by Tiana Smith
Part of me wondered how he planned on punishing over one hundred students at once. It wasn’t like we’d all fit in detention.
“Who started this?” Principal Egeus asked, and my pulse beat double time. My face felt hot, like a flare lighting up my guilt, but no one said anything. Maybe it had all started so fast that no one really knew the cause. But no, that wasn’t true. Logan had been watching. He knew. But he didn’t say anything either.
The principal pursed his lips. “Fine. You will all leave the cafeteria in a single-file line. On your way out, you will give your name to my secretary, and lest anyone feel like making up a name, know that she’ll be checking names against your school photos from your accounts.” He handed his tablet to his secretary, who I hadn’t even noticed was standing behind him. I was guessing he already had the directory up and running.
“Each of you will be required to perform ten hours of community service. I expect a letter of completion, signed and certified from whatever organization you choose to inflict with your sorry presence. We will post a sign-up with suitable organizations on the office’s door by the end of school today. You have three weeks to find the time.”
With that, he walked away without a single crack in his demeanor. I let out a breath and thanked my lucky stars that Logan liked Elena enough not to rat us out. Maybe it was for me—at least, I wanted to think that, but even with everything else that had happened, the most depressing thought of the day was this: In all probability, Logan was still hung up on Elena. And that thought sucked a whole lot more than a thousand yogurt-stained shirts.
twenty-one
There were so many students crowding around the sign-ups after school on Monday that I didn’t get a good look at the list until Tuesday morning. There were the usual places—the public library, the humane society, and a lot of other organizations that I’d seen on television commercials. Robyn would love the one with puppies, so I signed her up. She had some article she was working on, and she’d asked me to pick one for her. Last I checked in, she’d been busily tapping away at her computer, too busy to even glance up.
My finger trailed down the list, searching for one that might somehow look good on my college applications. There was nothing for a budding reporter. My finger stopped on something else, though. Logan’s name. He’d signed up to mentor elementary kids in some kind of reading program I’d never heard of before. There were two empty slots beneath his name, and I hastily claimed one. With three weeks to finish our community service and only ten hours to complete, the odds weren’t good that I’d ever see him there. Still, I was going to take every chance I could get.
I turned around and came face-to-face with Elena. Because of spirit week, most people were wearing togas made out of bedsheets today. Elena’s outfit was classier, though, the silky pleats a definite step up from bedsheets and tablecloths.
Maybe in the past, we would have laughed about how she’d organized spirit week so she could wear this dress she’d found earlier, or maybe she would have joked about how much of a prude I was for never showing my legs. But those days felt blurry in my memory.
“Excuse me,” she said. It was funny how those words could sound so impolite coming from her lips.
I moved to the side so she could see the sign-up list. My heart was hammering in my ribs, and I wasn’t really sure why I stuck around. Old habits died hard, though. I searched for the right words to say, but my brain was completely blanking. Sorry? That wasn’t exactly true. Let’s pretend none of this ever happened? Fat chance. Can we just move on already? That was a lukewarm attempt at best. How could I come up with words when I didn’t even know what I wanted? Still, part of me ached at what we’d become.
“Nice school spirit,” I said, motioning toward her dress. I think I meant it as a compliment, but I wasn’t really sure.
“Nice lack of it,” she said, taking in my non-Greek outfit.
“I wore my gold bangles,” I said, holding up my arm for inspection. “That’s about as Greek as I get.”
“Whatever.” Elena cocked her hip while she studied the list. A few seconds later, my Logan radar went off. He rounded the corner, talking to Vince of all people. Not that they looked chummy or anything. Pretty much the opposite.
Elena saw them and sighed in response. I heard her mumble something about wishing they’d just leave her alone already, and I felt a momentary surge of satisfaction. Vindication burned through my veins, and I held back a smile. It served her right. Of course, as soon as I thought that, I hated myself for it. What kind of friend was I, wishing that on people?
Logan and Vince spotted us. Robyn thought Logan would come around in time, but I was beginning to have my doubts. In that moment, I couldn’t tell whether he was looking at me or Elena. And since we still hadn’t really talked about the kiss, I was beginning to feel like maybe I’d imagined it.
“Hey there,” Vince said when they reached us.
Elena tossed her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. “Are you trying to flirt with me or her? These days it’s hard to tell.”
Vince let out a breath. “Come on, Elena,” he said. He reached out, then seemingly thought twice and lowered his arm. “You know I never really liked Mia.” Of course, I knew Vince’s past feelings for me weren’t real. He’d only asked me out from obligation. But still. Talk about ouch. I had liked him.
I noticed Logan was watching me and my reaction to the conversation. Did he still think I was hung up on Vince? Was that why he was giving me time? Time was the last thing I wanted right now. Time sucked. Time could drive off a cliff.
Then a weight seemed to hit my chest. Maybe he wasn’t giving me time. Maybe he was giving me the cold shoulder because he liked Elena.
“Come on, man, she’s right there. You could at least try to be nice,” Logan said, and the weight on my chest lessened just a bit, even though I was keeping my expectations low. Defending me didn’t mean he liked me. I needed to get that through my thick skull. But it was no use. I still smiled. Sheesh, I was pathetic. It wasn’t even like Logan had said something super nice or anything. For all I knew, he could be thinking the same thing as Vince, but he could be better at hiding it.
Elena was watching Vince closely. She gave a huff and abruptly turned back to the community-service sheet, leaving me wondering what she’d been thinking. Maybe she was finally coming around and would stop giving Vince a hard time.
And maybe pigs would fly.
She tapped a finger on her hip.
“You know, last I checked, there was still a spot open with me,” Logan said.
“Like Elena would want to spend more time with you than absolutely necessary,” Vince said.
Wait. Had Logan been hinting for Elena to join him for community service? Or me? Maybe I’d read him wrong. After all, Logan did seem to bristle at Vince’s comment. But then again, he could have been upset simply because Vince was being rude.
My brain hurt from trying to sort everything out. Was it asking too much simply to want concrete answers? Come on, universe, throw me a bone already.
Vince laughed. “What am I saying? Never mind. It’s not like you’re competition.” I clenched my hands at my side.
“Really?” Logan stepped closer to Vince. They were only a foot apart. “If I’m not competition, then explain why Mia here had such a hard time deciding between us? And why I’m the one who came out on top?”
Oh good, now I was being dragged into the discussion. Well, there were pros and cons to this. I mean, on one hand, Logan had mentioned me, which meant I was still on his mind. Kind of. But on the other, he only mentioned me in an argument over whether Elena considered him Vince’s competition, so that probably didn’t count. It certainly seemed like he wasn’t over Elena yet. Ugh. This conversation was the worst, and there was nothing I could do about it besides stand here with a frozen smile.
Elena’s smug look wasn’t helping things, either. I took a step back, trying to decide whether anyone would notice if I walked
away. Anywhere else would have been preferable. Siberia. Calculus class. I’d take it if it meant I didn’t have to stand here and watch the guy I liked argue over another girl.
Vince stiffened but didn’t say anything to Logan’s comment. Instead he picked up the pen that was hanging next to the sign-up sheet and wrote Elena’s name deliberately next to his own, helping out at the recycling center. He stepped back and raised an eyebrow to Logan.
“Nice of you to decide for her,” Logan said. “As if you’d ever know what a girl wanted, even if it hit you in the face.”
Vince clenched his jaw and took another step toward Logan. “Oh yeah?” he said. “You mean like this?”
And then Vince punched Logan in the face.
It all happened so quickly. One minute we were standing there calmly, albeit a little tense, and the next, Vince and Logan were fighting in the hallway. My hand flew up to my mouth and a squeak escaped. Elena’s eyes were wide, but she couldn’t look away from the two boys duking it out in front of us.
Like me, Elena seemed incapable of movement. She didn’t even step back but instead stayed cemented to the spot in front of the sign-ups. Logan tucked his shoulder and barreled into Vince, tackling him to the ground. For a star athlete, Vince went down surprisingly easy. He was only down for a second, though, and he sprang up just as quickly.
I’d never actually seen a fight in real life. It wasn’t so much a fistfight as it was a mixture of wrestling and grabbing. Vince jumped up and pulled-slash-shoved Logan, who crashed into a large plastic trash bin. Garbage flew everywhere, and the gray bin spun on its side. I sidestepped someone’s discarded banana and hesitated, torn between going for help and staying as a witness. At most, the fight had been going on for a few seconds, but it felt like time had slowed down. Their arms locked around each other’s heads, and they hit the wall with their shoulders. Neither of them were shouting, like I’d expected, but I could easily hear each crash and curse in the otherwise silent hallway.
They were getting a little too close for comfort, so I backed up, into the office door. I was so jittery that my elbows knocked loudly on the wood, and that was when I knew we were all in for trouble.
The door opened behind me, and I stumbled backward. I found myself staring at Principal Egeus, who looked angry enough to kill. And I wouldn’t have put it past him.
In two steps, he reached Logan and Vince and pulled them apart. Logan rubbed his jaw, and Vince rolled his shoulders like he was working out a sore spot.
“My office. Now,” Principal Egeus barked, and released them, stumbling, in my direction. I scooted to the side of the doorway, allowing them to pass. Looking around, I wondered if I was supposed to be included in that order. The principal answered my question by pointing a finger first at Elena and then at me and then at his office. We got the hint.
Logan stood in one corner while Vince leaned against the opposite wall. The tension between them wasn’t dimmed by the distance, though. Their eyes were locked on each other, some kind of silent standoff happening in their gaze. If someone had walked into their line of sight, they’d probably be incinerated on the spot. Elena and I took the two chairs facing the principal’s desk, even though that felt like the worst possible place to be in that moment.
Principal Egeus came in then, and the door slammed shut behind him. He walked to his desk and sat down, fixing us each with a solid glare.
“Well?” he asked. “Who’s first?”
We all exchanged awkward looks while waiting for someone to break the silence. It wasn’t like I was going to volunteer anything. The less the principal knew about my involvement, the better. Logan finally cleared his throat and said, “We’re sorry things got out of hand, sir.”
The principal turned his attention to him, putting the brunt of his angry stare on Logan.
“But Vince started it,” I said, surprising myself.
“Did I ask who started it?” the principal asked, and I swallowed. “I don’t care who started it. I want to know why it escalated to the point of spilling blood on school soil.” Yeah, he said school soil as if this were some kind of hallowed ground. But then my brain caught up to what he’d said, and the word blood caused me to shift in my seat so I could see Logan better. He was lightly gripping his arm, where I could see a long scratch between his fingers. Principal Egeus yanked a few tissues from a box and held them out to Logan. “Don’t bleed on my carpet.”
Logan took the tissues and retreated back to his corner. The principal turned to Elena.
“Since you weren’t involved physically, maybe you can tell me honestly what happened,” he said, proving how little he knew us. Didn’t he know she wrote the gossip column? “You may begin.”
Elena hesitated, looking at each of us in turn. When her eyes connected with mine, I could almost feel her apology, and it made me pause. In a soft monotone voice, Elena began recounting the last few minutes in the hall. She didn’t paint me as a villain, and I wasn’t sure what to think about that. Everything about her posture suggested defeat, and surprisingly, I sympathized. I sat and listened to her talk, feeling bad about everything.
The whole story didn’t take long to tell.
“Then Mia backed into the door. That’s when you got there,” she finished. We sat quietly, awaiting the principal’s verdict.
“You’re saying this is all a lover’s spat,” he said. “Am I understanding things correctly?”
No one answered. We didn’t need to. Elena half-smiled uncomfortably under the principal’s stare. He picked up a pen and tapped it on the edge of his desk while he considered us. The taps got louder and louder as we waited for his decision.
“You are all suspended for the rest of the week,” he said, folding his arms across his chest.
Suspended. The word echoed in my head, refusing to make sense. Suspended. Me, the good student. The one with career goals and the drive to make them happen.
What was worse, I actually felt I deserved it.
My eyes started to sting, and I desperately tried to calm down so that no one, especially Elena, could see how much this news affected me. I could picture the headline of her next article now, and it was worse than the first. Sure, she seemed contrite, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust that any more than I could trust Robyn’s younger twin brothers not to raid my underwear drawer.
“During the suspension, you will not be allowed on school grounds and you will not be permitted at school activities, including homecoming,” the principal continued. “The soccer team will be playing without you, Vince, and Elena, your name will be removed from the homecoming court.” At least he hadn’t said I was disqualified from the journalism competition. Maybe he didn’t really know about it. I wasn’t about to remind him.
“But Elena and Mia weren’t involved,” Logan interjected. “This was between me and Vince.”
“They weren’t involved somehow?” Principal Egeus said. “You don’t think they deserve the suspension? Then why have several sources come to me with the information that they started the food fight yesterday? I don’t know all that is going on between you four, but let me assure you, it has no place at Athens High.”
We were all silent.
“My secretary will prepare some papers for you to take home to your families. Your parents are welcome to call me to discuss the terms of your suspension, which is effective immediately.” There was that word again, echoing around because my brain was too slow to process what was happening. Suspension. My head actually hurt from thinking about it. The back of my throat burned. I tried to stop my hands from shaking by placing them in my lap. How had it come to this? This was something that would be on my record forever. It would affect what colleges I got into. Colleges would determine my future jobs. My whole career as a journalist might go up in flames. Getting suspended would change everything I’d planned for my life. I had to sniff a few times so my nose wouldn’t drip. This was worse than anything I could imagine.
“Now”—he looked at each of
us in turn—“you can call your parents and tell them the news.”
twenty-two
I moped for the rest of the day. Well, moped and did homework. Only, I did it at my dad’s office, because he “couldn’t trust me alone anymore.” I tried pointing out that I hadn’t been alone when the whole suspension thing went down, but then he frowned and gave me the look. The one that made me want to hunker down in a bomb shelter for the next fifty years until the storm passed. That look.
My mom had already called the principal three times, going off on the injustice of it all. But my dad? No, my dad decided now was the perfect time to play a drill sergeant. As if I needed someone else making me feel bad about everything. Like I wasn’t doing a good enough job of that myself. I threw myself into my homework, hoping it would distract me from my dark, spiraling thoughts, but even that didn’t work. No matter what I did, I was still completely and utterly defeated.
My parents might have been on opposite sides of the fence in this matter, but they agreed on one thing: My phone privileges were taken away for a whole month. Joke was on them. I didn’t have anyone to talk to. Even Robyn had been acting weird and flaky lately, and I’d alienated everyone else.
My dad had a pretty large office, but it was much safer to do my homework in an empty cubicle. Occasionally he’d stick his head out and make sure I was still alive, and whenever he did this, I wondered if he was disappointed that I was. That was how crestfallen he looked, and it only made me feel worse.
“How’s that calculus coming along?” he asked on his way back from the break room.
“Fine,” I answered, keeping my eyes on the book.
“Will you come into my office for a minute?” he said. That sick feeling in my stomach returned, and I hurriedly shoved everything back in my bag and followed after him. He closed the door after me, and I tried to disappear into one of his leather armchairs. My dad was the vice president of a small, laid-back advertising company, and they were all about appearances. While the chairs looked nice, they weren’t exactly comfortable. Then again, nothing about this situation was comfortable.