"Oh, good," Vice Principal Tetrick proclaimed as he stepped into the locker room accompanied by the coach. "You found him."
Jared felt himself cringe in the presence of the authoritative figure that advanced on him. His teammates, including Greg who found himself caught out in his underwear, stood awkwardly around the lockers.
Coach Harris stood off to the side, a frown clearly on his face. A big, burly man in his late 30s, Coach Harris provided a perfect example of a formerly athlete's physique that had begun the slow slide into middle age spread.
"Coach!" Jared jumped at the opportunity to get someone to listen to him. His teammates were a bunch of morons, and the vice principal was a lost cause, but perhaps he could get across to his coach the dilemma he faced. "It's me! Jared!"
"Be quiet!" Vice Principal Tetrick snapped at the barking dog.
No! Oh no! Jared felt his canine instincts surface as his instinct for submission and obedience reasserted themselves. He eased his hindquarters onto the locker room tile and gazed up with dulled eyes at the humans in the room.
When the dog obeyed and resorted to no more than soft whimpers, the Vice Principal smiled smugly.
"Would someone mind telling me what's going on here?" Coach Harris asked.
"It seems that some of your players wanted to play some childish prank," Tetrick responded.
The expressions changed on the face of Jared's teammates.
"What did they do?"
"Well, for starters, they set this dog..." Tetrick paused to look down and justify the big, shaggy creature even deserved the designation as dog before he continued. "...loose in the school. Oh, and for good measure, dressed it in a pair of underpants."
Coach Harris resisted the sudden urge to laugh.
"We didn't do anything," Cy objected.
"Is that so, Mr. Whalen?" Tetrick turned. "I suppose it is an accident that the dog made a beeline back to the scene of the crime?"
Cy ignored the vice principal. "Coach, if anyone did this, it was Webster," he said. "Those were his underpants on the dog."
"Jared?" The coach looked skeptical. "He doesn't seem the type..."
"Tell him!" Cy ordered Greg, Billy, and George.
"It's true," Billy offered. "It did look like the underpants that Jared wears."
One of Tetrick's arms shot out as fast as a striking snake and grabbed Jared by the scruff of his neck.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Jared barked as he tried to twist and squirm out of the man's grip.
The vice principal struggled to maneuver the dog across the room until he succeeded in shoving the sheepdog into the closet that had been transformed into a makeshift equipment cage. Once he had the dog secure, he slammed the door behind him.
"That will keep him out of trouble until I can call someone to take him off our hands," Tetrick said before he turned to the coach. "As for Mr. Webster, when you see him, tell him he is expected in my office."
Everyone watched Tetrick stride from the room. A visibly irritated coach looked at his players with a scowl on his features. "Don't you all have some other place to be?"
Greg hurriedly pulled on pants so he could join his teammates in a quick exit.
From inside the equipment cage, the sheepdog went nuts, barking and throwing its weight against the shut door. "What about me?" Jared barked in protest.