Duck, Duck, Goose

By S. Dolan
January 31, 2009

I’m a sixteen-year-old high school student. My best friends are Lisa, Amanda, Mary, Carol, Kate and Lexi. We have lockers all together in the hall. One Monday morning, when I opened my locker, I had a white piece of paper folded in it. When I read it all it had on it was one word in pink felt pen: Duck. Next to me, Lexi also had one. I looked and everyone had a folded white paper with pink on it. Everyone had ‘Duck’ except for Kate who had the word ‘Goose’ on hers.

We didn’t know what to do with it so we just sort of went on with our day. We hung out like normal, in the far back of the school where no one bothered us for lunch. We sometimes do things the yard duty would call our parents for. Then when school was over we said bye to Kate who took the bus. Mary was picked up by her mom and Lexi got a ride with them. I walked home since I live only a few blocks away. Lisa and Amanda took the city bus. It was how we always went home.

That night while I was out, I left my phone on my bed. I don’t really carry it with me except at school. Kate left a message. I didn’t really get it, she was crying and making weird sounds like she was panting and scared. I did get her asking where was I and why the hell do I bother having a phone. She was pretty mad when she said that. Some really loud crack sound happened after that and the message was over.

The next day she showed up beaten and all wrapped up in a huge sweater. She hated us. She walked over to her locker and took all her stuff out of it. When I asked her what happened she totally bit my head off and told us all she hated us and never wanted to deal with us again. Maybe no one had answered the phone for her?

We didn’t hang out with Kate after that. She didn’t hang out with anyone. I still don’t know what happened to her.

The next Monday, when we thought everything was back to normal, minus Kate, we found the notes again in our lockers! This time Carol got the ‘Goose’ letter. We didn’t know if it had anything to do with whatever Kate’s problem was but all of us sort of figured it did. Carol asked to trade with me but I said no. I didn’t want to be ‘Goose’ just in case. When she pushed for it Lisa and Lexi told her to lay off me.

I think I liked them the most after that.

Again the day seemed normal. But the next day when Carol came in she was also beaten up and all closed to herself. She said she didn’t know who did it but which everyone of us it was had better admit to it. Since I didn’t do anything I said so. She got mad and said she thought it was me most of all because I was always the center of attention and so full of myself. When the others defended themselves and me she decided we were all in it. She said if we wanted to get rid of her because she wasn’t pretty then we could have just said so. I don’t know what happened to her either. She also moved her locker.

We weren’t surprised on Monday when we all got our letters. I was nearly sweating when I opened my locker but I was a ‘Duck’ again. Mary was ‘Goose’. She was in tears. As I watched she looked up to us from her curled up position on the floor. Amanda, she’s always been the brave one, traded with her. She knows martial arts and is on the track team with me. I know she can take on someone.

For security we went home in pairs this time. Mary and me went on a secret date since the other two were going to stay at Amanda’s house until her folks came home around ten-ish. My parents weren’t home until really late so we played around at my place for a bit. Mary went home at eight; her parents get home at eight thirty.

We were really surprised that Amanda didn’t come to school the next day. We all wanted to hear about how she kicked the ass of whoever was screwing around with us. We went to her place after school but her parents said she wouldn’t come to school for a while, she was in the hospital. Someone had broken in and beaten her almost to death. We all gave statements to the officers and told them about the letters.

I don’t know what good telling the police anything is. They told us to change where our lockers were since the victims who moved didn’t get letters anymore. We did that but on Monday we had letters again! Lisa got the ‘Goose’. No one would trade. She got really mad and ditched us for the rest of the day. After school she came over to my house and tried to talk me into it. I let her try, she was one of my best friends, but afterwards, when she was in the bathroom, I swapped our letters back. I know it was really un-cool, but she was the unlucky one who was ‘Goose’. I mean, getting almost killed? I’m a big fan of Self-Preservation.

Mary called that night to see if I was all right still. I reminded her I didn’t have the ‘Goose’ letter, but I let her know that as of nine that night Lisa was alright too, she’d stayed that long at my place and her parents were home when I drove her over. She said she’d double check on her.

The next day I was both really happy I swapped it back but a little sad. When Lisa didn’t show up me, Mary and Lexi went to see her. Her parents were in tears saying that she’d given a shill scream before dawn and when they ran into her room she’d jumped from her window. She lived in a six-story apartment building. Between Mary’s story and Lisa’s folks, the incident must have happened after midnight since that was when Mary went back home. The officers couldn’t find anything but the letters to connect to her case. They figured it was suicide anyways since there wasn’t any sign of a stranger in the room.

Mary was really destroyed and Lexi was totally terrified. We all knew Monday would come and that we’d pull out another batch of letters.

Lexi so lucked out. Her parents listened to her and pulled her out of the school. I miss her. She moved schools and now I don’t get to see her at all since she’s about forty-five minutes away. It was just me and Mary now. The two of us had a weird tension the whole week until Monday. We both knew that by the end of the next week one of us wouldn’t be there.

Mary was always the nicest one, shy and really giving. I thought she was probably really missing everyone when she showed up Monday with a really morbid and morose attitude. Or maybe it was just the ‘Goose’ letter she was scared of.

Thinking back now I sort of think that she was mad at me because while we were all friends I gave more attention to the others since she stood in the background. I mean, Mary was my first but when she introduced me to her friends we all clicked. Now it’s like a total opposite. Me and her had nothing but resentment for whoever got ‘Duck’ and all the others were gone.

We opened the lockers on Monday; we didn’t say anything to each other as we pulled out the white paper. I opened it. It said ‘Goose’. I felt a cold panic set in but I just stood there pale. She walked up behind me oozing fake sympathies.

It was then I sort of got the clue. I couldn’t help but figure it out!

Mary had to be the one who was doing this. I don’t know how she did the attacks or anything, but whoever was doing it knew where we’d moved our lockers, they also made sure I was the last one to go down. Looking at Mary she gave me this weird little shrug like ‘what can ya do?’ Well I knew what I could do.

During lunch I told her how scared I was but that I’d try to take out whoever it was when they came to make sure she wasn’t going to go down next. She was flattered, or at least acted it, and we played around in the far back shed, anything to keep her from knowing I knew!

As we headed back to class we passed the busy street on the side of the campus. My heart was pounding but I couldn’t wait until after school. She’d get picked up by her mom and I’d lose my chances. As the light went green for oncoming traffic and we were half covered from onlookers by the bus stop enclosure I pushed her as hard as I could right into the street when a semi roared its way up. I guess I timed it just right because the driver didn’t even see me do it.

She hit the grate on it and tore like popped water balloon. She was spread all over the street in moments. The horror on my face was pretty real. I didn’t expect the mess it would make! I pretend to be distraught and no one ever figured I’d done anything wrong. All I could think was I’d caught up to her and managed to not be ‘Goosed’.

I don’t hang out with anyone anymore. I do sports still but I don’t think I want more friends. Some of them play some crazy games.