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Imogen Halstead (age 16)
Word count: 1756
Tw: contains violence
Imogen's POV
"She keeps staring at you..." my best friend, gabby, nudges my arm under the table. I look up to see a blonde haired girl staring at me with a judgemental grin, "she commented on my instagram post last night, said something about my dad" I shrug, trying to shake off my anger. Gabby furrows her brows, "I didn't see anything" she tilts her head. I shake my head, "because I deleted it" I sigh. Gabby nods, "did you at least screenshot it?" She raises an eyebrow. I scoff at the question, "of course I did, who do you take me for?" I smirk.
With only a minute left of the lesson, I put my school blazer back on and pack my things away, following Gabby to the door and straight past that girl. Gabby rolls her eyes as we leave the classroom, ignoring their sarcastic comments about us both. As we tread down the hallway, "hey! Halstead!" The girl's squeaky voice yells down my ear.
I turn around to see her staring at me with her cronies stood behind her like parrots, "nice family picture" she taunts. I pull a face, trying my best to ignore her, "although, wasn't your dad a raging alcoholic?" She spits at me. I take a step back, "shut up" I retaliate. She frowns, "or what? You gonna' tell your mom? Oh wait... you can't, she's..." before she can even finish that sentence my fist has already connected with her nose.
I'm not a violent person, but bringing that up was uncalled for, and I won't stand for it. Before I know it, I'm on top of her on the ground throwing punches at her face and I can't stop, I feel the hot stream of tears rolling down my cheeks and the warm stain of blood on my knuckles. I seem to blackout from rage for a few seconds, because the next thing I see is my maths teacher ripping me off of this girl. He rushes me into his classroom before returning to the girl outside.
Gabby is still stood in the hallway staring at what I just did, before she eventually follows me inside. Her face is white and she's staring at my face. That girl, Lucy, must've thrown a few punches at me too. Gabby grabs a nearby tissue and harshly applies pressure. With blood tricking down the side of my forehead and my nose, I don't know what to say. Gabby squeezes my shoulder, "it's okay" she reassures me. The only thing I can see is my shaky hands resting on my bloody school shirt...
Roughly half an hour later, the school nurse lets me go wait in the reception. I know my brother is on his way, and I know I'm in deep trouble, but all I can think about is my pounding headache. My head won't stop bleeding but apparently the other girl had it worse, someone said she was taken to hospital... uh oh.
"Get your ass up, now!" My brothers all too familiar voice fills my ears. I look up, still holding the bandage before following him into the principals office, "I'm so sorry to be meeting with you on such dire terms today, mr Halstead" the woman sighs. Jay nods, "please, call me jay" he nods. My principal nods, "well unfortunately jay, as I explained on the phone. Imogen seemed to be the instigator of a fight today and as a school with a no violence policy, I simply cannot let this slide. Imogen is hereby suspended for three weeks... we will follow up with a meeting to discuss our next steps" she sighs heavily.
"I understand, ma'am. Have you got anything to say, Imogen?" Jay looks at me. I shrug, causing him to nudge my chair, "she deserved it" I sigh. Jay scoffs, "once again, I'm so sorry, I'll make sure it gets dealt with appropriately" he yanks me out of the chair. After practically dragging me to the truck, he slams his door shut, "let me see" he forces my head in his direction. Thankfully my nose decided to give me a break, but my head won't stop bleeding. He lifts the bandage up and another gush of blood trickles down the side of my face. His face distorts into that of worry and nods, "we're going to see Will, we'll discuss the matter later" he warns.
