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ODESSA MOVED HER PENCIL across the page of her notebook, doodling hundreds of small flowers and hearts along the empty spaces in her notes. she zoned out, too bored to hear about the quadratic formula. she was briefly brought back to the real world when she heard the classroom door open. she turned her head to the back of the classroom and saw principle hayes walk in.
"odessa jacobs?" he asked. odessa looked at him suspiciously. "come with me."
everyone's eyes were on her, she wanted to disappear into herself. she closed her notebook, held it and stood up. she walked out of the classroom, her classmates eyes not leaving her. principle hayes shut the classroom door behind her. behind her principle was two cops.
that was when odessa got nervous, she thought of all the possibilities that could be happening. maybe they'd brought the drug dogs in and she hadn't noticed, or maybe this was about fez. she felt her heart pounding, suddenly regretting bringing the cocaine in her bra to school. she followed them into a room that she had never seen before. it had a long table and a few chairs.
she sat down across from her principal nervously. he sighed, "don't worry, you're not in trouble."
"so um," she paused, "what's with the police escort."
"go get her parents, we can't question her without an adult present." an officer told principal hayes.
"my parents are here?" she asked.
principal hayes nodded and disappeared out of the doorway, there was an awkward pause, as one of the cops stared her down, "so, how old are you?"
"um, 16." she gave an awkward smile.
"damn, too bad." he muttered, as principal hayes came back in with both of her parents. her father sat down next to her and her mother stood behind her, placing her hand on odessa's shoulder.
"so, would you say you and your brother are close?" one of the officers asked.
odessa nodded, "extremely, why?"
"your brother and madeline perez had a physical altercation on saturday night, in which he allegedly strangled her." principal hayes spoke up.
"what?" odessa asked shocked, "is maddy ok?"
"ms. perez will be fine eventually." he answered.
"now, has nathaniel ever express any sort of violent behavior toward you?" an officer interjected.
she looked at her father then back at the officer, "i'm sorry, i'm not following."
"has nathaniel ever physically or verbally abused you?" the other officer asked.
odessa felt her mom squeeze her shoulder, she knew it wasn't for comfort, rather than a warning to not fuck everything up. she thought about it for a minute.
