Forever and Always

Chapter 26

Tris POV

The bell rings and we go to science. Four and I walk hand in hand inside the classroom.

We walk in and I stop dead in my tracks.

Mr. Langley is behind his desk.

WHAT?! HOW?! I THOUGHT HE GOT FIRED?!! Four sees what I see and we stand there, dumbstruck. To make it even worse, Peter stands in front of us.

He smirks at us. "You've been thinking about what I said, Stiff?" I swallow hard. I can feel Four's eyes on me. "What? Cat got your tongue?" He asks. Then he slams me into the wall. 'I don't want to fight back, but I feel like I have to right now,' I think, before twisting out of his grip and doing a round house kick to his gut.

Peter grunts and lands a punch to my jaw.

My broken jaw.

I scream in pain, which only causes more pain, and before I can kick him again he starts to repeatedly punch my face. I try to kick him but before I can, Four steps in. He yanks Peter away from me and pushes him, hard, causing him to fall.

"BREAK IT UP!" Mr. Langley yells. "Four, take Tris to the office, she's got a lot of explaining to do," he says. "What about, Peter?" Four asks. "Peter did nothing, Tris started it." Mr.Langley says. Of course. With no choice Four walks me to the office.

"I don't get it! You did nothing but fight back once so you didn't get pounded! How does Peter not get in trouble?" Four yells. I shrug.

My nose was bleeding heavily. The blood drips down my lips, chin, and jaw, until it gets on my shirt. Mr. Langley said that we couldn't go to the bathroom to stop my bloody nose, so I have to hold it with my hand, which isn't doing much.

We get to the office and the first person who sees us is the secretary. "OH MY GOODNESS! What happened?!"
"Fight, which she didn't start and the other one doesn't even get in trouble," Four says angrily.
"Well, it's the teacher's final decision. Here, sweetie, hold this under your nose," the secretary says. Did she just call me sweetie?

She leads me over to the trash can and I hold my nose over it. Four keeps a hand on my back.

My nose stops bleeding after 10 minutes and we enter the principal's office.

"Beatrice Prior and Four Eaten," the secretary says. Oh sure, use his nickname. "Take a seat," the principal says. We do as instructed. The principal folds her hands together. "Let's get straight to the point. Why were you two sent down here?"

Four jumps into the unfair explanation and then gets to the actual story.

When he's finished, the principal just stares at me, inspecting me up and down. "Quick question," Four says. "Why is Mr. Langley back at this school?" He asks. "Because he was never fired in the first place. We let him off easy because all the students seem to enjoy him. He just was on a 'forced break' so to speak, for a few days." I sit their dumbstruck. The only reason those students love him is because he makes them laugh when he picks on me. "Oh," is all Four says in a small voice.

"Okay, Four you didn't do anything but break up the fight and Mr. Langley says that Peter was innocent, which I disagree with, but I won't get him in trouble-" Four cuts her off.
"WHY?! Don't you have the final decision?!"
"Usually yes, but since I wasn't an eye witness and he was, he has the final say with whose innocent. And Tris...you have a three hour detention today, so you don't have one hour detention for 3 days."
"WHAT?! Four yells.
"You are dismissed."

Four angrily gets up and grabs my non bloody hand. My noise randomly started bleeding again. I pull my hand up to it and he looks over to me. "C'mon, let's get you cleaned up," he says, leading me into the girls bathroom.