“I’m talking to you!”
Sawyer felt a bony finger jabbing below her shoulder blade. She gripped the sides of her locker and breathed in what was supposed to be a calming breath. Maggie poked her again.
Sawyer spun around, eyes in mid-roll. “What do you—” Sawyer stopped when she saw the note clenched in Maggie’s hand. It was the same pale-green paper, the same size and shape, and judging by the fury in Maggie’s eyes and the flush on her cheeks, Maggie had read it.
“Where did you get that?”
“You shoved it in my locker, you bitch!”
Before Sawyer had a chance to process what Maggie had said, she felt Maggie’s palms against her chest, giving her a hard shove that landed her against the cold metal of her locker. Her lock stung the back of her neck, and Sawyer winced.
“You think I’m a whore?” Maggie continued without missing a beat, waving the note in Sawyer’s face. “You think I’m a slut? Kevin only left me for you because he heard you were easy. He heard you were blowing half the guys from here to your stupid new housing tract.”
Maggie’s face was inches from Sawyer’s, and her voice had reached a frenzied pitch. Her eyes were wild, her nostrils flared, and that was what Sawyer was focused on when Maggie hit her.
The slap was clean and stinging against her cheek, and for the second time in her life, Sawyer felt cornered, threatened. Her eyes watered, and she pressed herself against the cold metal lockers.
“You don’t know the first thing about me and Kevin!” Maggie spat. “He cheated on you with me!”
A tiny bubble of anger percolated low in Sawyer’s stomach. She stopped listening as Maggie went to slap her again. She grabbed Maggie’s wrist, feeling the heat roiling into a full fire in her gut. No one was going to hit her again, not ever.
“Don’t you touch me,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Don’t send me those damn notes,” Maggie screamed back. When her other hand came up against Sawyer’s head Sawyer grabbed that too, and gave Maggie a hard shove. Maggie stumbled over her own feet, over the group of kids who had ringed them to watch, and fell hard on her butt on the linoleum. The note slipped out of her hand, and Sawyer watched its graceful arc as it slid behind Maggie and came to rest against the bank of lockers.
Maggie’s fury was palpable. “You bitch!”
“What’s going on here?”
Principal Chappie’s baritone voice made the kids scatter like marbles until only Sawyer and Maggie were left, Sawyer pressed against her locker, Maggie looking like a wounded dove on the floor. Sawyer watched Maggie’s chest pulse as she blinked hard until huge mascara-colored crocodile tears slid over her cheeks. “Sawyer attacked me! She pushed me down!”
“No, I didn’t,” Sawyer protested. “She came after me!” She stepped closer to Principal Chappie and Maggie stayed put, throwing an arm over her forehead as through she feared a blow from Sawyer.
“Oh, get up!” Sawyer barked at her. “You know what happened. You fell over your damn self trying to hit me. Tell him!”
Maggie blinked innocent, doe-like eyes. “I don’t know what happened. I was walking down the hall and Sawyer threw herself on me like some kind of animal.”
“No, I didn’t! And you spray-painted my locker and tore up my clothes!”
Maggie’s poor-girl fa?ade didn’t crack. “I don’t know what she’s talking about, Principal Chappie. She’s crazy. She sent me a threatening note. I’m just…” She sniffed, and Sawyer watched Maggie’s small shoulders shiver, her face crumble under another torrent of tears.
That girl could win an Oscar, Sawyer thought bitterly.
“I’m just so scared. I don’t know what I ever did to her.”
Sawyer gaped. “What I did to her? Principal Chappie—”
Principal Chappie helped Maggie up and cupped his chin with his hand. “You’d better come down to my office, Sawyer. Do either of you need to see the nurse?”
Maggie made a show of checking her elbows, twisting her wrists as though looking for breaks. “I think I’m okay, sir. I’d just like to get to class. I have a presentation due for English.”
“Of course, Maggie. Go on ahead.” Principal Chappie put his hand on Sawyer’s elbow. “Sawyer?”
Anger radiated from Sawyer in waves as Maggie slipped away, head held high.
Sawyer watched her leave.
“Come on,” Principal Chappie said.
“Fine,” Sawyer relented, trying to loosen the tight set of her jaw. “Let me just grab my backpack.” She bent down to gather her pack, then snatched Maggie’s discarded note from under the locker, jamming it down in her pocket. “Okay.”
Sawyer sat in Principal Chappie’s office, chewing her bottom lip as he hung up the phone. “You father should be here in just a few minutes. I already told him what we talked about.”