Breaking All the Rules

by Kristen Flowers

  “You really gonna ignore him like that?” Aaron called out.

  “Shut up,” Brad hissed, “I’m taking care of it.”

  I clenched my teeth and watched Jenny carefully. I saw him approaching her. He was strutting over to her like some cocky bastard. I felt adrenaline start to pump through my veins. I couldn’t think of a single valid reason for Brad to be bothering her.

  “Are you deaf now too, Lin? You’re the deaf goody-two-shoes?”

  Jenny didn’t look at him. She refused to look at him, which only further impressed me. I angled my body in their direction and watched intently.

  Brad pushed his hand against the locker door right next to hers. A loud bang rang out in the hallway and everything came to a screeching halt. There was a prolonged period of silence before small groups of people started forming. Everyone whispered and snickered as they watched him tower over her with a stupid smirk stretching across his face.

  I took a small step closer.

  “So, I guess we can say anything we want about the good girl because she can’t hear us anyway, right?” Brad asked Aaron with cruel mockery in his voice, his eyes still glued to Jenny’s face before they raked down the rest of her body.

  “Oh, yeah. I mean, is she even really that much of a good girl?”

  “Nah, I think it’s all an act.”

  “You think so?”

  “It’s always the so-called good girls that are the worst.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard they like to fuck around a lot,” Aaron snickered.

  “I’m sure it’s true. They’re all serious one second, and then just about the biggest fucking sluts in the world the next,” Brad took a step closer to her.

  “Leave,” Jenny said quietly, finally acknowledging his presence.

  I stepped forward the moment I heard Brad utter the word “slut,” but the sound of Jenny’s voice made me hang back. She didn’t waver. If she was nervous or afraid, she didn’t show it.

  “You’re snubbing him again?” Aaron asked, sounding genuinely angry.

  “I told you, I’m handling it,” Brad shut his friend up before turning back to Jenny, “If you don’t want to be around me, then you leave. Where do you get off telling me what to do? Who the fuck do you think you are?”

  There was silence except for the blood pumping in my ears. I could feel the anger coursing through my veins. Brad was an idiot and a bully and a completely entitled jackass, but bothering Jenny like that was completely uncalled for, even for him. She kept to herself most of the time and when she did talk to others, she was always kind and polite. My hand curled in to a tight fist as I watched him continue to harass her.

  “Fine,” she said.

  She pulled her book out of her locker and then shut it. She was about to turn around and walk away when Brad snatched the top notebook in her arms. She froze. He flipped through the pages and huffed before tossing it to the ground. I took yet another step toward them and curled up my other hand in a fist.

  “None of the fucking answers I needed are in that one,” Brad huffed, “Not that it matters now anyway. Fucking bitch, thinking you’re too good to help me out on that test.”

  Aaron snatched another notebook and flipped through it, showing it to Brad, who was shaking his head and grumbling. He swept all her notebooks out of her arms and onto the floor and laughed with Aaron like a couple of hyenas.

  “I’m sure you’re used to being on your hands and knees anyway.” Brad said with his signature snicker.

  Before Aaron could even laugh, I walked straight up to Brad, turned and slammed his back against the lockers. My fist was against his face with lightning speed. It only took one punch for him to drop to the floor, almost completely knocked out. Aaron stood there silently, eyes wide with shock and fear. As soon as I turned to look at him, he practically took off running down the hall.

  “You all right?” I asked Jenny as I bent down to pick up her notebooks.

  “You don’t have to… You didn’t need to…”

  “You know, you could just say thank you,” I smiled at her.

  “For punching a guy in the face?”

  “Well, that too, but I meant for picking these up,” I said as I placed her four notebooks back into her arms.

  She looked at me as I smiled with a small shrug. I didn’t want her to think I had to come to her rescue. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind that she would have been able to handle that situation just fine on her own. I also didn’t want her getting any weird ideas about me. I just couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing while Brad was messing with the last person that deserved to be messed with.

  “Oh, right. Thank you,” Jenny said politely.

  I could tell she was fighting the urge to turn and walk away and that made me wonder. There were a lot of things that made me wonder about her. That was why I wanted to get to know her– maybe I’d get some answers to all my questions. I was pretty sure everything about her was going to be interesting. The fact that she didn’t shy away from Brad proved that theory.

  “What’s going on here?” A loud, booming voice shouted a few feet away.

  “Mister Boyle,” Jenny said as she quickly straightened up.

  For the first time since I started noticing her, I saw concern in her eyes. I turned to face the vice principal, but my face was hard and cold, like always. Boyle looked at me like he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find me standing over a guy laying on the ground with a bloody nose dripping all over his pink polo shirt.

  “What’s going on here is that someone got what they deserved,” I said defiantly.

  “Johnny Mason, you’re not in any position to dole out justice.”

  “Well, nobody else was around to do it. Actually, there were lots of people, but they were more interested in watching the show than putting a stop to it.”

  “And what, exactly, were you putting a stop to that required physical violence?”

  I glanced at Jenny for a brief second, “Just… some things deserve it, you know?”

  “No, I don’t know. Physical violence isn’t the answer to whatever problem you had with Brad here. Do you have any idea what a nightmare this is going to be? We’ll have to call parents, send Brad to the doctor, make sure-”

  “Right, so it’s the fucking inconvenience of it that’s really bothering you,” I muttered.

  “Language!”

  I scoffed, “This coming from the man who doesn’t even give a shit to figure out what actually went down. Oh, fuck, I did it again. My bad, I’ll watch my language.”

  “My office. Now,” Mr. Boyle said.

  “Wait,” Jenny spoke up.

  “Jenny, really, don’t worry. It’s not worth-”

  “I’m thanking you,” she said quietly.

  “Miss Lin?” Mr. Boyle asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

  “He helped me. I mean, Brad was… and Jo- Johnny? He just…”

  “This isn’t making any sense,” Mr. Boyle shook his head and waved his hands, “Why are you getting involved with this, Miss Lin? You’re our model student.”

  Her cheeks flushed red and she cast her gaze down to the ground. I heard her gulp. I could tell she wanted to tell the truth, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She wasn’t calm and resolute with the vice principal the way she was with Brad.

  “Look, Brad was talking some bullshit to Jenny, so I punched him. Satisfied?”

  “No, John Mason, I am most certainly not satisfied. You can’t make it such a simple matter. It isn’t one and we have to deal with it appropriately.”

  “Right. I know what that means,” I murmured.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing. I thought we were going to your office?”

  “Well, if Miss Lin was involved in this she needs to come along as well.”

  “Why? She didn’t do anything wrong here.”

  “Because she was involved. Do not question me. Follow me,” Mr. Boyle said as he lead the way to his office
.

  Jenny trailed just behind me, her head bent down in shame. She held her notebooks close to her chest. I could feel how tense she was. I felt terrible for dragging her into this mess. Even though I only punched Brad because he was harassing her, a part of me hated the idea of her being dragged into the office for any reason. None of it made any sense to me.

  “Stay here while I talk to Miss Lin,” Mr. Boyle said as he pointed to a chair outside his office.

  “But she didn’t-”

  “Do not question me!”

  I exhaled loudly and dropped into the seat, crossing my arms. I tried to lean back enough to hear through the wall, but it wasn’t possible. When Jenny stepped out of the office less than five minutes later, I couldn’t figure out how things went inside. She glanced at me briefly with a pained look before heading straight out of the main office. I had a feeling she was rushing off to class. I wondered if she blamed herself for me winding up in the office. I was used to being in there, though. Even Boyle was tired of me. A couple minutes later, Mr. Boyle brought me into his office.

  “John Mason,” he said quietly, “Miss Lin gave me a brief account of what happened out there. Now, I have absolutely no reason to doubt a model student such as herself. You’re lucky, you know.”

  I rubbed the skin under my nose and resisted rolling my eyes. I wasn’t lucky. Boyle was just trying to act like I was about to get off easy and it was all thanks to Jenny. It was, to some extent, true. It didn’t take away the fact that if it had been my word against Brad’s, I would have been fucked.

  “In light of the information, Miss Lin has so graciously volunteered-”

  I snorted, interrupting his little speech. He looked at me with narrowed eyes. I coughed to cover it up, but it was a feeble attempt.

  “As I was saying,” Boyle continued, obviously losing his patience, “I still cannot condone physical violence. And given your record, I cannot ignore this matter. Parents will, of course, be notified and you’ll need to serve some detention time. Are we clear?”

  “Sure,” I shrugged, standing up. It was par for the course.

  Mr. Boyle stood up, “John Mason, physical violence is not something to resort to. Even if you were trying to help out a peer you shouldn’t just go around-”

  “I know. I know,” I dismissed the vice principal before walking out of his office.

  I walked out to the hallway, which was now empty. Everyone was in class, but I had no plans to go to mine. Instead, I walked into the bathroom and leaned against the tiled wall. I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath. I had pretty much memorized every single one of Boyle’s speeches. It wasn’t the first time I had gotten in to a fight at school, but physical altercations were far from the primary reason I was pulled in to the office. Usually, teachers just didn’t want to deal with me. I knew it and liked to use it to my advantage.

  But that day I just wanted a moment to think. I shut my eyes and the first image that floated into my mind was Jenny’s face. It was the expression she had when she wasn’t backing down from Brad.

  The bell rang, and I walked out of the bathroom toward my locker only to find that everyone was staring at me and whispering behind their hands. Aaron was nowhere to be found. I just assumed Brad’s little sidekick was trying to stay off my radar. I was leaning back against my locker and looking at everyone as they walked by when I heard the smallest sound in the world coming from my left. I turned and, standing right next to me, was Jenny. She looked me straight in the eyes. I felt my pulse quicken. There was so much intensity in her eyes that I couldn’t ignore it.

  “Thank you,” she said in a very polite manner.

  “For what? If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have gotten detention.”

  Jenny’s neck grew red, her shoulders tensed, and her eyes glazed over as she looked down and apologized profusely. I was dumbfounded for a moment until I realized what I had just said.

  “No, I meant… I meant it’s thanks to you that I only got detention. Boyle would’ve been a major pain in my…” My voice trailed off and I cleared my throat.

  “Oh. I am sorry for causing you trouble,” Jenny said, still not looking at me.

  “What? You didn’t cause me trouble. I just told you that Boyle, well, he would’ve made my life impossible if you hadn’t gone in there and told him… Whatever it was you told him. It was good. It’s good.”

  “I caused you trouble. Brad was angry with me and if it weren’t for that-”

  “Look, Brad was being an asshole and he went too far, even for him. It bothered me and that just kind of took over. It’s not your fault. Really. And, seriously, you helped me.”

  Jenny finally looked up at me, and behind her usually intense eyes, I could see meek hope. I maintained eye contact and every bit of intrigue she’d conjured up in me increased tenfold. There was just something about her. I never paid much attention to people to care, but she was drawing me in and I was letting it happen. I had a feeling about her that I couldn’t shake.

  “I’m still sorry you had to get involved.”

  “I didn’t have to get involved, Jenny, I wanted to.”

  “But why?”

  As soon as the words left her mouth I could tell she regretted it. There was a shield around her at all times and I just stepped inside of it. She allowed me in, and the opportunity to connect was created. I didn’t want to overstep boundaries, but I also didn’t want to miss my chance.

  “Jenny, I couldn’t stand by and watch him talk sh- talk that way to you.”

  “He is-”

  “A jerk and you’re not someone who deserves to be treated that way.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “I don’t, but I want to.”

  Her eyes widened a bit. I took her completely by surprise. I took one small step toward her and she immediately tensed up, so I stepped back. She gulped.

  “I just want to get to know you,” I shrugged.

  She gave me a small smile, “So you thought hitting Brad was the best way to do that?”

  I looked at her and laughed. She had a sense of humor. It was dry and the type to catch people by surprise. Her smile didn’t fade and even when I was done laughing, a large grin was plastered on my face.

  “Have lunch with me today,” I suggested.

  “What?”

  “Just- just sit with me at lunch, yeah? Maybe we can talk.”

  “About what?”

  “I don’t know. Stuff. You can’t plan out the conversation ahead of time, you know. You can’t plan everything.”

  Seven days of detention actually didn’t seem bad considering I had punched the school’s prized athlete. My detention time was useless, especially because every teacher that supervised it ignored me. They had seen my face there so many times they figured there was no point. But detention was a lot less boring when I had something interesting to play over and over in my head.

  Ever since I knocked Brad out, I had lunch with Jenny every day. She was quiet the first time. I had to do most of the talking, but the following morning she actually greeted me at the locker, so I asked her to sit with me again. It didn’t take long for the two of us to grow close.

  Of course, it wasn’t long before the rumor mill started at school. Being seen together after I knocked out the popular jock for her meant, in everyone’s high school mind, that Jenny and I were totally in to each other. The truth was—I did like her. I liked her a lot, actually. I felt like maybe it could be mutual, but Jenny was difficult to read. That was why it took me so long to ask her out. We became the oddest couple in school.

  How the well-known troublemaker wound up with the model student was confusing to pretty much everybody, but neither of us really cared.

  Chapter Five

  Jenny

  -10 Years Previously-

  “What are you going to do?” I asked quietly as I cupped one of Johnny’s hands between both of mine.

  “I don’t know. I mean, there’s really nothing I can
do,” he told me.

  I sighed, “I know how that feels. I mean… I know how it feels like you’re stuck. You’re hopeless and useless.”

  “I know what you meant,” he said. “It’s better this way. He’s not there to scream at her or push her around. He isn’t there to lock me up, so I can’t get in the way. She doesn’t have to put up with him screwing around on her, not even bothering to hide it. But she’s just so… She’s so hung up on him, you know? My mom, she’s not the greatest, but damn she doesn’t deserve all the shit my dad puts her through.”