Journey to Psitharis

Chapter 44

Forty-four

I found out later that all three of them got punished for the fake blog posts, though among them I found an unlikely ally. When they questioned Natalia, she readily told them everything, down to the gun threat. She told the principal her brother was a police officer, and she knew the right thing to do was to put that "crazy Langston bitch" in jail. Unfortunately, Mr. Daniels wouldn't have taken action at all if it hadn't been for Mr. Langston showing up in his office. Aurora's letter had been the final straw. There was going to be another girl committing suicide, another lawsuit that might not result in a hasty settlement this time. He had heard the rumors about my mother; she was very likely a gold digger and would not think twice about suing for every dime he had.

His daughter was going to learn her lesson, and he was going to make sure it started at the school. So by the time Mr. Daniels and Mr. Langston were finished, two of the girls got after-school suspension, and the ringleader, Jennifer, got out-of-school suspension for two weeks, pending an investigation. She was gone, even if temporarily, and if she came back for the rest of the year she would behave so she could graduate with her class. It wasn't the punishment she deserved, but it was a lot better than I expected. But I felt like I was going to wind up paying for what I had done to the untouchable Jennifer Langston. She was going to be gunning for me, pun possibly intended, and I had grown so neurotic about the whole situation I could have sworn I saw my mother walking into the office as I passed by. But knowing my mom was at her job secretly trying to find yet another conquest to master I let the moment quickly slip my mind.

School let out and I climbed on the bus and took my normal seat. Surprisingly, so did Aurora. She flopped thoughtlessly into the seat across from mine and stared out the window, arms crossed and looking sullen. "What happened?" I ventured to ask her.

Aurora shot me a sideways glance then went back to staring out the window. "Jessica yelled at me. Her sister lost her car completely because of this and she's blaming me because they still think you wrote the letters. Not that it matters, because I don't want anything to do with either of them. They're total assholes."

"Whoah there, Aurora. Watch the language." I teased her. "But why are you mad at Jessica?"

"She got called to the office at lunch with her sister. She got in a little trouble for knowing about that blog site and she had to come back and get her books; she's suspended for two days. She told everyone in class it was my psycho sister's fault, and the teacher made her leave. Now everyone in school is treating me like a leper. But that's not the worst part."

"What's the worst part?" I asked.

Somebody heard Jennifer say she was going to come back to the school to settle this, punishment or not. They told me she was going to kick your..." she reduced her voice to a whisper "...ass... tomorrow. I don't know if it's true or not. Medora, I didn't mean to get you into worse trouble, I swear." She looked frightened.

So much for getting rid of Jennifer, I thought. "Never mind." I responded. "She was just blowing off steam. Besides, her dad isn't going to let her go anywhere tomorrow. Don't give it another thought."

"Yeah, I guess." Aurora sat back in the seat, arms crossed, confident that her social life was over. However, when one of her other friends sat down beside her and began an animated discussion about the algebra problems they had in Mr. French's class that morning, her social standing, at least for the moment, was restored. I sat in silence, watching the houses and people go by, wondering if Jennifer Langston was really stupid enough to go through with her threat, and if tomorrow I should just stay home and worry about Psitharis.