My Personal Hell - D. Richardson (read with me .txt) 📗

are missing some tiles in a few places.”

“The basement was flooded last spring.”

“Their heating system doesn’t work very well.”

“All of the equipment for the athletic department needs to be replaced.”

“It’s the same for the music department.”

“The text books are all outdated because they had to replace a lot of windows a couple years back.” With every word that was spoken the more depressed everyone became.

“They’re right,” Patsy mumbled in the most dejected voice I’d ever heard.

“No,” I snapped back, it came out as more of a snarl than I had intended.

That had been happening a lot lately. I end up making animalistic sounds without wanting to. The other night I had growled at Asher because he had stolen the remote. He thought it was hilarious. I was weirded out. Then he explained that it happened more and more as we became more comfortable with our wolf side. He said not to worry, with time came control. Personally, I just wished it would stop.

Jake shot me a warning glance, while Christine looked at me in surprise. It occurred to me in that moment that she knew nothing about what was going on with me. She had no idea that I had only started to become a real wolf in the last three months. The first of which I was locked up with no chance to start experiencing what being a wolf meant.

“If the state of the school was the only real reason for shutting it down then they wouldn’t have told everyone to stop raising money. It’s just an excuse to hide their greed.”

“So what do we do then? If they won’t take any money that we raise to fix the school what else can we do?” Stacey asked. I could smell her misery, it reminded me of damp earth that had been dug up and turned, that rich mixture of earth and decay. After delving into that lovely mental picture for a moment an idea hit me.

“We make it public.” That got everyone’s attention, several of them even perked up a little.

“No one’s going to listen to a bunch of teenagers. They’ve proven that already,” Tiffany answered, though her attitude she held during our first meeting seemed to have melted.

“Maybe that’s because we weren’t talking loud enough,” I replied slowly, allowing a plan to form completely.

“What do you mean?” Jake asked from an opposite corner. There were several wolves in the room, and all of them had scorned him at one time or another.

“What if we held a benefit?”

“Benefit?” Tiffany asked, the rest were hanging on my every word.

“A benefit performance. We can sell food, t-shirts, DVD’s of the performance, and while we’re at it, we can oust the real reason that they’re closing the school.”

“How are we going to get everyone to come? And even if they do there’s no reason for them to believe us,” Christine asked.

“We can advertise once we have it all ready to go.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“Easy,” I answered with a smile. “We start a rumor, let it spread word of mouth until the entire town knows about it. And then once the rumor has taken hold, we put up flyers, all over the place, over night. We have to keep it as quiet as possible until then though, if we don’t someone will try to stop us.”

“Yeah, we’d have to be like ninjas,” Jason added, a conspiratorial smile spreading across his face.

“Or a secret protest group, working undercover,” Patsy put in, earning a praising smile from the quarterback. Resulting in a blush that spread from her neck to the tops of her ears.

“But what all are we going to need to pull this off?” Camilla asked, she was turning out to be more level headed than I had originally assumed.

“We’ll need performers, stage workers, someone that knows how to work the equipment we’ll need, and a place to perform. We can’t just do this in the street,” I answered.

“We can’t use the school either, someone will notice something,” Jen supplied.

“So we’ll need an outside place, somewhere away from the school where we can rehearse and use for opening night.”

“Um,” Stacey said, gaining everyone’s attention with just that small sound. “My uncle owns an old opera theater. It was built a long time ago, and he had said that he wanted to repair it and open it for performances again, but he never got around to it. He’s trying to sell it right now, he might be willing to let us use it. I mean, we‘ll have to fix it up, but it has a ceiling, a floor and sturdy walls.”

“Exactly how much money do we need to raise to cover all of the work the school needs?” Cassie asked, leave it to the president of the math club to ask about the numbers.

“You know, my older brother is a contractor,” Patsy answered. “I don’t see him much but we used to be really close. He’s done inspections for churches and stuff. Maybe I can get him to come visit me at school and he can do an undercover inspection for us.”

“Well, the dance team is in,” Stacey stated abruptly.

“So is the squad,” Christine added.

“I don’t know about any performing, but the football team can do any heavy lifting.”

“You know the gear heads can help with any machinery you need,” Tommy put in. He wasn’t a part of any official club. But the gear heads, all the people that worked on the vehicles in automotive class, hung out together all the time.

“Me and a few of my friends did some construction work for my dad last summer. We learned a lot, maybe we can help put the theater back together,” Derrick supplied.

“The home-ec club can help with the costumes and make some food to sell,” Jen added, her eyes were lit up with excitement. I think this was the first time she’d ever done anything on her own without express permission.

“The art club could help with any sets you may need,” Camilla said right behind her sister.

“The drama club can help organize, most of us have been doing performances for years. But only a few of us can really sing or dance,” a girl, I think her name was Samantha, offered.

“You know the tech club can provide any devices that you might need,” Zach, president of said club, put in.

“Okay, okay, okay,” I stepped in quickly. “We can’t get too ahead of ourselves. Stacey, why don’t you get a hold of your uncle. See what he says.” She nodded and pulled out her phone. “Patsy, call your brother, we can’t do anything until we know how much money we need to raise.” She was already dialing his number. “The rest of you, spread the word. We’re going to need a lot of help if we’re going to pull this off.

“But don’t tell anyone you don’t trust one hundred percent to back you up. That includes adults. If you have even the slightest bit of doubt, keep your mouth shut. It won’t do us any good if they shut us down before we can even get started. Get a list started, everyone who is involved should write down any song or skit that they want to perform. Give it to Jake. Jake, look over the lists, you’re going to be in charge of the music.”

“Why me?”

“Because you have the most experience. Look through the list and cross out anything that you’re not completely sure that you can pull off. After that give it to Stacey.”

“What?” she asked, spinning with her phone still in her hand.

“You need to cross out any songs that you don’t think you can choreograph. Then give it to Christine, she’s going to be in charge of any stunts. We have to treat this like a professional performance.

“We can’t just go out there like a bunch of kids playing dress up. The songs, the routines, the stunts, the costumes and make up. All of it has to look like we know what we’re doing. And it has to mean something, it can’t just be a bunch of teenage drabble. If we want them to take us seriously, then we have to be serious. We have to prove that we‘re worth listening too.” Everyone sobered up slightly while I was talking. Something that I was glad for. This couldn’t be just a big joke to them. If they didn’t take it seriously then it was never going to work.

Three days later we scheduled another meeting. We desperately needed to find another place to meet. If we kept doing this then a curious janitor or a teacher who was working late was going to notice that nearly twenty vehicles were still on the lot when they left. Which was why I addressed Stacey first.

“My uncle said that the only way he would let us use it is if we bought it from him. He said that he wasn’t going to put himself in the lime light by allowing our rebellion. But if we owned it then he wouldn’t have any say in what we used it for. But he did say that since it was in such a terrible condition then he would give me a discount.”

“How much does he want?” I asked hesitantly. I had a lot of money saved back, thanks to Rob pushing me to perform while I waited tables.

He was right when he said that I could triple my tips. I made nearly three hundred a night now. And after a month and a half of saving I had nearly nine thousand just from the last month and a half. Add that to the month of working before that and I had eleven thousand in my savings account. But she heaved a heavy sigh.

“Sixteen thousand. It’s what he owes in back taxes on it. It‘s actually about to be put up for auction.” Everyone groaned.

“We’re never going to be able to come up with that much money,” Jack muttered.

“Not necessarily,” I answered, again everyone’s attention turned to me.

“What?” Christine asked.

“I have most of it.” Several surprised gasps answered me.

“How?” Jen asked, I chose not to be insulted by her shock.

“I’ve been working a lot. Making really good tips for the past couple of months. It all goes into a savings account to earn interest. I have eleven thousand.”

“We have the two thousand from the bake sales,” Tiffany added hopefully.

“That still leaves us three thousand short,” Jake huffed.

“I have it,” Christine said suddenly. Everyone snapped their heads to her, and she shrugged with a haughty expression. “I wanted this really expensive prom dress so I started saving my allowance over the summer. After I had what I needed I just didn’t stop.”

“So we can buy the theater,” Jen exclaimed, her smile spread from ear to ear.

“Yeah, but who’s name is going to be on the deed?” Zach asked.

“I think it should be in Ailith’s, Christine’s, and Stacey’s,” Tiffany answered. All three of us turned to look at her. She was the least unselfish person in the room, and Christine was sitting right behind her.

“I’m not eighteen yet,” I answered, but she shook her head.

“So long as your signature is next to someone who is eighteen it doesn’t matter. It just means that you can’t do anything with it until your birthday. And you’re providing most of the money. Stacey’s uncle is the one we’re buying it from, and Christine is giving the last bit.”

“Yeah, but what about the fundraisers?” Stacey asked, she had a good point, a lot of people took part in those.

“That didn’t come out of any of our pockets.” It was a simple enough answer so the three of us shrugged in agreement. At least it wasn’t going to be owned by just one person. It took a lot of distrust away from the situation.

Since we had the space, Christine handed me the list of songs. When I asked her why I had them she said that it was only right that I get the final