by E K Ballard
Rob rushed home to pick up Rebecca. They had never been called in to school for either Kristin or Lucas and his mind raced over the various scenarios of what Kristin could have possibly done to warrant both his and Rebecca’s presence at the school. The cryptic call from the principal’s secretary told him nothing except she wasn’t sick or hurt.
Rebecca was waiting for him at the end of the driveway when he got to the house. She got in the car and they drove back to town as quickly as he felt was safe.
“Did they tell you anything about why she is in the office?” Rob asked his wife.
“No. Just that we needed to come right in.”
Rob thought out loud. “I wonder if she was caught cheating? She puts so much pressure on herself to get all As.”
“Oh, I bet that girl Jamie is involved.”
“How?”
Rebecca wouldn’t answer.
When they got to the main office, they were escorted into a large room where Jamie, John, and Angela were already seated next to each other. Jamie was slumped down with a hand rubbing her forehead. Kristin was seated by herself, across from everyone else. Her eyes were red and she looked terrified.
“Kristin, what is going on?” Rob demanded, as a man wearing a nice suit came in after Rebecca and shut the door.
“Mr. and Mrs. Olson? I’m Sal Maglio, the principal at Stowe High.” He extended his hand and Rob and Rebecca shook his hand. “Please, have a seat.”
Rob looked anxiously at John, Angela, and Jamie. “What’s going on? This must be serious to have called us all in like this.”
Mr. Maglio cleared his throat. “Well, it’s serious enough that we thought it would be best to address it immediately.” He spoke to everyone in the room. “Kristin and Jamie were discovered by the drama teacher together in the auditorium, in a, let’s say, compromising position.”
Rob didn’t get it right away. “What do you mean, a compromising position?”
Mr. Maglio said bluntly, “They were found naked on the sofa engaging in what Ms. Meyer presumes was sexual activity. She didn’t look very carefully once she saw what the situation was.”
The room was silent except for Kristin’s sobs.
“I knew it!” proclaimed Rebecca haughtily. “I knew you were no good the moment I saw you!” she said to Jamie.
Jamie looked stung.
“Don’t you speak to Jamie like that!” said John.
Rob was still processing the news. “They were having sex in the auditorium?”
“Yes. At least, they were unclothed on a sofa under a blanket together.”
“Is that it?” Rob asked.
“What do you mean, is that it?” Rebecca yelled. “Isn’t that bad enough, that our daughter is a lesbian?”
“Rebecca, whoa. Hold on,” said Rob.
“You’re okay with this?” Rebecca asked.
“No, I’m not happy that Kristin was having sex at school with anyone. But kids are kids.”
“She was doing God only knows what, naked, with another female!” Rebecca’s voice was rising.
“At least she won’t get pregnant,” said Rob.
Rebecca threw her hands up in the air with exasperation.
“Of course, you’re going to take her side. You always do.” Rebecca sank into her chair, glaring first at Rob, then at Kristin.
“Jamie, is this true?” Angela asked.
Jamie kept her eyes on the floor and nodded.
“You’re eighteen, aren’t you?” Rebecca demanded. “Kristin’s only sixteen. Isn’t that statutory rape?”
“Mom, shut up! Jamie’s seventeen and she didn’t rape me!”
“What? No!’ said Jamie, scowling fiercely at Rebecca. “I didn’t rape anyone!”
“No laws have been broken,” said Mr. Maglio. “Everything was consensual.”
“What have you been doing with my daughter?” Rebecca asked Jamie.
Jamie didn’t answer.
“Well? What have you two been up to? What do little dyke whores like you do to each other?”
“Rebecca!” Rob said. He was embarrassed for everyone.
“That is enough. You do not have permission to talk to my daughter. Ever.” John stood up. “What’s next? What are the consequences?” he asked Mr. Maglio.
“Three days’ suspension. You can choose to serve it in school or out of school.”
“Three days’ suspension? Isn’t that a bit severe?” Rob said.
“That is the punishment outlined in the student handbook for these types of situations.”
John asked, “Will it be on their permanent records? Jamie is trying to get into college. She can’t have a suspension showing up on her transcript.”
“She should have thought of that before she decided to be an immoral little deviant,” said Rebecca.
“Rebecca, just shut up!” Rob yelled so loudly the secretaries out in the office looked up.
“I want to know what you did with my daughter,” said Rebecca to Jamie.
Jamie sat up for the first time in the meeting. She made eye contact with Rebecca. “I made love to Kristin and I don’t regret it one bit.”
Rebecca gasped. “You vile little whore!”
John started to say something, but Jamie spoke over him. “I love you, Kristin. I’m sorry I got you in trouble. I love you more than anyone or anything.”
With that, Jamie stood up, walked over to Kristin, and picked up her hand. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Oh, please,” said Rebecca.
Kristin nodded. “I love you, too,” she said softly.
Jamie walked out of the room. John and Angela got up to leave. “Jamie will do her three days of suspension in school so she doesn’t fall behind in her work,” John said as they left.
Rebecca, Rob, and Kristin got up, too. “Kristin will do her suspension at home so the girls won’t be together. I want them separated or supervised at all times while they’re at school,” said Rebecca.
Chapter Forty
“I don’t care. She should have never spoken to Jamie that way,” said John.
“She was pretty upset,” said Angela.
“Mom, stop making excuses for her. She isn’t a nice person.” Jamie was worried sick about Kristin.
“That was not the smartest thing you could have done, Jamie,” said her father. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“What do we need to talk about? You know everything. The only thing I’m sorry about is we got caught.” Jamie went upstairs and lay on her bed in the dark.
Jamie tried to text Kristin to see if she was all right. She got no response.
“Jamie, come down for dinner,” called Angela up the stairs.
“I’m not hungry.”
Angela brought a tray of dinner up for Jamie and set it down on her desk. “Come on, you have to eat.” She turned on the light.
“I said I’m not hungry. Turn off the light!”
Angela sat next to her daughter. “Jamie, I know you’re hurting. Your father and I love you no matter what. We even love Kristin.”
Jamie turned her face to her mother. Angela saw Jamie’s eyes were red from crying.
“Every parent wants what’s best for their children. I suppose your father and I knew all along that you were different, but that never changed our love for you. I hope you know that.” She rubbed Jamie’s back.
“Dad’s mad at me.”
“Well, he’s not happy. He finally thought you were on a path to get in to college and he doesn’t want this to mess it up for you.”
“I’m worried about Kristin,” Jamie voiced her worst fear. “I don’t know what her mom will do to her.”
“Frankly, we’re worried too. Her mother’s reaction wasn’t normal.”
* * *
“What is going on? Why are you crying?” Lucas wanted to know. “Why did you guys pull me out of class early? Dad, why aren’t you at work?”
Kristin just shook her head. She couldn’t stop crying.
&n
bsp; She curled herself up in a ball in the corner of the back seat and looked out the window. She heard what her mom said about keeping her away from Jamie. That was the worst part of the whole thing.
She couldn’t stop replaying the awfulness of the afternoon over and over again in her head, starting with the teacher catching them to the meeting in the principal’s office. She remembered Jamie trying to be brave for them both by holding her hand and standing up to her mother.
Jamie. When would Kristin be able to see or speak to Jamie again? Her mother took her phone from her before they even left school and turned it off.
When they got home, Kristin went directly up to her room and shut the door. She lay in bed and cried. Her stomach grumbled, but she wasn’t hungry.
There was a knock on her door. “Go away!” she said.
“Dad wants to know if you want any dinner,” Lucas called through the door.
“I’m not hungry,” said Kristin.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“No! Wait! Yes!!” Kristin got up and let him in. “Give me your phone!”
“Mom took it from me. She said she didn’t want you using it. What’s going on?”
Kristin’s hope of communicating with Jamie disappeared. “Never mind. Get out.”
“Why won’t anyone tell me what’s happening?” Lucas asked as Kristin pushed him out of her room.
Kristin got under the covers with her clothes on and cried herself to sleep. When she woke up in the morning, for a moment, she forgot what happened and then the memory of the day before came rushing back to her. She covered her face and started crying again.
She heard her dad getting ready to go to work. It was Saturday, so he was going in a little bit later than he did during the week.
Someone knocked on her door and she heard her dad’s voice.
“Are you going to get up today?”
“No.”
“I’d like it if you got something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
He came in to the room and stood over her bed.
“You can’t stay in bed forever, you know.”
“Sure I can.”
“Honey, turn towards me. I want to tell you something and I hate talking to your back.”
Kristin sighed and turned to look at her father.
“What?”
He sat on the edge of her bed. “When your Aunt Ellen was in her late twenties, she lived with a woman, Diane.”
Kristin sat up. “Aunt Ellen, who has been with Richard for all these years?”
“The same Aunt Ellen. And when she was with Diane, no one in the family made a big deal about it, even your mother. We would go visit them and your grandparents had her over, and everyone just referred to her as Ellen’s roommate. While she and Ellen were together, she was a part of the family. Even after Diane moved out, she and your mother exchanged Christmas cards for a few years.”
Kristin digested this information.
“Your mother, she is having a hard time with everything. The move, our finances…she worries about you and Lucas.”
Kristin snorted.
“I know, sometimes she has a tough way of showing it. I am hoping this whole thing blows over with time, but until it does, I want you to know I love you.”
“Will you let me see Jamie?” That was all Kristin wanted to know.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea right now with your mother being this upset. I also don’t approve of what you two were up to at school.”
Kristin sank back into her bed.
“Not because Jamie’s a girl,” he continued. “No father wants to get called into his kid’s school to hear she’s been caught, how did he put it? Engaging in sexual activity? It wouldn’t matter who it was with. No father wants to think about his daughter doing that, period.” Rob bent down and put his hand on her shoulder.
“We’ll get through this.”
When her father left, Kristin locked the door behind him. She didn’t want to talk to her mother.
* * *
“Kristin, Mom wants you to eat.” Lucas stood outside her door and tried to come in.
“I don’t care.”
A few minutes later, Kristin heard the doorknob turn. “Kristin, unlock the door right now.”
“No. Go away.”
“Young lady, you are in no position to be rude to me. Open the door, now!”
“No. I hate you. Go away!”
Kristin knew she hit a nerve with her mom and waited to hear what she would do next. She was surprised when she didn’t hear from her mother for the rest of the day.
When her dad came home, she heard him again outside her door. “Open up, Kristin.”
She unlocked the door and saw her mom standing behind her dad, who had his toolbox with him.
“Your mother said you wouldn’t open the door today. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Well, now you lose the privilege of having a door.”
He removed the hinges from the door and took the door out of the frame while Rebecca stood and watched with a knowing smirk on her face.
“I don’t care.” Kristin went and lay back down in bed with her back to them.
“Are you on a hunger strike, because I’m not going to wait around for you to eat,” said Rebecca.
“Just do what you normally do for me, Mom. Nothing.”
Rebecca started to walk into Kristin’s room, but Rob held her back. “Just let her be.”
“I have had it with her insolence! When is she going to get disciplined for her actions?” Rebecca was angrier than Kristin realized.
“Rebecca, this has been a trying few days for all of us. Please don’t make it worse.” Rob carried Kristin’s door down to the basement.
* * *
“Kristin, come downstairs for breakfast. You need to take a shower and get ready for church.” Rebecca’s voice grated on Kristin’s nerves.
“I’m not going.”
“You are and there won’t be a debate about it.”
“I don’t feel well. I’m staying home.”
Rob came into her room. “You don’t feel well because you haven’t eaten in two days. Get up and get something to eat and you can stay home from church.”
“Fine.” Kristin felt weak and tired from not having anything to eat or drink. She dragged herself downstairs to the kitchen table.
Rebecca barely gave her a glance. “You need to eat, get a shower, and get ready quickly. Don’t make us late.”
“Dad said I didn’t have to go if I ate something.”
Rebecca looked at Rob. “Did you say that?”
“Yes. I’ll stay home with her. I’m tired and I need a break.”
Rebecca slammed the pan down and left the room.
Kristin took a sip of juice. She put a forkful of eggs on her plate and nibbled at the edges. She still didn’t have an appetite.
“That’s not eating.”
“Dad, I just don’t care.” Kristin got up from the table and went back to her room, where she lay in bed and slept most of the day.
Chapter Forty-One
In the morning, Kristin listened to her father and Lucas get ready to go to town. Kristin dreaded staying home alone with her mother for the day.
“Kristin, I am going to have Lucas go to your teachers and pick up your assignments for the next three days. Can you and your mother try to get along today?”
“That’s not up to me, Dad.”
Rob straightened his tie. “Could you at least take a shower and eat something? Please?”
Kristin rolled over and turned her back to him.
* * *
“Has she gotten out of bed yet?” Rob asked Rebecca when she answered her phone. He wanted to talk to Kristin and make sure everything was all right at the house.
“Yes, she’s taking a shower.”
“She is? Good. Please make her get something to eat. Have her call me, okay?”
“I will. Goodbye.”
<
br /> “Bye.” Rob was busy with paperwork and didn’t hang up the phone. He waited for Rebecca to disconnect, but she didn’t, and the line remained connected.
“Oh, wait, Rebecca, check to see if we have any coffee in the pantry, we may need more and it’s on sale.”
There was no response from Rebecca, but he heard the sounds of her moving around the house through the open phone line.
“Rebecca! Hello? Can you hear me?” he said loudly into the phone.
He heard her speaking and thought she was responding to him.
“Could you go see if we need any coffee? Also, we may be low on bread.”
He waited for her reply, but only heard her angrily talking to herself. He strained to hear what she was saying.
* * *
Kristin was lightheaded from not eating, but she still wasn’t hungry. She missed Jamie and just wished she could talk to her, even if it was for a minute. She did need to take a shower, so she went into the bathroom and started the water. She stepped into the warmth, washed her hair, rinsed off, and was enjoying the water running down her face when the shower curtain was ripped back. Her mother stood there, staring at her, holding one of her father’s belts over her head.
“You are a very dirty, nasty girl. A shower won’t rid you of your filth!” The hand holding the belt swung towards Kristin.
Crack! From nowhere, Kristin felt something like a hot poker strike the back of her legs. She cried out as she tried to protect herself. Her feet slipped out from under her and her head smacked into the tile wall as she fell. As she began to lose consciousness, she felt her mother lift her so her stomach was laying across the side of the tub. Belt blows rained down on her backside as the water continued to run over her.
“Filthy, nasty, evil girl! How dare you shame us! You are going to hell!” With each word came a fresh smack of the belt on her bare flesh. “Jesus died for your sins, repent!”
Kristin lay naked and limp over the side of the bath tub as everything turned black.