Untouchable - Chapter 27 #2
“I know. And I’m so so thankful. But I need you to go sell whatever you were selling to James right now.”
“Brooklyn, what’s going on?”
“Please.”
“Brooklyn…”
“Please. Please, please, please. You have to. Right freaking now.”
“I don’t…”
I grabbed the front of his blazer. “Felix, please. I’ll do whatever you want. Anything. Just go sell James drugs!”
“Would you lower your voice,” he hissed.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him through the cafeteria doors. “We’ll do it together. I’ll sell them.”
“Brooklyn, can we please just talk about this for a second?”
I pulled him toward the Untouchables’ table. “There’s no time to talk! James needs drugs and you have drugs…”
“I don’t have any on me.”
“It’ll be an I owe you kinda thing then. Please, Felix. I’m in trouble. I need you to do this. Please.” I was hysterical. I was pretty sure I lost it somewhere between my locker and the cafeteria doors.
“Okay. I’ll handle it. But first I need to find Cupcake…” He started looking around the cafeteria.
“What? No. I swear to God, Felix, if you don’t go right now I’m going to…murder you in your sleep.”
He stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Which I most definitely had. “Are you high?” he asked me.
God, I was going to kill him. “No! And you don’t have time to talk to Cupcake about cupcakes right now.
It’s now a life or death situation. So go sell James whatever he wants.
All of it. Anything. And give him a nice discount while you’re at it.
” I tried to shove him in the direction of the Untouchables’ table, but Felix didn’t budge.
“I said I’ll handle it, Brooklyn. I just need to talk to Cupcake first…”
“Oh, there you are, Brooklyn!” Isabella shouted and waved me over to the Untouchables’ table.
I froze.
Felix froze.
“Brooklyn Sanders,” she continued when I didn’t move. “Geez…Sanders…wait…” her voice trailed off. “God, that sounds so familiar. Why does that sound so familiar?”
The squeaky wheels of the trashcan my uncle was pushing stopped. “Miss Pruitt,” he said. “The cafeteria is for eating. Let’s lower your voice now.”
“Oh.” She looked at my uncle. Then at me. “Oh,” she said a little louder.
There was a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go away. It was like she set up the whole scene. Baiting my uncle to talk to her since he was the closest faculty member to her.
“Sanders,” she said. “Jim Sanders.” She stared at my uncle like she was in shock. “Brooklyn, darling…are you related to Janitor Jimbo?”
I cringed at the nickname that the students had given him. Say something. But my lips felt like cement. Say anything.
A few students nearby snickered.
“Oh, it all makes sense now,” Isabella said. “I knew you couldn’t be a scholarship student. Poor? Yes. Direly so,” she said and glanced at my uncle. “But you’re incredibly dumb too.” She smiled sweetly at me as more students started laughing. “Just like your fat janitor uncle.”
How dare you. But the words didn’t come out. I looked at my uncle. He looked ashamed. But not of what Isabella was saying. He looked ashamed of himself. I felt tears start to trail down my cheeks. Say something!
“Miss Pruitt, go to the principal’s office right now,” my uncle said. But there was no authority in his voice. He sounded so defeated.
“Excuse me, janitor. The help doesn’t talk to me,” she said.
“Shut your troll face, Isabella!” Kennedy grabbed my hand. I wasn’t sure when she had appeared by my side. But her having my back finally made it feel like my lips were unfreezing.
“Kennedy, I wouldn’t butt into this,” Isabella said.
“There’s low.” She looked at Kennedy. “And then there’s loooow.
” She turned to me. “Brooklyn is as dumb and poor as a janitor. Literally. You better cut ties with her now before you’re both the laughingstock of the school.
” She flicked a green bean onto the floor at my uncle’s feet.
“Pick it up,” she said to him. “It’s your job. ”
My uncle started to lean down. And something inside me snapped.
“His name is Jim, not Jimbo.” I let go of Kennedy’s hand and went over to the Untouchables’ table.
“And he’s smarter than you’ll ever be. He does those impossibly hard daily crossword puzzles in the papers every day in record time.
And he knows how to fix everything. From my shoes you tried to ruin to anything that breaks down at this school.
All he can’t fix is your vile attitude.” I leaned down and snatched up the green bean before my uncle could.
“He took me in when I didn’t have anyone else,” I said.
“He’s the best uncle in the whole world.
He’s kind and caring and so full of love.
You’d be lucky to have someone like him in your life.
Maybe if you did you wouldn’t find it so necessary to put other people down to feel good about your hateful self.
Oh yeah…and one more thing. My uncle is also a faculty member here.
Not the help. Which means you have to listen to him.
I believe he told you to go to the principal’s office, Wizzy. ”
I still didn’t know what that nickname Matt called her meant, but the look on her face was priceless.
She cleared her throat. “You’re not making a good point when you’re already doing janitorial work,” she said, eyeing the green bean in my hand. “And no wonder Janitor Jimbo had to take you in. Your parents were probably embarrassed that they spawned a trash child.”
I’m pretty sure I snapped again. Because the green bean in my hand somehow ended up smacking against Isabella’s perfectly contoured cheek. She gasped.
“Before you tell the whole school about my personal life, you should get your facts straight. My parents didn’t give me up. My mom died.”
The little laughter left in the cafeteria died away with my words.
For some reason I glanced at Matt. He was studying the food on his plate like it was the Mona Lisa. I tried to save your secret from coming out, Matt. At least look at me. Look at me!
He didn’t. And in that second, I lost faith in him.
I believed what James had told me. I was just a conquest to joke about with his friends.
I glanced at James. I thought there would be a smile on his face, but he didn’t look happy at all.
His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he stared at me.
Something about the way he was looking at me sent a shiver down my spine.
This was his fault. He’d clearly told Isabella about my uncle.
So why did I feel bad for him right now?
Another teacher finally came running over. Screw me. It was Mr. Hill.
“Miss Sanders, principal’s office. Now,” Mr. Hill said with all the authority in the world.
Isabella laughed.
God, why did it have to be Mr. Hill on cafeteria duty today?
“Jason,” my uncle said. “Miss Pruitt started it.”
For the first time ever, I saw Mr. Hill’s demon eyes soften. “Okay, Jim. You too then, Miss Pruitt.”
“But…” Isabella started.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” Mr. Hill said.
I had never seen him be mean to anyone but me.
“You should probably come too, Jim,” Mr. Hill said. “To let the principal know what actually happened here.”
He nodded.
All four of us started walking out of the cafeteria, but I grabbed my uncle’s arm, holding him back for a second.
“Don’t listen to anything Isabella said. She just hates me.”
“I’m so sorry, kiddo. I never meant for it to come out like that.” He shook his head. “I embarrassed you in front of all your classmates.”
“What? No.”
“You’re literally crying because of what she just told everyone.” He lightly tapped the bottom of my chin to cheer me up like I was a two-year-old that had fallen and scraped my knee. Something about the action made me appreciate him even more.
“I’m crying because I’m angry. Furious. I’d never be embarrassed of you. I love you.” I stopped in the middle of the hall so I could hug him. I thought Mr. Hill would yell at me any second, but his words never came. “I meant everything I said back there.”
I’m pretty sure I heard him sniffle.
“As your guardian I should probably reprimand you for throwing a green bean at another student’s face. But as your uncle…nice aim, kiddo.”
I laughed.
“Let’s go sort this mess out.”
I stayed tucked into his side as we walked the rest of the way to the principal’s office. I really hoped that Isabella’s Prada ass was about to get expelled.