hating me. There?s more, right??
?Oh, yeah. It gets way worse, because they didn?t just get suspended,?
Claire continued, her brow scrunched with worry. ?Zach said
that Hector and Lucas went at it in this really scary way, right there
in front of the whole football team, the coaches, everyone. It was
bad. Like death-match bad. Jason got in between them and managed
to break it up, but it was still too late. And . . . well . . . they all
got kicked off the football team. That?s why the whole school hates
you, including the boys,? she said, bringing the story to its conclusion.
?All three of the Delos boys are supposed to be these amazing,
legendary athletes, and everyone is saying you destroyed Nantucket
High?s one shot at a winning season.?
?You have got to be kidding me,? Helen said slowly. ?They?re ruining
my life.? Even in the depths of her self-pity, it didn?t escape
her notice that she was also ruining their lives.
They had been in town for two weeks and all three boys were
already singled out as disciplinary problems. If these incidents
kept happening, they could get kicked out of school, and then
where would they go? They would have to commute to the mainland
every morning because there was only one high school on the
island. And all this?the fight, the suspension, the entire school trying
to trip Helen?had happened after they all agreed to try to get
along.
A terrible truth was starting to sink in. Even if she got control
over her anger and the Delos family got control over theirs, the
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Furies would not allow them to coexist. The fight between Lucas
and Hector proved that the Delos kids would have to come after
her or they would start going after each other. There was no liveand-
let-live solution to this. For some reason that Helen still could