Chapter Thirteen
Excerpt from Testimony of Kayla Johnson
Ada Olson: Two months after that night in the field, you left The Palace. Is that right?
Kayla Johnson: I was asked to leave, to be more specific.
Ada Olson: After you had an altercation with one of the mothers in the stands—a bleacher bee I think you call them. Is that right? Can you say what happened?
Kayla Johnson: I heard them talking about the night in the field. But it was more the way they said it. They spoke like we were beneath them. They had no fucking clue what we went through and what it did to us. To me.
Ada Olson: And what did you do?
Kayla Johnson: I’m not proud of it—but at the time, I couldn’t contain my anger.
I walked up into the stands and started screaming at them.
Telling them how pathetic they were, how their kids couldn’t skate and Dawn just wanted their money.
Then one of them—Mrs. Finch—said something about my mother, and that’s when I lost it.
I raised one of my skates in the air like I was going to kill her with the blade.
Ada Olson: And did that idea just come to you—using the blade as a weapon?
Kayla Johnson: No. It was an image I had in my head that never left—from a story one of the girls made up. It felt ridiculous when she told it.
Ada Olson: Which girl?
Kayla Johnson: Indy Cunningham.
Ada Olson: And did you ever tell any of them about the way you threatened Mrs. Finch—Jolene, Ana, Indy?
Kayla Johnson: No. I left and never looked back. I couldn’t let myself think about them. I loved them too much, and I’d learned that lesson before I even came to The Palace.
Ada Olson: What lesson?
Kayla Johnson: That love destroys you.