Lin Wansheng sat in his AP Macroeconomics classroom.
But he couldn’t take in a single word.
Although before he left, Brother Yu had already promised that he would send people to keep an eye on his family’s supermarket afterward.
He knew the rules of Rivalry Week very well. All the madness would end the moment the final whistle blew on Friday.
Things like this happened almost every year during Rivalry Week.
Last year, they had arguably gone the furthest.
But even then, it had only been smashing the cars of the coach and the star running back at the time.
But this year, why were they coming after me?
Even going so far as to harass his parents?
For the first time, Lin Wansheng began to regret coming back to play football.
Anna, sitting beside him, looked at this perennial model student and saw, for the first time, such a distracted, lost expression on his face.
Taking advantage of the moment when the teacher turned around to write on the blackboard, she lightly poked Lin Wansheng’s arm with the end of her pen.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you not feeling well? Low blood sugar? I have chocolate.”
As she spoke, she took a piece of Venchi chocolate from her pencil case and handed it over.
Lin Wansheng came back to himself, looked at her, and forced out a smile.
“I’m fine. No need. I’m not feeling unwell.”
The bell rang, and Lin Wansheng stood up from his seat almost immediately.
He had originally wanted to use this short thirty-minute break to call his parents again.
To see whether those people really hadn’t come back.
However, before he could even pack up his things.
“Jimmy, let’s go.”
Mark and Kevin were already blocking the classroom door, waiting for him.
……
……
……
In theory, East River High School did not allow students to leave campus during lunch break.
Behind this ban was a tragic story that had circulated at East River High for several years.
A few years ago, an eleventh-grade student had tried to sneak out during lunch to buy a milkshake for his girlfriend.
As a result, right across the street, he had been struck and killed by an out-of-control getaway car being chased wildly by the police.
From then on, the school had this ban.
However, this unwritten school rule clearly did not apply to Mark and the others on the football team.
The group walked to Champion Barbecue across the street.
Lin Wansheng was surprised to find that the entire offense, apart from Spencer, had all arrived.
A dozen or so people surrounded Mark’s exclusive sofa booth so tightly that not even water could get through, and every single face was filled with anger.
The restaurant owner, Big Mike, had clearly also heard about what had happened in the locker room.
He did not ask anything. He merely silently brought them the largest platter of grilled wings and several pitchers of Coke.
Mark did not exchange pleasantries with anyone either. He said bluntly, “Those useless bastards on defense can’t be counted on.”
“They’ll just get scared stiff by Coach and obediently go back to class.”
“If you’ve got any ideas, say them.”
Avery asked with a gloomy expression, “Where’s Spencer?”
Mark answered coldly, “Starting today, he’s no longer one of us on offense.”
The sentence was like a bomb, instantly silencing everyone around them.
Everyone knew Spencer’s relationship with Offensive Coach Payne, and they also knew the weight his uncle Hank carried.
And Mark had expelled him just like that, as if it were nothing.
But very quickly, everyone came around.
The team’s honor had been trampled on, a teammate’s family had been harassed, and Spencer had not even shown his face.
It was only natural that Spencer be kicked out.
Behind the bar, Big Mike, who was wiping a glass, spat onto the floor with a “ptui.”
He said in a low voice to the waiter beside him, “If that kid Spencer comes here again, tell him straight up that our place doesn’t welcome him.”
Mark turned to look at Lin Wansheng and continued, “Today, they wrecked our locker room. It was probably revenge for us ramming their school gate last year.”
“Coach said to endure it. Fine, we can endure.”
“But this thing with Jimmy’s family,” Mark’s eyes turned icy, “I can’t endure that.”
“They touched our brother’s family!”
“Can you endure that?!”
“No way!” everyone roared almost in unison.
“F*ck them!”
“They have to pay!” An offensive lineman slammed the Coke cup in his hand onto the table.
“We drive to New Rochelle right now and break that defensive end Bevin’s legs!”
“That’s right! Break his legs! Make him spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair!”
The restaurant was instantly filled with the players’ furious curses and all sorts of revenge plans that grew more and more outrageous.
“Enough! All of you shut the fuck up!” Mark roared, slamming his fist hard onto the table and suppressing all the noise.
“I got all of you excused from your afternoon classes.”
“Now, we figure out what to do.”
“Then, when practice ends at three, we go take revenge!”
Kevin was the first to speak. “Why don’t we just go smash up their school? Whatever they did to us, we pay it back the same way!”
“And then all of us get suspended?” Avery immediately retorted.
“Let them win without even playing? Use that booze-soaked brain of yours and think it through!”
Kevin was choked speechless, his face flushing red. He sneered. “Then what do you want to do? Mother Mary?”
Avery took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and slapped it onto the table.
“I took yesterday off and staked them out for a whole day.”
He began reciting a string of addresses as if reading off a menu.
“These are the home addresses of all their star players, including that defensive end who led them today, Bevin Allison.”
Mark shook his head. “We can’t go beat people up. That’s a crime. It’ll ruin all of you.”
“We don’t beat people up.” Avery split his mouth into a grin. “We smash all their cars.”
This suggestion immediately received everyone’s approval.
As Lin Wansheng listened to their discussion, he kept his head lowered, his fingers sliding quickly across his phone screen as if searching for something.
Seeing him like that, Avery thought he was still detached from the team like before, and anger surged up at once.
“Lin! What the fuck do you think?! Cat got your tongue?!”
Everyone’s gazes instantly focused on Lin Wansheng.
Lin Wansheng slowly raised his head, locked his phone screen, looked at everyone, and spoke calmly.
“I think smashing cars is fine, but don’t you think that’s a little boring?”
“I just looked it up. New Rochelle Central High School hasn’t had any large-scale renovations since 2004.”
“You know how it is. For a public school like that, no matter what they want to install, they need approval.”
He looked at the puzzled expressions on everyone’s faces and continued explaining:
“Our East River is a private high school. If we want to build something, it’s simple. As long as someone pays and the board or the PTA nods, it’s done.”
“But public high schools are different. They’re government institutions. Any non-routine expenditure, especially the installation or modification of infrastructure, has to be passed by a vote of the school district committee.”
“Even if the committee wants to approve it, if there’s no money for it in that year’s fiscal budget, they can only wait until the next fiscal year.”
“Unfortunately,” Lin Wansheng smiled, “New Rochelle’s finances have never been good.”
He held up his phone screen in front of everyone. Displayed on it were the publicly available meeting minutes from the New Rochelle School District Committee website.
“They only installed a few cameras at the entrances and exits of the office building and teaching buildings.”
“Not even at the school gate.”
The corners of Lin Wansheng’s mouth curved upward.
“What’s the fun in just smashing cars?”
Godfathers! Please give monthly votes, please keep reading.
I’ve already completely fallen off the new book rankings……