𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐊 . . . 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝

𝟐𝟏. 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥

21. some loser at a funeral

season three, episode eight: in high school, even on a good day, it's hard to tell who's on your side

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!! tw: mentions of sexual assault !!

Nessa was way less than excited when the Vice Principal had come into her third period and requested her presence in the principal's office. She was absolutely pissed when she walked in and Mr. Porter was sitting there, a deputy by his side as he gestured her to an empty seat in front of him.

"Nessa." Mr. Porter said as she entered the room, an outwardly frustrated disposition following her. "Have a seat, please."

Nessa did as she was told, only due to the presence of a deputy in the room. She sat down, placing her backpack in her lap as she clutched it with both of her hands.

"How are you doing?" he asked, and Nessa scoffed.

"Fine, no thanks to you." she retorted, and Mr. Porter grimaced.

"Look, Nessa," he said as he sighed. "I know you aren't my biggest fan, and I apologize. I truly do hope that you are healing from your assault. But I do have some questions for you, so could you humor me and help me out here?"

Nessa sighed, nodding her head to comply with the man.

"Thank you." Mr. Porter told her, looking down at his notebook. "So, in the tape that Clay Jensen made, he confronted Bryce and accused him of sexual assault."

"He raped me, sir." Nessa said sharply, rolling her eyes as she pressed back into the chair.

"Well, it sounds like Clay escalated the conflict by throwing the first punch."

Nessa recalled the tape, she had only heard it once, which was more than enough for her. "Clay didn't go there to do that, it happened because Bryce is a piece of shit. He allowed himself to get his face beat in so that Jessica and I would finally know the truth, and I actually admire him for that."

"For taking justice into his own hands?" Mr. Porter asked with a distrusting tone. "Nessa, he could have gone to an adult."

She scoffed, almost laughed. "Yeah, because that goes over swimmingly around here."

Mr. Porter's lips upturned at her comment, but he allowed her to go on. "It wasn't about hurting Bryce, it was about justice for the people he's hurt. At least he was looking out for us, which is more than a lot of people in this school can say for themselves, you included."

Mr. Porter thought for a moment, brainstorming for a way to keep the girl on track before she took matters into her own hands and stormed out of the room.

"So what about the picture of Tyler Down that he sent around? Or the fact that he keyed your brother's car?" Mr. Porter questioned her. "Was that about justice, too?"

"Yes, in a way." Nessa said. "He wanted people to feel the way that they made Hannah feel. Maybe he didn't go about it properly, but he was in love with her."

"And did he ever confront you?" Mr. Porter asked, and Nessa shook her head.

"No." she said quickly, without a thought. "When he heard my tape, he told me he'd burn them if Jess and I wanted him to."