Principal Hardwick sat and stared at Clark without speaking. The silence in the room became uncomfortably long, and Lois shifted uneasily in her chair.
Lois had seen this technique used by her father; most people were uncomfortable silence and they’d rush to fill it with anything, even if it was in their best interest to keep quiet. Lucy had been caught numerous times, back when her father had been around.
Clark though, sat calmly. Although he was sitting straight, his posture was clearly relaxed. He was motionless and calm, not the fidgeting mess the principal was undoubtedly used to seeing in his office.
Finally it was Principal Hardwick who spoke. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Clark lifted one eyebrow and said, “Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“I’m not sure why I’m here,” Clark said. “So I’m not sure what you want me to say.”
Apparently Clark hadn’t been involved in any of the fights; Lois wasn’t surprised. There’d been a big enough crowd watching the fight on Friday night that no one was likely to try anything with him. The rest of the football team was currently showing the school they were still on top, and if he’d easily beaten six of them…nobody was that stupid, not even Tom Church.
“Do you deny being in a fight on school property Friday night?”
“I do,” Clark said.
Principal Hardwick scowled. “I have reports from more than a dozen students that you are lying.”
“That hardly seems likely,” Clark said calmly.
“Are you saying I’m lying?” Principal Hardwick’s face flushed and he leaned forward.
Clark shook his head. “I’m saying you’re mistaken.”
“So you’re saying there wasn’t an altercation between you and several members of the football team on Friday night?”
“No.”
“No, what?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” Clark said.
“You just said there wasn’t a fight on Friday night,” Principal Hardwick said. “So was there, or wasn’t there?”
“That’s not what you asked,” Clark said. “You asked if I was involved in an altercation on school property. I wasn’t.”
Most of the teenage boys Lois knew would have had an annoying tone when they said that, but Clark spoke as though it was a simple statement of fact.
Lois blinked. Now that she thought about it, the stadium’s parking lot had been full; the Lions always had a huge turnout. She’d had to park in the parking lot next door, which technically belonged to a deserted Target store. It had been driven out of business by CostMart and people parked on the edges of the parking lot all the time at big games.
She tried to recall whether the fight had been on stadium property or not and she couldn’t remember.
“Don’t play games!” Principal Hardwick said. His face was red by now. “So you got into a fight with the boys on the team.”
“I didn’t hit anyone, if that’s what you are asking,” Clark said. “I still don’t see why it matters.”
“You attacked the members of the team,” Principal Hardwick scowled, “And you threatened to break the hand of the most promising running back the team has had in years.”
“Even if that were true,” Clark said, “And I don’t recall things happening that way at all, it still happened off school property and not during school hours.”
“I should suspend you now for being such a little…” Principal Hardwick said.
“Nobody got as much as a bruise,” Clark said, and there was a certainty in his voice that made Lois think that he’d checked.
“Making threats against the team won’t be tolerated!”
Lois wondered if he counted pep rallies, which sometimes got out of hand.
“Did anyone on the team make a complaint?” Clark asked. At the principal’s sudden silence, Clark nodded. “So really all you have is a lot of hearsay from people who are jealous of the team.”
Principal Hardwick frowned. “What do you mean, jealous?”
“There are people who don’t wish the team well,” Clark said.
This was true; increasingly Lois found herself being one of them.
“I’m sure they’d love to tell stories about how the team was so weak that they could be beaten up by one guy,” Clark said. “I’m sure there are a lot of guys who’d like to take a shot at the guys on the team.”
“And you’re saying that it didn’t happen.”
“Isn’t a more likely scenario that the guys were just horsing around after the game and fell all over themselves? Do I look like the kind of guy who could beat up six football players at the same time?”
“I’m seen your record,” Principal Hardwick said dryly. “Anybody able to set fire to a toilet has to be endlessly creative.”
“Whatever might have happened on Friday night, it wasn’t on your watch,” Clark said. “Do you really want to be responsible for everything students do off campus?”
“You’re trying to manipulate me,” the principal said, but the redness in his face was fading and his voice was calmer.
“Right now, it’s important for the Lions to feel invincible,” Clark said. “You know how important team spirit is for the game. If you suspend one kid for beating up half the team, what’s that going to do to the other teams?”
“You’ve already done the damage.” Principal Hardwick began to scowl again.
“How long do you think these problems are going to go on?” Clark asked. “It seems to me the guys on the team are working pretty hard to prove that they aren’t the kind of weakling s who can be beaten by one guy.”
“So you’re admitting you’re responsible for all the problems we’ve had today.”
Clark shook his head. “I’m just saying that it’ll die down as soon as people see that the team is still on top. I can promise you I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that.”
“You really are a little sociopath,” Principal Hardwick said, but his expression was more relaxed. “Fine. If I find out you’re bragging or doing anything to threaten team spirit, I’ll have you expelled from school.”
Clark nodded. “I’ll do my best to keep under the radar.”
“Get out.”
Clark rose easily, and a moment later Lois followed him into the outer office.
Clark had never actually lied, Lois realized, but he’d shaded the truth quite expertly. She’d have to watch him, especially now that she’d seen what was in his permanent record.
“Did you just blackmail the principal?” Lois asked him.
Clark shook his head. “I got lucky. The next time something like this happens, I won’t be able to talk my way out of it.”
****************
“You need to stay away from that boy,” Louie said. “Take my advice.”
“You’ve got him listed as your foster kid! How bad could he possibly be?”
“I’m not going to ask how you know that,” Louie said. He leaned forward, “But you know as well as anybody what kind of business I’m in.”
Lois flushed. He’d gotten her a fake ID, along with a lecture about drinking.
“So he doesn’t actually live with you,” Lois asked.
“I don’t know where he lives and I don’t want to know,” Louie said. Unspoken was the assumption that if Louie had to know where you lived there was a problem.
“I still don’t understand why you think I shouldn’t be around him,” Lois said.
Louie sighed. “If you weren’t Angie’s best friend I wouldn’t tell you anything.” He rose slowly to his feet and reached behind the bar, pulling out a bottle and a shot glass.
Lois smiled at him winsomely and he scowled back at her.
“He’s wanted in Kansas on assault charges,” Louie said. “He beat a kid pretty badly, gave him a concussion and some broken bones.”
Staring at him, Lois said, “But he’s just going to school? You applied for records from his home state and nobody came for him?”
“I gave him the option of forging records,” Louie said, shrugging, “But I told him it probably wouldn’t be a problem.”
“Why not?” Lois asked. “The school here contacts the school there, they call the police, and he’s caught.”
Louie laughed. “I’ve known guys who killed a guy in New York and moved across to New Jersey and lived out in the open without any worries. You cross state lines, the cops don’t want to bother trying to get you back. It takes a lot of money and time to extradite somebody, and they have to want you pretty badly.”
Lois was outraged. “So they know he’s here, and they just don’t do anything about it?”
“The kid he beat up was just a foster kid,” Louie said. “If he’d been some rich guy’s kid it might have been different.”
Maybe football scandals weren’t the best story to lead with when applying for her internship. There were real scandals out in the world and suddenly football seemed pretty small.
“So he gets away with it?”
“Statute of limitations would run out in a couple of months if he was still in Kansas,” Louie said. “You leave the state they suspend the time and don’t start it again until you come back.”
Lois relaxed. “So if they catch him in Kansas, he’ll get charged.”
“Well, since he was fifteen at the time the statute will run out in a couple of years no matter what.”
Lois closed her eyes and scowled. The thought of anyone getting away with hurting someone made her angry, but she hadn’t heard Clark’s side of the story. It was hard to reconcile everything she’d heard today with the gentle, considerate boy who’d helped her on Friday night.
“Half the guys you know have assault charges,” Lois said. “So why do you want me to stay away from this one?”
“I like to know who I’m dealing with,” Louie said. “So I looked into the assault charge. Witnesses say he only hit the kid three times with his fist, but that’s not what the doctor’s report says. They said the damage was more consistent with hitting someone with a baseball bat. He was lucky he didn’t kill the kid.”
“That’s pretty bad,” Lois admitted. “But still…”
“The guy’s got a reputation around town,” Louie admitted. “Guys who try to lean on him, accidents seem to happen.”
“Accidents?” Lois asked. “He’s killing people?”
Louie shook his head. “No. Accidents. A tire blows out in front of the police when a guy has stuff he shouldn’t have in the car. A guy’s drugs catch on fire, or he loses his money. One guy had his gun blow up in his hand. The guy is never around, and nobody knows how he’s doing it.”
Like football players with flat tires and a shattered window.
“What do you think?”
“Most guys think he’s a jinx.” Louie said. He brought the shot glass to his lips and tilted his head back. “Me, I just try to stay as far away from him as possible.”
Louie set the glass on the bar. “A guy who beats somebody hard enough to break bones isn’t a good guy. At the very least he’s got what they call anger issues. I’ve never seen a guy with anger issues do right by a woman.”
“I’m not thinking about dating him!” Lois said. “I barely know the guy.”
“You think I don’t see the look in your eye when you talk about him? Angie’s mom used to have that look for me, back in the day.”
“You’re talking crazy,” Lois said. “My only interest in him is as a friend.”
“Friends like him you don’t need.” Louie said.
Lois shook her head and said, “Thanks, Louie. I’ll show myself out.”
Oddly, Louie’s advice only made her feel a little more drawn to him. Lois had never been one to follow parental advice, especially considering the parents she had.
Still, his past was a little shadier than the usual high school bad boy. She’d have to be cautious around him.
Lois glanced at her purse and patted it. She still had to drive out to Midvale to get the pictures developed. Her mistake had been using a local Costmart. They used high school students there. Obviously someone from her school had seen the pictures, stolen them and warned the team.
Her best bet was to drive thirty minutes out of her way and to go to one of the independent stores, preferably one that didn’t use high schoolers. Having someone from another school find the pictures would only be slightly less disastrous than having someone from Metropolis High finding them.
In a couple of days she’d get the pictures back, and the ball would start rolling.
