Guilty As Charged

Chapter 4

~Derek's point of view~

Can lunch come any faster? I thought to myself and fiddled my pencil as I sat in my chemistry class and finished up taking my notes. She's a piece of art, I sighed softly before I started to daydream, She probably thinks I'm a loser, Alex is probably more of her taste. I just want to know her more. But how? See a movie? Nah. What about bowling? That really doesn't sound like a bad idea. I just need to ask for her phone number or email. We can also invite Alex and Beatrix. 

As I finished up my thoughts for today, the bell rang to go lunch, This is it, your chance to ask her on a playdate. Do they even call it that? Scratch that, it's going to be a friendly get together, I grinned to myself as I felt myself getting confident. I walked in line as I see Alex walking over to me. "Hey, dude!" Alex exclaims, "Boy, am I glad it is lunch?" He laughs softly, but nervously. It's not every day you see him nervous unless he did something wrong.

Being the nosey person I am, I figured out why not just ask him why he was being nervous, "Hey man, you alright? You look like you did something wrong." I asked him and he looked down at me, it was never usually a good thing to make him mad so I looked up at him, "Well?" I waited as we got our pizzas and walked towards our table.

Alex gave me a long, hard look, "For once I never got in trouble." he mutters as he took a bite out of his pizza, "I'm just nervous because we are friends with girls, cute girls, girls that never want to be around us, but these girls are different." He begins to say as he wiped his face as if though he had pizza sauce on it. I just shrugged, "Maybe we just got lucky? But we got to remember dude, they are only freshmen." I say I took a bite out of my pizza.

Alex laughed, "You mean freshwomen." he says to me and I couldn't help but laugh because he was right. His jokes never get old. I took one look up and I see Beatrix and Tabitha walking towards our table. But something was different about them then when we saw them this morning. Beatrix looked over at us and whispered, "She's scared, uncertain of what to do." She says as she held Tabitha close.

"What happened?" I say softly, I could tell that Tabitha had been crying because her eyes were puffy. I handed her a napkin, "It's the least I can do." I say looking over at her. Tabitha takes the napkin and gave me a small smile, "Thanks, Derek." She says as she cleaned up. I felt like it was better to back off just in case I didn't want to make her feel even worse.

Alex felt concerned and looked at Beatrix, "What happened?" He says as he took Beatrix's hands, "Whoever it is, I will make sure they will pay." He says as he looked into her eyes. Beatrix swallowed long and hard, "Andrea, the girl who was mocking Tabby and Derek yesterday, the girl who sits with the jocks and popular girls." She says softly, "Well, we bumped into her on our way to 1st period and she basically threatened to kill Tabitha if Tabitha calls her a horse ever again." She sighs softly, looking completely terrified.

Alex nodded, "We have to see PrincipalGriffin, it's the only thing to do if not, this Andrea girl is just going to continue." he says seriously. I've never seen him this serious and he wasn't wrong either. "Did you hear that?" I heard Beatrix whisper into Tabitha's ear. Tabitha just sat there, coldly. I was starting to worry, "Tabitha, our school doesn't tolerate bullies, and that girl is threatening to take your life. That is a crime." I said softly as I glanced over at her.

I never thought it would get this bad but this girl was my friend and I didn't want her hurt or sad. I then clenched my food tray, "Come on Tabby, let's go to the office." I didn't know if this was going to be a good idea or a good idea gone wrong.

Tabitha looked up, got up slowly and held onto me, I couldn't help but hold her back close so nobody could go near her or touch her. Alex and Beatrix followed behind us like a shield. We made it to the office, I could feel my heart pound through my chest as though I was having a panic attack. I looked at Tabitha as she turned pale as though she saw a ghost.

"Name please?" said the lady up front. "T-T-Tabitha My-Myers." I heard Tabitha stuttered. I held her closer to feel more comfortable, "What can I do for you?" says the lady. Relax... You're doing the right thing, I thought as I rubbed Tabitha's shoulder. "I need to see the principal" Tabitha finally says.

I could feel the warmth of her skin as she felt better about saying those several words. I was so proud of her, Just one more step closer to the principal's office. The lady was new to this school, she wasn't here last year, but she seemed really nice. I watched as she grabbed the phone and key in the principal's office to make sure Principal Griffin was in. She was. So, we made our way to Principal Griffin's office.

Alex swallowed hard, he was more nervous than he was at lunch. Beatrix held Tabitha's arm as Beatrix and I led Tabitha into the office. "Ah, yes, Tabitha Myers. Come on in." says Principal Griffin as she closed her laptop and made Tabitha her number one priority, "how may I help you?" she asks. Tabitha walked in and sat in the chair in front of Principal Griffin. Principal Griffin was a tall, lean lady and about 40 years old. I hope she can help us, I thought as I closed the door behind us.