Fatal Games by Bruce Richards

Author:Bruce Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_horror
ISBN: 0-812-55189-3
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
Published: 1995-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Monday afternoon at Springwood High, Chip was spinning his locker combination dial for the second time. Or was it the third? He couldn't remember. A new locker, new school, new classes, new teachers, new everything.

Chip wore a light blue sweater over straight-legged black denim jeans. For some reason the weather always seemed warmer away from Elm Street. It was so warm, in fact, he was tempted to take off his sweater and just wear his T-shirt.

But the T-shirt he had put on that morning when he was still groggy with sleep was his old Middleton High T-shirt, and he didn't want to appear to be an outsider at Springwood High. Especially not on his first day of school.

He yanked down on his locker handle. It still wouldn't open. He tried spinning the dial again.

Chip had spent most of Sunday afternoon cleaning the house and trying not to think of Alicia. He had gone to her house again on Sunday but was met with the same cold reception as before by Alicia's sullen-faced mother, who told him she wasn't home.

And yet, when he left, he had glanced over his shoulder and thought he had seen someone looking out an upstairs bedroom window at him. Had Alicia told her mother to get rid of him if he came around?

Chip yanked down hard on the locker door again, and again nothing happened. Out of frustration he punched the door with a resounding clang that caused several students to eye him nervously as they walked by.

Someone tapped him roughly on the shoulder. Chip spun around. The boy standing behind him was a huge guy with a gap in his front teeth. "You'd better have a good reason for trying to break into my locker, dude," the big guy said sharply.

Chip glanced at the locker number, then turned red with embarrassment. "Sorry," he mumbled, sliding over a locker. "I guess I'm over here." He spun the dial of his locker as the big guy continued to stare at him. Fortunately, Chip was able to open his locker on the first try. Satisfied, the big guy opened his own locker.

"You're Chip Parker, aren't you?" he asked, glancing sideways at Chip.

"Yeah," Chip said, a little surprised that the guy knew who he was.

"My name's Charlie Chadwick. I played against you last year. I'm the guy who pushed your head down in the mud during a big pileup," Charlie said bluntly. "Remember me? You had to leave the game for a play to clear the muck out of your mouth. You almost suffocated,"

"Oh, yeah. That was you?" Chip asked, not sure how to react to Charlie's confession.

"Are you going to try out for the team?" Charlie asked, yanking out a textbook and shoving another one in.

"Yeah. This afternoon at practice," Chip said. "Me and my brother."

"Al Parker?"

"Yeah."

"I played against Al Parker two years ago," Charlie said. "On defense he broke two of our halfback's ribs."

"Uh-huh," Chip said. He didn't know what else to say. He hoped Charlie wouldn't punish him for what his brother had done.

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