Starting New

Chapter 8

On Monday, Lorie and I walk into the school together. Everyone just stops and stares, some even take pictures. Apparently, Alexis came back that very same day, but she seems to have made it her mission to ignore me. Whenever I approach her, she always seems to have somewhere else to be.

On my way to Gym, I try to corner her, which only ends with her in tears. While she's bawling her eyes out like a baby, I slip away as quickly as I can.

By the time lunch comes around, I still haven't succeeded in getting her to talk to me.

"I don't know why she keeps avoiding me. All I want to do is talk to her," I explain to Lorie.

"She knows you're innocent," she tells me. I look back at her with a blank expression. "Every time you get near her, she doesn't talk. It's because she knows you weren't the one that raped her, but whoever did most likely threatened her so she wouldn't say anything. She's probably not talking to you because she's afraid it'll slip out and her avoidance is also helping keep up the appearance that you are the one who raped her," she explains in a matter-of-fact tone.

"And how did you come up with all that?" I ask.

"I just know. Plus, I watch a lot of Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Minds," she says, then gets back to eating.

We sit in a comfortable silence until our friends get there. Jake and Matt seem really excited about something.

"What's up?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Bro you missed it. Alexis just beat the living crap out of Cynthia," Jake says in an awestruck manner.

He's referring to Cynthia Nichols who's made herself the so-called "Queen Bee." To me, she's just a walking STD.

"Start from the top," Lorie says, now intrigued.

"OK, so after Chemistry, Cynthia came up to Alexis and started to talk about how a hoe like her deserved to be raped. So, Alexis fired back, that she wasn't the one who fucked every guy at school, and a few girls, and still had time to do the principal, too. Then, Cynthia got mad, which I don't understand. I mean, she's the one who started that whole mess. Anyway, so Cynthia goes to slap Alexis, but she saw it coming and grabbed Cynthia's hand and twisted it back. Then, Alexis kicked Cynthia's feet out from under her and started punching her. While she's doing all this, Cynthia's screaming and Alexis is crying, so the principal came and separated them," Matt explains, all too happily.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe that really happened," Lorie says, rolling her eyes.

"Well, you better believe it. We got it on video," Jake interjects, pulling out his phone and clicking through until he finds it. We all lean in to see.

Turns out, they weren't lying. The video showed all that, and more. Alexis threw a bunch of rapid fire punches and even managed to slam Cynthia's head a couple times before the fight got broken up.

"Can Lorie Davis please report to the main office?" The intercom system blares out, breaking us away from the video.

Lorie:

"Sounds like someone's in trouble," Kameron says, mockingly.

"Oh, shut up." I tell him as I rise from my seat. I trudge over to the office, wondering what I did this time.

Once I get there, the principal makes me take a seat and he just sort of stares at me.

"You needed me, sir," I say, feeling awkward under his stare. After hearing about him and Cynthia, I just can't look at him the same.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news. Your father has been in a terrible car accident," he says in a sympathetic tone.

"If that's all you needed to tell me, I'll be heading back to class now," I reply, getting up to go.