Pick-me-up
Page 10
Chapter 9: Paying Debts
Unbelievable! Unfuckingbelievable! That’s all Katelyn could think. The situation was too unreal. Katelyn sat in a standard school desk that had been positioned directly across from Principal Gorman’s wide oak desk. The fronts of the desks touched, face to face. Gorman sat in his desk going about his business.
Her mom barely talked to her this morning, but made sure Brianna woke her up early. The car ride was quiet. Katelyn knew her mom was still mad at her about the incident with Gorman, and her dad hadn’t come home again. Despite wanting to beg for her phone back, Katelyn didn’t want to add to her mother’s bad mood. But, when they reached school, Gorman walked right at their car as if he was waiting for them. Katelyn turned to her mom and instantly understood the personal greeting was intended for her. Gorman waved politely and was met with an obligatory smile from her mom.
Katelyn turned in her seat to look at her mom. “What’s this?”
“Do what he says,” she said and then steeled her eyes forward. The conversation was over. Katelyn slammed the door, and her mother drove away without looking back.
Katelyn was escorted to her locker to get any materials she needed and then was brought into his office. Gorman explained that she was a “guest” in his office for the rest of the week, or more if needed. All the while, he kept a monkey grin on his face. “We’ll be great acquaintances by the end of the week, Miss Wells, won’t we?”
Katelyn couldn’t respond. That was two hours ago. In that time, office helpers delivered a stack of late work from each teacher, courtesy of special request by Gorman himself. The papers sat undisturbed on her desk. Katelyn sat in protest. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she bounced her knee up and down. She made a point to keep the bouncing or toe tapping up to annoy Gorman. He gripped his pen and took deep breaths several times like he was trying to hold himself from yelling at her.
He left the room a few times to hold private phone calls, but the door to his office would then be propped open to where the secretary was under strict orders to guard her.
Katelyn felt powerless. Her mom was definitely in on this, but she hadn’t said a word. Gorman even called her mom right in front of her. “Yes, Mrs. Wells. Let’s keep the line of communication open between us. Uhuh. Yes. I want there to be no misconceptions or misinterpretations of actions. (pause). She’ll be my guest this week.” He gave her another monkey grin as he hung up.
“I have to go pee,” Katelyn blurted out at him now.
He took his time signing whatever important form was in front of him, then he looked up at her, shifted his eyes down to the stack of papers on her desk, and then looked back up at her. “Which assignment would you like to finish in order to earn that privilege, Miss Wells?” Again, the monkey smile.
Katelyn sighed and glowered at him. She was beyond caring about trouble. “When you look at me like that,” she said in a growl, “I want to punch you in the face.”
He didn’t even flinch. Dead eyes and monkey grin. “Which assignment, Miss Wells?”
She didn’t move. Another ten seconds they held the silent glare, and then he slightly shrugged and dropped his attention back to his stack of papers, picking up the next form. Katelyn huffed. She grabbed the top worksheet, a science packet, and opened her science book. Her work was sloppy, and she skipped over questions she couldn’t find. Her teacher rarely used the book, so she’d have to get notes from another student. The problem was she wasn’t friends with kids who took notes.
Less than thirty minutes later, she had completed most of the packet. Katelyn threw it on Gorman’s desk after he walked back in from wherever monkey-grinning assholes went for ten minutes while knowing a girl they are keeping prisoner has to pee.
“Mrs. Wilson, when you have a free minute, will you please escort Miss Wells to the restroom?” Gorman rewarded her.
A few minutes later, Katelyn walked into the girls’ bathroom by the cafeteria. Mrs. Wilson had ended up talking to another faculty member in the hall. She now had a few minutes of freedom. Once in the privacy of a stall, the tears surfaced, but she forced back the urge to cry. She would not let her guard down, even here. Gorman was already winning. Katelyn wasn’t kidding herself, either. There was going to be no call from her dad. She was on her own.
The bathroom door opened and Katelyn saw feet go into the stall next to hers. She thought she recognized the leather thong sandals. “Emily?”
“Katelyn? Is that you?”
“Oh my God, yes.”
“I saw Wilson in the hall. What happened to you? There are rumors and stuff, ya know.”
Katelyn came out of her stall and waited for Emily to do the same, relaying the nasty details of Gorman’s punishment to her in the meantime.
Emily came out and touched Katelyn’s arm. “That totally blows. He’s such a creep.” She went to the mirror and turned her head looking for imperfections in her hair. She turned for a profile view and analyzed her back side. “These totally make my hips look like a hooker.” Emily smiled and switched her inspection to her eyeliner. Finally, she looked up at Katelyn. “You told him to fuck off?” Emily laughed as she freed a cell phone from her back pocket.
“Yeah,” Katelyn said proudly, “he had it coming.” Emily had turned her attention to sending a text. All students used the bathroom as communication central. Teachers hardly went into the student bathrooms, so it was safe from all the rules in the dumb school. Katelyn didn’t want to lose Emily to whoever was on the other end of the message. “I have an hour and a half after school before I’m back to being grounded. Wanna go to McDonalds or something?”
“Ummm,” Emily didn’t look up, but suddenly looked uncomfortable. “I have other plans.”
“Oh, okay.” Katelyn tried again, “How about tomorrow after school?”
Emily finished her message and then sighed as she seemed to come to a decision. “Listen, Katelyn. People are saying, like, you freaked out and you’re way out there. Don’t get me wrong. Rage against the machine, fight the system and all, but, um, how do I say this?” She paused. “I can’t get into that much trouble. I mean, I can’t risk being with you and, like, being seen as a serious trouble maker.”
Katelyn looked away from Emily toward the floor.
“Look,” Emily started, then stopped. She turned toward the door and said softly, “Sorry” and walked out.