Forces of Nature

Winning the Game

It was Friday before Riley let me go back to school. I quickly chucked on a pair of gray skinny jeans and my red hoodie, stuffing my feet into a pair of flat boots. Packing my bag hastily, I shoved any books I could find into it, then scooped up my keys and stealthily slipped out the front door before he woke up and changed his mind. Being couped up in the house for three days had me going stir crazy. Especially when I had two well meaning but overbearing people fussing over me like I was on my deathbed rather than just recovering from a few bruises. I had been up and panning to go to school on Thursday morning only to discover my truck keys were missing. Brother dearest had hidden them from me, somehow one step ahead. My guess was Mel had tipped him off. She'd been in and out of our place all week, with her and Riley taking shifts to watch me. I had pointed out that Dr. Greenburg said I'd only needed to be watched for the first twelve to twenty four hours, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. While Riley still had meetings to attend and a business to run, Mel had shifted all of her priority work from her work office to our own home office.

I was given one small taste of freedom around midday on Tuesday. Riley had gotten caught up in one of his meetings, meaning Mel had to take me along for her appointment with Headmaster Hagan. Of course my brother had tried desperately to get out of it, wanting to tag along in the hopes of running into Aidan. Smart man that he was, he'd given up - albeit reluctantly - after I'd told him that attacking a student on school grounds would only result in him spending the foreseeable future in jail. Best to let Mel handle this one, I'd said. Not that I thought she'd do much better. Both of them were out for blood, and I found myself praying that Aidan had already been suspended, not for his own safety, but to ensure my new protection detail didn't do anything stupid.

Despite the amount of pain I was still in - they always say the day after you're injured is the worst, and boy they weren't kidding - it was the best experience at school I'd ever had.

Headmaster Hagan's first mistake was being twenty five minutes late to the meeting. If there was one thing Mel couldn't stand, it was tardiness. He came into the office at twenty five past twelve, collected a few notes from the large closed in booth we called The Office, then turned around and spotted us, a frown on his face as if he didn't quite know why we were there. A tall man at about six four, he towered over both me and Mel as he ushered us into his office. He wore a gray tweed suit and a red tie, his white shirt giving his pale skin an unhealthy look. I was surprised when I realised I'd never actually seen the man up close before. Yes, I'd glimpsed him a few times at our occasional school assemblies but that was about the extent of my relationship with him. Thank God, as well. His face was set into a permanent frown. When he did crack a smile at Mel, it was forced, and only seemed to make his frown lines more prominent. With deep set brown eyes and an otherwise flat face, it wasn't a pretty sight. I caught the glint of a gold wedding band on his left hand and immediately felt sorry for his wife. He didn't look like a pleasant man to live with. His gruff voice only served to reinforce my earlier observation, his thick brown moustache quivering as he introduced himself to Mel.

We settled into the two seats in front of his large mahogany desk. Apart from his laptop, papers littered the surface, including what looked like a pile of student files. He swept them briskly to one side, ignoring the ones that fell to the floor, and sat in his high back leather chair listening as Mel explained briefly why we were there.

When she was done, he promptly made mistake number two, which was revealing the fact that he'd gone ahead and suspended both of the "delinquents" responsible for yesterdays fight. Mel's nostrils had flared and a spark of anger had taken up residence in her eyes at Tyson being referred to as a delinquent. But he didn't stop there. His third mistake had been informing Mel that I was lucky I wasn't also facing disciplinary action for provoking the fight. Apparently someone had told him the fight was over me, and that I'd egged it on. Of course I had opened my mouth to refute such a preposterous accusation, but was far too slow. Mel let out a bark of sarcastic laughter, then penned the headmaster with an unfathomable glare.