“Hey Lyle,” Ashley said as they sat on the picnic table at the Dairy Queen in Albany River. They’d spent several hours there, just talking and having a good time. “I really hate to bring this up, but I really need to be getting back. I have to change clothes, grab a bite, and head down to the Frostee Freeze.”

“Yeah, I hate to quit, too,” he agreed. “Ashley, I’m glad we got together this afternoon. It’s been fun. I’m glad you thought to call and tell me about Frenchy.”

“I think it’s been fun, too,” she smiled, “and I think heading down to catch a movie tomorrow afternoon is going to be fun, too.”

It had been fun, Ashley thought. She’d always thought that Lyle might be a nice guy. Oh, he might not be a catch like Eddie Awkerman or Scotty Parsons, but what chance did she have of getting together with someone like them, anyway? And what kind of a pain in the ass would it be if she did? Those guys were just out for having their good times, and if it involved a girl spreading her legs for them, so much the better. Not that she wouldn’t mind getting a little, because it sounded thrilling to her, but she’d never had the chance before with anyone, let alone with someone like Eddie or Scotty. If things worked right she had a good chance of making it with Lyle, maybe while they were still in school, or maybe . . . just maybe afterward. That one was still way up in the air, considering Lyle’s college plans, but it wasn’t absolutely impossible, either.

In any case, an important first step had been made, just in getting together with Lyle and having a fun and interesting afternoon with him. It wouldn’t have been totally fair to have called this a date, just a couple friends hanging out, but going to the movies tomorrow definitely qualified as a date in her book and would in that of most others she knew, too. She’d liked to have hung out with him longer, but she really did have other things to do, like getting ready to go to work, and she’d have plenty of time for that. If they didn’t mess around too long, she might have time to get on the phone and talk with Heather and Laurel. There was news to pass along, of course; she’d been a little frustrated all afternoon about having to sit on the news of Mrs. Wine being the new principal and not being able to tell anyone about it. With any kind of luck, the word still wouldn’t have gotten out and she’d be able to surprise Heather and Laurel with it.

And maybe somewhere along the way she could slip the word in that she had a date tomorrow afternoon . . . that would surprise a lot of people. When she stopped to think about it, it even surprised her a little. Even if she couldn’t get hold of Heather and Laurel, she’d be at the Frostee Freeze, and that was going to be a hotbed of gossip tonight. After all, she’d been at Frenchy’s sentencing, so that would draw the attention of a lot of people. And when she let out the word on Mrs. Wine, well, that was going to make the place even more interesting. There probably were going to be some football players who wouldn’t be happy to hear that not only were the easy-going days of Payne in the Ass as principal over with, but that Mrs. Wine with her take-no-shit attitude was going to be replacing him. That’ll give them something to cry in their beer about at their fucking party tomorrow night . . .

Jesus, what a day, Brandy thought as she walked in the house --and it’s not over with yet. I’ve got about an hour to eat and wind down a little bit before kids start showing up for the evening workouts.

“So,” Phil said, “it looks to me like you got dragged through a knothole backwards. Tough day?”

“Yeah, no shit,” she shook her head. “Who’s cooking tonight?”

“I thought maybe Parker’s Pizza,” he suggested. “I don’t know that I’m really in the mood for a pizza tonight, but they make some pretty good subs.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, kicking off her shoes and collapsing into a living room chair. It would have been nice to have something like a pool or a hot tub just to relax in, but the house was too small. She and Phil had made the decision long ago to just stay in the small house that they’d owned for years before they’d gotten married. It didn’t take as much maintenance as a bigger house, and cleaning it was a snap, unlike the big old barn that her sister Jennifer and her husband Blake lived in. But then, Blake and Jennifer didn’t do the maintenance; they had someone to mow the lawn, someone in to do housecleaning weekly, and if something needed fixing Blake didn’t mess with it, he just dialed the phone and called someone who did. She and Phil could have done that; it wasn’t like they were poor, even though they didn’t have the kind of money that Jennifer and Blake had. But they’d agreed that it didn’t look good for a school teacher to be throwing money around like that. Something to think about, now that she was going to be the principal, but not now. There were other things that had to be considered. “Why don’t you call?” she suggested to her husband. “You know what I like.”

It didn’t take Phil much time. He had the number on his speed dialer – Parker’s was one of their favorite places to call to order in if neither of them felt like cooking, which neither of them ever did. She just sat in the chair and tried to chill until he got the order made. “About fifteen minutes,” he said a couple minutes later. “You like a beer or something?”

“Jesus, I’d love to have a beer,” she said, “but we’re going to have kids in the driveway in an hour, maybe less, so I suppose I’d better not. If you’d be so kind, get me something wet. Coke, water, lemonade, something. Maybe after I send the kids home I can have a beer.”

“Sure thing,” he said, heading for the kitchen. “So did you talk to Kulwicki?”

“I did,” she said. “Hell of a nice guy, a lot better spoken and more gentle than you’d expect a former pro lineman who owns a place like the Pike to be.”

“Is he going to do it?”

“I think so,” she sighed. “He wouldn’t give me a firm answer, but he sure sounded like he was leaning in that direction. So I went over and twisted Danny’s arm about being either the assistant or the JV head coach. He’s not real crazy about the idea, but I think I managed to get him to go along. He tried to track down Josh, but it turned out that he’s out on a run somewhere and won’t be back till late, so I guess we’re going to have to try to find him tomorrow.”

“That’s progress,” Phil said. “So what’s got you so beat to shit?”

“I thought that since things were going so well I might as well head over to the school and see if I could figure out some of my other priorities that have to be dealt with in the next few days. Coach Hekkinan really fucked up on that. Payne’s office is a total disaster area. I mean, he trashed everything.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” Phil sighed. “After all, he didn’t just quit, he was pushed and pushed pretty hard.”

“Yeah, and I have to think that he’d been pushed a little harder than I’d been told, too. So before I touched anything I called Hekkinan so he could see the mess. When he saw it he was pretty pissed. So once he got wound down a little he called in Carol Foxbender, and the three of us have spent the last couple hours trying to clean up and straighten things out a little. Shit, I’m going to be months figuring some of that shit out. But I’ll tell you what, if I could get my hands on the little turd I’d wring his fucking neck.”

“So did you tell Hekkinan about Kulwicki?”

“Not really,” Brandy sighed. “I told him I thought I had an angle on the problem but didn’t know for sure yet. We didn’t talk about it much, we were both so pissed with Payne, and then after that Carol showed up so I didn’t think I ought to talk about it at all. I don’t want to get too serious about it until I have a firm yes, anyway. If he bombs out on me I can see I’m going to have a hell of a time talking Danny into trying to be head coach.”

“I can sure see how Danny wouldn’t want to do it. I mean, considering his position in town, and all.”

“Yeah, whatever happens the football crazies are going to go apeshit,” she sighed. “I’ll be happy to get this football shit halfway settled so I can get down to what really needs to be done. So how did it go with the dogs today?”

“Not worth a shit, it’s way too hot to do anything much. When Josh told me he had to make the Big Pit run to fill in for someone, it was clear there wasn’t much I could do, anyway. Maybe we can mess with them for a while in the morning before it gets too hot, but when you get right down to it there’s not much to do with the dogs until it cools off a little. So I came home and took a little nap.”

“Lucky you,” she sighed. “I don’t see very many afternoon naps in my future for a while, but I think I’ll try for a quick one right now. At least I can close my eyes for a bit.”

“Good enough,” he said. “Maybe I’ll hunt around and find a book.”

Fifteen minutes later the doorbell rang. It about had to be the subs. “I’ll get it,” he said, and headed to the door, to discover Laurel Haeussler standing there with their order. He knew Laurel pretty well; about once a week she made a delivery to the house. She normally worked at the Fiesta station, but filled in doing delivery for Parker’s fairly often. “Hi, Laurel,” he said to the teenager – he thought she was going to be a senior the next year. “What’s the damage tonight?”

“Thirteen twenty-two,” the little blonde said.

“Sure, no problem,” Phil said, digging a ten and a five out of his wallet. “Keep the change. So how are things going with you?” he added, just for the sake of making a little conversation.

“Oh, about the same,” she smiled. “Hey, would you tell Mrs. Wine congratulations from me?” she added. “I think it’s pretty cool that she’s going to be the new principal. She’s going to be a big improvement over Mr. Payne.”

“Where’d you hear that?” Phil asked.

“Well, Ashley Keilhorn told me on the phone a few minutes ago,” Laurel replied with a grin. “She heard it from someone else, she didn’t say who. Is it really true?”

“As far as I know,” Phil admitted, knowing that Laurel had him well and truly caught. “It’s not supposed to be announced until Monday, though.”

“Yeah, but still,” Laurel smiled. “That really is good news, you know. See you next time, Mr. Wine.”

Phil closed the door and headed into the living room. “Brandy,” he said. “I hate to tell you this, but the secret is out about you becoming principal.”

“Well, shit,” she said. “I’d hoped it would hold a little longer, but there’s no way in hell you can keep a secret in this town. I sure as hell hope we can keep the football thing a secret over the weekend, though.”

“Fat chance,” Phil snorted. “Gossip in this town moves faster than the speed of light.”

“There’s a hope,” Brandy shook her head. “So far, only you and me and Danny and Kulwicki know about replacing Weilfahrt. Well, Hekkinan, too, I suppose. I don’t think he’ll run his mouth, and I’ve asked everyone else to be quiet about it.”

It was just about that time that Brandy’s cell phone rang. “Sure, anything to keep me from my sandwich,” she shook her head as she pulled it out and flipped it open. “Hi, it’s Brandy,” she said.

“Brandy,” she heard the voice on the phone say. “It’s Rick Kulwicki. I thought over what you said this afternoon, and I guess I’ll take you up on your offer.”

“Hey, that’s good news,” she said, a lot of the fatigue dropping away at his words. “I think we’re going to be able to turn things around with you aboard.”

“I hope so,” he sighed, “but I hope I haven’t gotten your hopes up too far. There’s only so much I’m going to be able to do.”

“You can get a change in attitudes,” she said. “Then we can work on winning.”

“We can try,” he said. “The deal is like we talked about, right? Strictly volunteer, and on an emergency basis?”

“If that’s how you want it,” she said. “I have to ask you again to not say anything about it until I can take action Monday. Then it really will be an emergency fill-in. I just had another lesson about how fast gossip runs around this town, so we really have to keep it secret.”

“No one will hear about it from me,” he promised. “Not at least until you officially ask me about it on Monday.”

“I talked to my brother Danny this afternoon about him helping out,” Brandy reported. “He’s willing, if not exactly eager. Talking to Josh is going to have to wait until tomorrow. I thought maybe the four of us, and maybe Ron Mykelhoff could get together sometime over the weekend and go over the details a little.”

“We probably could,” Kulwicki said, “but it might be better if we don’t. I understand what you’re saying about word getting around, and if someone should happen to see us together I can see how they might be able to put two and two together.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right at that,” she sighed. “All right. Thanks for helping me out on this, Rick. I’m sure we’re going to be able to make a difference, and hopefully we can have a little fun along the way. I guess I’ll be calling you Monday.”

It took another minute to end the phone call, but Brandy sat back feeling one load off her neck – and another one on it. As soon as she clicked the phone off, Phil spoke up, “I take it that was good news.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” she said. “He’s going to do it. That puts a big piece in place.” She let out a sigh, and continued, “The problem is that we’re going to have to make it look like I didn’t come up with the idea of calling him in on it until after I give Weilfahrt his walking papers. He’s in a delicate position, and I don’t need people crawling all over him before the bomb drops. He brushed off the idea of us getting together for a planning meeting, and I don’t know if he wasn’t right at that. Word gets around this town all too damn quick.”

“Boy, that’s the truth,” Phil shook his head. “What’s the deal with Mykelhoff?”

“I about have to have someone on the coaching staff who knows the kids at least a little,” she explained. “If nothing more than to prompt Rick on what name to yell when he has to yell at someone. I thought maybe Ron might be the best one to do that, and I think he’s going to think he owes me a little since he gets to keep the boys’ basketball coaching spot out of it. But now that I think about it, maybe it’s not such a good idea to have a planning meeting that involves him before I drop the bomb.”

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know how the word about me being the new principal got out,” she said. “I didn’t tell a lot of people, but one of them was Amanda. I mean, I didn’t ask her to keep quiet about it or anything.”

“But she could have told Ron, and he could have told anyone,” Phil nodded, seeing her point. “Given enough time, it wouldn’t be any real trick for Ashley Keilhorn to pick up on it.”

“Yeah, and for stuff around the school telling Ashley is quicker than putting it on the radio station,” Brandy shook her head. “Shit, she’s probably working down at the Frostee Freeze right now and telling everyone she meets about it.”

The Frostee Freeze only had sixteen drive-up spots, and on a busy Friday or Saturday evening they were always full. In the rare event that someone did pull out of a spot, someone else pulled into it in seconds. The number was small enough that on most nights one carhop could handle them, but on Friday and Saturday nights there were two. Since the place was often busier than sixteen cars, there were a number of picnic tables scattered around under the awning, and that was where the action usually took place. The picnic tables weren’t serviced by the carhops; customers were expected to make their orders to the pickup window, and would be called when the order was ready.

Ashley preferred to work the pickup window, and usually did, given the fact that this was her third summer of working at the place. The part that she liked most about working the pickup window was that she got to talk to a lot of people. Sometimes the discussions were pretty perfunctory, such as orders of burgers and root beer, but there was almost always the opportunity for a quick, “Did you hear about so and so?”

Even though the place wasn’t very busy yet, Ashley’s news that Mrs. Wine was going to be the new principal at the high school spread through the place like wildfire; even Frenchy getting thrown in jail that morning was already old news barely worth considering. Almost predictably, the news was received differently by different people, ranging from a smiling “No shit?” from people who hadn’t liked Payne, to a disgusted “Aw, shit!” from those who had.

Eddie and Scotty, who had arrived early to spread the word about the party, fell solidly into the second group as they sat around one of the picnic tables talking with a group of kids, almost all football players or cheerleaders. “Man, that’s going to suck rocks,” was Eddie’s reaction to the news, brought to the table along with a root beer by Shelly Battle, one of the cheerleaders.

“God, that’s going to turn the school into a death camp,” Shelly complained. “She works the asses off the basketball players and doesn’t let them get away with shit. I mean, thank God I’ve been a cheerleader, I haven’t had to put up with that shit, but what’s going to happen with her in charge?”

“God, that’s really gay,” Don Johansen said from down the table a ways. “How much you wanna bet she’s going to be all over the asses of the football players, no matter what Coach Weilfahrt does?”

“Shit, no bet on that,” Caldwell shook his head. “Damn, why couldn’t Payne have stayed on one more year so we could be out of the goddamn place? I thought we were going to get screwed bad enough when I heard that Payne had quit.”

“She can’t mess with the football team much,” Lanny Mundhenk, the quarterback put in. “I mean, it’s too important! I mean, Mr. Hekkinan is the superintendent now, he used to be the football coach years and years ago. He ought to be able to keep things from being screwed up too bad.”

“Boy, that takes the prize, especially after Frenchy getting thrown into the can this morning,” Kyle Ralston said. “I suppose that means no pre-practice beer bust tomorrow night. Shit, that fucks up the season before it gets started.”

“Yeah, that’s really gay,” Don agreed.

Eddie decided this was the time to start spreading the word. “Hey, people, look,” he said. “Just because Frenchy is in the slammer doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be a beer bust tomorrow night. It’s still on.”

“Did somebody get the beer from Frenchy?” Shane asked. “I heard the whole load he got for the party got ripped off.”

“I heard that too,” Eddie said, “but it doesn’t matter, because this afternoon Scotty and I got more beer for the party.”

“No way,” Shane grinned in surprise. “Eddie, that’s fucking cool! You going to have enough?”

“Ought to have, if it’s just football players and cheerleaders and maybe a few close friends,” Eddie grinned. “I don’t have enough if the whole fucking town shows up, but the people that matter, yeah, there’s enough to get well and truly fucked up.”

“Eddie, you da man!” Don said, his glum attitude of a few seconds before washed away. “You want to be team captain, right? You got my vote!”

“I hate to say it, but I told Scotty this morning that we’d better have some good times while we can because I don’t think they’re going to stay good much longer,” Eddie said. “With Mrs. Wine becoming principal I’m even more sure of it. I got us enough to have a pretty good party and I think we damn well better.”

“God, that’s cool,” Lanny said. “Where’d you get the beer?”

“Over on the reservation, there’s a guy named Lame Badger who wholesales it,” Eddie explained. “I had to pay through the fucking nose for it, but I figured it was worth it. OK, look, the party starts tomorrow night around dark, so pass the word to any football players and cheerleaders that want to come, but try to not tell anyone that’s not on one of the teams. Like I said, I got enough for the people that count but not enough for all the people that want to hang on around the edges for a free beer or two.”

“Are we going to meet someplace and caravan out to the party like we did last year?” Shelly asked.

“No, Scotty and I talked it over and decided that a caravan of kids heading out of town on pre-practice beer bust night is just too fucking obvious to the cops,” Eddie explained. “Christ knows why we didn’t get caught at it last year. You know where 417 comes out at the state road at the bridge? Go up 417 back toward town for one point one miles and there’s a two-rut that leads off to the right. The two-rut comes out at a fishing spot on the river, oh, not quite a quarter mile back off 417. There’s not a lot of parking so most people are going to have to park back from the river a bit.”

“You’re sure you’re going to have enough beer?” Shane asked. He liked his beer, and the more, the better.

“If about six hundred cans isn’t enough we’ve got too many people at the party that don’t belong there,” Eddie snorted. “Look, I’m going to try to spread the word around here tonight and maybe tomorrow call anyone I don’t see tonight. I need you guys to make sure everyone that should be there knows about the party, but try to not let the word out too far, if you know what I mean.”

“Good enough,” Don said. “Frenchy dropping the ball on the party was really gay, but you did a great job of picking up the fumble. I think you deserve to be the next team captain. Thanks to you, we’re going to have a great party after all.”

“I sure as hell hope so,” Eddie said, very pleased at the way his campaign to be team captain was going. He figured that with Frenchy gone and no beer party Lanny had been the next most likely possibility, but he’d just wasted Lanny on that. “I’ll see you guys later, or tomorrow night, or whatever. Now I’ve got to make sure a few more people know about it.”

Despite Eddie’s desire to keep the word of the beer party and the location quiet, the news spread around the Frostee Freeze like a wildfire in a tinder-dry forest. It could not have been fifteen minutes later when Alison DuQuoin, a cheerleader who Ashley particularly detested, came to the pickup window and ordered a root beer. “Thank God I’m going to be having the real thing tomorrow night,” she needled Ashley as the paper cup was filling.

“I thought the beer bust was off,” Ashley said. This was the third time she’d heard about the revived beer party in the last ten minutes, so it had to be all over the parking lot.

“No, Eddie Awkerman came through for us,” the cheerleader gloated. “It’s going to be out on the river about a mile off the state road on 417. Come on out about dark if you want to have some fun.”

“No thanks,” Ashley shook her head. “I don’t have any desire to see how many football players I can spread my legs for.”

“Too bad,” Alison smirked as she paid for the root beer. “I’m going to be having fun and you’re not.”

That bitch, Ashley thought. It sure as hell would be nice to see her get hers for once . . . and now, for once, maybe there was a way to well and truly stick it to her . . .

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