I heard Rick before I saw him. His voice carried down the hallway in a clipped rhythm. "Well, isn't it just convenient then, that you were there to lug my equipment around."
"I didn't do it," Tanner said. I recognized his voice too. In fact my heart paused for several seconds at the sound of it. Something that shouldn't happen.
I heard the sound of footsteps and knew Rick and Tanner were about to round the corner. "I told you I wouldn't sing the song," Rick said. "But that wasn't enough, was it?"
"I didn't do it," Tanner said again.
And then they were walking toward the rest of us. Rick carried his guitar case in one hand while clutching a paper that read eighty-six. Tanner carried a boom box. Neither one saw me, and I knew I ought to turn my gaze to something else and pretend I didn't see them either. But I couldn't keep my eyes off of Tanner. Dark hair, square jaw, piercing blue eyes . . . I'd stop staring at him in a second. In another second. In another second.
He turned and caught my eye. I looked back at Polly, who was watching me with one eyebrow lifted. "Aren't you going to go say hi to him?" she whispered.
I hadn't told anyone about my phone call with Tanner last night. I just shook my head and tried to maintain a normal heart beat. Tanner's presence shouldn't fluster me. I'd just keep looking at Polly. He'd be gone in a second.
"Chelsea." His voice made me jump. I hadn't heard him walk over, but he stood beside me, still holding the boom box. Rick glared at me but followed him over.
I plastered on a smile. "Hi, Tanner." Then through gritted teeth I added, "Rick."
Tanner shifted the boom box under one of his arms. His gaze trained in on mine, and there was a tightness about his eyes. "Rick woke up this morning to find the air let out of the tires on his and my parents' cars. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
Surprise kept me from answering right away. I mean, sure my friends had talked about it, but I didn't think they'd do it. And how had they gotten inside of Rick's garage anyway?
I shrugged in Rick's direction. "I don't know, have never known, and never want to know anything about the air pressure in your cars' tires."
His head moved, like he wasn't sure whether to nod or shake his head, and he held out a finger in my direction. "I didn't put anything in your stupid duffel bags."
"Then we both have clean consciences, don't we?"
Tanner stepped between us. "Great. I'm glad you guys got a chance to straighten that out. Where do you want me to put your stuff, Richard?"
"Anywhere." Rick broke off from glaring at me to take in his surroundings. He waved to a place further down the hallway. "How about there."
Without another word, Tanner walked over and set the boom box down by the wall. Rick turned back to me. "I'm going to guard my stuff now, but in case you're wondering, I've got my guitar, my boom box, three CDs of background music"—he patted his jacket pocket—"and my iPod with speakers. There is no way you can sabotage my song."
I smiled back at him. "Has anyone told you that you're paranoid?"
"I'm prepared. Are you?" Rick sent me one last scowl and went off to guard his stuff.
Molly and Polly peered after him. "I think he has issues," Molly said.
"Should we have brought extra CDs of our backup music?" Polly asked, and her voice had the beginnings of panic.
"He's just trying to psyche us out," I said. "Besides, I have an extra copy of our background music in with my clothes." After all, I hadn't sung an a cappella duet with Mrs. Jones and learned nothing.
With his hands tucked into his pockets, Tanner walked back over to our group. Molly saw him coming, took hold of her bag and said, "Come on, Polly. Let's change into our football gear." Before she left, she paused, leaned in close to me and whispered, "I know he's your boyfriend, but don't take your eyes off of our background music for a second."
Paranoia, apparently, was catching.
The twins headed toward the restroom, which left me nothing to do but watch Tanner walk up.
"Hey," he said. "I just wanted to wish you good luck. Break a leg. Preferably not Richard's leg, though."
I knew he was trying to make me laugh but I couldn't muster much more than a smile.
Tanner glanced back at his brother. "Richard can't bring himself to ask you, but he really wants to know if Adrian is here."
"I'm not sure where she is. She'd already left with the car this morning when I got up. So Rick wasn't the only one who had to hitch a ride here."
Tanner's eyebrows lifted and disapproval sprung into his voice. "Adrian left you without a car?"
"Yeah, it's nice to have my family's support." I shrugged as though it didn't bother me, but Tanner didn't notice. He looked past me, his mind somewhere else.
"She won't talk to Richard," he said after a moment. "He's called and left messages but she won't return them. Why is she so upset?" He let the question linger in the air. I could tell he was trying to figure everything out, and I suddenly felt what I'd done was inexcusable. How could I explain to Tanner that I'd kept Adrian in the dark about Rick and me to protect her from him?
"When was the last time you talked to her?" he asked.
"I checked on her last night when I came in."
"But when was the last time you talked to her—said more than a few words in passing?"
"I don't know. She hasn't said much to me since she broke up with Rick."
He nodded as though this too was part of the puzzle, and I had to stifle the urge to spill everything. Why was it that Tanner did this to me? One well-placed look into my eyes and I would have turned over my diary and let him read the whole thing.
"Have you tried calling her to see where she is?"
"She didn't pick up."
"Maybe she will, if I call. What's her number?"
I gave him the number. If I hadn't, Rick would have.
"I'll let you know if I find anything out," he said. Then he wished me luck again and walked back down the hallway toward the auditorium doors.
Molly and Polly came out of the restroom dressed in football jerseys and sat on the floor again. I decided I'd wait until the goatee guy took more contestants backstage before I changed into my sparkly outfit. I didn't want to sweat in it. I recited the words to my song, chanting them like it was a prayer.
I could do this. I had an advantage over most of these people because I was used to performing in front of crowds. I performed at every pep assembly and game.
So yeah, Rick, who says cheerleading is a useless skill?
I wandered around talking to other people in the hallway, all the while keeping an eye on Rick. He sat by his stuff, listening to his iPod, and mouthing the words to whatever he was listening to. Curiosity propelled me in his direction, and I walked close by him, pretending I wanted a drink from the drinking fountain.
I recognized the music coming from his iPod. How could I not? It was the background music for "Dangerously Blonde."
So much for Rick's deal with his brother.
At ten-thirty, the judges took a break. They had to, because crushing all those dreams is strenuous work. Goatee guy came into the hallway, tapped his watch, and told us we had ten minutes before he took the next group of contestants backstage.
Rachel, Aubrie, and Samantha came to find me. They all gave me hugs. "The judges are going to love you," Samantha said.
"Yeah, because the rest of the numbers stink," Rachel said. "We've heard so many cracking voices you'd think they were serving helium back here."