Overexposed

by Adrianne James

  THE BELL RANG and the whole class stood up to leave. Mr. Bennett walked over to me and Ashley. He looked toward the back, and made eye contact with Macy, and motioned for her to join us at the front.

  “Girls, I don’t know what you were doing in the principal’s office, but if it had anything to do with the assignment, I want to know right now.”

  “It does. I swear we weren’t trying to sneak into anywhere we weren’t supposed to, we were trying to get pictures of Ashley confronting Nate for standing her up, we just happened to get a lot more than that.”

  “Okay, that makes me feel a little better. What happened? You can talk to me.” So we told the story all over again. He asked if he could see the pictures and we told him that Mrs. Nash had taken the memory card with Macy’s files, but that I had them at home on my computer.

  “You did the right thing. You really did. The truth is in the photos if you have what you say you did. I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but it will. You let me know if you need anything else. I will go talk to Mrs. Nash now.”

  We thanked him and all left for our next classes. The hallways were still packed with people and the varsity team stood along the lockers, watching us as we went by. I saw Brock up ahead by the turn to my next class, and he did not look happy.

  “All right, I will see you guys at lunch.” I waved a quick good-bye and made my turn. I walked down the hall as quickly as I could without bumping into anyone. I could feel Brock’s stare and it was unsettling. My skin crawled just knowing he was watching me.

  I looked up from watching my feet just long enough to notice that there were even more of the boys ahead of me. Out of nowhere I felt a rough jolt, and I fell flat on my face in the hallway.

  “Vi, let me help you up,” Brock’s rough voice said as I was yanked rather harshly from the floor. “You will give me those pictures or you will be sorry. You better not forget that you did see Jason with us. You want your brother to stay safe right?”

  I was at a loss for words. I was terrified of what had just happened, and Brock seemed very pleased with himself as he smiled and winked at me. The late bell rang before I realized I was standing there alone, tears running down my face.

  ***

  Walking into lunch, I swear it felt like all eyes were on me. I kept looking around, trying to figure out which boys were there Saturday night and if they had told the others to treat us differently. Not only was I ignored by the varsity team (not that it was unusual) but also by the junior varsity team and a few others who tended to hang out with them. I had to be partnered up with a JV kid in class and he refused to speak to me, just sat there watching me do the work. After it was done and the bell rang, he called me a bitch before picking up his bag and leaving the classroom.

  I spotted Ashley sitting at a table in the back of the cafeteria. I walked to her, dodging kids running around and almost slipping on some spilled soda on the floor. Just before I got to the table, Nate walked up. Nate was different than Brock. Brock had the looks and was the star of the team. Nate was on the team and some said he was cute (like Ashley) but he definitely had flaws. His face had scars all over it from acne and he wasn’t very tall. He also didn’t have the build of the other players either. But the attitude? That was there in full force.

  “What they hell are you bitches thinking taking on Brock? You have no idea how deep this goes so just leave it alone. Give me the pictures and we can forget this all happened.” His arms were crossed and his eyes bore into mine.

  “No. What does Jason have to do with all this? You tell me what to do to get him out of this mess, and I might give you the pictures. After the stunt you pulled with Ash, be glad my knee isn’t in your balls right now.”

  “Jason chose to come to us. Don’t worry about him. Unless, of course, you don’t do what we asked. Brock does have a last-in-first-out mentality and Jason would be that person. You can imagine how he would be “out” if you try real hard.”

  “Do not threaten my brother!” I was fuming. I looked passed him to Ashley who was watching us with rapt attention. “You all had no right to chase us like you were going to kill us. If there is anything I can do to make you all pay for that I will.”

  “You will regret it.” Nate walked off, all calm, cool and collected, as if nothing had happened. He talked to some kids, high-fived someone who congratulated him on the team’s win the week before, and sat at the table with the rest of them.

  Taking a deep breath, I took a step forward to finish what I had started to do in the first place, get to Ashley. The closer I got I saw that her eyes were rimmed red and there were tissues flowing out of her pocket. I knew she wasn’t sick so the only explanation was that she was crying over what had happened today. I had hoped it was only me they came after.

  “What happened?” She just shook her head. She was staring behind me, and when I turned to look, I saw Brock and one of the other boys watching us. “Tell me, Ash.”

  “They cornered me before last period. Said they would burn the house down to destroy the pictures if I didn’t turn them over. Otherwise, I have just been getting the stink eye from everyone.”

  “But you don’t even have the pictures!”

  “I tried to tell him that. He said that he would make sure no one knew how the fire started, that it would look like an accident. What the hell? We need to tell Mr. Bennett. He said to come to him.”

  “Where is Macy?” I asked looking around. If they were harassing us, I knew they would do the same to her. Our friendship with her grew quickly, but I hoped she knew she could confide in us what was happening with her.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her.” I kept looking, at each table, each lunch line, and each door. I scanned the room over and over again. “Vi, look.”

  I looked where Ash pointed to, and three of the boys from the parking lot were walking in, looking smug, and holding a piece of paper up high over their head. Brock looked back to me and smiled. We had to find Macy.

  We left the lunchroom as quickly as we could without bringing attention to ourselves. Once the door closed behind us, we took off running. We looked in each classroom window we saw, and went into each girl’s bathroom. Macy was nowhere to be found. My heart was racing and I really doubted it was from the running alone. All I could think about was in what condition we would find her.

  “Let’s check the parking lot, her truck should be out there,” Ashley said, turning down the hall that lead to the front parking lot. The hallway was not really all that long. It had maybe four or five classrooms and a bathroom in it. But right then, it sure felt as if it were a mile long. “If she isn’t out there, we need to go straight to Mr. Bennett.”

  “Right.” Heading out to the parking lot, we walked through the freezing wind and crunchy gray snow to Macy’s truck. Thankfully, she was in it.

  “Oh, thank God!” I said after pulling her truck door open. “We have been looking for you everywhere. What happened?”

  Macy turned to look at me and she looked freaked out.

  “I am so sorry.” Macy whispered, and then averted her eyes from mine.

  “What happened? Why are you sorry?” I took her hand in mine and pulled her out of the truck. The three of us wrapped around each other and started walking back into the school.

  “They chased me during gym. No one said anything because we were doing sprints. Then we played dodge ball and they kept pegging me with the ball, even after I was out. One hit me in the face and the teacher sent me to the nurse. The guys offered to take me and even when I said no, the teacher sent them anyway.” She had started crying and all I could do was rub her back, hoping it was some kind of comfort to her. “They trapped me in a corner and wouldn’t let me out. They wanted to know where the pictures were, and who we had told. I said I didn’t have them over and over again. But I was just so afraid. I told them we put them all on your computer.”

  That was why they were excited. They knew where the pictures were. It was definitely time to tel
l Mr. Bennett what was going on.

  WHEN WE OPENED the door to go back into the school, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch period. With a school as small as ours, everyone ate at the same time, so everyone left the cafeteria and flooded the hallways at the same time. Sticking together and pushing through the group proved to be difficult to do at a fast pace. We were restricted to the snail’s pace that all the teenagers whose lives were not in jeopardy were moving at in front of us.

  Mr. Bennett’s room came into view and the three of us let out a sigh of relief. That is until Ashley attempted to pull on the handle to open the door to the one person who seemed to be on our side, and it wouldn’t budge. Macy reached over Ashley’s head to bang on the door, hoping that maybe he just locked it to eat lunch in peace, but no such luck was on our side in that moment.

  “Let’s just all go to class and meet back here after. Do not go anywhere else. That way if one of us does not show up, we know something is wrong. Agreed?” I looked to my two best friends and could see how visibly shaken they were. Both had red eyes with dark circles under them from lack of sleep and crying off and on all day, and the looks in their eyes just screamed worry at me.

  “Okay. Let’s go.” Ashley said. Macy nodded and turned to go to her English class, and Ashley and I headed off to sculpture class. At least we would be working on our art, and if there is one thing the both of us can get lost in, it is art.

  The door to the art room was open and we could hear the teacher from the hallway.

  “Who did this? Defacing another student’s artwork is not acceptable in any situation. When I find out who did this they will be punished to the full extent of my abilities and trust me when I say that suspension is the best you will get.” The classroom erupted in a cacophony of students pledging their innocence and blaming those they thought might have done it.

  Ashley and I looked at each other terrified to go in and see whose work had been ruined. We knew it was either hers or mine, possibly both. Grabbing her hand in mine and giving it a quick squeeze, we stepped through the door. The room fell silent and stared at us. If it had been any other day I would have immediately checked for something on my face or hanging out of my nose, but I knew that wasn’t the case.

  The class slowly moved out of the way as we walked through, and Mrs. Mendez stood in front of our stations. She took a step towards us, and looked over her shoulder before looking back, with sorrow written across her face.

  “Ashley, Vi, I am so sorry. I will find who did this and I will punish them.” I kind of tuned her out after that when I looked around her and saw our projects broken into a million little pieces.

  My tree was chopped up and my photographs looked to be torn into ribbons of paper. The pinecones crushed into the concrete floor. The tears that threatened to spill from my eyes were nothing in comparison to my best friend. I was more upset for her than I was for myself.

  Ashley began to cry and went to the table, picking up piece after piece of her work. She was so proud of what it was forming into and had even mentioned wanting to use it as her application piece to the art school in New York City she had dreamed of going to since she was old enough to know about colleges.

  Lifting up the piece that was supposed to be the womb, she had collaged an earth where the baby would be, and it was in tatters. Her script that she had bent old coat hangers into once said, The Earth with out Art is just Eh, no longer looked elegant and flowing, but looked like scrap metal, bent and broken. Dropping the pieces down, she looked directly at me. The tears flowing freely from her eyes, she said, “I should never have listened to you. This is all your fault.”

  I didn’t think I could feel any worse than I had after seeing her hurt so badly over her ruined art, but that one statement hurt more than I had ever hurt before. The tears that had been threatening to fall from my eyes burst through the dam and my heart ached.

  “Ashley, I am sorry. I wish I could take it all back.” Then she pushed passed me and ran out of the room. I turned quickly and saw Jake, the one varsity boy in the class smiling at me in satisfaction. “Ask Jake who did it. He knows.” I pointed to him and ran out of the room after my best friend. At least I hoped she still was.

  Ashley hadn’t made it far once she left the room. Opening the door I could see her sitting against the lockers halfway down the hall, with her head on her knees and her back shaking violently up and down. I ran to her, through myself on the ground next to her and tried rubbing her back, but she jerked away.

  “Leave me alone, Vi. I just need time to myself. I will talk to you later.” She would not even look at me. She was shutting me out. We had so many people against us in that moment, I couldn’t imagine having my best friend, my pseudo sister, be against me too.

  “What did I do? We all decided turning them in was the best thing to do. This isn’t all on me,” I said through tears and sobs. She lifted her head to look at me and the amount of pure anger in her eyes was something I had never seen before. Not when my brother put gum in her hair in the fifth grade, not when her eighth grade art teacher gave her a C on a project, not even when Nate stood her up.

  “You and your gossiping habits made you want to do this whole TMZ project. It was you who decided that snooping around was a good idea, you who convinced me that what we were doing wasn’t wrong or wouldn’t get us into trouble. You. This is your fault!”

  I was beyond hurt. I went from hurt to angry to completely furious. “No. Bringing the cameras to the dance was your idea. You wanted us to take pictures of you humiliating Nate in front of his boys. You would not listen to us when we warned you about him. You insisted that he was a good guy. You were the one who is responsible for us stumbling on the whole drug thing. Not me!”

  “I wouldn’t have even thought about it if YOU hadn’t started the whole thing to begin with! Remember the rule about NOT ruining anyone’s life? Guess what, that rule has been broken so many times its in crumbles, and now ours is torn apart, too!”

  “That is not my fault. You know that deep down. I am going to leave you right now before you say anything else you will regret later.” I stood up and stormed off. Too angry to look back, too irritated to acknowledge her cries. How dare she blame me for this? The only people at fault were the freaking boys selling drugs who thought it would be a grand idea to make our lives hell.

  I was going to force Jason to talk to me if it was the last thing I did. I marched through the school from the west end where all the upper classmen courses were held to the east end for the freshman and sophomores. I knew this period he had my old math teacher, Mr. Jones, because Jason always complained about being late after lunch to math class, and how Jones would never let him get away with it. Stupid kid, of course not. This was high school, not middle school anymore.

  I knocked on the door and waited with bated breath outside the classroom for Mr. Jones to answer it. I felt my hands shaking and tears slipping down my face. I could feel my heart beating harder and faster with each second I stood there waiting for the door to open. I reached up and wiped away the tears from my cheek just as the door opened.

  “Vi, what on earth is wrong? What can I do for you?” He reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, bending over a little to look me in the eyes.

  “I need to talk to my brother. Please?” I said through sniffles. He just nodded his head and stepped back into the room, calling Jason to the door.

  “Take all the time you need. Jason, you can make up whatever you miss for homework.” Jason looked at me with irritation but nodded to the teacher. When the door closed, he just stood there, staring at me.

  “What do you want, Vi?” His cold tone hurt me. Couldn’t he see what was going on around him? Did it not matter to him that his newfound buddies were making my life and the lives of my friends a living hell?

  “Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to you? Can’t you make them leave us alone?” I leaned against the lockers by the classroom and slid to the floor. I brought my kn
ees to my chest and began to cry again. I couldn’t believe I was crying again but the day had just been one bad thing after another and I couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

  Jason sighed and sat down next to me. He looked up and down the halls before putting his arm around me. “Vi, I can’t stop them. You think this is easy for me right now? They are telling me that if I don’t get you to give them the pictures that they will beat the crap out of me just to teach you a lesson. They said that I got out of the beating to get into the group, to prove I could keep quiet and do what was needed. This would just be my way of proving my loyalty or something. You have to give them the pictures and keep quiet. Promise me. Not just for me, but for you. You really don’t know what these guys are capable of doing.”

  “You would really stick with them and let them hurt me just for some extra cash? And since when did you start doing drugs? Don’t you ever want to get out of this town? Make a life outside of Willowspring and coal mining?” I turned my head, resting the side of my head on my knee to look at my little brother. He may have been technically bigger than me, but he was still my little brother and always would be. “I don’t know how to help you. Tell me what I can do to get you away from these guys.”

  “I don’t do the drugs. I promise. I just started selling after Dad was laid off. I wanted to help out with money and stuff. It was the only job I could get. I went to the market, and to the diner, and even to the clothing store on 2nd. Brock saw me asking about work there and told me he had a job for me to do.” Jason started looking around again. I guess he was checking to make sure his new buddies wouldn’t see him consoling his sister, the bitch who took pictures of their illegal money-making scheme.

  “I did it, just delivering a bag to some guy, and that was it. I collected a hundred and fifty bucks, and when I gave it to Brock, he handed me back forty. It took me less than an hour and I made forty bucks! So, I started delivering more and then the night of the dance he had all of us gather around to make it so we were all in charge of our own supplies to sell. It is a killer deal. I already have three hundred bucks saved up and two hundred that I put into Mom’s grocery jar. You should have seen her face when she counted the money yesterday. She looked so worried and then she saw the money and her face lit up.” He was smiling at the memory. I knew his heart was in the right place, but his head was really screwed up if he thought selling drugs was a good idea.