Ruined

3

We stand up and walk out of the office, closing the door behind us and flop into the black leather chairs beside the office. I flinch a bit when I hit the hand rest with my bruised hand. I hear Steven whimper beside me.
"I didn't know that you were capable of that, jeez Walker."
He makes my last name sound like a disgusting disease. "Well, neither did I," I say with a trembling bottom lip. I've never been in this kind of trouble. Thanks Steven.
"Are you about to cry? You're face is really red," Steven says chuckling then winces.
"Yes, I'm on the verge of tears so please make fun of me," I say, as he holds his hand over his nose, that has turned a shade of blue-black, "Thanks to you I'm probably going to get suspended, and I've never been suspended, so yes I'm pretty darn mad. My face is probably going to turn purple," I claim with a frustrated huff and lean back into my seat.
"I don't see why it's such a big deal," he scoffs rolling his puffy eyes, "you'll just miss a couple days of school."
"Of course you think it's not a big deal. But it is a big deal for people who actually care about their future, and I'm done with this conversation, so don't talk to me."
He scowls and turns away, "Pathetic piece of-," he mumbles the rest.
•••
After about five more minutes of waiting Sammy steps out.
"Ella," Principal Collins says while Ashton comes out to sit, "come on."
As I stand, I watch Sammy take a seat two chairs away from Steven.
When we get into his office, seated, he asks,"What happened?"
I tell him everything from hearing the whimpers, to Steven poking me really hard when I stood up for Sammy, and when I tackled Steven down. 174 pounds of me tackling about 200 pounds of man to the ground. That's a lot of anger.
"This is a case of bullying, and you stood up for Sammy, it might not have been the right way, but it was a good way to get the situation noticed. I'm going to let you off with one week of detention, and I know that you're a good student, so this will not go onto you're record." I sigh in relief. "Sammy will be attending detention along with you because he said that he threw a punch at Steven," Oh, That's brave, "Someone will have to come sign you out from detention. It can be your friend, mom, uncle, or dad. It doesn't matter," I cringe at the word "mom". Mine is gone.
"Ok," I manage to murmur.
My dad can't come sign me out, and we don't have any family that live very close. He works until 6:00. Max has gymnastics until 7:40. Detention gets out at 4:00. I walk slowly out of the office and to sit beside Sammy as Steven is called in. Huffing as I sit down, Sammy asks, "What's wrong?" British accent. Huh.
"No one can come sign me out of detention, and I don't really want to be stuck here until 6:30," I groan quietly.
"My brother can sign you out," he suggests shrugging his shoulders.
"I guess that would be okay. He said anyone could sign us out," I tell him.
Principal Collins pokes his head out of his door, "You two can go ahead and start your walk to second period because there's only one minute of first period left, and Steven and I are going to be here for a while. I've notified Mr. Grayson,"my history teacher, "and Mrs. Roth," a science teacher, "of the reason for your absences." I nod and stand gathering my bag, Sammy following.
"See you in detention," I imply.
"Alrighty then," I hear him say as I make my way down the hall to my second period. The bell rings loudly, and students pour into the hall. I open my locker slipping the history book in and pulling my English binder out.
•••
The day goes by slow, and I'm ready for 25 minutes of free time with Max. The bell for free time finally rings. I gather my stuff from my desk in Algebra class and walk out quickly, cheering internally.
I open my locker, take my wallet and phone out of my book-bag, and set the bag into my locker, closing it. I notice most of the students staring and whispering. "He had to go to the hospital because she broke his nose," I hear a girl explain. He must be at Rose Memorial, where my dad works. I look at my feet as I walk to avoid the looks and whispers.
I meet Max at her car, she unlocks it and we hop in.
"Do you think that we can stop by my house because I need to run in and change shirts," I ask referring to the spots of blood on my shirt.
"Yeah, and I want to know what happened," she says while backing up and turning up the radio a little bit. One Republic sing "Counting Stars".
"I'll tell you about it when we get to Veda's."
"Otay," she says like the 2 year old she is.
We pull up at my house, and I dig my key out of my pocket and shove it into the keyhole when I reach the door.
I come back out with a fitted, blue, v-neck t-shirt on.
•••
We take our seat in the booth at the back of the small ice cream shop. My vanilla ice cream looks absolutely delicious right now, but I know Max wants to know what happened so I tell her as she listens closely while eating her sundae.
"Dang El," she says laughing when I'm done speaking, "bad ass."
"I was nervous out of my mind when we were walking to that office," I pout as we stand to leave, "and do you have to cuss so loudly?"
"Well, you got off with detention." Yeah, I guess that's okay. It gives me more time for school work, "and yes I do have to cuss so loudly, because I have my right to freedom of speech," she says pulling her blond hair back into a perfect pony tail, "you love me anyways."
"No, you make me mad, and those shoes are ugly."
She glances at me with a horrified expression and looks down at her floral printed flip-flops. I bust out into obnoxious laughs and snorts.
•••
I tread from music class down to the detention room. I spot Sammy's unruly, sandy blond hair and try to catch up with him. I tap his shoulder and he greets me with a smile.
"Ready for detention?" I ask frowning.
"No, not really, it's my first time in there..."
"Mine too."
We take our seats and the teacher closes the door behind another student that I don't notice. The guy takes a seat as the teacher does the same behind his desk.
"Be quiet, no talking. Read or work on school work. I don't care, just be quiet."

This isn't so bad. I do as the teacher says and take out some history work that I missed this morning. Max gave me what the teacher told her to, which is basically an open book quiz, but Mr. Grayson knows that I don't need the book.
I answer the thirty-five multiple questions with ease and put the paper into my bag. I glance at Sammy whom is reading The Great Gatsby. Good choice.
I jump in surprise when the door opens and a very handsome guy strides in. His hair is dark brown. He has on tight washed out blue jeans and a fitted black t-shirt. He has tattoos running down his arms, not like sleeves, but spread out.
"I'm here to sign out Sammy," he says to the teacher. He sounds English like Sammy sounded when he spoke. It's Sammy's brother. They look so different. He looks at Sammy for a moment before his eyes flit to me and away. He takes the pen from the outstretched hand of the teacher and quickly signs the sheet and hands the pen back. Sammy stands with his bag and walks to his brother and speaks quietly, glancing at me every now and then.
"I'll need to sign Ella out too."
The teacher nods and hands him the pen again.
I gather my things and join Sammy and his brother walking out of the door. The guy walks ahead of me and Sammy down the hall. He has a very attractive walk, and I catch myself staring, so does Sammy. "You think Asher is cute, huh?"
"No, no. I don't," I defend. So his brother's name is Asher.
He laughs, "So you're a lesbian?"
"Gosh no! Where is this coming from. What happened to the quiet Sammy I met just hours ago? I wish he'd come back," I say with amusement in my voice.
He smiles, "Well usually, the girls all fall over their feet around him." Sammy chuckles. "He's not my type," I state. Do I even have a type? Nope, I don't think so, but Sammy doesn't know that. We exit the school, Asher 10 steps ahead of us already.
"Bye Sammy," I wave as I start to walk down the sidewalk.
"Bye, see ya," he says climbing into a small, rusty black pickup.
•••
I open the kennel and grab Mazy, carrying her to the back door. I pass a family picture with my mom, dad, me, and my brother while walking to the back door. I hate this house. It feels empty without Mom. Jesse is gone to college, which makes the house feel even more empty, but he's coming back in about two weeks, so I'm semi happy. Mazy bounds across the grass to her "spot". She does her business, and I decide to leave her in the backyard to play for a little while. It's fenced in so she'll be fine. I check the clock in the kitchen. 4:36. I decide to go upstairs and change I into shorts and a t-shirt. When I come back downstairs, I flop on the couch, pick the remote up off of the coffee table and turn on the t.v.