Out Crowd (eBook)

Chapter 1: Break-Up

At Gates High School, everybody was split cleanly down the middle into two groups: the In Crowd (population sixty-nine) and the Out Crowd (population one thousand and twenty-four).

It was a cloudy August afternoon near in tail end of a hot summer, on the last weekend before school started. Isaiah, a senior Out Crowder, rushed to school as fast as he could. When he arrived, he rushed down to the football field and rushed up the bleachers to get a good view of the field. Isaiah was often forgetful, but today he had set a personal record. He had forgotten today was the final scrimmage before Homecoming. He had forgotten today was not a good day to oversleep. He had forgotten what the best time to set his alarm was to avoid oversleeping. He had forgotten he needed to get his ticket to the Homecoming Game. He had forgotten he also still needed to get his ticket for the Homecoming Dance.

“Over here,” Everett called out to him. “Did you oversleep again?” Everett was a skinny senior with a beaver-brown crew cut. He had been one of Isaiah’s best friends since the fifth grade.

“I guess so,” said Isaiah.

Craig butted in. “You guess so?” Craig was another senior boy with sunflower-blond hair and an arm tattoo of a tree with an infinity sign crafted at the center of the branches. He was Isaiah’s other best friend. “You’re such a clown sometimes. Did you at least remember to book your Homecoming tickets?”

“Yes,” Isaiah said, nodding awkwardly. “Well, I remembered that I still need to book them,” he clarified. “I haven’t actually booked my game ticket or my dance ticket yet, but that doesn’t matter. I’m going to get both now while we watch the scrimmage.” Isaiah reached into his pocket, but his insides froze. He had left his phone at home. “Umm...any chance I could borrow one of your cells?”

“Not mine,” said Everett. “I’m using it at the moment to download the Gates Times app.”

“Our school newspaper has an app?” said Isaiah, surprised.

“Of course,” said Everett. “It’s the current year. Everything has an app now. I thought I would write for the Times again this year, to spruce up my college applications. Are you still trying for that scholarship?”

“Yes,” said Isaiah. He had a phone interview scheduled with the Jefferson Lee Scholarship Fund at four o’clock sharp tomorrow afternoon. That was one thing Isaiah could count on remembering. He had been studying their requirements since the beginning of August, but he couldn’t think about that now. His tickets were his immediate concern. “Craig, can I borrow your phone?”

“Won’t do you any good,” said Craig. “It’s out of battery.”

Now he needed to find someone else’s phone to use. It was too late to go back home and find his. Isaiah scanned the crowd and his eyes settled on Karen. “Great.” Karen was Isaiah’s ex-girlfriend. “I’ll be right back.”

“Is he going to talk to Karen?” said Everett.

“This ought to be good,” Craig said, smirking.

Coach Ericks took a deep breath and blew his whistle to signal that the scrimmage was about to begin. “Come on, boys,” he yelled. “Hustle, hustle, hustle.” He watched carefully as all the teenage boys at varying stages of growth and puberty marched past him. “Joel,” he said, taking his senior captain aside when he strode by with the others. “As usual, we’ve got a lot of freshmen new recruits this year. Make sure you set them straight.”

Joel Boudin nodded curtly. “Understood, Coach.”

Senior cheerleading captain Hallie Flynn also positioned herself accordingly. There was not traditionally much to be done in the way of cheerleading during a scrimmage, it was true, but Hallie truly believed practice made perfect. This wasn’t really just any scrimmage, either. Next weekend was Gates’ Homecoming Game against Byzantine High School, and this was their last practice beforehand.

Hallie approached her position as a cheerleader with as much dedication as Joel Boudin. Hallie Flynn always set the mood of the cheerleading squad from the top down.

This pivotal scrimmage attracted a fair bit of an audience. Members of the Out Crowd took their seats in the bleachers: upperclassmen, underclassmen, nerds, wannabes, drifters, emos, those who traveled in packs and even those who considered themselves full-blown outcasts stopped by.

“How stupid of me,” Isaiah whispered to himself. Registration had been open all summer, but he hadn’t even downloaded the app. “Hey Karen,” he said when he was standing right in front of her.

Karen turned to see who interrupted her conversation with the other senior girls she was with. “Hey Isaiah,” she reciprocated.

“I wanted to ask you about Homecoming.”

“Isaiah, we broke up in April,” said Karen. “Don’t you remember?”

“No, it’s not that,” Isaiah said quickly. “I need to book my tickets, but I left my phone at home.”

“Oh Isaiah, you haven’t changed.”

“So I was wondering if I could borrow your phone for a second,” Isaiah requested, “to book my Homecoming tickets.” Truthfully it would take longer than a second to get done.

“Well,” said Karen. She sighed deeply. “Alright.”

Isaiah was relieved. “Thank you Karen. I really appreciate it.”

“Whatever. Just hurry up.”

Isaiah scrolled from screen to screen and back again. “I can’t find the app.”

“My school app crashed the other day,” Karen told him. “You probably need to re-download it.”

“Ugh, fine.” He clicked the download button. “It says it’ll take a few minutes.”

“A few minutes?” Karen took her phone back and looked at the screen. “It must be the reception. Here, I’m gonna check my messages. Go back and sit with Craig and Everett. I’ll come by when it’s done.”

Isaiah had no choice but to do as she said, but he couldn’t stop himself from getting anxious. This was taking way too much time. Then again he was partly to blame.

Summer weather was still in the air, and t-shirts and shorts were the norm amongst returning students. Isaiah, Craig and Everett were not the only ones in hot anticipation of Homecoming. How the team performed after a summer of training was usually a good indicator of how hopeful their classmates and fans could be in the upcoming season.

“Can you believe this is our senior year already?” said Craig. “It seems only yesterday that we were all sitting here as freshmen.”

“I know,” said Isaiah. “I think the three of us have seen every game together.”

“Not the one before the PSAT last year,” Everett pointed out. “We all had to study, remember?”

“And I missed a game sophomore year,” said Craig. “The one where I had mono.”

“Fine,” said Isaiah. “Every game but two. Do you think Gates will reach the Western County finals again this season?”

“I don’t know,” said Everett. “Brett Webster already graduated, so we need fresh talent to stay competitive.”

Craig stroked his chin. “Brett was the best star quarterback Gates ever had. Now that he’s at Big City University the county playoffs will be tough.”

“We’re playing Byzantine High in Homecoming next week,” said Isaiah. “We’ll see what happens then.”

“Evan Terrence is Byzantine’s captain now,” said Everett. “He’ll give us a run for our money.”

“He’s not unbeatable,” said Craig. “Don’t forget we still have Joel and the rest of the seniors. All of them have an extra year of experience now.”

“Meh,” said Everett.

“I just wish that I could get a better look at the field,” said Isaiah. “Hallie’s on top of her pyramid so I can’t see the kickoff.”

“Surprised she’s even practicing that of all things now,” remarked Craig. “The ground’s muddy so it’s easier for those holding her up to slip.”

“Well, that’s part of what they have to do,” replied Everett. “Some game days are muddy or rainy, and they don’t have a choice then. So why should they stop practicing on a scrimmage day?”

“True,” Craig conceded.

Karen swung by and interrupted their conversation. “Here Isaiah.” She handed her phone back to him.

“Awesome,” said Isaiah. “Now I just need to register myself and send the ticket to my email. First I need to make an account. Let’s see. Pick a password. Then click next. Oh, it’s asking me to enter the password again.”

“Hit the back button,” said Karen. “And pick something you’ll remember long enough to enter it a second time.”

“I wasn’t expecting to have to enter it again,” said Isaiah, irritated.

“What about when you need to sign into your student account for other stuff?” said Karen. “Did you think of that?”

Isaiah ignored her question. “I don’t know what’s going on. For some reason I can’t send the tickets to my email address.”

Karen snatched her phone back. “Let me see. The reception must be having trouble. I’ll see what I can do. Oh drat!”

“What?” asked Isaiah.

“I clicked the wrong button,” explained Karen. “Now your ticket’s file is saved to my account and I can’t scroll back.”

“Oh,” said Isaiah. “I guess I’ll have to come to the Homecoming Dance at the same time as you, since both our tickets are on your phone.”

Karen...