Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Fifty-One

Neither of Johnny's bullies showed up to school on Friday. Over the weekend, Carter even forgot about them. On Monday, he only remembered when he saw Chaz Wheeler cross the cafeteria alone, heading for the football team's lunch table.

"Anyone know what happened after Principal Trevino called you all to his office?" Lauren asked.

After Carter's little stunt the week before, there had been some slight changes on the sitting arrangements during lunch period. Carter and his friends no longer sat with the other football players and cheerleaders. Bella, Lauren and Roy didn't sit in a small corner table either. And, most notoriously, Johnny wasn't eating in the library. At least, not that day. Carter had asked him to sit with them, and he did.

They did leave the dumpster table for Frankie's group of self-appointed rejects, though.

"I heard their parents were called in and they got suspended," Jenna said, lifting her eyes from her phone briefly.

"Clearly not," Bella muttered sourly, directly across from Jen.

Sitting directly to Bella's right, Carter followed her line of sight to lay eyes on Wheeler. Chaz was already looking his way, but he averted his eyes immediately, as soon as he saw Carter look at him.

"He only got a day's suspension," Joey said, in front of Carter. "Gonzalez and Meyers got three. They won't be back till Wednesday."

Carter glanced at Johnny, to his right, before turning to Joey.

"How do you know that?"

Joey shrugged. "Wheeler told me."

"They should've all been expelled," Bella said.

"The principal didn't want to do that, since it's so close to the end of the year," Joey explained. "They're all still graduating, but Coach kicked them out of the team. He was pretty firm about that."

He glanced at Johnny, who was still yet to meet anybody's gaze. Of course his own dad would demand some form of justice.

"What is that going to do?" Roy asked, to Joey's left, with Lauren by his side. "The season has been over for a while."

"I'm guessing it's mostly a formality. But not without consequences. They had football scholarships for college next year," Mel pointed out, next to Jenna.

"Yeah, I hear USC already pulled their offer," Joey told them. "Bobby's still waiting to hear from Notre Dame, but it's not looking good."

"What about Chaz?" Bella asked.

"His father is a Princeton alum and his mom went to Yale," Seth said, next to his girlfriend. "Legacies don't need football scholarships."

"So he gets away with basically nothing?" Bella asked. "Why was his suspension shorter?"

"Because I told Principal Trevino he never actually did much," Johnny spoke up for the first time. He shrugged as everyone looked at him. "He was mostly just a witness. Quiet and useless."

"Which is still not okay," Lauren stated.

"His biggest punishment is that he'll need to get a personality now, to find new friends," Seth mused.

"Meow," Jenna teased, putting her phone down at last.

"That's mean," Mel said.

Jenna grinned. "Kinda true, though."

"He'll be fine," Mel said with a little too much faith in her voice. "College will make him grow up."

"Not if he goes as a legacy, with a golden carpet laid out in front of him," Seth remarked.