The Squad Effect

Chapter 6 | Revenge

Nash Grier

Matt and I sat back to back on the floor of my room, brainstorming. We were trying to come up with a plan to show the jocks that we weren't to be messed with. Somehow, they always got the upper hand, but not this time. This time were going to come down on them hard. The question was: how?

"You could pull a gun on Cameron." Matt suggested.

"I'm trying to get them to leave us alone. If that involves catching a case I'd rather have them around." I chuckled. "Unfortunately, pulling a knife on that kid last year really stuck with me. We would've been expelled if he told any authority before he moved. I don't want to get that close to expulsion ever again. My Dad would kill me. So, we're gonna stay away from weapons this year."

"Well, that's no fun." Matt scoffed in return. Suddenly, a most unfortunate idea pops into my head.

"That Carter guy is still chasing you right?" I asked before turning to face him. He turned to face me as well, an uncertain look on his face.

"Unfortunately. Why?"

"I need you to convince him to give us some information." I rested my hand on my chin. Matt sighed and shook his head, the uncertain look giving way to an unhappy one.

"How am I even supposed to do that?"

"He's desperate for you. Use that to your advantage." I shrugged in return.

"Is that code for 'seduce him,' because if so, you can count me out." Matt crossed his arms while leaning back against the couch.

"I would never force you to seduce another dude. That's gross. All you have to do is promise him something that he wants, and then fail to deliver when the time comes. For example, promise that you'll go to the pride parade with him, or any other event that fags go to."

"Dude, stop using that word." Matt sighed angrily. "First off, it's mean. Second of all, using that word keeps getting you into trouble, so stop using it." He told me off.

"Whatever. Can we just go and get the info?" I ask, hoping to change the subject.

"Fine." He huffed, as we both stood up. Matt led me down the hall until we were just outside of his dorm room. He gave me a signal to wait where I was as he unlocked the door and headed inside. I pressed my ear against the door so that I could hear exactly what was being said.

"Carter?" Matt's voice echoed.

"Yes?" Carter replied.

"What are your plans for tomorrow night?" Matt asked.

"Holding the freshman try-outs. Why, were you planning on taking me somewhere? Perhaps on a date?"

"No. What about tonight?" Matt changed the subject quickly.

"I'll only tell you if you agree to be my date. That means, showing up to the event and leaving the event with me."

"There's gotta be something else. I can... go to the pride parade with you."

"Pride month is June, so that won't be happening any time soon." Carter scoffed.

"Fine, I'll be your date." Matt reluctantly gave in. "But it's a friend-date! Not a romantic date."

"I'm going to another party. Cameron and the swim team set up a huge get-together tonight at the schools' swimming pool. Everybody who's anybody is going to be there." Carter finally spilled the information that we were looking for.

"If you don't mind my asking, how did you guys even get the key to the building?" Matt asks.

"Not telling."

"Fine, I guess I'll see you at..." Matt trails off.

"7:30. Wear your tightest swim trunks, even though they won't be on for long."

I took a few steps back down the hallway when I heard Matt's footsteps approach the door. He opened the door and looked around for me.

"That was almost too easy." Matt chuckled while leading me to my brother's room. After knocking a few times, Hayes answers the door, seeming surprised to see us.

"Give us Jay. We're going to crash a party tonight." I told Hayes, as if it was no big deal. Suddenly the sound of moaning could be heard from the bedroom. Jay was probably jacking off, for the 100th time today.

"Ah, f**k!" We heard Jay's strained voice.

"Jay! Get out here! We are going to a party." I leaned past Hayes and called out. A few minutes of silence pass before Jay walked out of the bedroom.

"Can I at least finish?" He protested.

"You jack off all the time. You can forgo finishing this one time." Hayes rolled his eyes.

"But can I really?" Jay replied while throwing on a thin leather jacket.

"You need serious help." I shook my head.

"What I need is some action and if this party goes well, I won't have to wait much longer." Jay says more to himself than to any of us.

"That's questionable." I replied.

*

Jay and I entered the pool area from the main entrance. We were immediately hit with a blast of thick humid air, which was not appreciated seeing that it was already humid outside. Some Drake song was blasting over the speakers that were usually used to do play-by-plays for races.

I surveyed the room thoroughly, my eyes finally landing on Cameron's arm around my little sister. They were talking and laughing as if they had known each other for years. My stomach turned at the sight of them together. Ellie was obviously shitfaced. I could tell by how much weight she seemed to be putting on Cameron.

A large smile found it's way onto Cameron's face as his hand slipped to her neck. I watch him quickly and skillfully undo the knot that was holding up my sister's bikini strings. They fell loosely to her shoulders. She held up the front of her bikini to stop anything from being exposed.

I was expecting her to lash out at him, since she was very aggressive when she was mad, but all she did was laugh. She laughed really hard, as if someone had told the funniest joke she had ever heard.

"Cameron!" I read her lips. The sight made me sicker. I couldn't decide who I was more disgusted with, Cameron or Ellie.

"Come on Ellie... It's a party! Let loose!" I heard Cameron yell encouragingly to her as he undid the second string that held up her bikini top.

"MOVE OUT OF THE f*****g WAY! ELLIE'S GOING IN!" She screams as she does a front flip into the pool. She floated to the top of the water without her bikini top. I let out a gagging sound.

"YEAH! THAT'S WHAT I'M f*****g TALKIN' ABOUT!" Cameron yelled. The entire party screams in appreciation of the careless attitudes being displayed.

"I don't know if I can be here any longer. These people are all sexist pigs. Right Jay?" I asked, only to realize that Jay wasn't there. I looked to the other side of the pool deck where he was standing, talking to a very tan girl who was wearing an all black one-piece.

I looked to see if Matt had shown up with Carter yet. I found them in less than one second, since Carter was wearing neon orange swim trunks. Matt was literally being backed into a corner by Carter as he tried to get closer and closer to Matt.

I decided that Matt was in the most immediate danger, so I sped over to him as quickly as possible.

"Matt, the TV's broken again. I need your help to move it!" I lied so that Carter wouldn't be suspicious.

"I'll be back, this is urgent." He informed Carter as we walked past him to collect Jay. The Latina girl was now nowhere to be seen. Instead, Jay was talking to Jack Gilinsky from the football team. They say that he's so beautiful, he turns straight guys gay. Now Jay was in immediate danger if the rumors were true.

"You know, some people live at the gym, but not me. I go just the right amount and achieve the same results." Jack Gilinsky gestured to his abs. That was the only snippet of their conversation that we were able to hear before simply grabbing JJ's arm and pulling him with us back to entrance of the swimming pool.

"I've got an idea." I mumbled once we were out in the lobby of the club building, away from the prying eyes of the party-goers. I led my friends up the stairs to the second floor. We noticed that one of the lights in the club rooms were on, and we could hear people talking. We slowly walked down the hallway, trying to make it to the end without creating too much noise.

"Did anyone hear that?" One of the voices asked above the rest. I quickly opened one of the unoccupied and darkened club rooms before rushing my friends inside. We closed the door and crouched down, out of the sight of the window. The hinges on the door of the occupied room creaked. The footsteps of the person that went into the hallway echoed loudly. "Hello?" A female voice called out. She sucked her teeth loudly before heading back to the club room. My friends and I waited in the dark for a few extra minutes just to be safe.

I opened up the door and let my friends stealthily sneak out. We continued down the hallway, crouching under the window of the occupied club room. Once were right outside, we could easily identify that in the room, the chess club was practicing for the municipal chess tournament. We continued to crouch and take virtually silent steps until we were out of earshot of the chess club room. We reached the end of the hallway in no-time. I pulled the loose cover off of the building's control panel.

Matt stood beside me as I turned up the dial labelled heat. He turned down the dial labelled vent.

"Kill the lights." Jay whispered. Matt completely switched off the lights in the pool. "Alright, lets go." Jay prompted us. We sneaked back down the hallway, past the chess club and down the stairs. All we could hear as we passed the pool was people yelling, seeming to be enjoying having the lights off.

"They won't be so excited once the 115-degree heat sets in." I smirked while pushing open the doors to go outside. "Act natural if we run into anyone." I briefed the boys as we made our way back to the dorm. We were about halfway there when we heard somebody yell in the distance.

"Hey!" They said, sounding very accusatory. The odds that they were speaking to us were very slim, but I wasn't about to chance suspension.

"Run." I whispered to Matt and Jay. At my order, we all began to run at top speed towards the dorm. Luckily, on the way there we didn't see anyone else. Once we entered the hallway, we could see Shawn standing outside of our room, with a huge smile on his face. He was wearing a black turtleneck, which was strange since it was hot outside. "Shawn! What are you doing?" I questioned, forcing him to notice us.

"I was just about to go inside, when I started thinking about that funny thing that you said the other day." He seemed to be scrambling, but we were in too fragile of a situation to be milling about in the hallway.

"I'm sure that happened, lets talk about it more inside." I tried to coerce him into opening the door. He immediately turned around and unlocked the door, allowing for all of us to enter. Once the door closed, I turned to Shawn. "Are you having s*x?" I asked, taking note of his uneasy expression.

"What? No." He replied quickly.

"Shawn's hooking up with someone!" I told the other guys. They patted Shawn on the shoulder, expressing their approval. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"There's no girl. There's nobody. I'm being serious. I'm not having s*x; I don't even want to be having sex." He looked right into my eyes.

"Fine. I'll believe you for now." I shrugged.

"New topic. Where did you guys come from, you're all sweaty. Matt you're just wearing swim trunks." Shawn picked apart the scene in front of him.

"These aren't swim trunks, they're a new type of gym short. We came back from the gym." Matt blatantly lied.

"Yeah. You know how it is; gotta stay in shape." I laugh. Shawn nodded with a suspecting look crossing his face.

"I guess..."