Cheap Shots

00:29

UNEDITED

29. 

            Something was horribly wrong. 

            It was Wednesday morning, the first morning that I was allowed back from my suspension, and I was jogging into school a few minutes early so I could get to my first period global class on time, for once, and hopefully get a quick five minute lesson on everything I had missed in the week of my absence. 

            I wasn’t getting my hopes up.

            A sinking pit was in my stomach, and I had a nervous feeling filtering through my body as I walked down the empty halls to my classroom. 

            It was just my luck that her classroom door was locked, the lights turned off and no hall monitor in sight to unlock the room for me.  I decided against waiting outside her door, and walked back up the stairs to the main hallway where kids were starting to fill in off the busses. 

            “I would have shit luck the first day back,” I commented lowly to myself, perching on a railing outside of one of the hallways.

            A few minutes later, Lauren’s taunting met my ears.  “You look very social.”

            I glanced up from my phone screen with a sly smile.  “Yeah?”

            “Excited for your first day back?  I heard it’s going to be just as boring as every other day.”

            I rolled my eyes, “So excited.  I had so much fun teaching myself all the lessons over the weekend too!” 

            “I figured you would.”

            “Everything cool?”  I asked her, trying to decipher what the abnormal feeling in my gut was.  Maybe my period came early?

            Lauren quirked an eyebrow at my question, “Yes… Why?”

            I shrugged.  “I just feel like it’s going to be a bad day, that’s all.”

            Looking at me funny, she retreated to my side so she could also lean against the railing.  Jacque was walking down the hallway, a coffee cup in her hand and her expression unreadable.      

            “I’m a little mad that you guys didn’t tell me,” she said when she arrived, sending a pitying look my way and hugging Lauren.

            “Tell you what?”  Lauren questioned cautiously.  I was too busy making ‘I told you so’ faces to her to say anything.

            “What Sean did,” Jacque said like it was obvious, raising the cup to her lips before hugging me as well.  “That’s so horrible, I can’t believe I had to find out from Josh, though.  Why didn’t you guys tell me?  I always wondered why he never came back to school, you know?  Glad you guys are okay, that must’ve been so horrible to go through.”

            “What must’ve been horrible to go through?”  Charlie asked, walking over to our group as more people started to follow.

            I didn’t have the chance to tell Jacque to shut up before she filled Charlie in on the Sean dilemma.  “I’m going to kill Joshua,” I whispered angrily to Lauren before tugging on Jacque’s arm and getting her away from a wide-eyed Charlie.

            “No way!”  He practically yelled, attracting the attention of some passerby.  Lauren quickly shushed him as I captured Jacque’s attention.