Chapter 11

When I got to school, it was more of the same. I was confronted by several classmates in homeroom asking about why I was hanging out with Janie when she had lied about me. I denied that Janie had lied and chewed out three classmates about listening to rumors. I got yelled at for not appreciating their concern. I even had to explain to my friend, Johnny Martin, that the rumors weren’t true. At least he took my word for it. Still, this was getting out of hand.

I hit the wall in first-period English. When I walked into the classroom, I saw Janie. It looked like she had been crying. She was sitting next to Jennifer who was comforting her. I then saw Mrs. Douglas shaking her head at me.

I ran to Janie and whispered. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m going to fix this.”

Janie seemed completely out of it and didn’t respond. Jennifer nodded to me.

When the bell rang, I approached my teacher.

“Mrs. Douglas?”

“Yes, Tommy?”

“May I address the class?”

“I think that would be a good idea,” she said wearing a serious expression.

I walked over to Mrs. Douglas’s podium.

“Listen everybody! I’m getting tired of all of these rumors! So far, every rumor you’ve heard about me and Janie has been wrong, yet a number of you keep spreading them.”

“I didn’t say anything, but people were talking about it in Homeroom,” stated Angie Bloom.

“Well, Angie, that’s good because nobody knows what happened except Janie, Jennifer, and me.”

“What really happened then?” asked Laura Berenger.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Laura, please don’t take this the wrong way. I don’t mean to single you out because you aren’t the only one who has asked that question, but it really isn’t any of your business or anybody else’s who’s not involved.”

“Wait a minute!” she started to complain.

“Laura!” exclaimed Mrs. Douglas, “While Tommy somewhat cushioned his reply, it was pretty blunt and you didn’t like it did you?”

“No,” she pouted.

“Here’s the thing. He’s absolutely right. It is none of our business. The problem is that despite this fact, we all want to make it our business. People of all ages, but young people in particular, like to gossip. We want to know the truth, regardless of who it hurts. If we don’t know, it becomes easy to extrapolate what we think could be the truth based upon the facts we know, or even in some cases, the things that we think are facts that are really just assumptions,” lectured my teacher, before looking at me. “That’s the danger of making such a comment, Tommy. Even if you are in the right, if you offend people, they will tend to draw the most negative conclusion about you even if they are completely wrong.”

I heard a number of people murmur their agreement with the teacher, while I disagreed.

“I’ve tried to set the record straight, based upon the limitation of it being an ongoing police investigation, so I can’t give details. People still choose to make things up about me and Janie instead of accepting what we tell them,” I frowned and turned to Laura. “Janie is the true victim here and you people lie or spread things that you don’t know to be true about her and me. What does that say about people who do that? Does it make your parents proud of you?” I turned to Mrs. Douglas. “If any of my classmates can’t be bothered to believe me then, that’s their problem, not mine. I will always defend my friends! My true friends. The rest of you are on your own!”

The guys in class couldn’t meet my gaze. Most of the girls were crying.

I saw a tear in Mrs. Douglas’ eye and she addressed the class. “Well said, Tommy. It is easy to fall into the trap of wanting to know things, but we have a responsibility to our friends and classmates to allow them their privacy. Does anybody doubt Tommy’s sincerity?”

Everybody murmured their ‘no’s.’

All of a sudden, Laura ran to me and threw herself at my feet. “Please forgive me, Tommy I didn’t know!” she bitterly wept.

“I forgive you, Laura, but you and everybody who said anything negative or even believed anything they heard about Janie should apologize to her,” I said, as I stroked her hair before helping the girl to her feet and back to her chair.

As I got closer to Janie’s chair, I heard her whisper, “Thank you, my hero.”

Despite the chorus of apologies Janie received, I could tell that there was something wrong with her. Jen and I escorted her to the nurse’s office and we were told that Natalie had picked her up in school later that morning. After History, I didn’t see Jen until lunchtime.

When she saw me, she ran to my arms and we hugged. “I’m so proud of you, Tommy. You were her hero.”

“I know, but something is wrong with her, Jen, I can feel it.”

“Me too. I think that so much has happened to her that she is having problems coping with it all.”

I nodded. “See if they’ll let you call your mom. Have your mom call mine. Maybe my mom can help. She’s a nurse.”

“That’s a good idea, Tommy. I’ll do that after lunch, before my next class,” she said, before kissing me on the cheek.

I then went to the lunch line. I was relieved to see they were having hot dogs and beans (two of the better things that the cafeteria served). I loaded up my dog with ketchup and mustard, grabbed my milk, got my lunch ticket punched by Mrs. Everley, the lunch lady, and thanked her before going to my table.

Despite seeing all of my friends there, I saw my table had grown even more crowded. Jen had saved me a seat next to her, but across from Axel, Karl and Dave. Pete sat on my other side. While Johnny and Eva sat next to each other nearby. I was surprised to see my teammate, Billy, sitting close to them. I was downright shocked to see Angie Bloom and Laura Berenger sitting on the other side of Karl and Axel.

“Can we sit with you guys?” asked Angie. Laura just nodded, looking down at her lap.

“Of course,” I smiled. “Thank you both for what you said in class today. Janie, Jen, and I have been having a hard time lately and we can use all the friends we can get.”

Eva stood up and leaned across the table and stroked my head. I couldn’t tell if I was more surprised when Jen did nothing to stop her or when Johnny smiled at me.

“You are not just a good guy, Tommy. You’re the best.” said Eva. “And I just love touching your hair,” she giggled and the table laughed, while I blushed.

Johnny looked at me. “Tommy, I know I don’t say it enough like Karl, Axel, Pete and Dave do, but I consider you to be my friend, too.” my other friends nodded.

“I don’t know you as well as the other guys but you have been a great teammate. I want to be your friend, too,” said Billy.

“I thought you were friends with Tim?” I asked.

“We play football and hang out together sometimes, but he can be a real punk. I heard about what you said in first-period today. You walked out of that class with everybody’s respect, right Laura?”

The pretty, buxom brunette lifted her head and I saw that she had been crying. I couldn’t help myself. I ran over to the other side of the table and pulled her up and into my arms and hugged her. She melted in my arms. I was worried about what Jennifer would think until I saw her beaming at me. I directed Billy to take my place. And Laura clung to him for a few moments and I returned to my seat. Jen grabbed my arm while I ate my hot dog with the other hand. I saw Angie had grabbed a surprised Axel’s arm in the same manner. I ate in silence as my old friends and new friends continued to talk and then laugh. For a moment, I smiled but I realized that the only thing that would have made this scene perfect would have been if Janie were with us. I felt like a part of me was missing.

The rest of the school day went like clockwork. I noticed that many of my classmates wouldn’t meet my gaze, but some smiled at me. Others would still scowl. I guess this would pass for my new normal and I could live with it.

As I headed for my bus, I was intercepted by Jen. “We’re going back to my house,” she whispered. She was not smiling and grabbed my arm almost ferociously. We got aboard the bus and headed to the Bridges place.

When we got there we were greeted by both of our moms. They looked really tired and their smiles did not reach their eyes. I knew my Mom really well and I could tell she was wearing a brave face.

“Can we see Janie?” asked Jen.

“Jennifer, honey, I gave her a sedative so she could sleep,” said Mom.

“There is no easy way of saying this kids, but Janie is having a very hard time right now...” started Natalie.

“Nat, it’s really more than that. I think that the kids are mature enough to hear the truth,” said Mom, before she turned towards me and Jen. “Kids, I’m not a psychiatrist nor even a psychologist, although I did a clinical rotation when I got my Master’s degree, but I think Janie is suffering from ‘Clinical Depression.’”

“Well of course she’s depressed, what with everything she’s gone through. She’s had such a...” started Jen.

I saw my mother’s wan smile and knew I had to explain the truth to my girl.

“No, Jen. She’s not saying that Janie is simply sad. She’s saying that she’s sick.”

“She’s not crazy!” Jen spat.

“No, she’s not. I’m not saying that, honey.”

My mom smiled at me. “That’s right, sweetie. Tommy isn’t saying that at all. But Tommy perfectly described what’s going on with Janie. ‘Clinical Depression’ is a sickness of the mind. Just like your body can get sick, your mind can get sick too.”

“What can we do?!” asked Jennifer in a voice that seemed as desperate as I was beginning to feel.

Fortunately, I trusted my mother to help come up with a solution.

“A number of things. The first thing we need to do is find her a good psychologist and luckily I know one. I have a friend who would be happy to talk to her. If my friend agrees with my diagnosis, she can counsel Janie. Based upon how serious Janie’s condition is, she may suggest a psychiatrist who can treat Janie with various medications if necessary.”

“Other than that, just love her. That’s all we can do,” added Natalie.

Mom nodded. “Exactly, but she is very emotionally brittle right now. Her self-confidence has taken a huge hit in many ways.”

I started to get so angry that I began to shake. Those stupid kids had hurt Janie! I would get them!

I must have said some of what I had thought.

“Calm down, Tommy. The nasty things that the kids have said are only a small part of the problem. Their words only triggered this episode. Again, I’m no expert in this field, but I can tell you that what Edgar Blanton was doing to her, and more importantly, her parents’ failure to protect her, along with her mother’s abuse, have done a number on the poor girl,” said Mom.

Natalie looked at us, “Kids, just do your homework and let Janie rest. We can all check on her later.”

My mom nodded and kissed me on the cheek.

Jennifer took me to the basement den. It reminded me of the Parker’s place next door, except even bigger (as despite the same style, the Bridges house was significantly bigger than the Parker house). My guess is that the houses in this development had been built about ten years ago. They were all raised ranches with at least four bedrooms. Jen and I had two classes together and we worked on both English and History. Mrs. Douglas’s class was pretty well ruined by the events of first-period. She assigned us to read another story from Hemingway’s In Our Time. I had been reading ahead, so I had already read it.