Chapter 10
Thursday, during third period History, Principal Oliphant called me down to her office.
I settled into a chair across from her desk a little nervously, but I fought to keep from fidgeting. The last time I’d been in her office was when she paired Hudson and me together, and though I’d—mostly—gotten past my fearfulness when it came to him, this small space gave me flashbacks.
She had on her signature smile, but today, it didn’t exactly calm me. Until she spoke, I wasn’t sure anything could calm me. “This is kind of a dual meeting,” she said once she sat down, leaning into her seat. “I want to talk a bit about Hudson and a bit about the Most Likely To list.”
My pulse had hiccupped at the first topic at hand, so by the time she mentioned the list, it was already racing. “The Most Likely Tos?”
The list had flitted from my mind after the first few days. Especially in the last twenty-four hours, I hadn’t thought of it once. How could I, when I’d actually been focused on the rebellion list Hudson had urged me to craft?
“I wanted to check in and see how you were feeling about it,” she said. “I’m meeting with every student, and you’re one of the first. Since I wanted to touch base on the peer program we’ve set up, I thought it was a good opportunity to chat about both.”
Chatting with my principal about how I was voted Most Likely To: Stay A Prude was a level of embarrassment I didn’t think I’d be able to reach, but here we were. “Um, it’s okay. I mean, I’m okay. About the list.”
“Do your parents know about it?”
“If they did, I’m sure Mom would’ve talked to you about it by now,” I said, and then blinked a little at how blunt the words sounded. “I mean, no, they don’t know. It’ll just make them upset, and I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
Principal Oliphant nodded slowly, tapping her fingers against her chin. “We’ve already had plenty of calls about the list. I think you’re right, though. It’s good that we can anticipate your parents’ reactions to avoid unnecessary stress.”
I pinched my fingers in my lap. “Is that what you did with the mentorship? You anticipated Mom not being on board with me mentoring Hudson, so you told her I was mentoring a girl?”
Her reaction came as a slow inhale through her nose and then a long sigh out of it, the sort of manufactured politeness fracturing in her eyes. “In a way, yes, I suppose so.”
“And you knew I wouldn’t tell her?”
“I hoped. I hoped that knowing Hudson’s situation, you’d agree.”
“That’s why you chose me, then,” I said, a weird sensation buzzing in my chest. “Because you thought you could easily manipulate me.”
Principal Oliphant’s eyebrows drew together in an expression that almost looked offended.
“No other student would’ve given Hudson a chance.
Not with the horror stories everyone has in their heads.
You were the only one I could think of who could see past it all.
I thought that partnering Hudson with a student who was his opposite would be a good idea.
You, admittedly, were the first person I thought of, but I never thought you were easily manipulatable, Gemma. ”
I pinched my fingers tighter, unsure whether or not to believe her.
“The school board has had it out for Hudson ever since his freshman year,” she explained. “Since the fight with your brother, Brentwood High has a no-bullying policy, and he managed to escape on the loophole that it didn’t happen on school grounds.”
“Why do they care so much?” I demanded, leaning forward in my seat. “It happened years ago, so I don’t get—”
“Because it happened to Landon Settler,” she said simply, never wavering in holding my gaze.
“I’m sure you know how influential your parents are to Brentwood.
How well liked your mother has been ever since she was elected as school board president.
It’s a pack mentality, Gemma, and everyone is on one side.
Including the rest of the school board.”
She was right. It was no secret Mom had friends all over Brentwood, especially in the school district.
We weren’t a rich family like the Brays, but Mom did have a certain charm about her that could lure people.
Pack mentality. It made sense. “Not you, though,” I said. “You’re standing up for Hudson.”
“I don’t agree with the grudge they’re holding against a student.
If I let the school board’s vendetta get in the way of him moving forward, what kind of principal am I?
” She rubbed her fingers into her temple.
“The buddy program isn’t a magic fix-all, of course.
They’ll still look for any opening chance they get.
I only hoped that it could…well. I hoped that it could get Hudson to take it all more seriously. ”
Was he, though? I liked to think so—I liked to think I was making a little headway in getting him to open up a bit more—but I wasn’t sure.
“Which, now that we’re on topic, I wanted to check in earlier in the week, but with the list, time got away from me. How have the peer meetings with Hudson been? He hasn’t been giving you trouble, has he?”
Trouble. I thought of his harsh words in Ms. Murphy’s office our first day, and then the stony glare he gave me when I stood on the opposite side of the dusty road.
Those images were quickly replaced by other ones—Hudson twining his pinky around mine, him leaning his head against his hand and threading his fingers through his hair. “Things are good.”
“I was curious because Ms. Murphy said you ate lunch with him yesterday.”
She spoke the words like a hidden scolding. The air conditioning in her office hummed in the quiet, words chilling in the air. Ms. Murphy knew I went into her room yesterday? Wait, did she have a recording in her room?
“Gemma, it’s okay. In fact, in a normal buddy situation, I’d encourage it. But it’s like I said.” She glanced at the ceiling as if the words were written on the tiles. “The school board has their vendetta. I’d hate for you to get caught in the crossfire.”
The way she spoke made me wonder how much she knew about Hudson.
I was certain she knew more than me—it wasn’t like Hudson and I swapped juicy secrets—but I couldn’t figure out why she was being so doom and gloom.
“You said something happened over the summer to make the school board more upset with Hudson, didn’t you? ”
“I can’t discuss too much about his life with you, but since you’re his mentor, you should know a few things.” Principal Oliphant leaned her elbows onto her desk. “He was arrested this past summer.”
Curiosity and horror pretty much summed up what I was feeling. “For what?”
“Assault.”
Assault could mean a lot of things, my mind tried to reason, and then I wanted to kick myself for trying to do that at all. Assault was assault. Arrested was arrested. There was no manipulating the words to fit into what I wanted them to—the square block would only ever fit into the square hole.
Landon’s beaten, bruised face popped into my head.
“You can see how, with that new development, now the school board is determined.” She let out a little breath.
“So, let’s keep your meetings after school, okay?
Superintendent Filmore comes into this wing during his lunch break, and if he saw you, he would tell your mother—I wouldn’t doubt it. Do you understand?”
I curled my hands into little fists as I thought about the whole situation.
It was clear that Principal Oliphant was taking precautions, but the way she was trying to isolate Hudson for his own good still made me frown.
But ultimately, she was right. She had me snared.
If there was one thing my parents couldn’t find out about, it was Hudson Bishop.
“Yeah,” I eventually said. “I understand.”
“Okay, tell me.” Morgan pressed herself up against my side Thursday after school, the smell of her post-gym class perfume tickling my nose. “Who is it?”
“Who is what?” I asked, tugging my history book from the top shelf.
“Who is your brother dating?”
The textbook slipped from my fingertips and clattered onto the floor, slamming onto my toes in the process. The shock of Morgan’s words masked the pain. “What?”
She lowered her voice further. “It was a rumor going around last period, that he’s got a girlfriend. One of the juniors was talking all about it.”
“He’s not dating anyone.” I bent down and picked up the book, wincing at the fresh ding in the right corner. “Think about it, Morgan. Who would he date anyway?” I, too, lowered my voice now. “Madison?”
“Doesn’t he like her? You said he drew a picture of her.”
It was a doodle from his sophomore year, one he hadn’t moved off his desk when I’d ventured into his room.
“Yeah, but liking her from afar is way different than gathering the courage to ask her out.” The drawing was nothing impressive, not compared to his previous sketches, but it was clear that this was purposefully messy.
There were four characters in the small drawing: a boy who was clearly Connor Bray, the star player on the football team, Jade Dyer, Connor’s girlfriend, and then a boy and a girl.
The boy was Landon, obviously, and I’d assumed the girl was Madison.
“And besides, if they were together, there wouldn’t be a rumor.
It’d be blasted everywhere. Babble would have a field day. ”
“That’s true,” Morgan said thoughtfully, shoulders slumping a little at the reality, but she peered up at me. “But it is going around. You should ask him. And…you know. Tell me.”
“I’ll ask him,” I promised, but it was a begrudging sort of agreement. It was something I’d always wanted to fight against—being used to gain information about Landon since I was his sister. “I should get going.”
“How long do you have to be around the Grim Reaper again?”
When Morgan backed up, she backed straight into Hudson, who replied, “Until she dies, of course.”