Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
“Did you see her wrists?”
“Look at her ankles.”
“Someone likes to be tied up. Slut.”
Deep breath, Shi. Just ignore them. I inhaled deeply as I tied my sneakers in the girls’ locker room. I could do this. I wasn’t going to care what they thought.
Ever since my locker had been graffitied yesterday, I’d been stared at and talked about at school and no one was very discreet about it when I walked by, either. The weekend couldn’t get here fast enough. At least today was almost over. The twins had a meet tonight, but it was at another school.
Holding my head up high, I got up and made my way out into the gym. We were spending today inside playing volleyball again. It was a record one hundred and fifteen degrees out.
Colt, Creed, and Ethan were already standing on the other side of the gym. I began walking in their direction when I was cut off by Cassy, Amber, and three of their friends.
“What the fuck is up with your wrists and ankles?” Amber asked. “One of your clients get a little too rough?”
I didn’t engage and tried to appear unfazed as I attempted to step around them. They closed ranks and blocked me from getting away.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I bit out, my irritation quickly building. “You all need to get a life and stop obsessing about mine.”
Amber stepped closer. “Don’t think you’re better than us, you stupid whore,” she snarled and shoved me. I stumbled back a few steps. I caught an evil smirk on Cassy’s face before my eyes leveled with Amber’s.
“You just put hands on me,” I said directly to Amber and loud enough for others to hear. “If you do it again, I’ll make you eat the floor.” I was strangely calm standing against five girls who were undoubtedly getting ready to attack me. Maybe it was because I'd survived something so much worse or maybe it was because I knew I would not be a victim in this fight. I knew how to defend myself. That gave me a little bit of confidence and a sense of control I wasn’t used to having.
Amber didn’t heed my warning. When she went to shove me again, I stepped out of the way, latched onto her wrist with one hand, yanked her forward while I hooked my foot around her ankle, propelling her face first to the floor. It happened so fast that she didn’t have time to brace herself. She hit the floor with a hard thunk. Blood gushed from her nose onto the tan gym floor.
After the shock wore off, the other girls tried to come after me, but Colt and Creed appeared, jumping in between us, blocking them from me.
A whistle blared, echoing throughout the gym. Coach Dale and Coach Ross came running toward us.
“Break it up!” Coach Dale yelled.
We all stepped away from each other. When they approached us, Coach Ross knelt next to Amber while Coach Dale looked between us all before pointing at Cassy and her friends. “You four! Go to the principal’s office right now!”
“What?!” Cassy screeched in disbelief.
“I said right now!” Coach Dale yelled. Cassy and her posse reluctantly turned and left. Then Coach Dale looked at me. “Miss Pierce, come with me.”
I followed Coach Dale out of the gym toward his office next to the boys’ locker room. He pointed to a chair outside his office. “Take a seat.” I did as he said and he walked into his office, shutting the door behind him.
I didn’t know how long exactly I sat there, but it had to have been more than thirty minutes. It wasn’t until the principal, Mr. Morgan, showed up that Coach Dale finally popped out of his office and gestured for me to come in. I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of Coach Dale’s desk. Coach Dale offered his desk to Mr. Morgan to sit at while he stood off to the side.
Mr. Morgan sighed as he sat behind Coach Dale’s desk. “I just want to start off by saying, we have zero tolerance for violence at this school?—”
“Your zero tolerance didn’t stop five girls from cornering me in the gym,” I snapped. Stewing for thirty minutes hadn’t calmed me down. If anything, it had pissed me off more and I was on the defensive.
“And why did they approach you?” Mr. Morgan asked.
“They were making fun of my scars,” I answered honestly.
Their eyes dropped down to my wrists. “I see,” Mr. Morgan said. “And what did they say about your scars?”
I fidgeted in my seat. “Amber implied that I provide sexual services and asked if one of my clients got a little too rough. They’ve been calling me a whore every chance they get for the past couple of days.”
“How’d you get your scars?” he asked bluntly.
Logan and I had gone over a fake history I was to tell if anyone were to ask me questions. That was the whole point of WITSEC. I wasn’t supposed to be me, and no one could find out the truth. I was Shiloh Pierce now and I would tell them her story. “My family and I were in a car accident a little over a year ago. My parents and sister were killed. I was the only one who survived, but I didn’t walk away from the accident unscathed.”
Mr. Morgan cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
I nodded.
“I interviewed some of the other students who had witnessed the altercation. All stated that Amber shoved you and that you told her not to do it again or you would kick her ass,” Mr. Morgan said.
“To clarify, I said I would make her eat the floor. Not kick her…butt,” I corrected.
“Well, you certainly did as promised.” His eyes squinted slightly as if he wanted to laugh, but he remained professional. “Because Amber shoved you, she is being suspended. The rest of the girls received detention. As for you…”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re going to punish me for defending myself?”
“With our zero tolerance for violence, my hands are tied,” Mr. Morgan said.
I was floored. “May I ask what you would have done in my situation, Mr. Morgan?”
“You could have yelled out for help,” he suggested.
Really?
Mr. Morgan released a heavy sigh. “With the policy in place, I don’t have a choice…but I’m willing to make a deal with you,” he said, and I waited for him to continue. “It’s been reported to the office that your locker was vandalized yesterday and just this morning your name was graffitied in every boys’ bathroom. Both incidents were reported by someone other than you. I could only assume you were afraid to come forward. Which is why I had planned on calling you into my office tomorrow morning.” Mr. Morgan paused. “If you explain what’s been going on, I’ll lessen your punishment to lunch detention tomorrow.”
“Why?” I was skeptical.
“Because I think you’re being bullied, Miss Pierce, and believe it or not my number one priority is to protect my students. Not just punish them.”
I sat back in my chair and chewed on my bottom lip. “If I tell you, what will happen?”
“That depends on what you tell us, but having all this documented could protect you and could help us prevent things from escalating.”
I didn’t want things to get worse, that was for sure. “I have an idea of who vandalized my locker, but I don’t have any proof, and as for the boys’ bathrooms, I wasn’t even aware of that. So I don’t know what I can tell you that will help me.”
“Why don’t you tell me what’s been going on and let me be the judge of that?” he said.
Fine. I began with my very first interaction with Cassy.
“You did the right thing,” Keelan said from the passenger’s seat of Knox’s red 1970 Camaro SS. It was the old car they all had been working on when I had seen them for the first time. The twins had told me their dad and Knox had shared a passion for fixing up old cars. Knox’s Camaro had been the last car he and their dad had been working on before his fatal car crash. It was a beautiful car with its buttery black leather interior, hot rod red paint, and white racing stripes.
Knox, Keelan, and I were driving to the twins’ swim meet. Keelan had texted me and asked if I wanted to ride with them. With Knox driving and Keelan next to him up front, I sat in the back staring out the window. We were driving in a new area of town for me and I wanted to see what was around. The first topic of conversation was what had happened in the gym today. The twins had blabbed.
“I didn’t really have a choice. It was either tell the principal what’s been going on or get suspended,” I grumbled.
“Morgan is a good principal. He could have just suspended you, not caring to get to the root of the issue like a lot of principals,” Knox said while staring at me through the rearview mirror. He had a point. All Mr. Morgan had done was document everything I had said. Like I’d told him, there wasn’t any proof Cassy had been behind the vandalization of my locker or the boys’ bathrooms, which I’d promptly asked Colt and Creed about on the drive home from school. Apparently, “Shiloh Pierce is an easy fuck but a lousy lay” had been written on the walls in all the boys’ bathrooms. They hadn’t wanted to tell me about it because they didn’t want to see me hurt. As much as it warmed my heart that they were looking out for me, I still wished they had told me.
“Are we going out to eat tonight or do one of you have something planned?” Keelan asked.
“Let’s go out,” Knox and I said at the same time and we locked eyes in the rearview mirror again.
“Where do you want to go to eat, Shi? We could go to a restaurant or if you want something quick, we could hit a drive-through,” Keelan suggested.
“I would love to go to a restaurant. I, ah…don’t eat fast food,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Really?” Keelan asked.
“It’s against my religion,” I said, sounding serious.
They both went quiet before Keelan turned in his seat to look at me. “What religion is that?”
I did my best to hold back my smile. “The one I just made up.”
Knox chuckled and Keelan shook his head while smiling before turning to sit properly in his seat.
I went back to staring out at the window. “Fast food is nothing but fat, too much salt, grease, and thousands of calories.”
“That’s what makes it good and you’re the last person who should worry about their calorie intake,” Keelan said.
I sighed. “I’m a food snob, okay?”
That had them both laughing. “Now that, I believe,” Knox said and Keelan nodded in agreement.