Free Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser Page B

to be a million reasons why he’d switched at the last minute with Dave, and surely “hot date” was one of them. But speculating about things I had no way of confirming was a bad idea, and I forced my thoughts back into the Safe Rides office and Dave. “Well, what’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about you?”
    I don’t think Dave expected that question. “Uh … I guess I’d just want people to know that I’m a nice guy.”
    “I think people know that,” I said.
    “But …” Dave began to say something, then must have had second thoughts. Instead he reached into his backpack and pulled out a DVD. “Hey, want to watch Juno tonight?”
    “Sure,” I said, even though this would probably be the dozenth time I’d see that movie about a quirky girl my age who has a baby and decides to give it away. Still, it might help get my mind off Tyler.
    The door opened and Ms. Skelling came in, followed by Maura. Our faculty advisor was wearing a full-length shearling with the kind of stitching that had been fashionable in the 1970s or 1980s, and I wondered if it was something she’d kept from her heydays along the Philadelphia Main Line.
    “Are we all set for tonight?” she asked while Maura removed her ski jacket.
    “I’m taking Tyler’s place on the desk,” Dave announced. “The driving teams are Maura and Courtney and the lesbians from Mars.”
    Ms. Skelling frowned. “Keep it to yourself, Dave. Anyone know what’s on tap?” She gazed at me as she asked.
    “There’s supposed to be a kegger in the woods beside the baseball field across from Tony’s nursery,” I said.
    The door swung open again and Sharon and Laurie came in. Sharon was wearing her permanent scowl, which only seemed to increase when she saw Dave on the desk.
    “Hi, girls, we’re just discussing the plan for tonight,” Ms. Skelling told them. “So far we know there’ll be a kegger in the woods across from the nursery.”
    “Jocks,” Sharon instantly concluded as she pulled her hoodie over her head. “Well, looks like we’ll be busy.”
    Laurie slumped into a chair without taking off her brown peacoat. Her silent ambiguity always struck me as eerie and unsettling. You had to wonder what was behind that blank look.
    “Is there anything else going on that we should know about?” Ms. Skelling asked. She had not taken off her coat and I had the feeling she was eager to get everything settled for the evening so that she could leave. Did she have a date waiting somewhere?
    “I heard there’s a party at some sophomore’s house in the heights,” said Laurie.
    “Oh, dear,” Ms. Skelling said with a touch of resignation in her voice. “We all know what that means. Make sure you have buckets in your cars.” She turned to Dave. “The log?”
    “Right.” Dave pulled open the desk drawer and took out the ring binder where we recorded every call, and the details of each “run” the driving teams did throughout the evening.
    Ms. Skelling checked her watch, then looked at me. “We’re sure Courtney’s coming?”
    “She always has to be fashionably late,” Sharon sniped.
    “She’ll be here,” I said, even though Courtney and I still weren’t speaking.
    “All right,” Ms. Skelling said. “Have a safe evening. And let’s make absolutely sure every client is safely inside their destination before we leave them.”
    She left, but the echo of her final words remained as a not-too-subtle reminder of my recent failure to follow the rules. The Safe Rides office grew uncomfortably quiet for a moment.
    “I don’t get it.” Dave finally broke the silence. “A party and a kegger after what happened last weekend? I would have thought people wouldn’t be in the partying mood.”
    “Aw, look at Mr. Sensitive,” Sharon said snidely.
    “I think you’ve got it backward,” Dave shot back. “You’d have to be totally insensitive not to feel that way.”
    “You think those unenlightened testosterone-addled Neanderthals