Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Three

Mrs. Voltaire fixed the classroom with her little blue eyes. "Anyone who hasn't done the reading for today leave now." That was how she started every class, you came prepared or you didn't come at all and this held true for any student she had, she didn't have to like you or hate you to enforce the policy. I liked that about her.

There was a shuffle was one of the advanced students got up and out of their desks. Mrs. Voltaire gave him the Evil Eye and when the door clicked shut she returned her attention to us. "Take out your copies of Gone with the Wind and get into your groups." The old metal desks creaked and slid across the carpet as we formed little circles about the classroom and soon we started chattering about the reading the night before. To be honest I'd Spark-noted most of it, though I did find the book enjoyable, I was a slow reader. I could read articles and other things like it weren't a problem but a six-hundred page paper weight? That was another story.

"Ember," Jane Chung addressed me. Pushing her glasses up her farther onto her face, she smiled at me. Typical Jane, always making sure everyone was included and had a chance to talk. "What did you think of the reading?"

"That Scarlet cannot get a happy ending," I said as I recalled the summary on Sparknotes. "She just sabotaged her own sister's love life so she could marry a guy she didn't even like and take his money. She's just a bitch, I can't stand her."

"She did it to save Tara," said another of my group. I was pretty sure he was one of the three advanced students in this class. He certainly looked young enough with his scrawny build, mouth full of braces and bad acne. "You might say it was heroic to marry someone she didn't love."

"She married her first husband out of spite," Jane reminded him. "I wouldn't consider that very brave."

"Me either," I said and I was about to throw something in about the girl code, but a sound stopped me dead in my tracks. The ringing of my cellphone and instantly the room went quiet as a graveyard. Mrs. Voltaire only had a few rules, come to class on time, come prepared, no talking when she's talking and no cell phones. The last rule was her biggest pet peeve, being caught with a cell phone in Voltaire's room was about as safe as walking into Jurassic Park in a meat dress.

"Ember Hawthorn," she said and though her voice was very clear and bright in tone, right now I was reminded more of the giant in fairytales. "Aren't you going to answer that?"

I swallowed hard, heart pounding furiously against my ribs. The felt the heavy weight of my classmates gazes, the next words I said would either save me or end me. This was another odd part of Voltaire's class, she liked a good arrangement, if you could reason something well enough regarding one of her rules, she might let you off. If you botched it entirely, you suffered even more.

I unzipped my little front pocket on my new jacket, (which reminded me that I would have to get Stacy a thank you card and a Starbucks date at some point.) And I pulled out my cell phone and checked the tiny screen on the front for the number, The only person who ever called me was my mother or the phone company telling me that we were behind on our bill.

I frowned when I saw the number, 305-3432-0194, not anyone I knew. Probably the wrong number. I stuffed the little red Nokia flip back into my backpack, took a deep breath and locked eyes with my teacher who was looking at me through her stereotype-librarian glasses.

"No ma'am," I said. "I am not going to answer my phone because whoever called me called the wrong number, and I do not think it's fair to punish me for a mistake that someone else made." I held my breath, heart hammering as Mrs. Voltaire regarded me, the light in her eyes suggesting that she was considering my argument and was about to either drop the ax on me or prompt me to bring another argue another point of this conflict.