by Abigail Boyd
White hot pain split my face in two. The blackness swept up and pulled me under. A roar of noise filled my ears like water. It hurt.
Hawthorne Gymnasium crashed back to reality. I didn't remember opening my eyes; they were just open. My entire head and face hurt, radiating back to my ears. My eyelids were puffy, so I could only see through little slits.
I found my limbs again and brought my hand to the wetness on my upper lip. Blood coated my fingers. My mouth was full of the rusty metallic taste, choking me. Not to mention I had the worst migraine ever, even worse than my unfortunate head injury at the orphanage.
I sat up. My t-shirt was dyed with blood, the entire front so red it looked fake. I silently thanked the universe for my strong stomach. Seeing that much blood come from my own body terrified me. For a split second I wondered if I was going to die, before I pulled myself together. No one could die from a tennis ball.
The gym was chaos. Kids were shouting, screaming. Everyone had stopped playing and had formed a circle around me. A forest of faces, some scared, some flushed with excitement like this was the best entertainment they'd had in weeks. The attention I hadn't wanted was all on me. I caught a few phones filming me and I cringed, not wanting to see this particular video pop up online and knowing there was no way to prevent it.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Theo's voice rang out clearly, like a very pissed off bell.
"It was an accident!" Lainey replied, the ever-present self assured quality in her voice gone.
I searched the crowd for them, and found them by the red patch of Theo's hair. The people around them were backing away. Theo stood with her fists clenched, rising on her toes as if to unconsciously appear taller. Lainey held her ground, but she looked like she was shaking.
I heard Coach Fletcher's voice in the back of the crowd.
"Get out of my way!" she shouted.
I tried to stand, but I was still disoriented, not only from the pain and the shock but from the vision of my absent friend that I had just been wrenched from. Reality didn't feel real or right. It felt more like watching a badly filmed movie.
Theo stepped up so that she was now nose to nose with Lainey. "You can't get away with this," she said, putting both small hands on Lainey's shoulders and pushing her.
Lainey stumbled a fraction of an inch. A switch flicked on inside her.
"Get your grimy hands off of me!" she squealed. She pushed back with her palms flat, sending Theo staggering into some onlookers. My trauma was all but forgotten, and they were the new sideshow. The paparazzi of camera phones turned their way.
Lainey hauled her fist back in a decidedly unladylike gesture to punch Theo. Before I could yell, Coach Fletcher appeared, with an unfamiliar woman in a white uniform at her side. She caught Lainey's punching arm by the dainty wrist.
"Enough!" she growled. "Office. Both of you. Now!"
"But..." Lainey spluttered, her face flushed.
"Not fair!" Theo said.
"Go. Now!" Coach repeated, pointing to the open gym doors. The fact that everybody had lost the ability to use complete sentences tickled me. Maybe due to massive blood loss. I snorted a laugh and immediately regretted it as blood sprayed out of my nose.
Lainey screamed in frustration, clenching her fists so hard her manicured nails must have cut her palms. She stormed off, messy ponytail swishing behind her. Madison followed, meekly, even though I hadn't seen her involved in anything.
"You too," Coach said to Theo.
"But she's my friend," Theo objected.
"I'll tend to her." Her statement was final.
Theo looked at me, frowning. She looked caught between crying and rage. I attempted a little wave and fell back on my elbows. For a moment she looked as though she would shirk Coach's orders. Then she was gone, too.
A moment later Coach and the other woman kneeled down next to me. "How are you feeling?" I was surprised by how kind Coach sounded. People change when you're wounded. She held up starched white towels to my still-bleeding nose.
"Lightheaded," I said, my voice crackling.
"I brought the school nurse," she said, and it almost sounded like an apology.
"Lie down," the nurse said, rolling up a towel and placing it on the floor. She guided me back down, putting my head on it. She was pretty and young-looking, with coffee colored skin and kind eyes. Sparkly green baubles dangled in her ears. "You look like you were in a prize fight," she said, smirking at me.
"The nose is bad enough, but she hit the back of her head pretty hard when she went down," Coach said to her as if I wasn't there. She seemed scared. The nurse nodded, her face professionally emotionless. She pulled out a stethoscope and held the metal end to my chest.
"What about us?" A boy in basketball shorts whined. Now that the entertainment was gone, the masses were getting restless.
"You're dismissed, go change," Coach said distractedly, as she cracked an ice pack and placed it gingerly on my nose. The gym emptied out quickly, everyone chatting loudly. In that moment, I would have given anything to know what they were saying. The nurse continued checking my vitals.
"I'm Nurse Callie, by the way," she said. "I'm going to take you to the office. It's really important that you see a doctor, okay? So either we call your parents, or we call an ambulance if they're working and can't come pick you up."
"Call Hugh...my dad, he can come. He'll...be able..." The lightheadedness was getting worse even on the floor, and the gym was twirling gently like a ferris wheel.
"Okay. Does the office have his number?" She asked, maintaining eye contact with me. I nodded. She checked my pupils with her pen flashlight.
"Can you stand?" she asked finally.
"I don't know, but I can try."
They each took hold of one of my arms, and I pushed my body up. I was unsteady on my feet, but I figured I could make it out to the office. It wasn't very far from the gym through the commons.
"Lean on me, we can make it," Nurse Callie said resolutely.
"Can I get a new shirt? This one is gross," I said. I didn't even want to know what my face looked like. From the feel of it, Quasimodo would be about right.
Nurse Callie chucked. "A little blood goes a long way. I'm sure we have a few extras lying around. Never know when someone is going to throw up."
I reflexively wrinkled my nose at the image, and winced at the sharp pain that followed.
"You okay?" she asked. We were finally out of the gym. We passed by the trophy case that took up half of the opposite wall.
"Can we just rest here for a moment?" I asked hoarsely. The ferris wheel was turned up to high and nausea was overtaking me. Although I hadn't had lunch, I didn't want to revisit breakfast.
"Of course," she said, helping me lean up against the trophy case.
"McPherson would hate me even touching this...with my unworthy fingers..." I said, shutting my eyes and laughing a little.
To my surprise, I heard Nurse Callie laugh back. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."
After a moment we began again, me still leaning on her for support. We went out into the commons, where everyone who had been dismissed was sitting around, enjoying their free time. I groaned. Several of them openly gaped at me.
"Just ignore them," Nurse Callie whispered in my ear. I tried to focus on my steps on the floor. I had never realized just how huge the commons was. We finally navigated out, and down the long, empty hall to the front of the school. When we arrived at the office, the bell rang for the end of class.
"Good timing," Callie said.
She held the door to the office open and ushered me in. The door shut with a shushing sound, shutting us off. The secretary behind the desk gasped beneath her blonde, poodle-permed hairdo, nearly dropping the phone in her hand.
"What happened to you?" she asked. "Were you in a fight?"
"Sports accident," Callie said, picking up a clipboard off of the counter and scribbling on it. "Got it covered."
She led me back down the
hall and into a little closet of a room with a cot. Fluffy white clouds were sponged on the baby blue walls. My nausea rolled into my throat again. The starchy cot sagged as I sat down.
"Just lie down here and I'll call your dad, okay?" She said with her smile. I wondered how old she was; she couldn't have been more than twenty-five. "And I'll get you some less gruesome clothing."
She returned a second later with an oversized t-shirt with Hawthorne's mascot on it, the Hawthorne Hellcat. It had always looked like a tiger with horns pasted on the head to me.
"Thank you," I said, realizing I hadn't before. She just nodded and shut the door for my privacy.
I peeled off the bloody t-shirt and my bra, for once thankful I didn't really need it. Those went into the biohazard bag Callie had provided and into the trash.
I grabbed some paper towels from the dispenser on the wall and wet them in the little sink that stood in the corner. For the first time I glimpsed myself in the mirror. As I wiped blood off of my chest, I examined my face. Blood choked my nostrils and ran down to my chin. The bridge of my nose and my cheeks were puffy and purple. All and all it wasn't as bad as I expected beneath the gruesomeness, but I still looked like crap. I had no idea how someone could cause that much damage with a tennis ball, and the hatred that had to fuel that made me shudder.
Now that I no longer looked like a murder victim, I sat down on the cot, leaning my head back against the wall. My legs wouldn't stop jiggling. Hugh would be so worried, not to mention Claire...I hoped he wouldn't tell her until she got out of work, knowing that was futile.
I looked around the room for distraction. Flyers addressing good health habits filled a plastic rack on the wall. The whole room smelled of illness, with hints of cough syrup and vapor rub.
I sat up when I recognized Theo's voice. It was coming from out in the hallway.
I stood up on still-weak legs and crept over to the door. Voices filtered through, one of them Theo's and the other Lainey's. I opened the door carefully to avoid making noise.
"I already told you a million times, it was an accident," Lainey said. In the minutes since she had left the gym she must have composed herself, because her voice was as steady as ever.
They were sitting a few doors down the hallway in McPherson's office. The door was cracked. I couldn't see them but I could hear them clearly.
"You aimed for her face, Lainey," Theo said. I imagined her pushing up her glasses. I had never heard her so mad, despite the few demonstrations of her anger streak I had witnessed.
"What motive would she have to hurt Ms. Donovan?" McPherson interjected, his tone maddeningly disinterested. For a split second, I remembered the strange odor in his shed, the impersonal way his house was decorated.
"Are you kidding me?" Theo asked. "Do you pay any attention?"
"I am your principal, Ms. Weaver, I would care for you to show me some respect." he said coldly.
"Why, when you don't respect any of us whose parents aren't rich?" Theo said, baiting him.
C'mon, Theo, don't get in trouble, I silently begged. What I wouldn't give for telepathy.
And I knew why Lainey had attacked me. Henry. It was because I went to the dance with Henry, who she had branded on day one as hers. Whether he agreed with that or not. There was every possibility she had started that rumor about them dating, as well.
"That's enough," McPherson growled.
"Yeah, I mean, I was hoping that Ariel and I could be friends," Lainey purred. "But it's like they won't accept me into their little club." Now she was just pushing buttons.
"Don't exaggerate," McPherson said to her. "We need to talk about a fair punishment."
"Punishment?" Lainey sputtered.
"You were fighting in class. We have a no tolerance policy for fighting. I think that three lunch detentions, for both of you, is an extremely fair and mild discipline..."
"What?" Theo asked. "What about punishing her for the fact that she broke my friend's face?"
In my lightheadedness that made me giggle again. I noticed warm wetness seeping out of my nose. More bleeding. I rushed over and grabbed some paper towels. I walked too fast and swayed on my feet, so I had to sit on the cot. Unfortunately I missed the last few minutes of the discipline meeting, and Theo and Lainey were in the hall.
They must have stopped right outside the sick bay door.
"How would you like it if Ariel's family sued the crap out of you?" Theo asked bitterly.
"I'd like to see them try," Lainey snorted, in the same tone of voice that she probably used to talk about the weather. "My father's lawyer has never lost a case, and we'd bankrupt her family with legal fees before it was over. But give her my condolences for her nose, anyway. My uncle's a plastic surgeon; I should give her his card."
"What is wrong with you? Are you even human?" Theo asked incredulously, speaking my feelings out loud.
Lainey dropped her voice low. "Maybe she shouldn't have gone after what was mine."
I heard hear footsteps going down the hall. When I was sure she was gone, I cracked the door open. Theo was still standing in the hall, frozen, the detention slip in her hand.
"Well, didn't that just suck?" I said. Theo turned unfocused eyes to me. Without a word she came over and hugged me tightly. She pulled back and studied my face, wincing. Okay, maybe it was a little bad.
Pink glitter was smudged all over her cheeks and forehead, and her eyes were bright red from crying.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"For what?" I asked.
"That all of this happened."
"Uh, it's not your fault," I said, leaning against the door.
"Are you okay? It looks terrible." She tilted her head to inspect my wound from a different angle.
"Well, it hurts, yeah."
"It made a really nasty sound when you hit the floor," she said, shaking her head. "That was really twisted."
"That's Lainey for you."
"He didn't even punish her for hitting you," Theo said, jerking her thumb in the direction of McPherson's office. "He said it was an unfortunate accident. He just gave us detention for fighting."
"I heard," I sighed. "We just can't win."
"Because everyone puts up with it," Theo reasoned. Her anger was coming back. I could tell she had quite the temper buried beneath the colorful cuteness.
"Can I remind you not to piss Lainey off?" I said gently. "Remember, more money, more connections, way more power than we lowly worker ants?"
She pounded her fist against the wall. "That's the same crap she pulled when she sprained my ankle."
"What?" I asked, frowning.
"She knocked me down at the mall, and my ankle got twisted." Her eyes flickered to one of the many pictures of missing girls that were in the hallway. "And I wasn't going to say this, but...I'm pretty sure that she was there, too. I recognized her when the posters went up."
I glanced at the picture. She was talking about Jenna.
"But that was back in May, so I didn't think it was important," she continued.
A bell rang, the perfect excuse for her to bolt.
"I've got to go," Theo said, scampering away before I had a chance to digest what she was saying.
"Theo?" I called, but she just ignored me.
Chapter 18
"Your dad is here," Nurse Callie said, appearing behind me from the door to the Nurse's station. "You were supposed to be lying down."
"I thought that I was going to throw up," I lied. "Walking around helped."
I followed her to the front office. Hugh was standing in his tweed coat, looking uncomfortable and worried. There were circles under his eyes. When he saw me, both relief and unanswered questions flickered on his face.
"What happened?" he asked, hugging me and avoiding my nose. He was talking to Callie. She opened her mouth to speak, but McPherson breezed in from the hallway.
"Just a little accident during gym class," he said, ugly smile appearing beneath his bushy moustache.
"What
kind of accident, Edgar?" Hugh said coldly. I had no idea that was McPherson's first name, and it took me a second to connect the two.
"Another student hit her with a tennis ball," Callie supplied.
McPherson gave her a look that said shut up.
"The situation has been dealt with. I assure you that everyone here feels terrible about it."
"The situation has not been dealt with," Hugh said, getting angry. His arm was still around my shoulder. "My child was just injured on your property. I want answers. Who is responsible?"
"The identity of the student isn't important..." McPherson started.
"Lainey Ford," I mumbled. McPherson turned, looking at me like I was a bug to squish.
"And why not?" Hugh said, laughing angrily. "How much money have the Fords dumped into this pet project of the Thornhill Society? Of course they would have you comfortably stashed in their back pocket."
"Thornhill has nothing to do with this!" McPherson said, raising his voice in anger. I just wanted to lie down. This was too much. The walls started to undulate, the counter swooping up and down. Nurse Callie and I made eye contact.
"Gentlemen, I think that's enough. Ariel needs to see a doctor," Callie advised, stepping in between them. That brought Hugh back down to earth. She handed him my backpack, which had appeared in one of the office chairs.
"Right now, I need to drive my daughter to the emergency room," Hugh said through gritted teeth. "But this discussion isn't over."
McPherson nodded his head and retreated, swinging his arms like a soldier. Hugh, grim faced, signed me out of the office and led me out.
"Good luck," Callie said, and winked at me.
It was raining heavily when we got out to the parking lot. Hugh opened the umbrella he'd bought over our heads. We didn't speak until we were safely buckled inside his car.
"Accident?" Hugh echoed, turning to me. His eyebrows were raised nearly up to his sandy hair. He waited for my reply.
I bit my bottom lip. How could I put it so Hugh wouldn't get all up in arms? I didn't want my family to go up against Lainey's; she was right, they would bankrupt us for looking at them funny.
