Queen Boys

Chapter 12: Rumors and Atonement

"You done?" My mum asked, yanking away my plate that still had food on it.

"No mum!" I protested, but that fell on deaf ears as she took the plate anyway.

"Mum, I didn't do it!"

"I don't even know what to believe anymore!"

"Believe me then! I'm your son!" I pleaded, right as she went under the sink to retrieve the didgeridoo that I stored away from that party.

"Why is my didgeridoo hidden underneath the sink?"

"I don't know," I lied.

"This is the sacred communication method of the Yawaru people, do any of this mean anything to you?"

Her question was met with silence, to which she scoffed. "Who even are you, and what have you done to my John?" Then she stormed away, leaving me with just my dad.

"Great, everyone at school hates me now, and even my own mother hates me." I muttered to my dad.

"Your mum doesn't hate you, she's just afraid for you," he reassured, and I looked at him.

"Do you reckon we should homeschool you again?"

"Nah, retreating is worse than going back." I responded.

"How bad is it going to be tomorrow?" he asked with his hand resting against his palm.

"Awful, but I'll be fine. I'm just bring all attention to my studies going forward." I said, and my dad smiled at me.

"Good on you, I'm proud you came up with that yourself,"

"Thanks dad,"

"But you're... what do you guys call it here? Grounded!"

I suppose that's the least of my worries right now, plus it's fair given everything that happened...

~~~~

The following day, I came into homeroom to find that my seat next to Elton was gone, leaving me no choice but to sit behind the kid who farts a lot. Unsurprisingly, he let one rip seconds after I sat down. Coincidence? I think not.

At lunch, I felt every single eye pierce straight into me.

"He pushed him in front of the bus," I heard Jim whisper to someone.

"Did you see him do it?"

"Yes."

I knew that was a lie, but I didn't have the time or the energy to refute it right now.

I wound up having my lunch in the boy's locker room, just like my first day of school. Some things never change, it seems.

At math class, I walked in to see two constables and Ms Springfield.

"Did your teacher ever try to sell you marijuana or ecstasy tablets?" One of the constables asked, leading to a collective denial by everyone in the classroom.

I assumed my seat and whispered into Veronica's ear, asking what was going on. But she acted like I was completely invisible.

"Ms Springfield, this is insane! Mr Kane does not sell drugs!" Veronica protested loudly.

"I know Veronica, but after the allegations against Coach Prenter turned out to be extremely true, the school board decided that the best thing to do is to investigate every single rumour in this 'Burn Book'." Ms Springfield explained.

"That book was made by a bunch of idiotic guys who have nothing to do but create rumours like this because they find no fulfilment in their own pathetic little lives!" Veronica added, growing increasingly incensed with every word.

Well, she wasn't wrong.

"Well, unless someone is willing to come forward and say 'I made it all up,", this is how we have to handle it." Ms Springfield replied and I sighed.

Uh oh. Bye Ronnie, you're going to hate me forever.

Wanting to atone for my role in this mess, I stood up.

"Headmistress Springfield? I wrote that." I announced.

Ms Springfield looked at me with disappointment in her eyes, and gestured for me to go with her to her office. I turned and saw Veronica having that same look in her eyes.

~~~~

When you get bitten by a snake, you're meant to suck the poison out. So that's what I had to do, suck all the poison out of my life. I started with Freddie. He was living proof that the more people are scared of you, the more flowers you were going to get.

Next was Mr Kane, who was living proof that no good deed goes unpunished. Walking up to him to get my next quiz graded, Mr Kane dryly asked:

"Hi, would you like to get some drugs?" It stung, but I had that coming.

"I'm just done with my quiz," I trailed off, as he took the booklet from my hands.

"Great, I'll mark it right now."

I saw Veronica get up from her seat, but I couldn't bear to look into her eyes, so I kept my head down and continued looking at Mr Kane.

"I have to say, seeing the constables searching my house was the cherry on top of a fantastic year," he snarked, and I looked at him with guilt in my eyes.

"How much trouble did you get for telling the truth?" he asked as I glanced at Veronica 'fetching' an eraser. "Heaps."

"Well you couldn't have written the entire thing, did you tell Ms Springfield who else did it?" he added, referring to the fact that I didn't spill anything about Brian and Roger's involvement with the creation of the Burn Book.

"No, because I'm trying this new thing about refraining from back-talking other people." I replied, to which Veronica chimed in:

"That's right, getting hit by that bus was good enough punishment." Obviously she was referring to Freddie's accident.

Mr Kane then returned me my quiz. "92." he said, and I smiled. Taking a peek at my score, Veronica responded:

"Welcome back smarty-pants." Followed by a wink before she returned to her seat. I looked at her and smiled weakly.

"Thanks?" I called to her before returning my gaze at Mr Kane. "Anyway, I'm sorry," I told Mr Kane who gave me a small, but warm smile. "I forgive you. But as my personal form of punishment, I figured how you're going to get that extra credit to save your grade." he declared. I then turned to my right, to find Ringo smirking at me.

"What's up Straya?"