Preston Greens

3. Vicky or Victory?

"Carly!" Lisa shouted through the hallway. My back stung. Now I knew for sure it wasn't a dream. My mind was buzzing thinking about school work and what happened. Lisa was making her way through the middle school crowd heading for lunch.

"Carly," she said, panting, "OMG! I need to tell you something!"

"What is it Lisa? Talk to me." I replied.

"Well, Bobby wanted to come over to my house for the history project since his distant cousins are in town and they were leaving a big mess."

My eyes widened.

"Lisa? Do you know what this means?"

She nodded her head and her face was filled with worry. That was totally understandable. We entered the cafeteria and sat down at a table. Another friend of Lisa's, Belinda, sat down at our table. "Hey Belly!" Lisa exclaimed. Belinda hugged her.

This morning, dad was watching the news in the living room and I saw them talking about what happened last night to me. Wow, now the town knows about me. They oughta put me in an insane asylum, I thought to myself. "Carly, snap out of it." Belinda said, interrupting my thoughts about this morning. I snapped up to attention.

"What happened last night? It was all over the news this morning." Belinda asked. I sighed. She was the 50th person to ask me about what happened. I had already gone through my head that morning what to say since I knew people would ask, but I couldn't think of anything. I just told everyone to mind their own business and that the news apparently knew more about my life than I did. I couldn't tell that to Belinda since she was my friend, so I gave Lisa the reigns.

"Well Carly heard a noise last night and a man was standing next to her bed. He started to strangle her and the police came. The man then just vanished. Then Carly drove her father's car in a tree and she passed out." Lisa informed Belinda.

Belinda stared at me, amazed.

"Dude, don't ask me because I barely remember anything, except that I got this gash on my back." I said.

She was still in awe. I continued to eat my sandwich in a fashionable matter like nothing happened to me last night. I shrank in my seat as Belinda and Lisa talked about Bobby.

Belinda lived in Northbrook Estates, a gated neighborhood. I have to say she lives pretty close to us, but I don't see her as often as Lisa does. I was also friends with the girl across from me, Leslie. Leslie was pretty cool. She had her hair parted on one side and it was purple. She went to the local private school, so I didn't see her much. I wondered if she heard the chaos last night.

The bell rang and we had to go to 3rd period. I said goodbye to Lisa and headed over to my locker. I was one of those girls who decorated her locker with all sorts of things. I always thought that my locker was like my little apartment. I kept everything I needed in there like socks, lip balm, hairbrush, perfume, hair ties, and so many other things. I sprayed on some perfume and brushed my hair. I liked the way my blond hair glowed after I brushed it. It felt so soft!

My locker neighbor, or as we called it, Kendra, said hi. I said hi back as we kept on grabbing books for the next two periods. I grabbed my science textbook, my English spiral, and my pencil pouch. I was fearing English. My worst enemy was there, Vicky. Back in elementary school, I slapped her with a notebook because she was acting like a complete moron, and even to this day, 4 years later, she still hates me. I was ready to start over with her but Vicky didn't budge. 

"So, what happened to you last night?" Kendra asked in an im-going-to-tease-you voice. I decided to play along. "Oh shut up," I said, giggling. We loved to play these games. Suddenly, she became dead serious. "No, really, what happened?" She asked. "Oh, I think my house is haunted, but I don't know." I replied. Kendra nodded her head.

All of a sudden she seemed so drab. I felt so sorry that everyone at my school was feeling sorry for me. Even the gossipy girls. They looked at me with sympathy every time I walked by. I knew that I would rather have that reaction than them laughing about it. The only person who would laugh about it would be Vicky, and the second I set my foot in Mr. Koolaid's classroom, Vicky looked at me with disgust and started laughing.

Mr. Koolaid, as I call him because he has red hair, wasn't in the room yet, so Vicky was being as delirious as ever. I glared at her and took a seat. She was still snickering. Anger that came from nowhere started to boil. My hands were clenching and my head felt steamy.

Enough is enough. I thought to myself. Without any warning, I started to shout. "SO VICKY, YOU THINK THAT SOMEONE DRIVING A CAR AND CRASHING IN A TREE IS FUNNY? WELL ALL YOU THINK IS CRAP AND I DON'T NEED TO HEAR IT!" I shrieked.

 Vicky stared in surprise and now everyone else was looking at me, including Mr. Koolaid. I didn't realize I was screaming with my eyes closed, which was a habit of mine, and didn't notice that everyone came in to see what was going on. I shrunk down in my seat and coolly said, "I believe I am finished speaking."

Mr. Koolaid looked at me with an expectancy, but I didn't say anything, only arranged my pencils in order from shortest to longest. I smiled to myself. I felt so much better for some reason.

Mr. Koolaid stood up. He walked around the room. I was expecting him to stop at my desk, but instead he stopped at Vicky's.

"Vicky, I believe you were making fun of Carla about her incident last night?" Vicky reluctantly nodded. I tried my best not to smirk so I wouldn't push it. Mr. Koolaid as still at her desk.

"Now you are aware that you have to go to the front office because bullying here is not tolerated." Vicky stared at him in horror like he just had a snake come out of his eye or something. Vicky opened her mouth but Mr. Koolaid stopped her.

"Please, no protesting. Now go before I write you a detention slip." The whole class stayed silent and looked at each other. I just looked at my desk. Waiting for Vicky to shut the door and the class to say "burnnnnnned." Then I heard some sniffling. I looked up. Vicky was crying! Mr. Koolaid called the office and walked her out the door. I was waiting for him to come over to my desk but he didn't. I was a little surprised. Mr. Koolaid cleared his throat.

"Class, I would like to inform you that Carla did the right thing. She stood up to Vicky and told her not to mess with her. Well Carla, you have surprised me today." Mr. Koolaid is so cool! I was now ready to learn about English, expecting to be bored, but this was the best English class I have ever had.