Zenon's Game Chapter 282

"Turns out, it's not the weights room. He's in the basketball court," she said, dragging me towards the basketball court entrance via the boy's locker room.

"But I just..." I complained. I had just come from the other side of the basketball court.

I thought I was the only one out of control today. But it looks like I passed on the baton to Zenon.

"Is he OK?" I repeated.

"I don't even know!" she exclaimed, "I couldn't get in."

"What are you talking-" I lost my own words as we came up to it.

There was a small crowd gathered in the boys' locker room, but the doors were shut. A few people in the crowd had their arms in the air, filming the scene. Two tall guys with matching basketball hoodies were blocking the doors and telling the crowd to leave.

I had just come from near the basketball court, though I had been by the entrance on the opposite side. From the chaos here, I realized that all other entrances must be locked.

"Come on," Cynthia said, shoving me into the crowd, "You need to get in there."

I didn't disagree with this one. Normally I'm way too shy to do anything like this, but if Zenon was hurt...

I pushed my way through the crowd, ignoring people cursing at me, and struggled to reach the front, "Can we-"

"We know who you are," one of the 'guards' said, "You're Zenon's girlfriend."

"I'm Candace," I corrected him.

He looked at his friend, who nodded, and they let me squeeze in. I dragged Cynthia with me, but the crowd pushed forward to try to get in.

"She's my friend!" I exclaimed and they let us both through before slamming the doors shut.

We found ourselves in a quiet environment, nothing like the loud chaos outside. The entire basketball team was sitting, scattered across the stands. They were all looking at center court, where Zenon was standing.

I guess he wasn't hurt.

But that's when I saw who he was standing in front of.

Kaden was strapped to a chair under the basketball hoop.

A second later, Axel spotted us standing at the door and came straight over. "Hey," he greeted us, "I don't think you two should be here."

"What's he doing?!" Cynthia asked, staring at Zenon.

"He took over practice," Axel said, trying not to encourage us to stay, "He's captain. I guess he can do what he wants. You two should really-"

"What's..." I stopped talking when I realized Zenon was speaking. I tried to listen.

Zenon was facing a scared looking Kaden.

"You call yourself mathletes, don't you?" Zenon asked, spinning the ball in his hand.

His voice carried through the large hall and he slowly extended his arm, "Then don't look so afraid."

Zenon was taking his time, behaving calmly in this stressed situation. While everyone was on edge around him, watching him, he looked so relaxed.

It made Kaden even more afraid.

Kaden couldn't look Zenon in the eye. He lowered his head and his eyes darted around at all the onlookers, silently pleading for help. This was Zenon's team. No one was here for Kaden.

"You don't know me, dweeb," Zenon continued, "But I have a short patience. And when it comes to Candace, my tolerance for bullsh*t is nonexistent."

The way he said 'nonexistent', made it sound like a threat: that he would make Kaden nonexistent by the end of this conversation.

"She won't like this," Kaden tried to save his own skin, "She doesn't like bullies-"

"Or blackmailers," Zenon interrupted.

"Fine, but I'm not the blackmailer," Kaden almost wept, "I swear."

He was tugging his hands, trying to pull them apart, but the rope chafed his skin instead.

"I swear I'm not the blackmailer," Kaden lowered his head to hide the tears in his eyes.

A boy from the stands mocked Kaden for crying and a couple sniggers echoed that.

"Maybe," Zenon shrugged casually, "But you are a liar. And one of you, will talk."

He pointed over at Julia, who was sitting on the bench, between two of Zenon's basketball teammates. She looked ahead at Zenon, sitting frozen in place. She was not tied up and no one was intimidating her.

I wondered how she could just watch while her boyfriend was being tormented like this.

Bryce strolled past them both, holding another skipping rope in his hands as if he was about to tie someone else up. "You two tried to feed us lies upon lies UPON LIES."

Was Bryce enjoying this?

"And you THOUGHT you'd get away with it," Bryce declared, arriving at one end of the hall, before spinning round dramatically, and walking back down, cracking the end of the skipping rope like it was a whip.

He was definitely enjoying this.

Zenon said, "Bryce, we don't have all day."

"Right, right," Bryce nodded, glancing at the door where curious faces were trying to spy through the window.

I'm surprised no teacher had noticed already. If this was the math department, we'd already be on our way to the principal's office.

"You fed us one h*e*l*l of a story!" Bryce exclaimed, not letting go of his dramatic act any time soon, "Telling us that you bought Zenon's basketball jersey so your girlfriend can throw a jersey themed party?!"

"Bryce's salty no one bought his," Axel muttered with a smile, standing beside Cynthia and me.

"And then you said that someone else stole Zenon's jersey and opportunistically used it as blackmail?!" Bryce repeated, "The coincidences don't add up. And that party sounds so dead it never had a chance to live."

"But that's your opinion," Julia said from her front row seat, "The party was definitely going to happen. I have proof in my phone-"

The guy sitting next to her stopped her from getting her phone. She slowly stopped talking, realizing that these guys weren't playing around. She was trapped there.