Tricking Death

Chapter 23 - Confrontations

I took a deep breath as I pushed open the front doors of the school. I couldn't remember the last time that I had actually been in class and I knew the workload that was going to be waiting for me would be massive, not to mention that I was going to have to deal with Alison, which was something that I had been dreading from the moment I woke up that morning. 

I gripped the strap of my backpack tightly as I pushed open the door to the attendance office. The stern old woman manning the desk looked up at me over her glasses with disapproval. The look only increased in intensity when I gave her my name. 

"You've been missing a lot of school lately. Lots of unexplained absences here, Miss Crawford." 

The hastily scrawled note that I had made my mom write before I left did little to change her attitude. 

"Glad to see you're finally feeling well enough to come to school; hope things stay that way. Since you've already missed first period today, just hand this to your second period teacher when you get there." I took the slip from her red manicured fingernails, wondering why all of the old women in my life seemed to have something against me. I gave her a small smile and slipped back out of the office, hearing her start to mutter something to the other women in the small room as soon as I was out the door. 

A glance up at the clock hanging from the hallway ceiling told me that first period was ending any second. I decided that I should try to see if I could remember my locker combination and started heading in its direction. With how long it had been since I last opened it, I was almost expecting a plume of dust to come flying out as soon as I managed to get the door open. 

The bell blared as I sat struggling with the cheap plastic combination lock, releasing streams of students into the hallways. It always amazed me how the hallways could go from silent to the great roar of a thousand conversations in about half a second. 

I tried to tune out most of the pointless conversations I was overhearing and focus on getting my locker open until I started to hear my name being called. I looked up to see Ryan weaving his way towards me, a huge grin on his face. 

"I can't believe you're actually here today! I was going to try to tell you that I got transferred in alright and was going to be starting this week, but... Jeez, you really suck at answering your phone, you know that?" 

"Sorry, I just... It was a rough morning."

Something in my face must have given me away. "Hey, are you okay?" For a brief moment, I was concerned that the marks on my face from Serena's attack had reappeared, and I touched my face just to reassure myself. "That stupid guy from the fro-yo place isn't still bothering you, is he?" 

I felt my throat tighten at how spot on his assumption was. "Yeah, along with family stuff." 

"Em, why didn't you tell me? I could tell him where to go and how to get there, and then you would just have to deal with your family. Unfortunately, I don't think I can tell them to get lost." 

I gave him a weak smile. "Thanks, Ryan. I'm not sure that would work too well, though." 

"Sure it would. You just don't have faith in my abilities of persuasion. And trust me, I can be very persuasive." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and I couldn't stop myself from laughing at his antics. I gave up on getting my locker open, deciding instead that I would just steal a book off of someone next to me in my next class. I started walking and Ryan fell into step beside me. 

"Speaking of being highly persuasive, though," he said, suddenly sounding nervous as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "I was wondering if you would want to go to homecoming with me?"