Chapter 6: In School Suspension
Katelyn sat outside Mr. Gorman’s office waiting for Teacher Woman to finish her case against her in the next room. Katelyn sat in one of the two plastic seats bolted to a metal frame. Slouching wasn’t an option as it blocked the narrow path from the opposite side of his secretary’s desk to his door. She couldn’t get comfortable, so she took to chewing her nails. Katelyn swung her knees back and forth just to relieve some of her anger. The secretary looked up at her, barely disguising her annoyance. Katelyn returned her gaze, but didn’t stop swinging her knees. The secretary gave her a practiced smile, and looked back down at her work.
Katelyn dreaded seeing Gorman. He personally came to her lunch table today, embarrassing her in front of her friends. Katelyn was already being ignored by Emily anyway. Emily and Maci had been bragging about being at some senior boy’s house after they left the bonfire at Rollins Dam Saturday night. Maci was making sure to be loud enough so Katelyn would hear every juicy detail.
Gorman had stepped up to the table and gave a grin, surveying the whole table twice until he said, “Miss Wells, come with me.” The rest of the students at the table relaxed at being off the hook. A few of them glared at Katelyn for being the cause of Principal Gorman’s presence at their table.
Gorman escorted her to “Study Café,” the school’s dumb name for a half hour tutoring session during lunch. Only those who made the “F” list received the honor of mandatory attendance. Sometimes Katelyn got away with skipping, but Gorman must have had extra time on his hands today to play cowboy and round up students.
A different teacher manned the classroom each week. Mr. Brooks, her math teacher, happened to be on duty today. So, it wasn’t a punishment, really. Brooks was young, just out of college, and not bad looking. But, he truly helped her. She’d always given up in math, but the way he explained things seemed to match how her brain worked. Katelyn was actually getting an B+ in his class; who cares that it was “Fundies”, Fundamentals of Algebra, the dumbed-down class.
Principal Gorman had a long standing reservation in the Wells household’s shitlist. Not only was he principal when Katelyn’s mom graduated, he also held the role of head asshole for both of her older sisters. He was a big-bellied man with gray hair slightly combed over, which more often than not, resulted in an involuntary spike waving over his head as he bounded down the halls of the school. His bulky shoulders were probably caused from holding up his belly. With his thick, hairy arms, he was as close to an image of a sloth that Katelyn could imagine. He would also grin a wide denture smile, which sometimes looked like a grimace. A monkey grin. A sloth monkey man.
Gorman was a creep. Jodi, Katelyn’s oldest sister, said he put his hand on her bare leg as he “counseled” her in school options after she found out she was pregnant. With Jodi and Jenny, he didn’t try to keep them in school. In fact, it meant fewer calls and incident reports he had to make. But, with Katelyn, it seemed he was trying a new approach: being nice. “How’s things at home?” he’d ask, or “What’s new in your day, Miss Wells.” He always referred to her as Miss Wells. Maybe he was purposefully connecting her to her dad. Everybody in town knew Brian Wells. She was just another one of the Wells Clan to Gorman.
Gorman’s office door handle turned and the door cracked so that Teacher Woman’s voice came through as more than a muffled rant. Katelyn caught the last bit, “. . . where she’s headed, just like her sisters.”
Katelyn’s face flushed red and she jumped to her feet. She was momentarily shocked at her own reaction, but didn’t sit back down. In fact, she faced Gorman’s office door, waiting for that woman to come out so she could defend her family to Teacher Woman’s face. But, the door closed upon itself, and she heard Gorman’s voice continue in murmured debate.
“Katelyn,” came the icing-laced voice of the secretary, “have a seat.”
Katelyn didn’t dare turn around; her eyes stung and her throat tightened. She didn’t know what to do. She was so tired of the things people said about her sisters, her dad, and her. What do they know about our lives?
“Katelyn,” the secretary repeated, “you need to sit down.”
Katelyn forced herself to take a deep breath and exhale. “No thanks,” she said, and turned and headed out the open outer office door. She didn’t look back as she turned right in the hallway and headed for the school’s small atrium decorated with a million glass cases holding years of trophies and senior class photos. Occasionally, she’d see people looking up their relatives. She had found her mother’s photo once, but that’s as far as she had to look. None of Katelyn’s sisters made it to graduation from good ole’ Northrup High School.
The secretary had called after her and then had called to Mr. Gorman in a troubled voice. Katelyn made it around the atrium’s corner before she heard his labored voice. “Miss Wells, just where do you think you’re going? Get back here, young lady.”
The obedient side of Katelyn turned. She had never been in trouble at the elementary school, and her only issue at the middle school was attendance. This school just seemed to have it out for her. And, it was only freshman year.
“You’re already in a spot of trouble. Don’t make matters worse,” Gorman said as he closed the distance between them.
Make matters worse? What, should she stick around here and let them tell her how much of a problem she is? She thought. Just then, the last period dismiss bell went off and a stampede of voices and shoes made their way into the halls. Katelyn felt free to leave. She turned away from Mr. Gorman, but he reached out and grabbed her left arm above the elbow.
The shock of his touch sent her anger flaring again. Katelyn looked from his hand and up to his face, which had sprung into his monkey grin. His arm vibrated with tremors of fear or anger. He doesn’t have control, she thought. She realized the grin was an empty gesture, a disguise.
She whipped her arm from out of his grasp and let her anger take over. “Fuck off,” she threw at his face, which turned to a look of momentary shock. She took the chance and quickly walked out the front doors with the stream of students eager to get out of school.
Pick-me-up Page 7
