Cami's Decision

by Valenciya Lyons

Cami was having the worst morning. She couldn’t find anything to fit her stomach perfectly. All of her tops were either too tight or couldn’t cover her entire belly. She eventually settled on one of her mother’s old maternity blouses, but she refused to wear any of her maternity jeans.

  Kaci and she were in her room getting dressed for school. She would have preferred if Kaci would have stayed in her own room, but she didn’t have the heart to tell her to leave.

  Since they were in the same room, Cami decided to tell her about her encounter with Leena. She was puzzled as to why Leena would want to know where she was especially since they couldn’t stand each other. Then again no one can these days.

  Cami tried to brush off the Leena thing but something still puzzled her as to why Leena would ask about her sister’s whereabouts.

  She allowed those thoughts to be pushed to back of her brain and for the baby’s name to be pushed to the front. She had been thinking about baby names for her little girl for some time now, but she hadn’t thought of the perfect name until now.

  Kaci looked over at her and pointed out that she was blushing. She took this opportunity to reveal to her what she wanted to name the baby.

  “Are you serious?” Kaci asked, as Cami drove them to school.

  “Yes, Kaci.”

  She smiled. She hadn’t even brought her little angel into the world yet, but she already had such big dreams for her. Cami didn’t want her daughter to be like her. She didn’t want her to be a pregnant teenager. She wanted for her daughter what any parent would want their child to do: graduate from high school and college and to work at a decent job with benefits and excellent pay.

  She pulled up in front of the school looking for a parking space but there weren’t any available.

  Then she glanced over and saw Kaci fidgeting. She looked like she was very eager to get out of the car. Of course she did what she wanted to do.

  Before Cami knew what had happened, Kaci bolted out of the car and towards the school. “Kaci, wait! Let me find a parking space,” Cami called after her.

  “I have to visit the little girls’ room,” she shouted over her shoulder.

  “If you hadn’t drunk so much root beer, you wouldn’t have to go!”

  “But I did so let’s get over it!”

  “Watch out for cars,” Cami called after her as she crossed the street.

  Kaci rolled her eyes. She wasn’t a little kid anymore so she didn’t need someone telling her to watch out for cars. But Cami was her big sister. Plus, she was about to become a mother for the first time so maybe that had something to do with it.

  Before she had finished crossing the street, Cami heard a terrifying scream. She turned around and watched in horror as Skylar pushed Kaci out of harm’s way but only to be hit by Leena’s repaired car. His body landed on the pavement with a hard thud.

  Leena had almost killed her sister! Maybe that’s what she wanted with Kaci. Maybe she wanted to know where she was so that she could pull a hit and run or something worse. That bitch!

  Cami got out of her car with the keys still in the ignition and marched over to Leena’s. She tried to open the driver’s door but it was locked. A few seconds later she emerged from her vehicle. She hated her and Kaci, and she was about to let Cami know just how far she was willing to go.

  “You almost killed my little sister!” Cami screamed.

  “She vandalized my car so I was repaying her!” Leena shoved Cami. However, she maintained her balance and punched Leena in her face. She stumbled onto the hard pavement and tried to steady herself on her two feet but the direct hit from the pregnant girl had already done its damage. Several students who were in their un-parked cars got out and began to watch the incident play out in front of them.

  “You stupid, stupid idiot!” Cami screamed. “Anybody could have vandalized your car! Do you know how many people hate you?!” Her fists flew into Leena while Leena had her hands locked around Cami’s hair. Cami was going to punch her as many times as she possibly could—whether she was standing or not. This girl had just tried to kill her only sister, and she wasn’t going to let her get away with it.

  “Cami! Cami!” Marissa yelled, trying to get Cami away from her. She tried as hard as she could to pull the two apart but it just wasn’t enough. Just in the nick of time, a male math teacher, Mr. Morgan and Nurse Atkins helped Marissa pull the two girls apart.

  Although Leena’s nose and hands were slightly bloody, when Mr. Morgan saw her face, he let out a low scowl. He didn’t like the Davidson sisters. They were ungrateful, spoiled brats who didn’t understand authority. While she was in his freshman math class, she’d talk and text while he was teaching. He told her to stop on many occasions but she would only stop when she wanted to. Although he had reported her to the principal on numerous occasions, she was always in his classroom the next day doing the same thing that had gotten her into trouble.

  One day when he felt that he had truly had enough of Leena Davidson’s rude behavior, he went to Ms. Lovett’s office to discuss the matter. She assured him that she was looking into the matter but he didn’t buy it. Too much time had passed without her getting punished for Ms. Lovett to be looking into it. He threatened to go to the school board; she made a quick comeback stating that she would make sure that he lost his job if he ever went to her superiors. Like many of the other teachers, he couldn’t afford to lose his job; he had a wife and four children to support. Instead of going to the school board, he decided to do like the others and wait until the girls graduated.

  A large crowd of students stared in awe and watched as Cami and Leena were separated. After asking Cami if she and the baby were okay for the millionth time, Marissa and Nurse Atkins led her to where Kaci was sitting which was about a five minute walk away. She had been so adamant on kicking Leena’s butt that she had almost forgotten about Kaci.

  She nearly cried when she saw Kaci’s face. Her younger sister looked as if she was in shock and on the verge of tears, and Cami instantly wrapped her arms around her.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, peering into Kaci’s eyes.

  Kaci nodded. “Are you?”

  “Yeah,” she replied as she glanced around and saw a crowd of people surrounding Skylar.

  A girl walked out of the crowd and told Kaci that he had been calling her name. Kaci, Cami, Marissa, and Nurse Atkins made their way through the crowd to get to him. Kaci knelt down beside him and took his right hand in hers.

  “You saved me,” she said in a whisper with tears in her eyes.

  Skylar smiled weakly. His face was bruised and his hair was disheveled. His shirt had been torn and blood covered the left side of his body from his shoulders to his waist and lower back, and his hands were bloody and scratchy. He wanted to sit up and hold Kaci to comfort her but every bone in his aching body prevented him from doing so.

  “Some-bo-dy had to,” he managed to say.

  Tears began to roll down Kaci’s cheeks. She could tell that he was in pain, and it hurt her to see him this way. “You’re going to be okay.”

  He lifted a bloody hand to wipe away a tear on her tear streaked face.

  “You’re going to be okay,” she repeated. “You just have to be.”

  “Don’t worry ‘bout me,” he said before closing his eyes.

  Kaci shook his shoulders and tried to wake him up but he didn’t respond.

  Nurse Atkins quickly began to give him CPR but no matter what she did, he wouldn’t open his beautiful eyes. Then, two EMT’s loaded his body onto a stretcher and drove off.

  Kaci’s breath caught in her throat. Her best friend had saved her from Leena…Leena! Her eyes darted across the students while trying to find one in particular. She felt someone squeeze her hand. She turned around and realized that it was Cami. Kaci realized that she had never left her side. She also noticed that her sister’s hair was a little disheveled and her arms were red.

  “Why is your arm red?” Kaci asked.

  “Th
at’s not important,” Cami answered quickly.

  “Leena did this, didn’t she?” Before Cami could reply, she added, “I’ll kill her.”

  Cami grabbed her by the shoulder and swung her around. “She isn’t worth it.”

  Kaci clenched her jaw. “Did you see Skylar? Did you see what she did to my best friend?” Cami pulled her close to her and held Kaci as close as she could.

  “I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Kaci said. “Just because her last name is Davidson she can get away with anything.”

  “Maybe not. Look,” Marissa said, pointing to the front of the school. Near the entrance to the school where the fight had occurred, handcuffs were being placed on Leena as she shouted obscenities to the officers. “You guys don’t know who the hell you’re dealing with! I am Leena Davidson!”

  “Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s all she ever says,” a girl standing behind Marissa said. “I am Leena Davidson,” she continued in a mocking tone. “Leena Davidson sucks!” Many students standing in that area chuckled at the girl’s comment.

  “My family owns this city and that means I literally own the department so I can have you all fired!” Leena shouted. She was the great Leena Davidson. No one could do this to her. She was above the law and all of these people—the officers, students, teachers, even the principal…Where was the principal? She was supposed to be here keeping her out of trouble.

  Ah, there she is.

  Leena spotted her white Range Rover pull up into her principal only parking spot.

  Ms. Lovett was quite aware of what was happening, and she wanted to make it all go away but she didn’t know how. The few students who she had asked to give her the details on the day’s recent events told her that Leena had tried to kill Kaci by running her over but killed Skylar and then attacked Cami.

  Ms. Lovett was sure that the students were just saying this to get rid of at least one Davidson. Although they were popular, she also knew that they were disliked by many of their peers and teachers. What they were saying couldn’t be true. Leena couldn’t have tried to kill Kaci. There was no way that she would’ve killed Skylar and attacked Cami. She was pregnant after all. These students were making this all up—or were they? Leena couldn’t be as terrible as everyone said she was, right? She couldn’t have possibly killed Skylar, could she?

  Her heart began to pound in her chest. Had she been protecting a monster all this time? Then, a loud voice made her ears ring.

  “Julienne!” Leena screamed. Ms. Lovett could now feel everyone’s eyes on her as she made her way to Leena.

  “Julienne, you have to get me out of this!” By this time, Leena’s face and cheeks were flushed from all of the shouting. She was beginning to lose her voice from all of the commotion she was causing.

  Ms. Lovett shook her head in response.

  Although Leena was now sitting in the back seat of the patrol car, she could see her eyes widen with anger. “What do you mean you can’t help me? All of the money you were paid and…” Everyone watched as the officer drove off with a screaming Leena in the back seat. She was banging her head against the window and kicking the other window with her feet.

  No one said a word. They were all too shocked by what they were seeing.

  The last statement that she’d said made the students curious. “…the money you were paid…” Marissa was in shock because she usually knew all of the latest gossip concerning Crossroads High but somehow her ears had missed this. Cami and Kaci just stared at each other as if reading the other’s mind. Ms. Lovett knew about the problems the Davidsons’ had been causing but instead chose to overlook it because their parents were paying her.

  Everyone’s mind was still occupied on the events that had just occurred that no one paid much attention to Kelly as she made her way near the entrance to the school where the fight had occurred. As she walked past Cami, Kaci, and Marissa she didn’t bother to make eye contact. Her eyes were focused on one person and one person only.

  “Julienne, where is Leena?”

  No reply.

  “Someone texted me and told me that Leena was dragged away in handcuffs. Is it true?”

  Still no answer.

  A frown formed on the teenager’s face. “I don’t like to repeat myself…” She smirked. “…but of course you know this because I’ve been in your office more times than I can count!”

  “She’s gone,” the older woman finally managed to say.

  “Where?”

  Ms. Lovett sighed deeply.

  “You were supposed to stop this!”

  “Shut up!” She didn’t want Kelly to reveal to the entire student and faculty body what she had done.

  “You shut up! I’ll make sure that my mom takes you off her payroll! If you can’t keep us out of trouble, then you’re useless to us!”

  Many students gasped but most of the faculty didn’t because they had known all along.

  Mr. Morgan, Mr. Jones, Ms. Harris, and Ms. Thompson smiled at one another. They finally had all of the evidence they needed to make sure that she wouldn’t be a school principal ever again.

  Chapter 34