005

Colette glanced up from her lap, Michelle turned to look at her, and Sadie paused in mid-sip. Brenda sighed with her entire body, nodding her head slightly as the breath escaped her. "OK, that's not exactly accurate. He's the reason Danny and I got into our final fight. Danny could be a nice guy, he truly could, but he would NOT let a grudge go. You guys remember that huge blizzard we got senior year?"

"Storm of the damn century," proclaimed Sadie. "Four feet of snow in two days. My Mom and I couldn't leave our apartment because the steps were buried."

"It took them the entire day to get around to plowing our street," Michelle added. "My dad and I had to shovel a path so he could hitch a ride with Colette's dad to make it to work. The storm caught everyone off guard with how strong and fast it blew in."

"Garrett and I had to do an extra credit project for history class. He came over Sunday afternoon so we could knock it out before the blizzard started. But he got snowed in with me because the front moved in a lot quicker than either of us expected..."

"Garrett got snowed in with you?" Colette glanced at Sadie and Michelle for pre-confirmation of her next statement. "I remember you working together, but you never said anything about him staying over!"

"Yeah," added Michelle. "You told us he left right before the storm broke."

"There's a reason. Danny was upset when he found out Garret and I were working together. Then he got pissed when he found out Garrett was snowbound with me. Then I found out that Danny had been cheating on me, and..."

Brenda's shoulders slumped, and she looked at her friends with a resigned, embarrassed smile. "I kind of slept with Garrett to get revenge."

"You SLEPT with him?!?"

The patrons at the surrounding tables didn't quite catch the words of Michelle's outburst, only the volume and intensity of her words. Brenda and Sadie both motioned for Michelle to lower her voice, only for Colette to fill the silence. "You hooked up with Garrett? You never told us THAT!"

"I never told anyone! I was upset, I was frustrated, and I wanted to stick it to Danny. Garrett was a warm body in the right place at the right time."

"Well then start talking!" Sadie grabbed the nearby decanter and eagerly refilled Brenda's wine. "You can't drop a bombshell like that and leave us hanging!"

"I really..."

"Oh no, you don't." Colette wagged her finger at her friend sitting across the table. "Sadie's right. I just spent two weeks with the guy, and he never brought this up. I'm dying to know all about this!"

Brenda glanced over at Michelle, who shook her head. "Sorry. I want to hear what happened too."

"I don't suppose the salads are coming out any time soon," Brenda said before giving in to her fate. "Alright. It was the Friday before the storm. My folks were in San Francisco for business so Danny was going to spend Saturday night at my house..."

X X X X X

"Go Danny!" Brenda's clapping echoed across the gym as her boyfriend ran backward to get on defense after landing a perfect jump shot.

"There needs to be a mercy rule," Michelle noted while sitting next to Brenda on the bleachers, with Sadie and Colette seated one row down. "The Shirts are getting crushed."

Brenda glanced up at the scoreboard. She whistled upon seeing both the score and the time remaining. "That is ugly. You know Coach Walters, though. He'll run them to the final second."

"I am not complaining," Colette quietly proclaimed. "I just wish Gio was a Skin instead of a Shirt." Sadie raised her hand and accepted a fist bump from her friend as a show of agreement.

As before any official weekend game, the Emerald Pines High School Men's Basketball team was holding a 15-minute scrimmage against the other boys in their Friday gym class as a warm-up for the next day's match against Roaring Fork. The scrimmage always turned into a blowout within the first two minutes. However, Coach Walters would wind the game clock all the way to 0.0. Any show of weakness or letting up on the throttle by the players under him would result in punishment, usually in the form of laps and suicide runs during the following practice. The girls were regulated to the bleachers, free to do what they wanted as long as it didn't disrupt the game.

Of the thirteen girls, twelve of them had eyes on the court, following one of three players. Anthony Giovanni, known to students and teachers alike as "Gio," was the dominant player on the Shirts. Six-three, co-captain of the school ski team alongside Michelle, muscular, tan, Italian, friendly, outgoing, and absolutely gorgeous, it was Gio's size and athleticism that made him a competitive threat in the weekly scrimmages. Lining up opposite him on the other side of the court was Tyler Hammond, assistant captain of the basketball team. His ebony skin was covered with sweat. Droplets flicked through the air as he rubbed his forearm across his face.

Both Gio and Tyler, however, paled in skill, popularity, and looks to Danny Eastman. Six feet and five inches tall, with sandy blonde hair and a body sculpted from years of cardio and conditioning, Danny possessed that rare quality seen only in the most popular high school students - the "it" factor. In his case, "it" was defined by a talent for basketball that had college scouts attending his middle school games and several universities angling to recruit him since his sophomore year. Danny was the reason three Colorado basketball state championship banners were displayed in the gymnasium's rafters after years of mediocrity, and there was little doubt a fourth one was on its way this year. His status as a "golden one," Brenda admitted, gave him a hint of superiority complex underneath his self-confidence, but it only added to his status among the students of Emerald Pines.