, he’d searched for Victoria every chance he got and pushed her up against the lockers for a kiss.
It seemed so simple, so real. A part of him thought they’d last forever, but they were young and didn’t yet know what they wanted. He could still hear her sobs the night everything changed.
She hadn’t loved him enough to fight for him, and he hadn’t loved her enough to stay.
“You coming?” Hadley poked her head out of the door leading to the school offices. Light poured into the hallway as she flipped the switch.
He followed her in, but the others were nowhere to be found.
“It’s a little creepy walking these halls at night.” She pulled out a key and unlocked the principal’s office. “Come on.” Her irritation from before no longer coated her words, replaced with an excitement that shone in her eyes.
Spencer led two goats into the office.
“We’re just leaving one of them in here.” Hadley took one of the leads from him. He didn’t know where her goats were.
“You have every part of this thought out, don’t you?”
She gave him a strange look. “Ummm yeah. This has to be epic.”
He got the feeling she never did anything that wasn’t epic.
A giggle escaped her as she unclipped the lead from the goat, watching it circle the room before laying down underneath the desk.
A grin spread across her face. “I’m pretty awesome, aren’t I?”
He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “And full of yourself.”
She shrugged as if that didn’t bother her. “Admit it, this is pretty sweet.”
“Assuming you don’t get arrested for stealing my parents’ goats, you might still get in trouble with the school. All of you will.”
Hadley was quiet for a long moment. “Damien won’t get in trouble. I promise.”
His brow creased as he tried to figure out this girl who both infuriated and intrigued him.
“Come on.” She grabbed his arm and took off running from the office with the remaining goat loping along behind them. She didn’t stop as they entered the hall and pushed into the stairwell.
At the top of the stairs, they reached the science wing, and she went for one of the chemistry classrooms.
“Mr. Thompson is going to have a meltdown if he finds a goat in here.” She let out an evil laugh as she let the goat free and watched it for a moment. Bending down, she held out her hand, and the goat came to her.
“You’re a bit evil, aren’t you?”
