Mia
SOUTH brONX CLASSICAL
Wednesday Morning
Nothing was okay. Not one bloody thing.
Lilly was in charge of the program. Rutton was actively looking for her replacement. And I was in the staffroom, sitting at my desk with my forehead pressed against the cold, hard wood.
Students still snickered as I walked by in the hallways, Kira was still avoiding me, and I missed Theo.
I missed him so much it hurt. Actual physical pain, right in the center of my chest.
If this was what being in love felt like, it was horrible, and I didn’t want it.
I wanted out. I wanted to make it stop.
“Hey.” Lilly’s soft voice came a moment before she put her hand on my shoulder. “You all right?”
I lifted my head and swatted at her hand. “Stop being so nice to me.”
She gave me a small smile. “It’s going to be fine. The students will forget about it in a few weeks.”
“But Kira won’t,” I grumbled.
Kira and Lilly were the only ones who mattered here. And if being with Theo hurt them, then I had to keep doing what I was doing. Block Theo’s texts, ignore his calls, delete his voicemails.
Even though it killed me, there was nothing else I could do.
“She won’t talk to me either,” Lilly admitted.
I straightened in my chair and let out a breath. “Is she doing okay, though? In class?”
Lilly gave me a hesitant grimace. “Yes and no. She keeps her head down, does her work, and ignores everyone, but people are still leaving notes in her locker.”
I ground my teeth. “How do I make them stop?”
“I don’t think you can. It has to run its course.”
My stomach grumbled, and Lilly’s gaze swept over me. “Did you eat breakfast?”
I shook my head. “I’m not hungry.”
“When was the last time you ate?”
I lifted a shoulder.
“Mia, you need to eat.” Lilly bent at the waist and peered into my face. “Is that concealer?”
I rolled my chair back and stood. “I use it all the time.”
“Not like that. And it isn’t covering those bags–”
“Lilly,” I groaned. “I’m fine.”
She put her hands on her hips. “No, you’re not. Why don’t you just talk to him?”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
I turned around, admitting, “Because it hurts too much.”
She dropped her hands and gave me a look. I knew that look. It was the you don’t have to hurt yourself to help me look.
“That’s why you should talk to him.”
“If I talk to him, I’ll probably end up seeing him, and then I’ll kiss him and do god knows what else.”
I threw my hands in the air. “And I can’t do that because if I get sucked in again, it’ll only end up hurting Kira more than it already has. I already did that once, and you lost your job because of it.”
Lilly came close enough to take my hand. She squeezed it as she said, “Mia, it’s not your fault. We’re a result-based school. If it wasn’t this, it would’ve been something else.” She shrugged. “Rutton bases promotions on results, and I didn’t deliver.”
I stared at her, long and hard, as students rushed by our staffroom door. “But… you’ve gotten results. Consistently.”
She lifted her shoulder. “Not in the ways that counted, I guess.”
A kernel of irritation flared in my middle. And the more I looked at my best friend’s beautiful-yet-sad face, the more it grew.
Lilly delivered in all the ways that mattered. She was an incredible mentor, an empathetic teacher. Her students could lean on her, depend on her. And her faith in what they could accomplish showed at the end of every term.
And if Rutton couldn’t see that, then… fine. I would have to make her see it.
At the very least, it might help undo some of the damage I’d caused.
South Bronx Classical
Thursday Afternoon
Soft snickers and whispers never bothered me. They didn’t bother me when they came from adults, and they definitely didn’t bother me when they came from students.
What did bother me was that they bothered Kira.
The bell rang, and my class filed out, excited that they only had one lesson left for the day. They could practically see their freedom dangling in front of them as we got closer and closer to the weekend.
I stepped into the hallway and blinked. The afternoon was brighter than I wanted it to be, and my eyes didn’t appreciate it. I would’ve rubbed them, but that would’ve smeared the latest dollop of concealer I’d swiped on.
Still, I managed to get to my next class just fine. I had my hand on the metal doorknob, ready to turn it and lock myself inside, until a series of odd noises made me pause.
I turned to see three girls–Amber and two others–following Kira. They were puckering their lips and smacking them together right behind her back.
The hallway was lined with students. They turned from their lockers to watch, some pulling out phones to film it. She walked on, gaze fixed forward, ignoring them.
But I couldn’t ignore it.
“Hey,” I yelled, dropping my hand from the door. “Amber. What do you think you’re doing?”
The girls froze. Kira kept walking.
“Nothing,” Amber said, already turning to run away.
“Don’t you even think about it. I saw what you were doing just now. And you two.” I looked at the two girls flanking Amber. “Do you really think it’s okay to treat someone like that?”
“We were just kidding, Miss Walker. It’s not like–”
“I don’t want to hear it. What I want is an apology. From all of you.”
“They don’t have to, Miss Walker.” I looked to my left, and Kira was by my shoulder, eyes downcast.
My lips flattened out. I was too angry to be happy about the fact that she’d finally spoken to me.
“Yes, they do,” I seethed. “This isn’t okay. We don’t treat people like this here.”
I looked at Amber squarely, and I think she knew then that I wasn’t just talking about the teasing she’d just instigated. It was everything: the bullying in class, the rumors she spread, the photo she shared. I wanted her to apologize for all of it, and I wanted that apology now.
“Apologize,” I demanded. “Now.”
She lowered her eyes and muttered, “Sorry.”
“Yeah, sorry,” the other two echoed.
I shook my head. “Not good enough. Louder.”
Amber’s gaze snapped up; her mouth open, about to argue. But before I could repeat myself, the on-duty teacher, a math guy named Mark, appeared behind Kira’s three bullies.
“Is there a problem, Miss Walker?” he asked.
“These three get detention for harassing a student,” I told him. Then I dropped the edge from my voice as the girls started complaining. “Could you arrange that, please?”
Mark looked from Kira to me to the girls and nodded. “I’ll need to hear what happened.”
“I’ll come by later, then.”
He nodded, told the three girls to follow him, and left Kira and me alone.
I looked up at her and asked, “Are you all right?”
She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I did. From now on, I want you to write down the names of anyone who treats you like that. If they won’t stop on their own, I’ll make them stop.”
She looked at me then, opening her mouth like she was about to say something, but then her eyes drifted over the students already lining up outside of my classroom door.
So instead, she nodded, turned away, and left.