It's Just A Skirt

by Matthew Potter

  He lied to me too.

  Everything else was water under the bridge. OK so not really but it was dealt with. The lying and the bullying, that I couldn’t handle. The other stuff was just an asshole being an asshole. I kinda figured he was up to something stupid like that, it’s the reason I covered my own ass. What hurt the most was that he pretended to be my friend, to actually care and then to throw it all back in my face. Setting me up to take the fall because I was short and girly.

  That really pissed me off.

  Frank lingered long enough in the outer office to give me a threatening gesture before he disappeared.

  “Ignore him,” said Jade, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.

  A moment later, Cherry was at the door.

  “Hey Geo,” she said, catching my attention.

  She beckoned me into the room.

  Jade stood up too.

  “You’re not doing this alone,” she said with a smile.

  I did say she was awesome right?

  Cherry stepped aside so we could go into the office. Mr. Downes was at his desk, ready and waiting. He seemed pretty calm for a man who had just clearly ripped Frank a new one. Then again, I’d never really seen him get angry. I knew that everyone did at some point in their life but he always seemed like a pretty calm and easygoing kind of guy. Even now, he was smiling. I’m not sure if it was a good one or bad, though.

  “Miss Flynn?” he asked, surprised to see Jade there.

  ‘I’m a part of this too sir.”

  ‘Are you prepared to face whatever punishment that might entail?”

  She squeezed my hand and nodded.

  “Very well then,” he said with an approving smile. “Now why don’t you explain to me what exactly transpired here.”

  He was directing his question at me of course.

  So I started at the beginning. I told him about Frank approaching me to help him out, how he lied and said it was a family heirloom I was retrieving. I told him about the uniform, about meeting Jade and getting caught by Cherry. Then I told him about how she told me the truth and asked me to help her out. Mr. Downes nodded at this part so clearly Cherry had filled him in on some of it. I continued with Frank and the others wanting me to fool this guy in the mall into flirting with me. Well to make it look like flirting so they could take pictures. Cherry and Jade gasped at that part, I guess I forgot to tell them that bit. I finished with Jade and the girls agreeing to help me out and getting caught in the room by Frank.

  He, of course, knew the rest.

  I left out the bits where Jade made a fool of herself. I also left Jarrod out as well. He was barely there anyway.

  When I finished my story, Mr. Downes nodded.

  “Mr. Curtis seems to paint a different tale,” he said.

  “He’s lying,” I said quickly.

  “You do realize it’s your word against his. The only other witnesses would be his friends as you say and nine out of ten they will probably side with him. After all, what you’re saying will implicate them as well. You see how troublesome this is?”

  I looked at his desk, I saw the notebook and zippy bag sitting there.

  “You have the evidence.”

  “True, but Mr. Curtis’s account puts you in with it as well. In fact, according to him, you were the one who came to him with the plan. I know the outcome of the plan of course but Mr. Curtis insists that you approached him with everything, even extorted money out of him so he would help you.”

  “That’s bullshit!” snapped Jade. “That smug son of a bitch is only saving his own ass. You heard what he said, not only about Geo but my sister as well!”

  “Miss Flynn!”

  “Sorry sir” she mumbled, shrinking into her chair.

  Mr. Downes looked deep in thought. “I understand this situation is of a very delicate nature. You have to understand as well. The whole lot of you are in some serious trouble. Breaking and entering, theft. Someone also tampered with the PA system, not to mention recording the conversation in that room.”

  Recordings.

  Duh, I’m an idiot.

  I’d completely forgotten.

  “I have recordings too, sir,” I said, pulling out my cell. “My father got me this app for my phone, you know after that last incident. He wanted to make sure I was protected in case someone tried to pull some crap with me again”

  I set my cell on his desk.

  “It’s all in there,” I said “there're backups too, on my PC and a private server. I have every conversation, including the ones with Frank and Cherry.”

  Cherry raised an eyebrow at that. I gave her a reassuring smile. She wasn’t the enemy in this. Sure she tried to blackmail too but she had good intentions. She was trying to protect herself too, even if she went about it the wrong way. She was a victim as well. Frank was doing this to her because he felt jilted and embarrassed.

  Mr. Downes looked at the phone.

  “This is a little inappropriate Mr. Torrance, I’m not sure…”

  His phone rang at that particular moment. He excused himself to answer. We only got to hear one side of it. All we actually heard was a lot of “yes sirs”. Whoever it was, they meant business. The conversation only lasted a minute or two and when it was over, Mr. Downes was smiling.

  “That was Mr. Curtis,” he said, still smiling. “He just had a lengthy conversation with the rest of the Board. They feel that given the circumstances that we won’t be pursuing any disciplinary actions against the lot of you.”

  “So that prick is gonna get away with this!”

  That was Cherry. She’d been pretty quiet through all of this.

  Mr. Downes ignored the outburst and continued. “Mr. Curtis is the only one who will not go unscathed. I am afraid this is the last time you will see him.”

  I knew what that meant. He was no longer a student at St. Andrews.

  Good riddance too.

  “What about my necklace?”

  He nodded. “School security and the police are looking into that matter as we speak. Rest assured, we will get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, Mr. Curtis has agreed to reimburse you for your loss. The check will be here in the morning.”

  Cherry nodded at that. She didn’t look happy but she seemed satisfied.

  “Now then. I think this little meeting is over. Mr. Torrance if you can get me a hard copy of those recordings they might help with the ongoing investigation” I nodded as he handed me back his my phone. “With that being said, it’s a nice day. Why don’t you guys go out and enjoy it, and please try to stay out of trouble.”

  He dismissed us after that.

  I didn’t let out the breath I was holding until I got out of the office. Henry I noticed was gone but in his place was Kelly. She rushed toward me and wrapped me in a hug. She held me for a while but when she finally let go it was clear she’d been crying a bit.

  “Where is he?” she asked. “I’m gonna kick his ass.”

  “No need, Jade already did.”

  Kelly looked at her with awe and I think a bit of admiration.

  “You guys aren’t in trouble, right?”

  “All good” I said with a smile and a sigh.

  It was a close call, though.

  We left the office after that. Jade quickly told Maddie everything that happened. Of course, she had to repeat the whole thing over again as soon as we got to my room. Quinn and the others were waiting. After a round of hugs, Jade became storyteller again. Except the part where she kicked Frank’s ass, I told that part with a great deal of pride. Jade blushed furiously, especially after me repeatedly calling her awesome. She was cute when she blushed. Yes, cute. I wanted to say I felt more, but…. nothing. Maybe someday, though. I really did like her. I just hope I might be able to like her in another way too.

  We vegged the rest of the day. No one really wanting to do much of anything. Mike came by shortly before dinner. The girls swooned. Me, I rolled my eyes. He, of course, had heard pretty much everything but wanted my side
of the story. So I told him. He looked like he wanted to skin Frank alive. I would have let him too if not for the fact that I feared he might get arrested for it. I told him to leave it alone and he promised he would. Which in Mike speak meant he’d make it look like an accident.

  Frank Curtis was now a marked man for an ass beating of the century.

  It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

  Mike left first. He told me to be careful, especially now that I might be his little sister half of the time. He gave me a hug---a rare occurrence---then took his leave. The girls, of course, were jealous.

  “He’s my brother!” I said, feeling like I was going to hurl.

  They were accusing me of horrid, lewd things.

  Gross.

  It was all in good fun, though.

  The others dwindled away after that as the night wore on, each with a hug. They all promised to report back here bright and early tomorrow, though. Every one of them wanted to help me move out of this dorm and into my new little house. Jade was the last to leave. The only reason she beat Kelly was because my sister was literally falling asleep. I made her go back to her room before I got in trouble for having her sleep over. She left reluctantly, grumbling that Jade was staying.

  Jade only stayed for a minute or two more.

  “You ok?” she asked.

  “I think I am,” I said “I mean I kinda knew Frank was up to something. He’s a dick. I just thought he was doing something stupid and harmless.”

  “He was, he just took it one step too far.”

  I had so much I wanted to talk about but it was getting close to curfew. So we had to call it short. I walked her to the door. She gave me a hug and left. Well, she got about a foot into the hall before she turned around and shocked me again. She leaned in and kissed me. It was totally mind blowing. It took me by surprise too. I mean I wanted to kiss her too but only because it just felt right. I just never thought.

  “I’m sorry, I just…”

  “It’s ok,” I said with a big, goofy smile. “I liked it.”

  We both giggled.

  I was on Cloud 9 as soon as I shut my door. I couldn’t get the kiss out of my mind for the rest of the night. Even reading or playing my games didn’t seemed to get rid of it. I didn’t feel anything from it but I really wanted too. Did that mean what I thought it meant? Was it time to make my decision? It was surely something to talk about. Thankfully my appointment with Dr. Hill was on Sunday. I knew she and I were going to have a lot of things to talk about.

  I sighed heavily. Why was life so confusing?

  A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.

  It was almost eight. Who was bothering me now?

  Opening the door, I was surprised, to say the least.

  “Hey Hiro,” I said, the future billionaire lingering in my threshold.

  “Can I come in real quick?” he asked.

  I stepped aside to let him in. He was the last person I expected to see here. After all, he and I had had one very short conversation.

  He looked around the room very cautiously. He saw my set up, seemed to linger on that for a few seconds then made himself at home on the corner of my bed. He seemed to be a bit uncomfortable. It was clear he was a bit of a loner like me. I mean besides meeting him at Frank’s the other day, I rarely saw him in the common room. I can only imagine how much effort it took him to actually leave his room and come see me.

  I had no doubts about what it concerned, though.

  “I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” he said with a sigh.

  “Sorry?”

  He nodded. “I had no idea any of this would happen. If I did, I never would have played that game with Frank.”

  Game?

  Hiro reached into his pocket and pulled out a very familiar looking necklace.

  “Frank is infuriating” he continued, placing the necklace on the bed. “He likes to boast a great deal all the time. A few weeks ago, he was in the common room going on and on about being the best at everything. I hate people like that. I always want to knock them down a peg or two so I challenged him to a game of pool. I’m rather good and I wanted to put him in his place. So I did. It only made him angrier. So he challenged me. Game after game, myself always the victor. Money got involved because a man like Frank can’t lose. Well, when he ran out of it, he kept on playing and things took a turn. Before we knew it, he owed me about two thousand dollars. I didn’t really care about the money. I was in it to teach the smug bastard a lesson. Well, Frank insisted on paying me back. He said he knew where to get more money.”

  “The necklace,” I said with a sigh.

  Hiro nodded. “He must have brought it to me the day after you got it for him. I tried to tell him it was ok, but he practically shoved it into my hand. I thought everything was over, with then he contacted me again, wanted my help with something. I’m not sure what story he fed you but he told me they were out to humiliate this stupid little freshman…”

  So he really was out to get me.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said, it didn’t anymore.

  Hiro sighed. “Well, my father always taught me if someone wrongs you, make it right. Frank wronged me. He wronged you too. I had no idea what he was going to do, if I did I never would have agreed to help him. That’s when I overheard him talking about the necklace. He didn’t know I was there and when I heard it was stolen, well it didn’t take long to figure things out. So I decided to get even.”

  I nodded. “How did you get the bugs into his room?”

  Hiro smirked. “I didn’t. I tapped into his wifi on his laptop then used the cam to record everything. The moron never turns it off. I was monitoring it when I saw him go after you in his room. So as soon as he started talking, I tapped into the PA system and broadcasted everything to the whole school. Pretty simple actually.”

  The laptop. I should have guessed.

  Hiro stood up then bowed. “I just wanted to formally apologize for my involvement. You may have the necklace, give it back to your friend. I promise not to trouble you again.”

  Hiro started for the door.

  “Hiro wait,” I said, causing him to turn. “We got him you know. Frank. He’s done. The Board of Directors expelled him. He won’t be causing anyone any more trouble here.”

  “Good. It’s nice to see those who deserve it get what’s coming to them.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  Hiro bowed again then left.

  As soon as he was gone, I got my cell. I sent a quick text and pic to Cherry.

  GOT SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO YOU. WILL TELL YOU MORE TOMORROW.

  She replied with a shocked smiley face and a very big thank you.

  After that, I tossed the phone on my bed. I started to undress to take my shower. If I hurried, I might be able to get there before it got too busy. I was exhausted after all. After the day I had, all I wanted to do was finish my book and crawl into bed, hopefully sleeping for hours. I was down to my underwear and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I was no longer ashamed by what I saw, though. I accepted that my body was different than from others now. Sure it could all change if I needed, but right now it was good as it was.

  I smiled then went to my closet to get my robe.

  When I opened it, I was shocked.

  Hanging there like a bad omen was the thing that started this all.

  The girl’s uniform.

  Pinned to it was a note.

  YOU CAN’T HIDE ANYTHING FROM ME, BRO. MONDAY YOU’RE WEARING THIS. IF NOT, I’M GONNA MAKE YOU WEAR THE OTHER OUTFIT I FOUND.

  I sighed, she meant well.

  Sometimes.

  I smirked as I took the uniform out of the closet, carrying it over to the mirror. I held it up to my body and sighed. The evil mastermind of George’s downfall and Geo’s birth. It wasn’t so scary now, though. I mean sure I knew what it represented and all but in truth it really was just a skirt.

  I’d worn it before and I could wear it again.

  I mean, what c
ould possibly go wrong?

  THE END