Crushing on the Geek(34)

Together they began to set up the board.

“Who has my knights?” Cindy demanded, stomping her foot and nearly knocking over her own chess board.

“Mine are missing too!” another member shouted.

“So are ours,” Hayden said, lowering his voice so that only Tamara could hear him, “Do you think it's them, again? The milk and honey didn't work, after all?”

“I don't know. Cindy's pretty pissed, maybe she did it!” Tamara whispered, looking around the room.

“I heard that!” Cindy shouted. The screech of her chair being pushed back echoed around the room for longer than Tamara believed was normal, “Go ahead, Tamara, say it again, but say it loud enough for everyone to hear. You and Hayden were already here when Greg and I arrived! All that smutt about you wanting to be on time for practice, we all know you don't care about this club and you're only here to get your precious scholarship! You took them! You took the knight pieces!”

“I did not!” Tamara said, jumping to her feet.

“Tamara didn't take anything!” Hayden said, “I was here with her the whole time.”

“Oh and we know all about you too, Hayden!” Cindy said, turning her wrath on him, “You helped her, didn't you? You'd do anything to get the preppy snobby pretty girl to notice you!”

“I'm not a snob!” Tamara said.

“Let's just go, Tamara,” Hayden said, taking her hand.

“No, I'm going to show this four eyed, chess licking nerd what this snob can do to her!” Tamara said, pulling away from Hayden.

“That's enough!” Greg shouted, finally having realized the room had turned into a mad house. “They didn't take them, Cindy. What the hell would they want with the knight pieces?”

“To make sure we couldn't practice!” Cindy cried out.

“Get over yourself, Cindy, the world doesn't revolve around you!” Greg said, slamming the mouse of the computer hard against the desk.

“Let's go,” Hayden whispered in Tamara's ear.

“Fine,” she turned on her heels and stomped out of the room, leaving Hayden to catch up. Tamara sprinted down the stairs and didn't quit running until she reached her locker. Her fingers trembled as she put in her combination.

“Look,” Hayden said, having finally caught up, “Don't listen to her. I mean what she said about you being a snob and stuff, it isn't true. She's just jealous of you.”

“That's obvious,” Tamara said, wrenching open her locker and tossing her bag inside, “That and she's angry that Greg broke up with her, but that's not our problem. We have bigger fish to fry. We've done everything I can think of to appease the little… little… wee folk,” Tamara spat, “but nothing we do is good enough for them! I don't know what the hell to do now!”

“Calm down!” Hayden said, “We need to take a breather.”

“We don't have time for a breather, Hayden, don't you see they're not going to quit until they ruin our lives?” Tamara slammed her locker shut.

“Well, we won't let them!” Hayden said, crossing his arms, “We just won't let them.”

“There's nothing else we can do!” Tamara said.

“We need to find a faerie.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Maybe. Do you want this to be overwith, Tamara?”

“Of course, I do! Do you think I'm enjoying this?”

“No, but then we've got find one.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?”

Hayden thought for a second, “I would have liked to start in the room five eight five, but I don't think we should go back in there today.”

“So what, we wait until Monday?” Tamara asked.

“No, we need to move quickly,” he said, tugging on the sleeve of Tamara's hoodie, before taking her hand and walking away.

“You still haven't told me where we're supposed to find a faerie, Hayden!” she said, taking long strides to keep up with him.

“Do you remember when you were a little kid and everyone told you not to step on mushrooms, because they're faerie houses?” he asked.

“No!” Tamara spat, “Why would anyone tell a little kid that?'

Ignoring her comments, Hayden continued, “And it was supposed to be even worse if you crossed through a full circle of them, called a faerie ring or something like that?”

“No!” Tamara said again.

“Well,” Hayden continued, “I never believed it was true either until now.”

“You think this is going to work?” Tamara asked, stopping and looking into his eyes.

“What can it hurt? Faeries aren't even supposed to exist, but they do! So why can't they live in mushrooms?”