Being Grassi-Hoying

Chapter 37

**Marli's POV**

"Good morning Marli." Mr.Coats greets me as I keep my head down, "Morning." I mumble, sitting down. "Marli, look at me please." My eyes widen under my hair, I shake my head. "Marli. Look up at me." He orders as I shake my head again. "Ms. Kaplan do not make me call your mother." My heart stops, me shooting my head up without thinking, "Please don't!" I cry out as Mr.Coats gasps. "Oh my God Marli!" I put my head back down as he comes over. "I'm fine I promise!" I yell, shaking my head. "Honey your forehead is bleeding. You need to go to the nurse." I shake my head again, "Come on, I'll take you." He holds out his hand as I stare at it, "Okay." I grab it as he walks me to the nurse's office, "What happened to you Marli?" He asks me as we're walking, "Tripped and fell..." I mumble, "You are a bad liar kiddo." He grins as I laugh, "It was Blakely and her friends huh?" He asks as I nod. "Those girls are so cruel." He tisks as we reach the nurse's office, but he stops at the door. "You do realize I have to call your mom, right?" He says as I start to cry, "Please don't. She's on tour right now, I don't wanna put anymore stress on her." I explain, "Call Jesse, he's on the emergency contact list and the one taking care of me right now." Mr.Coats nods. We walk into the nurse's office, the nurse is taken aback when she sees me. "Sit here Marli." Mr.Coats instructs me, me walking over to the blue, rubbery cot. I sit down as Mr.Coats starts explaining, "She was running on the playground and tripped. I watched her slide all the way to my window." I stare at him with a blank face, but inside I'm shocked. Did he really just lie for me? "Awe, poor thing." The nurse frowns at me, "I'm going to go call someone to come get her. Poor thing needs to rest, too shaken up to stay at school." (You'd think that's a stupid excuse but when I was around this age I got sent home because I busted my lip on the jungle gym.) I try to sit still and not cry while the nurse cleans my face and arms, I don't wanna cry because of the pain, I wanna cry because Mr.Coats won't lie to Jesse.

I'm sitting in the office, my backpack at my feet, staring at the wall in front of me, it's grey with the school logo in the middle. I think about closing my eyes or pulling out my phone, I pull out my phone to see a nice pattern of cracks on the screen protector. Great, at least it's not the actual screen. I go to turn it on, but my focus turns to my reflection, I have scratches everywhere, there's already a bruise forming on the left side of my face, there's a band-aid on my right cheek, who knows what it looks like under there. On my neck there's longer scratches, and a purple and blue shadow, the shadow not from them, but from me trying to choke myself until I passed out. "Marli!" I look up to see Jesse running over to me, he picks me off the ground and I can see Chester behind him, "Oh my God, are you okay baby?" I nod as tears start to spill out. "Awe baby." He hugs me tightly and I see Chester marching up to the front desk, he looks furious. "I need to speak to the principal immediately." He snaps, "Let me look at you honey." Jesse sets me down, looking me over, he holds my arms up and I can see bruises and more scratches. By now Chester has disappeared and the Secretary looks startled. "Where did he go?" Jesse asks as she points down the little hallway. "Now Marli, stay here and call your mom, okay?" He kneels down to my height, I'm still standing still, blank face except for the tears pouring out. "Okay..." I whisper, "I love you." He kisses my head, then walking down the hallway. "You can go sit in Mr.Coats' room hun, he doesn't have a class for a little while." Ms.Delgado smiles at me, she's so nice. I nod back, "Co-Could you tell my-uh-guardians where I am?" I try to steady my voice, "Yes ma'am." She smiles. I nod again and walk back to the music room. "Hey Marli." He smiles at me from his office, "What's up?" I walk over there, knowing my voice won't reach him from where I am, "Jesse and Chester are talking to the principal. I'm not going to be in trouble, am I?" I ask, "Not at all. I won't let that happen." He smiles, patting my shoulder. "I-um, need to call my mom. I pull out my phone, "Go for it. Do you want me to walk out?" I shake my head as I hear a familiar voice behind us, "I got the music!" Shane comes in, "There's extras in here by th-Oh, hey Marli." I can tell he's made it to the door, but I don't want to turn around, "Hi." I whisper, he walks in, "Excuse me." I move out of the way as he sets the music down, he turns back around but I can't move fast enough, "Woah, what happened to you?" He asks calmly, looking me over. "Shane, follow me." Mr.Coats gets up, but before he walks out he whispers to me, "Go ahead and call Ms.Kaplan, I'll explain to him what happened." I freeze, "Don't let him tell Riker. Or it might happen again." I whisper back. "Would never think of it."