Physical

by Gabriella Luciano

  She folded the list back up and slipped it into the back of the book. The teacher started the class and she just tried to spend the next hour tuning out the entire world around her. It seemed like an eternity before the bell rang for the break. She grabbed her books and raced out into the hall. All eyes turned toward her once again, so she dashed out the front of the building, turned the corner and huddled down between two cars to hide.

  She didn’t know what she was going to do. She already had a dozen truancies and her step-mother would kill her if she got another. Her mind raced with the possibilities of what this slut list thing really meant. She wondered if Brittney was just making up rumors about her or if she had talked to guys with who she had been. She had never really done anything too crazy with any of the guys at the school, though. She certainly wasn’t a prude as she saw no reason to restrain herself with someone if she felt the urge to play and experiment, but she was by no means some out-of-control slut. This had to be just Brittney’s twisted way to control girls who she thought didn’t fit into her snotty, elitist realm of coolness.

  The warning bell for class rang and she decided to just head back into the school to deal with whatever was to happen. When she strolled through the front doors, the looks fell on her once again. Valentina noticed right away, though, that everyone had their cell phones out, furiously reading away at the screens and pointing at what was on them.

  “I can’t believe it,” one of them exclaimed. “The school is in the New York Times!”

  When she heard her say it, Valentina just snatched the girl’s phone out of her hand to look at what she was talking about. The headline read: “Slut List Scandal Rocks Local High School.”She couldn’t believe it. How did they find out about it so quickly? She scanned through the article. Her name wasn’t mentioned nor any of the other girls’ names. Someone’s parent had apparently complained to the school about the list.

  “Valentina?”

  She looked up to see the principal’s face.

  “Can you come to my office, please?”he asked her in a low, firm voice.

  Alexis Sintora was sitting at her desk working when she read the headline that came up with the other news links on her computer screen: “Local High School in Trouble Over ‘Slut List’ Scandal”. She froze in place, her mouth dropped and a million fears catapulted through her mind. She was terrified to click on the link. She didn’t know why but she was already sensing that it was going to be just the beginning of a long ordeal.

  Her hand shook as she moved the mouse to the headline, clicked it and started reading. Her eyes raced to find the name of the high school…Ivy Glen Academy. Her heart skipped a beat. It was what she thought it was. There was a photo of the principal, Liam Rockman, at the top of the article. She had gone to high school there with him and immediately recognized the strong curves of his face, his thick brown hair and his muscular neck. She quickly read through the remainder of the article to find the salient points of the scandal.

  The list was discovered by one of the students at the school. On it, there were the names of eight senior girls who school officials say were being ostracized for supposedly promiscuous behavior…It is not yet known who produced the list but local parents whose daughters attend the school are outraged…The principal has promised to find the culprits to determine if it is just a one-time prank or there are other issues to address.

  Alexis raced through the article again to try to find the names of the girls on the list. She knew that they would never print them but she just wanted to make sure. There was no mention of her step-daughter. She sighed in relief but she had a feeling that Valentina was caught up in this somehow. She had already been in trouble numerous times this year. She was going to kill her if she ended up on such a list.

  She thought about leaving work early to pick up Valentina but she had already used up all her vacation time and couldn’t really afford it. The family was barely getting by as it was. The scholarship at Ivy Glen covered part of her step-daughter’s tuition but there was still all the cost for textbooks, the fees for extracurricular activities and the monthly deduction for her college fund. She would just have to wait until she got home to ask her about the list and hope that it had nothing to do with her.

  Valentina had no idea what was going to happen when she stepped inside the principal’s office. She knew it was about the list but she didn’t know if she was in trouble herself or not. She took a seat in the cold leather chair and waited for the principal. She normally didn’t mind being sent to his office. He was the type of principal who you could just talk to like a normal person and he was clued in to the lives of the students. Plus, he was just really attractive for a high school principal, she thought. He reminded her of one of those tough movie actors who always walked into the room with a suave confidence like he could handle anything. When Principal Rockman got upset, though, he seemed to change into another person and would sternly remind students who was in charge.

  Valentina heard him tell his secretary not to interrupt him as he entered the room, closed the thick wood door and took a seat opposite her. He picked up a small piece of crumbled paper from his desk. She saw right away that it was another copy of the list.

  “Do you want to tell me what this is all about?”he asked her in a firm, abrupt tone.

  She didn’t know what to say. She had been in trouble before but this was not anything that she had done. She was the victim here.

  “I don’t know. Some girls were passing it around,” Valentina told him.

  “Which girls?” he asked her immediately.

  She glanced around his office, trying to buy some time to figure out if she should just give him the name. She wondered not only if Brittney would get into trouble but if she would come after her for snitching.

  “Valentina, just tell me now. Lying about it is only going to get you in more trouble,” he told her as he folded his thick arms and leaned back in his chair.

  “Brittney Van Slauson. She gave it to me,” Valentina blurted out.

  The stern expression on the principal’s face changed to one of mild shock.

  “Brittney Van Slauson? Are you sure about that?”

  “Yes, she gave it to me this morning. She’s the one who wrote it,” Valentina pleaded to him.

  The principal nodded up and down casually.

  “And why would Brittney write your name on such a list?”he asked her.

  “Because she doesn’t like me. She and all her friends,” Valentina professed to him.

  The principal sat back and listened to her as she went on to tell him about how “the goodies” had always disliked her and tried to torment her, telling him that it just wasn’t fair. He let her finish speaking and then reached to his right to pull open up a drawer. He took out a file, opened it up and began reading. Valentina noticed that it was her school record.

  “You’ve been in trouble before, Valentina, isn’t that right?”

  She couldn’t believe it. The principal was trying to put this back on her.

  “Yes, but this isn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything,” she pleaded.

  “I didn’t say that. I just want to be sure that I have all the facts. Brittney is a straight-A student with an impeccable record here. If I am going to accuse her of this, I want to make sure that I have the truth.”

  “That is the truth!” she shouted.

  “Lower your voice,” he told her.

  “I’m sorry but I’m telling you the truth.”

  “And you’re not just trying to put this on Brittney to cover your own actions?”

  “My actions? What do you mean?”

  “Well, I have already spoken to Brittney this morning.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “She said that she had nothing to do with the list. She said she heard a number of senior guys made up the list.”

  Valentina couldn’t believe what he was telling her.

  “She’s lying. What guys?”

  “Well, that
’s why I brought you in here. I thought you could tell me. You have been written up before regarding your inappropriate behavior.”

  She suddenly felt like she was going to faint. She had been caught kissing guys a few times at school functions and once got caught ditching with a couple guys but the school certainly didn’t know anything beyond that. Almost every girl there had done something like that.

  “I just wanted to remind you that you are on scholarship here,” he began to lecture her. “We abide by a strict moral code. It is not our place to invade the private lives of our students but if anything is done on school grounds, well then, it becomes our problem.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Valentina pleaded. She wanted to cry. Her mind was racing with thoughts of everything that she had ever done with other boys at the school and wondering if someone actually did see something. She thought back to the previous night when she was with Tyler. She was so drunk she really probably wouldn’t have noticed if someone had seen them.

  “I didn’t say you did. I just want you to be sure that you are confident that it is the best choice to accuse Brittney. This is no longer just a private school issue. The press has gotten a hold of this and parents are going to start asking questions.”

  Valentina had no idea what to say. She certainly didn’t want this to escalate to the point of being the online poster girl of high school sluttiness. She suddenly wondered if Tyler or one of his friends had made up the list, but she just didn’t think any guy would bother doing such a thing.

  “I’m just telling you that she was the one who gave me the list. That’s all,” she told the principal.

  He nodded again, thinking to himself of how to handle the situation.

  “Well, my advice to you Valentina, from here on out, is to behave.”

  “Behave?” she responded, a bit confused.

  “Yes, I don’t want to hear anything about this list again. I can’t have parents going to the press with this and creating such a scandal. Understand?”

  “Not really. It wasn’t my parents who called the press was it?”

  “No, it was the parents of another girl on the list, but I will be having a talk with your step-mother just to make sure she knows about the list.”

  “But why?” Valentina objected. “I didn’t do anything. You should talk to Brittney’s parents or the parents of whoever made the list.”

  “Brittney is not on the list. You are,” he told her sternly. “I am only concerned with the people who might think of complaining about this. It’s not my place to get involved in internal feuds between you girls. Is that clear?”

  Valentina started to object again. It was completely unfair that she should be the one who had to keep quiet about this. She figured she would just wait and talk to her step-mother about it to explain what happened.

  “Yes, it’s clear,”she told the principal as she rolled her eyes.

  “Good. You have done very well here at Ivy Glen. I’d like to see you leave here with an upstanding record.”

  Valentina just stared back at him, not saying anything. The principal rose from his chair to escort her out. When he opened the door, two of the other girls on the list, Lucy and Sara, were sitting there. Their eyes met for a moment in mutual fear and understanding. Valentina got a hall pass from the principal’s secretary and then headed toward her next class.

  She paced slowly down the empty hallway, not really wanting to go back to class at all. She stopped at her locker and took an extra long time to open it. She rummaged through her things and took out her math book. When she slammed the locker door shut, she nearly had a heart attack. Brittney was standing right next to her. She hadn’t even heard her walk up.

  “Don’t even think about trying to snitch. It’s not going to work,” Brittney told her immediately.

  Valentina just glared at her with a look of fury.

  “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Why? Because you’re a slut and you need to know it,” she announced to her in vicious glee.

  “You don’t know anything about me, Brittney.”

  There was always a strange intensity between the two of them every time they talked. It was like this powerful, vibrating feeling of combativeness that was just demanding some kind of conflict.

  Brittney just sneered at her and then reached into her bag to pull out her phone. She tapped on the screen a few times and turned it toward Valentina. It was a video of her and Tyler hooking up the previous night on the roof of the club. It showed Tyler reaching up her skirt and his fingers moving in and out of her. Her heart started racing and she frantically thought back to everything else she had done with him.

  It suddenly all made sense. She had heard that she had a thing for Tyler but that he was not interested in Brittney. This was all some wild plan of revenge or something.

  “This goes online tonight,” Brittney told her. “Along with a link to the article in The New York Times. Everyone will know who you really are.”

  “Please, Brittney. Don’t. They’ll kick me out,” Valentina pleaded, trying to rationalize with her.

  Brittney just rolled her eyes.

  “Not my problem. You should have thought about that before last night,” she told her. “A slut needs to know her place.”She took the phone and put it back into her bag. “I’ll see you online,” she added with a laugh as she went to walk away.

  Valentina grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

  “Please, Brittney. Don’t. What do you want from me?” she begged.

  Brittney turned back toward her, looking at her up and down before she spoke.

  “Like I told you this morning, you are the top slut. You and the rest of the girls on the list are mine.”

  “I don’t understand,” Valentina told her.

  “You do what I want, look how I want you to look and be with who I tell you to be with,” she told her, and then she raised her eyebrows to accentuate her intentions.

  Valentina wanted to slap her across the face. There was no way she was going to do this. She couldn’t possibly subject herself to such humiliation. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be a way that she could turn the tables and get her in trouble for blackmailing her. She needed to just tell her step-mother what happened and see if she could help her. Her step-mother was the one who got her into Ivy Glen in the first place so maybe she could talk with the principal. In any event, she needed to buy some time to figure out what to do.

  “Okay, okay, but please don’t put the video online. I’ll do whatever you want,” she pleaded.

  Brittney eyed her suspiciously and then reached up to take her chin in her hand. She turned her head to own side and then to the other.

  “You have a cute face. I haven’t quite figured out if it’s exotic or just strange looking.”

  Valentina didn’t know what to say.

  “Tomorrow night is the initiation,” Brittney told her, suddenly changing the focus of the conversation.

  “The initiation?”

  “Yes. The initiation to the slut list. You should be happy. It’s a very exclusive list.”

  “But what are you going to do?”

  “You’ll find out. I’ll give you the address tomorrow.”

  Brittney turned and started to walk away.

  “So you’re not going to put the video online, right?”

  “Not as long as you behave,” she told her without turning around.

  “Behave?”Valentina couldn’t believe she had used the same word as the principal. She suddenly wondered if the two of them had talked about all of this. The bell for the end of class rang and a wave of students filled the halls.

  Alexis decided she was going to stop by the school to talk to Liam before she spoke with her step-daughter. She wanted to get the whole story behind this slut list before she knew what to tell Valentina. When she got to the school, there were a number of news vans stationed outside along with various reporters doing their broadcast on the steps of the main buil
ding. She spotted Liam in front of one of the cameras, doing his best to maintain a look of total composure.

  She was astonished at how well he had aged and how good he looked. He was always trying to act like one of the popular kids, but he now had the appearance of a man cut straight out of the pages of Esquire. He wore a classic camel-colored coat over a blue-striped dress shirt and dark gray dress pants. It was almost as if he was dressed for a photo shoot rather than an emergency press conference. He still had that clean cut baseball-player look and physique. She wasn’t at all surprised that he ended up as the principal of the school. It let him control things he was never able to control as a student.

  She got out of her car and approached the edge of the school to listen to the reporters question him.

  “How did you find out about this slut list?”

  “Do you think this is an attempt to bully sexually active teenagers?”

  “What does the list signify?”

  “What are you going to do to make parents feel safe when they send their teenage daughters to school?”

  Alexis hovered at the periphery of the cluster of reporters and took in the whole chaotic scene set against the pristine landscape of Ivy Glen. Just looking at the idyllic brick building and the serene green landscape dotted with maple trees made her realize how far she had come with Valentina. When she married her father, Valentina was a rebellious, out-of-control kid who was well on her way to becoming a public high school drop-out. Alexis also saw it as her own opportunity to turn her life around. Since she had graduated from Ivy Glen, she had done little with her life, moving from one unfulfilling, dead-end job to the next while she tried to get her bachelor’s degree. When she meet Valentina’s father, she threw herself into family life and did everything she could to give her step-daughter what she never had. She had even convinced her old friend Liam to accept her at the school and provide a partial scholarship for her. Valentina, though, was eager to rebel against authority every chance she got. It was only once she grew to like the art department at Ivy Glen and found a small group of friends that she was able to settle down, for the most part.