That Scandalous Year

Blame Game

JANUARY 2017

One of the teachers led them into a vacant classroom, closed the windows, and shut the door. They were told not to leave and just wait there. No one was left in charge.

There were ten of them inside.

Clead was in the middle row with his two friends, Vladimir on the left and Edward on his right. Eve and her two sidekicks, Erika and Steffie, were in the front, one seat apart from each other. Marcus and Percy were behind Clead and Vladimir. Linda was two chairs next to Edward. And Marie was in the back, secluded from everyone.

No one moved. No one made a single sound.

The silence got more agonizing and suffocating as the minutes passed.

Clead was the first to break it. He ran his hands through his hair first, held his head for a second, and audibly dropped his palms on his lap. "I didn't even do anything. Why am I here?" He said to no one and everyone.

Eve turned to him. "Oh, quit it, Clead," she snapped back, loud enough that her screeching voice echoed through the walls. "Just admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That you're the one who did it."

He scoffed. "Why would I admit something that I didn't do?"

The impatience in his voice scared Marie. She held her breath for a second.

"I was a victim too, remember?" Clead added.

Eve clenched her teeth at him.

He was about to respond again, but he refrained from releasing the other things he wanted to say. There was no way it wouldn't get nasty if he didn't.

"Maybe it was one of you," Vladimir suddenly said, which was directed at Eve, who just stood up with both hands on her hips.

"You're accusing me and my friends?"

Vlad shrugged and slouched on the chair with his arms crossed.

"Have you read the things about me in there?" Eve took a step forward. "How can I be the one that wrote them?"

It was a classic move by Eve, Marie thought. It was in Eve's character to turn things around and make them about her; to make sure she brought herself into good light. Marie rolled her eyes, but Steffie caught her.

"What are you rolling your eyes for, Marie?" Steffie asked her with a voice that was as pointed as her fingernails.

Everyone turned around and stared at that girl in the back of the room.

"Really, Steffie?" Marie held the armchair tighter, leaned forward, and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Maybe it's Percy," Vlad said, diverting the attention back to him. But he sounded like he was joking. "I mean, if it's just anyone, then Percy must be it, right? After all, she's named after the queen of the underworld," he said with a laugh. "That's the kind of thing she'd do, right?"

Percy didn't find anything amusing about it. Until that afternoon, she only knew a little about the issue at hand. Why was she dragged into that conversation earlier, and to that classroom afterward? It was still puzzling for her.

Clead shook his head. "Vlad, no," he quietly said to stop his friend from turning that moment into another of his lame jokes.

"Why does it even matter?" Edward suddenly spoke. And his voice was raised a little too high. Everyone fell silent once more. "What difference would that make if they found out who did it?" He added in the same tone. "Everything there turned out to be true anyway." He sounded frustrated. And who wouldn't if they were also caught in the middle of what happened that day?

Eve narrowed her eyes at him. "So, you're saying, you had something to do with it?"

Marie had enough of Eve. She let out a loud sigh. "Were you even listening to him?" She almost shouted. "He didn't say that, Eve."

"Oh, shut up, Marie."

"You shut up, Eve. You're the one who started this. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't even be in this room."

Vlad started saying something again, but his words were overturned by what Eve was saying to Marie. And Marie was fighting back. Clead and Steffie were at it too. Erika joined Eve against Marie. In another corner, Marcus and Percy were also bickering, but in lower volumes.

Voices overlapped. Each one blamed another. Insults and curses were thrown from one mouth to the other.

There was no chill in that classroom.

They were still at their word wars when the Guidance Counselor, Miss Rose, walked in.

"Guys! Kids! Children!"

"They're all lies!" Marie's last words hung in the air as the whole room went silent once again.

Each of them started sitting down as Miss Rose walked to the front of the room.

She leaned her petite body on the teacher's table. "What is going on?" she asked.

She may be small in size, but she looked intimidating. Miss Rose gave off vibes that she was in charge; that she was the predator and not the prey; that she runs the show. What she lacked in height, she expressed in her attitude.

No one said anything. No one wanted to meet the Guidance Counselor's eyes. But everyone either looked angry, hurt, or anxious.

Miss Rose sighed and stood up straight. "Will someone please tell me why I got called by one of your teachers because the whole senior student body is fighting?" She eyed the students one by one, recognizing most of them. "And why are the president, the high school paper editors, and notable students involved?"

Nobody responded. But Linda's eyes met Miss Rose's. She looked like she wanted to say something, then she reverted her gaze to the windows.

Miss Rose was getting impatient. She sighed once more and crossed her arms. "I asked that one of you please tell me what's going on." She consciously toned down her voice. It was like her superpower. She can turn on a beast mode and off again when necessary. "This is a closed-room discussion, nothing will get out. Nothing will be used against any of you."

They answered her again with silence.

"No one wants to talk?" Miss Rose dropped her hands on her sides, straightened her pencil skirt, and pretended to start heading for the door.

"Fine," she said in surrender. "I don't have a choice but to call all of your parents."

And just like hitting a switch, every head turned toward her. Miss Rose tried to hide a smirk.

"Now that I have your attention." She leaned back again on the table, rubbed her hands against each other, and stretched her arms forward. "Who wants to start?"