Page 32 of Puck You
Talk about awkward.
I blame you for making me do wellness checks.
Shit.I’m sorry you had to see that
What was the fight about?
Maybe dance?
It was hard to tell through all the shouting.
Who was shouting?
Mainly Gabs.Idk much else.I got out of there quick.
Thanks for letting me know.
Can I call you after classes?
I work late tonight.Tomorrow work?
Call you then.
And in case you needed to hear it, I love you.
And appreciate you.
And will name my first child in your honor if you want.
No need to get soppy, bitch.Love you too.
I glanced up from my phone just as one of the maintenance men came out of the building.He wore a mask and was holding a large white box as far away from his body as possible.
“Found your problem, ladies,” he said, dropping it on the ground in front of us, and I was immediately greeted by a surge of the putrid scent from inside the facility.
Coach Riley waved everyone away and spoke with the man softly, motioning at the discovery.With a curt nod, he reached down and opened the box.Coach covered her mouth as she leaned over to glance inside, her lip immediately curling in disgust.
“Grace!”
I jumped about a mile into the air at the sound of my name.At once, everyone turned to look at me.Ignoring their stares, I pushed up from the ground and shuffled closer, holding my breath the entire way.In every horror movie, this was the part where they uncovered a severed head.
“Someone went through the trouble of hiding it inside a vent in the basement.There was a note, but we didn’t find anything else,” the maintenance man was saying.His name tag read “Lee.”
There wasn’t a single particle in my body eager to know why a note had been left, but I had little choice given Coach’s demanding stare.As an extra measure to ward of the stench, I pulled the collar of my shirt up and over my mouth beforeleaning over to peek inside the box.It wasn’t a head, but that didn’t stop me from gagging as I was greeted with the sight of writhing maggots.The little white larvae covered almost every inch of the box, squirming over what looked like a mound of rotted beef.A short stick poked out from the top of the meat with a note attached.special delivery for gracewas spelled out across the paper in bold lettering.
“Definitely don’t remember ordering that,” I said.“Honestly, Coach, I have no idea what this is about—”
“We can probably guess, Grace,” Coach said, then turned her attention back to Lee.“How long will the smell linger?”
“Not sure.”Lee dragged his fingers through his scruffy gray beard and shrugged.“We’ll open all the doors tonight and let the place air out.You might want to give it another day before coming back.”
“Is this their retaliation for the posters and the article?”asked Coach Riley.
“Probably,” I admitted.
“Have you done anything else?”
“No,” said Caroline, coming up from behind me.“We haven’t broken any school rules or gone against the athletes’ code of conduct.”
