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CHAPTER SIX

The three of us walked down the long hallway in silence, which was odd for a few reasons.
 
First, I can’t remember a time when I walked with anyone in this school.
 
It just didn’t happen.
 
People weren’t seen with me.
 

This was about as strange as it got, but in a good way, especially since I found myself walking with Jennifer, who I’d always wanted to talk to but never really dared.
 
As nice as she was, what would someone like her see in someone like me?

Second was the school itself—while classes were in session, it was weirdly quiet.
 
For the new school year, the floors were freshly waxed and, from the block of windows at the far end of the hall, the sun caught the gleam and tossed back.

Jennifer was at my left.
 
She reached out a hand to me, which I shook.
 
“I’m Jennifer Sanford,” she said.
 
“It’s nice to meet you, Seth.”

I felt a rush.
 
I could feel my face turning red.
 
I returned the greeting.
 
“Thanks for video taping that.”

“I can’t stand her.
 
When I saw that you were finally going to stick up for yourself—and how you were going about it, which was genius because you never lost your cool—I knew it wouldn’t go well.
 
I just snapped on my phone, put it on the edge of my desk and pointed it at her.”

“Isn’t your mother a lawyer?”

“She is.”

“Then you’ve got it in your blood.
 
That was nothing but instinct.”

Alex was at my right.
 
I looked up at him and saw that he was pissed.
 
“You were great in there,” he said.

“I’ll catch it from Hastings and his cronies later, but it had to be said.”

“That’s what I meant about my brother,” he said.
 
“Once he stood up to them, they backed down.
 
You’re on the right track.”

I smiled at him but sank into myself.
 
I’m on the right track not because of any newfound courage on my part, but because I’ve got some freaky amulet around my neck that apparently can do a whole host of shit.
 
Like get rid of the wiry kinks from my bush hair and swipe the acne off my face, revealing it for the first time in years.
 
It also gave me back the tooth my father smashed out of my head.
 
I felt like a fraud standing next to them.
 
They thought I’d been brave, when really, I was only falling back on something powerful that I still didn’t fully understand.
 

I didn’t exactly know how the amulet worked, but I was beginning to have a feeling for it.
 
When the day ended, I planned on practicing somewhere private to see if I could get it down.

We were halfway down the hallway when there was the sound of a door opening behind us.
 
I knew it was Branson before I turned.

“Seth,” she said.
 
“Alex.
 
Jennifer.”

We kept walking.

“Let me explain.”

We stopped and turned.
 
She was leaning against the door like a sack of potatoes shoe-horned into a yellow dress.
 
Defeat was on her face.
 
No sound came from the room beyond.

“I’ve changed my mind.
 
I don’t want you to go to the principal.
 
We can work this out ourselves.”

Jennifer lifted her iPhone again.
 
She pointed it down the hall and started to record her.
 
Branson eyed the machine, hating it.

“No, we can’t,” I said.
 
“You made your choice.
 
You chose me over Hastings, and I’m going to the principal.”

“That can be changed.”
 
With the camera on her, she chose her words carefully.
 
Her voice became light.
 
“This is the new year,” she said.
 
“Some things were said.
 
I agree that I was wrong.
 
Mike should be punished.
 
Let’s start off fresh.”

It happened so quickly, I wasn’t aware of it happening.
 

Just looking at her standing there, pleading with us, knowing she was in the wrong and was about to beg for us to conceal what she’d done, was too much for me to swallow.
 

Anger bloomed within me.
 
I imagined the door she was sagging against slamming shut—hard.
 
So hard that it would send her flying across the room.
 
So hard that she’d skid across the floor and smash her head against her desk.
 
So hard that it would make a final statement—don’t fuck with me, lady.
 
Leave me alone.
 
Let me be.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Without warning, the door swung shut with a bang, but because it was so quiet in the hall, you could hear Branson striking something inside the room.
 
There was a scrambling.
 
I could hear some of the students asking if she was alright.
 
I looked at Jennifer and saw that she was still filming.
 
I tapped her on the arm, she clicked off the phone and the three of us walked to the principal’s office, but not before Alex intervened.

“Um, what was that?”

“What was what?”

“That door closed by itself.”

“It looked that way.”

“Do you know how?”

“No idea.”

“Something you want to tell us?”

“Like what?
 
I wrinkled my nose and magically made it happen?”
 
I gave him a look that suggested the idea was ridiculous.
 
“Actually, for effect, I think she closed it on her own.
 
She knew Jennifer was filming and she did something that would look off.”
 
I shook my head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I also don’t really care.
 
I just want to get to the principal’s office and finally take a stand for myself.”
 

I looked at each of them and knew they were trying to process what had happened to poor old lady Branson and also why my complexion and hair looked like something out of an Abercrombie & Fitch poster.
 
They wouldn’t know about the tooth.
 
When my father punched me, he knocked me from the side and loosened a wisdom tooth, which became so loose, I pulled it out.
 
Now, it was back.
 
It felt good to have it back.

“I don’t know,” I said.
 
“It was kind of weird, wasn’t it?”

“You think?” Jennifer asked.

I smiled at her.
 
“Maybe it was your phone.
 
Maybe Mac has an app that takes down bullshit teachers.”

At least that made them laugh.
 
We kept walking forward.
 

“If they do,” I said, “I probably should look into that.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The meeting with Principal Roberts was brief and intense.
 

I told her why I was there, why Alex and Jennifer joined me, and then we showed Roberts the video of Branson in the classroom.
 
To protect ourselves from whatever she might say later, we also showed her the video of Branson’s door suddenly shutting and her being swept inside.

Roberts was a middle-aged woman with a motherly face and I have to give it to her.
 
She handled the situation better than I expected, which gave me some hope that Alex and Jennifer weren’t the only decent people left in the world.
 

“I don’t know what to think about the door,” she said tentatively.
 
“Any ideas about that?”

We shrugged.
 

“It just slammed shut,” Jennifer said.
 
“You can see on my iPhone that none of us was behind it.”

“I see that, but I don’t understand why it would shut on its own.”

“Maybe Mrs. Branson did it,” I said.
 
“She knew she was on camera.
 
After what she tried to pull on me in that classroom, I don’t put anything past her.
 
She could have just yanked it shut to make people question it.
 
But, who knows?
 
I don’t understand it myself.”

Roberts looked at me and after a moment, her questioning eyes softened a bit.
 
“Mrs. Branson will be spoken to,” she said.
 
“So will Mike Hastings.
 
Right after you leave.
 
I don’t tolerate bullying of any kind in this school.”

“With all due respect, Principal Roberts, I’ve never not been bullied in this school.”

“You’ve never come to me about it.”

“That’s true.
 
But when so many teachers watch you go down time and again without stepping in to help, you tend to get jaded.
 
Why would I think that you’d help me when none of your staff has?
 
Nobody has ever stepped in to stop it.
 
And if I can be frank, you must have been aware on some level what I’ve been going through for the past three years.
 
It’s no secret.”

When she didn’t answer, I knew she knew.

“So, you see?” I asked.
 
“You knew and yet nothing has changed.
 
Today, I met a new friend in Alex.
 
He gave me a little push.
 
He gave me some confidence.”
 
I looked at Jennifer and part of me melted when I did.
 
She was beyond pretty.
 
“And I met Jennifer, who saw what was happening and had the presence of mind to get it on tape when I was trying to reason with my teacher to make it stop.
 
What that got me was a trip to your office.
 
Pretty incredible, isn’t it, that teachers can be the worst bullies?
 
You know what really scares me?”

She shook her head.

“It’s only going to get worse before it gets better—
if
it gets better.
 
That’s how it goes.
 
If they don’t tackle me here at school, then it will happen off school property.
 
And there’s nothing you can do about that.
 
It will be up to their parents, who also will do nothing because they believe there’s no way their precious child would bully anyone.
 
Coming here was like opening Pandora’s box.
 
I am so in for it, I can’t tell you.”

“Then here is what I can tell you,” Roberts said.
 
“You go to the police next time someone pulls something.
 
And as much as I hate to say it, I know you’re right, Seth—they will come after you.
 
But you do have that option of going to the police.”

“What proof would I have if I did?
 
People hate me here.
 
I don’t know why they do, but I can guess.
 
Probably because I’m poor and because, yes, my parents are alcoholics.
 
I’m the person who lives in the tin-can trailer.
 
I’m the person who never has fit in.
 
It’s like I’m Kryptonite.
 
If somebody saw someone take a swing at me, they’d say nothing because if they did speak up, they’d be targeted.
 
They’d be branded as the person who snitched in an effort to help the loser.
 
That’s how it works.
 
With the exception of these two, nobody ever has taken a stand.
 
I’m screwed.”

“No, you’re not,” Alex said.
 
“I’ve got your back.”
 

“I appreciate that,” I said.
 
“But you’re not always going to be there.
 
Hastings will have his day with me.
 
I can give you the names of two dozen others who also will have at me.”

“Then give me the names,” Roberts said.
 
“I’ll talk to them.”

“And make things worse?
 
I can’t do that.
 
There’s no way you can shut down all of the people who have made it their life’s work to make my life a living hell.
 
And don’t think I’m being melodramatic—I’m not.”

“You’re going to have to trust someone, Seth.”

“I do,” I said.
 
“After today, I trust these two.
 
After you’ve talked to Mrs. Branson, I’ll know how firm you were with her and then, if she does find some compassion and does change, maybe I can trust you, too.”

“I hope that’s the case, because I plan to talk to her and Mike Hastings immediately.”

In the silence that passed, I felt embarrassed.
 
I’d never opened up like this to anyone.
 
I felt exposed and uncomfortable.
 
I just wanted to leave.
 
“Anyway,” I said.
 
“I’ve probably said too much.
 
I’ve gotten through years of this crap and I can get through this year.
 
Then I can move out of this town and start a new life somewhere else.”
 
I looked at her.
 
“Do you mind if we leave now?”

She shook her head.

“Do I need to go back to her class?
 
There’s, like, another forty minutes left.
 
I don’t want to go back in there.”

“I don’t expect you to.
 
Why don’t you take the rest of the day for yourself?
 
Go home.
 
Let me talk to Mrs. Branson and Mike Hastings.
 
We also have a teacher’s meeting tonight.
 
Believe me when I say that I’ll be sending every teacher in that room a warning.”

*
  
*
  
*

Outside Roberts’ office, the three of us stood together.
 
They were trying to be discrete, but I was aware of them looking at my face and my hair, and wondering what the hell I had done to myself to go from what they knew to what they saw now.
 
I‘d gone too far.
 
I should have been more subtle.
 
What was I thinking?

“I appreciate what you both did for me today,” I said.
 
“It means a lot.”

“Are you walking home?” Alex asked.

“Because you don’t need to,” Jennifer said.
 
“I’ve got a car.
 
It’s not much, but I saved up for it and it runs.
 
I’ll take you home if you don’t want to walk.
 
I could ask Principal Roberts.
 
She won’t mind.”

Alone with her in a car?
 
I’d never spent much time around girls because none wanted to spend time around me.
 
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Alex looking intently at me.
 
Did he want me to take the shot and go with her?
 
Or was he interested in Jennifer himself?
 
“Thanks,” I said.
 
“But actually a walk sounds good.”

“You sure?”

I nodded.
 
And truth be told, I needed that walk.
 
I planned on doing something on that walk.
 
I wasn’t looking forward to it, but it had to be done, regardless of the death it would cause.
 
“I’ll be fine—all of the beasts are rubbing their hands in here.
 
Would you do something for me, Jennifer?”

“Of course.”

“Can you get that video you shot off your phone and put it on a thumb drive for me?
 
I think I might be needing it if Branson tries to screw me.”

“I can do that.
 
I’ll have it for you tomorrow.”

“I’ll pay for the drive.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she said.
 
“My brother’s a techie.
 
He won’t miss it.”