by Jeff Hale
Once there, Melanie and I sat in Principal Danvers office as far away from each other as we could. Kris had left after she had helped me to the room, told that the Principal would talk to her, Cody, and DeeAnn later if he needed to.
The Principal stared at both of us now, his look entirely disapproving. I had my arms wrapped around my stomach, still feeling sore and somewhat nauseous, and Melanie had a baggie of ice held to the back of her head. We both sported matching fat lips.
Danvers sighed, glancing down at the two file folders that sat on his desk. He was maybe a little younger than my mother, not a bad looking man, with pale blonde hair and brown eyes.
“I can’t say that I’m happy with either of you two right now. You, Ms. Jacobs, you’ve gotten in a bit of trouble for verbal harassment in the past, so it’s not so surprising to me that you took it to the next step, but you, Ms. Shaughnessy,” and he shook his head at me, “you’re a model student. Good grades, dance team, never been in trouble. But from what I’m told, Melanie started the physical part of the argument?”
I nodded mutely, staring at my feet. I wasn’t proud of what had happened, but I certainly wasn’t going to claim I hadn’t done my part of it. I was provoked though and I made sure he knew it. “She insinuated that I’d done some nasty things, Mr. Danvers, and she slapped me.”
“The little bitch stole my boyfriend!” Melanie exclaimed hotly, glaring at me and wincing at the same time. She held the ice tighter to her head. Not that I held any warm feelings for her, but I personally thought she probably needed to be seen by a doctor. I had slammed her head on the floor pretty hard.
Danvers sighed and shook his head. “This is all over a boy?”
Our mutual silence gave him his answer.
“It’s things like this that make me glad I have sons instead,” he muttered. He picked up his phone, hit a button. “Judy, call Ms. Jacobs’s parents and have them come pick her up, or send someone, either way, she probably needs to be checked out to be on the safe side.” He looked me over, his hand over the mouthpiece. “Are you doing all right, Katelyn?”
I bobbed my head up and down. I was fine, or I would be. I thought my stomach might be bruised, but I wasn’t too worried about it.
“No, Judy, Ms. Shaughnessy seems to be faring better, thank you.” He hung up the phone and looked at both of us. “Katelyn, you’ll spend today after school in detention, just be sure to let the teacher supervising know if you start to feel unwell. Melanie, you’ll spend tomorrow in detention since you’re going home today. You can go ahead and go wait in the outer office for your folks.”
I started to get up to follow Melanie out of the office, but stopped when I saw Principal Danvers shake his head at me. He waited until Melanie closed the door before sighing again.
“I expected better of you, Ms. Shaughnessy.”
“I know, Mr. Danvers… so did I.” I tried not to cry, only partially succeeding. I was still trying to figure out myself what had happened, what had made me snap enough to actually attack Melanie and seriously want to hurt her. “Can I go now?”
He nodded, still frowning at me, and I hurried from the room, ignoring Melanie’s angry stare as I headed back to my locker.
The rest of the day went by in a haze. I barely even noticed DeeAnn’s hateful glances through sixth hour, or the fact that Cody had somehow managed to wrangle a seat exchange with someone so that he was now sitting in the seat beside me. He followed me out of class to my locker, smiling at Kris despite her scowl.
“Detention, huh?” She gave Cody a look that put all the blame on him.
“I had no idea that Mel was going to react that badly, Kris,” Cody defended himself.
“Why this sudden interest in Kat anyway?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“I’ve always liked Kat.” He flashed me a smile. “Just this year, well, something’s different, and I wanted to get a chance to go out with her before she left for college.”
“You know she has a boyfriend, right?”
“Kris!” My head was starting to pound and I didn’t need this. I turned to Cody, who had a crestfallen look on his face. “He’s not really my boyfriend, we’re just dating, I haven’t known him very long.”
“Just dating?” He perked up. “So I have a chance then?”
He didn’t, not really, at least not with Darien as competition, or even Aerick. Despite his emailed apology, I didn’t really count Aerick as in the picture at the moment; I just wasn’t all that mad at him anymore.
But I didn’t want to hurt Cody’s feelings, especially not after he had just dumped his girlfriend so he could go to a party with me. “Of course you do, I haven’t made any hard and fast decisions yet.” I smiled at him. “Now could you do me a favor? I really need to talk to Kris, alone.”
He nodded and started to walk away.
“Hey, Cody, my birthday is Friday, Kat’s having a party for me at The Basement. Seven o’clock, if you’re interested,” Kris called after him, skewing her glance at me.
Cody nodded again, waved, and hurried off.
I groaned, wondering what the hell Kris had been thinking. “Why did you invite him, Kris?”
She shrugged, but there was mischief in her eyes. “I don’t like him, Kat, don’t trust him and his sudden obsession over you.”
“But I invited Darien.” I closed my eyes and shook my head.
“I know.”
“You are evil, Kris.”
She winked at me. “Least you’ll see what Cody’s made of.”
I sighed, slumping against my locker.
“So how come you didn’t just kick Melanie’s ass earlier? I know you could have.”
Guilt washed over me and I remembered how good it had felt when I had seen her blood. “Because I didn’t want to hurt her. Well, I did, but I knew I shouldn’t.”
“She hurt you.”
I looked at her sideways. “Oh, no, Kris, you don’t understand. If I hadn’t stopped, I think I might have put her in the hospital. As it was, I think I might have given her a concussion.” My voice quavered and I could feel more tears threatening.
I was not a violent person, I hated violence as a solution to anything, and here I had been about ready to pound Melanie’s head into the floor until she quit moving. I shuddered and remembered the time I had crawled Aerick’s case for retaliating against some other students who had started a fight with him; maybe I had been too quick to criticize him.
“Oh,” Kris said.
“Yeah.” I tried to give Kris a cheerful look. “On the bright side, I did at least give her a fat lip.”
“She gave you one too.”
I sighed. “Well, time to head to detention. I’ll call you tonight, okay?”
She nodded. “Don’t have too much fun.” Then she headed out to the bus stop.
Detention wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was going to be. There were a few other students in the room as well, and not necessarily those hard ass looking kids that teen movies would have you believe spend their entire lives in detention.
I got a few sympathetic looks, a couple of cheers, but other than that, it passed quietly and slowly. I had called my mom beforehand to let her know that I would be home late, and why, so she wouldn’t worry. She had been surprised that I had actually gotten into trouble, but practical enough to be happy that it was the first time, and supportive enough to believe that Melanie had deserved it.
Detention over, I made my way out to the parking lot, intending to take a city bus home. I rarely drove to school, despite having my own car, but wished I had today. So I was slightly shocked to see a familiar sleek motorcycle parked in the school parking lot.
I finally found Darien, lying on his back in the grass under a tree not too far from the bike. I should have realized he was out there, I had felt that strange sensation in my head earlier, but the headache I was sporting had made me think it was something else.
His eyes were open, looking up at me as I approached, and I sank down
onto the grass next to him. He reached up and ran a forefinger over my lip, still slightly swollen, the split skin not quite healed.
“So what does the other girl look like?” he asked, voice teasing.
I promptly burst into tears and he sat up, drawing me into a hug.
“Maybe that wasn’t such a good question,” he murmured. “What happened?”
I wiped my tears away with the back of my hand, forcing myself to quit crying. “I don’t know what came over me, Darien, I really wanted to hurt her.”
“You lost your temper?”
“Yeah, big time.”
“It’s what we are, Kat. Emotions run high with shifters, especially the baser ones. It’s something you’ll learn to control, over time.” He dropped a kiss on my lips, then stood and pulled me to my feet. “Let’s go do something to take your mind off it, something where you can burn off a bit of aggression. Anything you want.”
“Anything?” He was already stowing my backpack in one of the bike’s saddlebags.
“Whatever you think will let you release some anger and pent up energy.”
I knew exactly what would help.
“I still can’t believe miniature golf is your answer to pent up frustrations,” Darien commented an hour later. He putted the little orange ball, smiling slightly as it rolled right into the hole.
That was because he didn’t play miniature golf like I did. I lined the putter up with my pink golf ball, realized there was no way to make the hole in one shot, and let loose with a good solid thwack that had the ball bouncing off the acrylic clown face and landing in the gravel outside the green.
“That’s because you’re actually playing to win and I’m playing to beat that little ball into submission,” I told Darien, raising an eyebrow. “It’s all in how you look at it.”
Two hours later saw Darien winning and me feeling better. I wasn’t sure I had even gotten a single ball into the hole, but smacking the little sphere around had done wonders for my mood.
We went to get dinner right after, although I didn’t make near the pig of myself that I had at the IHOP a few days previous. After dinner, we went to the movies, but I told Darien that I didn’t want to be out too late, that I had school the next day.
We parted on the front step. Much as I wanted him to come in, much as I wanted to continue where my mother had so untimely interrupted us, I was also still a bit confused about everything anymore. I fell asleep that night with his goodnight kiss still burning on my lips, and dreamed pleasant dreams of magic, knights in shining armor and magnificent castles.
____________________
The next day at school was fairly normal. I avoided Melanie and DeeAnn, took Cody’s new constant presence in stride, although Kris did nothing but glare balefully at him, and made up the Botany test I had missed last week.
I had been checking my email and saw the old one I had received from Aerick last week, and on a whim I called Nina to find out how he was doing. I suppose I could have just called him, but I wanted to know the situation first.
She was happy to hear from me and told me that Aerick was fine, just incredibly busy. There was a slight hesitation to her words that made me think she might be hedging a little, but I let it slide. If Aerick had more important things to do than take a call from me, well, then so be it. When I mentioned to her that a guy had asked me to go to our Senior Party with him, she was both saddened that I might be moving on, but excited as well.
“So there’s a dance at this party, right? With music?” she asked me, sounding like she was hinting at something.
“Uh, yeah. From what I understand they’re going to have a whole room and have a kind of rave type thing, minus the drugs.” I laughed into the phone.
“Hmm. You know, I have relatives in Washington, some podunk place called Walla Walla. That’s near where you live isn’t it?” Nina asked.
“Well, sort of. It’s about an hour away.”
“Close enough. Anyway, my dad’s sister lives there. I spent a few weeks there just recently, but my aunt wanted me to come back up for my cousin’s wedding at the end of the month. I’ve got all my credits, so I’m just passing time waiting for graduation, and that’s not till like the tenth of June.” She sighed into the phone. “Like I said, Aerick’s… busy, and Dave and I… well, we’re not doing too great either.” Dave was her boyfriend, the one she had cheated on. “And I’m bored. So, what say I drive up this week for the wedding and then come down for your party?” Her tone brightened up.
“Why would you want to come to my Senior Party? Not that I don’t want you to come along,” I added hastily.
“Silly. I’m a DJ, remember? I’m offering to deejay the dance for your school, kitty Kat.” There was a smile in Nina’s voice and she laughed lightly. Other than Kris, she was the only one I let get away with calling me kitty Kat. “Please, Kat? Then I can meet this guy you’re giving up on Aerick for.”
“I never said I was giving up on Aerick. He just seems to have given up on me.” I wouldn’t mind seeing her again, and introducing her to Kris, but my life was a bit of a mess at the moment. “I don’t know though, things are kinda complicated around here and—”
“Bah, complicated doesn’t faze me too much and I need something to keep my mind off worrying about you know who. So that settles it! I’ll call your school to make the arrangements, and I will see you on Saturday, girlie!” And she hung up.
Well, if nothing else, she might make things more interesting.
Wednesday was Gary’s funeral. It was closed casket, and although I really didn’t want to be there, Mom insisted that I go. We sat next to the gravesite, dressed in black, my mother playing her part of bereaved widow to the few other people that also showed, mainly Gary’s work associates. She accepted their condolences and remarks of tragedy as best she could. We didn’t have a wake afterwards; Mom wanted it over and done with and put behind us.
Friday finally showed up and Kris actually got off at her own bus stop. It was her birthday, and apparently her folks had something planned for her before we did our own thing later that evening.
The week had seen the return of our furniture and I had helped my mom move it back to where it belonged. My room was now back to pretty close to how it had been before the initial move. I had Kris’s birthday present, an mp3 player that she had been ogling in the store a few weeks previous, wrapped up in shiny paper, along with a computer program to convert her CDs to mp3s.
I had showered earlier and put on my makeup, heavier than I normally did, but it looked good, and brushed my hair out so that it hung down my back in bright red waves. I picked out a pair of hip hugging black pants that had small chains dangling in various places and a burgundy corset with narrow shoulder straps to wear; things that I had never been allowed to wear with Gary in the house and usually had to change into in secret elsewhere. It felt good to not have to hide it.
As I headed out the front door, a dark lightweight cotton jacket over my arm in case it got chilly, I heard a sharp whistle behind me and turned to find my mother grinning at me.
“New clothes?”
I bit my lip. “Uhm… no.” I gave her a nervous glance.
“I see. I’ve just never seen them before. Stuff you hid from Gary?”
“Yeah.” I sighed.
“You look good, sweetie.”
“Thanks, Mom. I was worried you’d be upset with me.”
“No, Heavens no. You think your wardrobe was the only one he dictated?” She gave a nod in the general direction of her bedroom. “There will be a lot of things that I’ll be throwing out of my closet now that we’re back.” She laughed. “You go on now, have fun!” She made a shooing motion with her hand.
I gave her a big grin and blew her a kiss, then hurried out to my car. I put Kris’s present in the passenger seat, my jacket in the back, then pulled out of the driveway and headed over to pick her up.
She almost sat on the present when she got in the car. She picked it up, then ga
ve me a quizzical look as we headed toward the club.
“Do I get to open this now or do I have to wait?” she asked, her fingers crinkling the paper.
“You can open it now, silly!”
There was a quick tearing of paper, followed by a squeal of delight as she saw the mp3 player. “Thank you! I didn’t realize you were paying attention the other day.” She chuckled. “Not that I was hinting or anything.” She gave me a sly look.
“What? You think I don’t know how you operate?” I stuck my tongue out at her.
She laughed again. “It’s so weird to see you dressed up before you get to my house. Must have been nice to be able to get all ready at home?”
“Yeah, it was.” I looked her up and down. “You look pretty good yourself ya know. Any reason other than it’s your birthday?”
She poked me. “Duh. Cute guys of course.”
“Any particular cute guy?” While Kris had had boyfriends in the past, and certainly wasn’t as unschooled in things as I was, she was currently single.
“If you’re hoping for something to happen between me and Alex, well, don’t.” She sighed. “It’s not that he’s not good looking, because he is, but he just doesn’t, well, do it for me. And I think the feeling is mutual. The most we’ll ever be is good friends.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “Don’t be. There are other guys out there, I’ll find me one soon enough.” She gave me a sideways glance. “So the infamous Nina shows up tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” I giggled nervously, a part of me fearing Kris might be jealous of Nina. I had a strange connection with Nina that put her directly in the spot of my closest friend next to Kris. “And you be nice, okay? She’s really cool, but she can be a bit overwhelming.”
