by Rachel Burns
“Brianna, don’t do anything that is going to make us worry. Be good.” Eva flashed Scott a look and then hugged her daughter again.
“Eva, will I ever get a turn to say goodbye.” Her father stepped forward and hugged her. “I love you, sweetheart. Your mother said everything else there was to say.” He opened the car door for her and set her inside. He turned to Scott. “We really do appreciate you driving her.” He gave Scott an envelope with gas money. “Take care of her.”
“I will, sir. I’ll let her call you when we get there.” Scott smiled at her parents.
“Wait. I packed both of you something to eat. I’ll run and get it.” Eva was off and running. Scott and Brianna’s father loaded the suitcases into the car.
Eva came back with a box of food. Scott took it and thanked her. He put the box in the backseat. There was food for a small army in there.
He said goodbye to them and got in the car. He started the car and pulled away. Brianna was waving goodbye just like at the beginning of the school year.
After her parents were out of sight, she turned to him. “I’m really sorry about all this. I know you got roped into this so I’ll just be really quiet and look out of the window. That way you can forget that I’m even here.”
He laughed. “You don’t have to be quiet, Brianna. We can talk, listen to the radio or whatever.”
“If I get on your nerves, you can tell me to shut up.”
“You won’t get on my nerves,” Scott assured her.
They drove for an hour before either of them could think of anything to say.
“Traffic isn’t that bad today. We are making good time,” Scott said.
Brianna nodded.
Okay, that didn’t go well, Scott thought. “So how did you like your classes last trimester?”
“They were fine.” She remembered him going to her teacher and accusing her of plagiarizing her paper. She looked out of the window again.
This really wasn’t going well, he thought. Brianna was really boring.
He would be glad when they were there, then he would only have to deal with her once a week. He hoped that she got straight A’s again and always showed up on time. If he never saw her again, that would be okay.
He drove on for a while. When they were half way there, he asked her if she wanted to stop at a picnic area. She agreed.
He parked, and she got out the box from her mom. He watched her carry it to a picnic table. She set the table for them.
He slowly walked over to her and sat down. “That’s a lot of food for two people.”
“Germans are terrible food pushers.”
They ate in silence. Scott looked around a lot. He looked at the trees, the other people around them, at his car and back to Brianna. She was hardly eating anything again.
He was starting to wonder if that was the reason she had missed so much school. Did she have an eating disorder?
“Brianna, eat some more.” He looked back to his car, so he could avoid looking at Brianna. It looked a little odd. He finished eating and went over to his car.
Brianna clean up their things.
“Finish eating. I’m just checking something out.” He kicked the tires. Great one was losing air. He would have to change it.
Brianna went over to him and asked if she could help.
“Yeah, maybe. Just stand next to me, and I’ll say if you can help with anything.”
Brianna picked up three apples and started juggling them. Scott stopped to watch her. He didn’t know anybody who could. She even looked bored as she did that. She wasn’t concentrating on what she was doing.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Scott asked her.
“Once a week, clowns came to the hospital.”
He thought about that as he continued to work. He changed the tire all by himself. “You can go finish eating. I’ll be right back.” He looked down at his dirty hands and took off in the direction of the bathrooms.
Hospital? She was too thin, he never saw her eating, and she never put much on her plate to begin with. Her mother begged her to eat more, plus the food that Mrs. Banks had sent along.
Brianna was probably recovering from an eating disorder. That would explain everything. Why she was so polite, and why it hadn’t been a problem for her to get good grades?
He went back out to her. A couple of older guys were hovering around her. She was packing up and trying to avoid them. One reach out and petted her hair.
“Please, just leave me alone.” She was crying. She couldn’t understand why these men were doing this to her.
“What’s going on here?” Scott demanded.
“They won’t go away.” Brianna met his eyes.
“The lady isn’t interested.” Scott stared them down. He was younger than they were, and he was better built, but there were two of them. “Take the things to the car,” he told Brianna.
“Are you sure you want him. He’s so bossy. Come with us, and we can show you a good time,” one said.
“Yeah, a really good time,” the other agreed.
Scott could see that they were drunk, and that at three in the afternoon. He shook his head at them. Brianna finished packing up, and one of the men took the box from her. He tipped everything out on the ground. “Why don’t you bend over and pick it all up again?” They laughed with each other.
Brianna was crying. She moved as far away from them as she could and sat down on the ground to clean everything up.
“Brianna, leave it. Get in the car now.” Scott wanted her out of the picture right away.
The two men tried to stop her, but Scott grabbed one of the men by the arm, so he let go of her. Brianna ran to the car. She turned and saw Scott had the man’s arm twisted behind his back. He was saying something to them. The other held up his hands like he was afraid that Scott would do something to him too. They left, and Scott started to clean up the stuff on the ground.
Brianna went to him to help. He saw her coming. “Get back in the car, right now.” She went back, knowing better than to mess with him when he used that tone.
Scott threw the box in the garbage and returned to Brianna. He could see that she was shaking. He was suddenly very glad that he had worked with all of those sacks of grain during his vacation.
Scott also thought about what would have happened if the second guy had attacked him. He probably would have lost, and Brianna would have been hurt.
“I’m sorry, Scott. I’m really sorry,” she shook as she spoke.
“Why what did you do?” Scott asked her, wondering if she had flirted with them to lure them over.
“I didn’t do anything. They just came over and started touching my hair and things.” She looked out of the window ashamed.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t need to apologize.” He looked over at her shaking form. “Did they hurt you?”
“No, sir,” she answered.
She was back to calling him sir again. Twice she had called him by his name, once on the phone when she wanted to talk to his father, and just now to apologize. He liked it when she called him by his name.
He talked to her about this and that, just trying to distract her. She didn’t seem to settle down until they got to a gas station. There she went to the bathroom and washed her face.
Brianna hated to do it, but she had to take one of her pills, so she did with the disgusting water from the bathroom sink.
She started feeling a little better after a couple of minutes. She went back to Scott and thanked him.
“You really don’t have to thank me. I shouldn’t have left you alone like that. It was my fault.”
“No, it wasn’t. Thank you for being there. Thank you very much.”
He opened the car door for her and closed it when she was safely inside.
He brought her back to school.
Brianna got out when he parked and went to the trunk to retrieve her suitcases. She saw a couple of plants in the trunk. She looked at them surprised.
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“Hey, I have a mother too.” Scott said with a smile on his face.
She laughed at that. “Except that my mom is a food pusher, and yours is a plant pusher.”
He was so thrilled to see her laughing. “We all have our cross to bear.” They went up to their empty floor. Brianna unlocked her door and went in. She went right to her water and drank a whole bottle. She took the rest of her afternoon pills and unpacked.
Scott knocked on her door just as she was closing her pill drawer. “You can call your parents now.”
“Thanks, but I already sent them an e-mail. They’ve even answered already. I got one of those Internet sticks for Christmas.”
“Okay, but use it wisely, or I will have to take it away.”
“Yes, sir.”
Everything was back to normal.
Scott started the trimester with a talk about slacking. He wouldn’t allow any slacking for whatever reason. The rules hadn’t changed just because everybody knew everybody else better. He still wouldn’t hesitate to lay them over his knees.
“Believe me I will. I will be stopping by your rooms to talk to you all individually about your new schedules and my expectations. Does anyone have any questions?”
Brianna raised her hand. She could see a bit of panic in Scott’s face as he called on her. “Is Jennifer coming back?”
He closed his eyes for a few seconds. “I don’t know.” He dismissed them and went to their individual rooms again.
He knocked on Brianna’s door. It was open, and she was sitting at her desk working on her computer and laughing. “Come in.” She got up and smiled at him and then sat down on her bed.
Scott came in and closed the door. He went to her desk and grabbed the chair and pulled it out. He glanced at the computer.
“You can read it if you want. Cathy is sounding off about her roommate again.”
Scott was tempted, but he was working now. He pulled out Brianna schedule and his expectations for her. After he gave them to her, he turned to read the e-mail. He laughed too.
Brianna looked at her schedule. She had an English class, German would be continued, Economics and a Film Class. He expected B’s except in German. There he expected an ‘A.’ She waited to ask what the film class was about.
Scott turned his attention back to her. He was still smiling.
“What is Film Class?”
“You get to watch movies and talk about them. You’ll like it. Normally, I would expect an ‘A’ in that, but this way you don’t have to feel any pressure, but I’ll warn you economics is very demanding. Take it very seriously.”
“I will, sir. Can I ask you a little favor?” Her eyes were wide and childlike.
Here we go, he thought. She is going to want special treatment now because she was his sister’s best friend. “Ask what you want.”
“I was just wondering if we could keep it between us that we know each other outside of school. I don’t know if you noticed, but the other girls seemed to have already paired up. If they find out that our families are – close, I think they would end up avoiding me, is all. I hope I’m not being rude.”
“No, not at all. I wanted to ask you the same thing. I agree with you.” Scott stayed a bit and sent his sister an e-mail teasing her about her Japanese roommate who talked on the phone all night.
Things were back to normal, but Brianna was a little more relaxed than before.
Chapter 14 – Not Feeling Well
“I don’t know, Brianna. School has been back on for a couple of weeks already, and your pulse is still bad. I’d like to call your floor monitor and have him keep you home from classes tomorrow.” The nurse stuck a thermometer in her mouth so she wouldn’t have to hear anything from Brianna.
They had this talk every day. Brianna insisted that she felt fine. The nurse said that she could drop at any second. Brianna had talked her into letting her go to classes if she stopped by here every day too.
The nurse pulled out the thermometer and sighed relieved. “Fever, even if it is very slight. No school tomorrow. Then if you rest all weekend, you can go on Monday if you are doing better. Just stop by before classes. I think that is very fair.”
“But it is so hard to catch up once you start missing.” Brianna was starting to feel nervous, just thinking about missing class. She was working so hard to get good grades.
The nurse picked up the phone and called Scott. He said he would come and get her.
“He doesn’t need to get me. I’m not a little kid.”
“You sure are acting like one. Do you want me to tell him no punishments, or do you want me to tell him to lay you over his knee?”
Brianna blushed. “I’ll be good and stay in bed, ma’am.”
Scott showed up and looked at her. She was a little pale, but otherwise, she looked fine. Even especially nice today.
“She is to stay in bed as much as possible. She needs lots of rest. She may not go to the music rooms or do any heavy lifting, or any kind of exertion. Trays can be brought up.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll keep an eye on her.” Scott took her bag for her, and they walked back to the dorms.
Brianna was fuming. She hated this. She just wanted to be normal so badly that she felt like stomping on something, like a vase, to blow off steam. See, she felt fine.
Scott sensed her mood so he didn’t comment on it. She was pouting. He had never seen her like this.
When they reached her door, she thanked him and took her bag from him. He watched her fish out her keys. “I’ll be watching you when you eat. You just need to eat a bit more, and then everything else will fall into place.”
“You think so?” Normally the doctors warned her not to gain too much so her body wouldn’t have to carry around any extra weight.
He nodded.
“I’ll try that.”
He smiled pleased that she wasn’t arguing with him. “Good, then I will see you for supper.”
“You mean you are going to watch me eat?” she laughed.
“Why not? I will keep you company.” He moved down the hall to his room. He was happy that he had gotten her to smile.
Scott showed up, without fail, to each of her meals. Brianna thought it was funny, but he was being good company. Seeing as how Brianna didn’t feel sick it was even fun. They were getting along great. She had even slipped up and called him Scott again.
She had pajamas on. If she reached for something, he could see her model thin tummy. He wished she had a bit more meat on her. He was worried about her too, but she was eating just fine. She rarely ate everything, but it was enough. She ate all of her healthy food.
Scott heard Brianna’s tray arriving. He was already getting up to go join her. He walked into her room leaving the door open as he always did. That was when he noticed that she was crying.
She was quick to wipe her tears away and close her laptop and push it under the blanket but not quick enough. He set down her water bottle that he got for her to drink with every meal.
“Show me your laptop.”
“Please, I can’t it’s private.”
“I warned you from the beginning. If you don’t show it to me, I will spank you and confiscate it.”
“Okay, you can take away my stick for Internet but let me keep my computer,” she begged.
“Are you trying to bargain with me?”
She nodded.
He grabbed her out of the bed and pulled down her pajama bottoms and spanked her with his hand as hard as he could. After two minutes, he stood her up and sent her to the corner.
She was shaking terribly, but she went and cried in the corner. She heard him open her laptop and read the e-mail she had just received from his sister. Brianna heard him gasp.
He got up and walked to her. “I should have figured that you were taking someone else’s punishment again. Go eat.”
He left, and she cried. Cathy would never talk to her again. He had taken her computer with, and there was no way that Brianna could have warne
d her. She sobbed so much that she couldn’t eat. She finally fell asleep.
Scott went to his room and dialed his sister’s telephone number. He still couldn’t believe what he had read.
“Cathy, it’s me Scott.” He didn’t know how to continue. “How are you feeling?”
“She told you? How could she? I thought she was my best friend.”
“Hey, your friend just took a spanking trying to erase your e-mail so I couldn’t see it. She is even sick in bed. She did what she could. We have different rules at this school, and that is beside the point. Cathy, I want to talk to you. You wrote to her that he hurt you.” Scott’s hand turned into a fist as he thought about some idiot sleeping with his baby sister and hurting her.
“Scott, I’m fine. I’ve got to go. Goodbye.” She hung up.
Scott had to fight not to slam the phone against the wall. Instead, he dialed again. “Sharon, here is Scott. I need your help. It’s about Cathy. Umm – She slept with some guy last night. She sent Brianna an e-mail that he hurt her. More than was normal.” He was crying now and so was Sharon. “I just tried to talk to her, but she hung up on me, and I’m worried. I want you to go to her and take her to a doctor. I’ll pay for it. Don’t worry about that. Just make sure she is okay. Please Sharon, take care of her.”
“Yes, Scott. I’ll call you as soon as I have something to tell you. I’ll take care of her.” Sharon hung up too.
Scott wiped his eyes. He reread the e-mail. Why had she done it? He had talked to her, their father and even little Brianna had. Why wouldn’t she listen?
He felt terrible doing it, but he felt it was his duty. He dialed again. “Hey dad, how are you doing?” … “I’m fine. I just wanted to talk to mom about something. Is she home?” … “Nothing important. One of the girls on my floor isn’t feeling good. I just wanted to ask mom some medical questions.” … “Thanks Dad, Bye.”
“Mom, hi. Here is Scott. I’m just calling because I have a couple of questions. It’s just that one of the girls on my floor did it for the first time last night, and it sounds like the guy wasn’t that careful with her. She’s in pain. Should I take her to the hospital or something?”