Luna's Ghost

12

Shit hit the fan as soon as I came home.

Ms. Haynes had called my mom, while she was in the middle of her shift, and told her about how I'd screamed in her face and stormed out, leaving out the part where she was the one who'd gotten in my face to begin with. Mom called me as I got home, telling me we would be talking about this when she got up, that she had too much to deal with to be dealing with stuff like this, that I would be apologizing to the teacher the next day at school.

I didn't bother arguing with her. I wasn't going to get myself upset again. I just told her okay and she hung up.

Mom told Grandma Marie about what had happened.

As I walked into the kitchen and saw the pissed off expression on her face, I knew I was in for it then.

"Oh boy," I heard Johnny say.

Oh boy was what.

Grandma Marie was standing in front of the stove, cleaning it and wiping it down. She scowled when she saw me enter and pointed at the kitchen table. "Sit."

I did without hesitation.

She wiped the stove for a few more minutes, letting me squirm as I anxiously waited for whatever was about to happen.

Then she threw the rag down she'd been using and turned around to face me, her hands on her hips.

"So, when you go to school, you think it's okay to scream at a teacher and storm out of the classroom and embarrass us like that?"

"It wasn't--"

"I'm speaking!" she said sharply, cutting me off. I felt myself start to grow angry again but I bit my lip. Even when I was angry, I knew better to never try to go toe to toe with Marie Aldrich-Jameson. If I even tried, I'd receive a hit that would send me into next week and give me a mark that wouldn't go away until next year. "Your mother taught you to never talk back to a teacher like that. You treat your teachers with respect, you here? You embarrassed your mother and I."

I said nothing. I stared down at my hands, willing for this to be over.

"Do you have anything you want to say?"

I took a deep, calming breath before saying, "I was helping someone else in the class with our project. Ms. Haynes came over and started yelling at me about doing work for someone else and ripped up the picture. I tried to tell her I was helping her, not doing the work for her, but she kept screaming at me, so I screamed back and stormed out before I did something really bad."

Grandma Marie was quiet for a moment. "So she wouldn't hear you out?"

I shook my head. "No. She wouldn't even let me speak."

She was quiet for another moment before saying, "I apologize. That was very unprofessional of her."

I sighed. "Did the school say I was suspended or something?"

"No, but you were written up. Your mother and I will go up to the school tomorrow and get this figured out."

Mom was angry when she got home and figured out the whole story. When the school called, it asked her to come with me so we could talk it out with Ms. Haynes. We were both aggravated. It meant she would have to come in late for work, and her boss would be bitching at her. I felt angry at the teacher all over again. If she hadn't been such a bitch, I wouldn't have stormed off, and Mom wouldn't have to be late for work tomorrow morning. At least I wouldn't be grounded.