Chapter 3

I can't believe the attitudes you see in high school. Even though the guys responsible for everything were all in jail awaiting sentencing after giving complete, detailed confessions, there were still a lot of students who blamed the girls for what happened to them and for getting the guys in trouble. And it wasn't only the students. Some of the faculty and administration complained at how the girls' decisions to press charges were ruining the school's reputation.

That was nothing compared to what they had to say about Veronica H. Broadstone, Attorney at Law. Cunt and Bitch were two of the more reserved names I heard her called. Veronica, or Ronnie as she liked to be called, was taking on the prosecution Pro Bono. She was also going to represent the victims in a class action civil suit against the 14 teenage males involved, their parents, the policemen who had planned to sweep everything under the rug and the school district and high school administrators since the girls were essentially kidnapped from high school property. She was also working her ass off to find a way of making the football staff culpable because some of the confessions indicated that the idea of abducting a bunch of girls and taking them to a junior high school had originated with one of the assistants and had been bantered around by the whole staff. Ronnie said her cut by the time she got done with all of them would pay for, in her words, "my own fuckin' island." When I told her I'd get her a deal if she didn't make as much as she hoped for, she looked at me for a moment, shook her head and went back to her interviews.

Ronnie had already earned her pay as far as I was concerned. I'd also discovered one of the limitations of my wish-it-true ability.

It seems that a sociopath is immune to my confess-it-all strategy. He was able to escape before being carted downtown to the police station with the rest of them and didn't stand in line to confess his sins with all the others. Ronnie wasn't taking any chances and she had all of the girls involved identify any of the guys who molested them. When Vicky's turn came, there was nobody to identify.

An arrest warrant was put out for Houston but he was able to convince the cops that he was playing basketball with a couple of buddies when it all went down. The two friends swore he was with them for hours.

Vicky happened to mention that she hadn't been able to find her cell phone since that day and Ronnie took a chance and had Houston's car searched. Her phone was found under the passenger seat, right where it fell when he grabbed her arms to tie them up, drug her and force her in the car. The records, both on the phone and by the provider, showed that she had texted Bev about leaving school with him. This was done a couple of minutes before he was supposedly playing basketball twenty miles away. That and his fingerprints on her phone put an end to his excuse that she was just hard up and her text that was taking her out was BS.

None of the girls involved went to school until Thursday. Because of the hostile atmosphere, they could justify not going to class but they had to take their final exams or take the consequences of losing that portion of their grades. Of course, the three seniors in the group were excluded because they'd taken their finals before the whole thing happened.

Ronnie came down on the principal like a tornado and Thursday morning, the nine high school girls who had been abducted and had not taken their finals were led into a conference room by her. Two counselors acted as proctors and all nine of them were given the same tests the rest of the students in their classes took. Mom and one of the other mothers stayed around all day, making sure they had snacks for their breaks between tests and a lunch that would have fed a crew bringing in the fall harvest. A couple of girls broke down at different times and the women comforted them until they were settled down enough to continue the task at hand.

I had some great news that sort of got buried because of Vicky's experience. For the first time in my life I got straight As. I don't think I ever got more than two of them on the same report card before. When my English Comp teacher passed out the papers, she stopped at my desk and told me I got an A on the paper and in the class and that I'd get my paper back later.

I didn't think anything of it until Mrs. Murphy gave it back to me in World History the next day. She just slid a folded bunch of papers onto my desk, patted me on the shoulder and smiled at me.

Thursday the senior class spent four hours on the football field learning how to walk in a straight line, walk up stairs and across a stage without tripping and how to stand still. I found it hard to believe that the majority of them had spent eighteen years on this planet, twelve of those years supposedly getting educated.

Friday I was off. Bev drove herself to school, something she hadn't done since I got back. Vicky got a call from the school about 10:30. She had four As and a B. I gave her a hug and told her she did great.

She seemed to be doing a lot better when we ate lunch. Both of us felt weird sitting there without Bev.

She showed up just before 3:00. She and Vicky had matching grades only Bev's B was because her Art teacher was out to get her and Vick's was because she didn't like Math. An hour later we all drove over to the high school for my graduation.

My family just glowed with pride. All three of my women were beautiful. Even Dad looked good in his suit and tie.

There were a bunch of rows of chairs in the grass in front of the stage. The front five rows were for the graduating class. The parents and other guests were behind us. On the stage there were chairs set up for the administration and faculty. There were also a dozen empty chairs. I saw the quarterback from the football team get pulled aside after he got his diploma and he sat in one of the chairs. A couple more jocks and some brains joined him after they took their turns. I almost shit when my counselor grabbed my arm and guided me over to one of them. We were all looking around, wondering what was going on. Some of the jocks had sports scholarships and there were a few academic scholarships among us but nobody knew what I was doing there.

After the diplomas were all given away, they started on us. As I thought, scholarships were announced for most of the ones we thought. The Salutatorian and Valedictorian both gave their speeches as I sat there trying not to look stupid. They each left the stage after giving their speeches and nobody did anything for a minute or so. Somebody yelled, "Hey, Val. What do we do now?" and that got a laugh from the crowd.

Coach walked up to the podium with Mrs. Murphy on his arm and it got quiet. He was maybe nine inches taller than she was and about twice as wide. He lifted the microphone off its stand and said, "I never dreamed I'd be up here talking to the graduating class and their guests, much less presenting an award to one of our top students."

Mrs. Murphy took the microphone from him and said, "People use to think my World History classes were boring." About four fifths of the graduating class stood up, clapping and cheering. They were joined by about a third of the audience, people who had all attended her classes when they went to school here. I noticed both my parents were in that crowd. I also noticed that Vicky and Bev had both disappeared.

Mrs. Murphy held up her arms. "Don't laugh. It's true." That got some more cheers.

She looked to the side of the stage and said, "Victoria, why don't you and your friend come up here."

Vicky and Bev walked out to the podium and the crowd went wild. Everybody was now cheering, whether they'd taken a class from Mrs. Murphy or not.

She held out her hand to Vicky and Vicky handed her something. She leaned over and said something to Bev. Bev picked up the microphone and held it up for Mrs. Murphy. She held up a card and said, "1929" then turned it over and said "The Great Depression."

A few people laughed. Mrs. Murphy said, "That's what my whole class used to consist of." She held the stack of cards up and waved them around. She whispered something to Bev and Bev came over to me, took my hand and led me over to the podium.

Mrs. Murphy looked over at Coach and said, "Are you still here?"

He turned red and started to say something and she interrupted him.