Airball

Chapter 20 - I Face The Consequences

As I had suspected, we were back in the school building for about three minutes before we were called to the office. I sort of knew what was coming from our talk with the counselors, but Harper apparently had less experience at getting in trouble. Not that I was a troublemaking kid, it just seemed that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It hadn't been a problem this year, but in middle school I'd find myself at the main office every other week. What usually would happen is I would see someone getting picked on and I'd do something about it. The problem was that I would somehow always be the one in the wrong. I would react physically to the situation and end up hurting the bully more than the bully hurt its original victim. Eventually I learned a better way to deal with stuff like that, and it had kept me out of detention for a good two or three years. But here I was now, walking to the office.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I told Harper, who was walking beside me with her face down and her fingers twitching nervously. I didn't know if there was anything I could say to make her less nervous, but I figured I'd better try my best. "It'll be fine. We'll just go and clear everything up with them."

She looked at me and attempted a halfhearted smile, but I knew that she was still worried.

"You did the right thing, you know," I said to her. I waited her to look over at me again before I continued. "I mean that was really brave. Not many people have the courage to stand up to someone like Chance like that."

"Yeah well, I couldn't just let him hurt my friend like that," Harper gave a real smile and I smiled too. We walked the rest of the way to the office with her in a noticeably brighter mood. She was still twitching her fingers but she seemed to be looking at the situation more positively, so I guessed I'd done my part. Now we just had to wait for the outcome.

We got to the office and the talk went pretty much exactly as I'd expected. We got told off for a good ten minutes before we even got to give our side of the story. I did most of the talking at first, but once it got to Harper's part in the story she seemed more than happy to take it from there. My plan was to tell everything like it was less of a big deal than it actually was, but Harper didn't seem to want to hold anything back. She told everything pretty much exactly how it had happened. When all was said and done, Harper ended up getting two weeks of detention. It was better than a suspension, but I didn't think it was fair seeing that I'd heard that Chance had gotten away with just a week's worth. I was let off the hook without punishment, but I was given a warning about what would happen the next time I provoked a fight at school. But that was fine, because I had no plans of participating in or 'provoking' any more fights.

By the time we got out of the office, it was the end of the day and time for basketball practice. I walked Harper out to the front of the school, but that was as far as I went. I said goodbye to her and made my way to the gym to change clothes and get ready for practice to start. Once I'd changed, I grabbed a ball and made my way over to one of the baskets to warm up when Maia ran up to me, looking concerned.

"What's up?" I asked her.

"I heard about the fight today," she said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.

"Oh, okay good. Well, Coach Hendrix needs to see you in his office."

"Well, I won't keep him waiting," I said, passing the ball in my hands to someone lacking one and walking into the coach's office.

When I entered the office, Coach Hendrix was sitting at his desk per usual, staring intently at something on his computer.

"What's up, Coach?" I asked him.

"Oh, you're here. Sit down, Blake."

"Am I in trouble or something?" I asked while getting comfortable in my seat. I had noticed his grim tone of voice and I didn't like it.