*
It was now the middle of February, and Ryan had taken me out for a nice dinner for Valentine’s Day—at a fancy restaurant, where they brought warm bread to the table. I’d even managed to clean off most of my plate, happy that he loved the cologne I’d given him. At school, Amy and our friends still weren’t talking to me, but a lot of the outright hostility in the halls—shoves, glares, hateful comments—had died down. Just being ignored was a blessing. Shauna still made snide remarks whenever I was around, but they didn’t sting as much from her as ones from my own friends. Or at least the people I’d thought were my friends.
One lunch, I was playing floor hockey with some of the guys in the gym, while Ryan was off working on his truck, when Shauna decided to join the game. She was on the opposite team, of course. Rachel and Cathy were watching from the side. Kim was probably rehearsing—she was in the school play and I hadn’t seen her with the girls as much recently. More often she was with one of the other girls who was playing the lead part, and I wondered if she was trying to break away from Shauna. Good luck with that.
At first the hockey game went okay. I was making some great passes, Shauna bringing out my competitive streak. Then she started getting closer and closer, crowding me. I tried to stay cool, to push back a little and not get cornered. But she kept coming at me, trying to slash me with her stick. Finally she hit me across the knuckles. It hurt, and I spun around and slashed her legs. She pushed into me with her shoulder. Now I was really pissed. I dropped my stick and used my whole body to slam into her, knocking her down. Then I jumped on top of her, straddling her torso, and started slapping her face. One of the girls, Rachel or Cathy, was screaming in my ear and pulling my hair. But I didn’t stop, just slapped harder. The guys around us cheered. Finally, a teacher showed up and separated us. He hauled us off to the principal’s office. The principal sat us in opposite rooms and called in our parents.
My mom and dad showed up. Dad looked like he’d just had a shower and I felt bad, knowing he’d had to leave the job site to come to the school. He gave my shoulder a squeeze, but Mom barely glanced at me. I tried to assess her mood. How angry was she? Her cheeks were flushed and her hair a little messy, like she’d brushed it fast. She’d been stressed out lately, buying some new properties to flip, and I remembered she had a meeting that afternoon with her Realtor. She was probably furious that my crap had interrupted her.
The principal said, “I’m sorry to have to call you in like this, but Toni was caught fighting on school grounds, so we’re going to have to suspend her for a week.”
“That’s not fair,” I said. “Shauna started it—she kept slashing at my hands!” I never did like this principal—and I knew he didn’t like me. He was an older guy, gray hair, potbelly, and supposedly married to some rich chick—their kids were in private school, which I always thought ironic. Like our school wasn’t good enough. We’d had a few run-ins before, mostly about my lipping off to teachers.
“We’ll be talking to her father as well,” he said, “but Shauna’s saying you caused the fight and she was just defending herself. There are some other girls backing up her story. They also say you’ve been threatening Shauna.”
“They’re her friends. They’re lying for her. This is such bullshit.” I shouldn’t have been surprised—it was the way it always was. Everyone believed Shauna, but it still amazed me how many times she got away with crap.
Mom turned to me. “Toni, watch your language.” She faced the principal again. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, but hopefully she’ll learn her lesson.” She shook her head and kept speaking as though I weren’t there. “I can’t control her anymore. We’ve talked and talked to her, but nothing is getting through.”
My dad said, “Is there anyone other than this girl’s friends who saw what happened? It would be good to have another side, seems a little biased…”
I smiled at him. Thanks, Dad.
The principal said, “The other students aren’t sure what happened, but we’re looking into Shauna’s role in the fight.”
I already knew how that would go, how everyone would cover for her or wouldn’t want to get involved.
My dad looked angry but he didn’t say anything else, just glanced at me, disappointed. He wasn’t the only one.
Later, while I cleaned out my locker and my parents waited in their truck, I saw Shauna’s father go in with her. Shauna saw me watching and gave me the finger. A couple of minutes later I heard laughter in the principal’s office and remembered that Frank McKinney and the principal played on the same ball team.
I found out later that Shauna had only been suspended for two days.