Chapter 12

Miss Simons caught Cyn before she even sat down and asked her to come to the office. As they walked out, Miss Simons stopped by the teacher's desk and dropped off a note. Then the two left.

All the kids wondered what it was this time. Friday she had been sent and didn't return, then later everyone heard of the expulsion of Lance Miller. Rumors that the two events had something to do with each other floated around as the students left school Friday. Now, Monday morning, there were more rumors. Cyn didn't drive her car to school.

As they were walking down the empty hallway to the office, Miss Simons asked, "Not that it's any of my business," and gave Cynthia a wink, "but who was that handsome gentleman who picked you up on Friday? I noticed he asked for you by a name we don't have on record."

Cyn was a bit nervous as she was being escorted to the office by a staff member. The smile and questions Miss Simons asked, by far the youngest and with a wry sense of humor, calmed Cyn down. It was the last part that caught Cyn off guard, though.

"What did he say?"

By then they had walked into the office. Cyn staying on the student side of the counter and Miss Simons took her station on the other side. With a devilish look on her face, Miss Simons leaned over the counter and whispered, "Right here, in the school, he asked for sin."

The look on Cynthia's face was more than Miss Simons could handle and she started chuckling.

"It's short for Cynthia," she tried to explain. "He's my neighbor and..."

With her eyebrows raised, Miss Simons asked, "Just your neighbor?"

"Well ... no..." Cyn stammered out.

She was saved, and for the first time in her life, glad to be entering the Principal's office. He closed the door and motioned for her to take a seat. Now that he was behind his desk, he paused just for a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Sorry to pull you out of class like this. I know that Friday must have been rather difficult. Being Friday, of course, I didn't have the opportunity to talk with you.

"Your friend, Mr. Wright, had a rather damaging DVD with him, along with a restraining order. Those two items cause the expulsion of Lance Miller as I'm sure you may well have heard."

He waited for her to acknowledge his statement, then went on.

"What you do not know, Miss Robinson, was that DVD and restraining order caused an emergency school board meeting on Saturday. I'm sure you are well aware of Mr. Miller's parents. They have been rather generous supporters of this school. There was little doubt on any of the board members' minds that their contributions will be ending.

"Mr. Wright was none too gentle with his explanation of the schools failure to deter Mr. Miller in his previous behavioral issues and could well be caught up in a lawsuit, if you chose to enact one, against the school that would cost far more than any funding the Millers have done. It was that factor that ultimately swayed the school board to take action. While you are here, each of the homeroom teachers are going over a newly revised policy on bullying.

"I pulled you from class for two reasons. One was to give you a more complete explanation of the events. Here is the handout that everyone is getting," he said as he slid a folded sheet of paper towards Cynthia. "Now the second part is a little harder to explain. Cynthia, you have caused a problem." He held up his hand stopping her from talking. "Let me continue. I do believe that what happened with Mr. Miller did indeed get way out of hand and you could not let that continue. I am not trying to suggest that. What I am telling you is that Mr. Miller had friends. You should know that something may, or may not, come of that. It is, though, something to be aware of. It is part of why, after reading the pamphlet, they may want to reconsider anything. That, of course, is our hope. Reality sometimes doesn't work that way. So please be careful and know that I am on your side." He took a deep breath and then went on. "I said I am on your side, because unfortunately you will have made a few of the teachers rather unhappy with you as well. Your homeroom teacher is one of them. He is, as you know, the football coach. You just took one of his key players away, along with a good deal of expendable income that the Millers threw at the physical education department. I didn't want him to have the opportunity to point a finger at you, or try and suggest this was, in any way, your fault.

"This is unpleasant and you didn't bring this upon yourself, but unfortunately you are having to deal with the aftermath. My suggestion, Cynthia, is that you don't get yourself caught alone on the school grounds. Not necessarily for physical safety. I rather hope that nothing comes to that here. Rather it is much easier to have a witness when you need to report ill intended behavior."

Cynthia took the pause he gave, and said, "So you don't expect that I should have to worry so much about getting hurt, but possibly threatened at school and if I have someone that hears that, then I have an opportunity to do something about that. Right?"

"Very well said. Yes, you are correct. Let me caution you. As you have seen from the DVD ... you did see it?"

Cynthia nodded, but winced a little thinking of it.

"Yes, I can see it troubles you still. Cynthia, I do not believe many of those threats would have ever been carried out. That doesn't make any difference. His actions, along with the words, were his undoing. Frankly I don't think he is stupid enough to tell any of his friends exactly what he did. I'm not even sure he had time to. From what I understand he is in custody right now and unfortunately for him, he is over eighteen and there for regarded as an adult. As a side note he can be glad that you had your birthday and an adult as well, or he'd be looking at a much larger list of charges. His friends will, on the other hand, know how he felt about what happened at the drive in, what may have happened to your car, and that he has been expelled. That in itself may well be enough for some of them to act rather foolishly. Try and stay as far away from them as possible and like I said, friends with you are your best guarantee." He sighed and continued with, "Cynthia, I know that this may well seem overwhelming. I am telling you all of this, so you are knowledgeable. This is your school and there should be no reason you should ever feel afraid to be here. That said, I know the reality is far different than the ideals. That is why I told you everything. So you can go on, with slight adjustments to what you might be used to, but not have to cower in fear."

"Thank you," Cynthia said. The bell rang and she stood. As she opened the door, she turned and said, "I just hope no one else has to go through this, like I did."

Cyn thought she heard him say, "One can hope," as she closed the door.

There were so many curious glances thrown her way in the next two classes that she knew lunch time was not going to be fun at all. It was her hope that what Beck and she had come up with over the weekend would quell a lot of the gossip. She didn't have high hopes, but one never knew how the gossip train would run.

As the lunch bell rang, Cyn found herself swarmed by people, both boys and girls. She hadn't made it to her lunch table yet when the questions started.

"Where's your car?

"Did you really get him kicked out of school?"

"Why were you in the office?"

"You left early on Friday, what happened?"

"Did you wreck your car?"

"How come you wouldn't go out with Lance? He's not so bad."

Beck pushed her way in, to be close to her friend, as Cyn was raising her hands to stop everyone.

"She can't answer questions if they are just yelled out to her, give her a break," Beck said before Cyn could say anything.

Striving to keep from shaking, Cyn said, "I want to eat first and then I'll give some answers, so you're going to have to wait a few minutes."

It rattled her to see everyone just hang around. She ate and many around did as well, but she realized, she was not going to be left alone.

"Ok," Cyn said after she finished her last bite, "here it is. I have a boyfriend so when Lance told me I was going to be his girlfriend that just wasn't going to happen."

"How come we've never seen him?" One of the girls asked.

"He doesn't go to school," Cyn replied.

"Oh, yeah, right," one of the boys said. "I know girls use that line all the time."

Cyn turned and looked at Beck, who had a smile on her face.

Beck said, "I happen to have not only seen him, but have talked with him several times. In fact I was there when he gave Cyn this ring." She grabbed Cyn's hand and waved it around so that everyone could see there was indeed a ring on her finger.

"What is that? Some kind of 'promise' ring?" another girl asked.

Cyn chuckled and then answered, "No, definitely not. He said he didn't like those, as he wasn't sure what the girl was promising."

That got a nervous laugh from some of the girls. A couple of them conspicuously removing their hands from sight.

Going on, Cyn said, "This is my birthstone. He told me he liked that, because he was very glad that I was born."

That got a range of responses from a few girls sighing, a few rolling their eyes, and a couple of boys acting like they were gagging. Cyn just smiled.

Then her smile dropped and she said, "Now about Lance. He didn't like that I wasn't just going to do what he wanted. On Friday, he ... he vandalized my car."

"No shit!" a girl said in disbelief.

"Fuck, your car?" one of the boys said.

"How do you know it was him?" a boy from the back called.

Cyn recognized the voice and said, "Tim, I know because I saw it."

"Like hell you did," he replied.

"Were you watching for him?" Cyn asked.

"Ah ... No, of course not," Tim stammered out.

"Good, you wouldn't want to end up in jail like he is. Tim, he was caught on camera. What he did and what he said is all there. I saw it." Cyn paused and realized it had become very quiet around her. She didn't want to stop, they needed to hear this, and she needed to get it out. "When I saw it the first time, which was at the police station, I threw up."

"Damn," one of the boys said.

"He's going to be out for a while," a girl said.

"If I was to guess he won't be out for some time, but when he is out, he'll not be here. That is as long as I'm in school."

"Oh, you're that important?" Another boy from the back called out.

"Frank, the school has a copy of the restraining order that a judge signed as soon as he saw what Lance did. He can't come back, unless I was to say so. So yeah, I'm that important. Maybe you didn't listen in homeroom this morning, but bullying isn't going to be tolerated and if you try, your parents will be trying to find another school for you to go to as well."

"You threatening me, little girl?" Frank called out.

"Frank, I believe Cynthia was just stating facts. Now, I suggest you give her a little space."

The voice of the Vice Principal was clear, strong, and very recognizable. Everyone, except Cyn's core group of friends found other places to be for the rest of lunch.

Before he left, he said to Cynthia, "Your brother found me. He didn't have a problem with the group around you, until a couple of the football buddies of Lance showed up. I heard a small portion of what you said. Cynthia, you were very right, but I don't think they liked what you said anymore than Lance liked you snubbing him."

"But I didn't..." Cyn started to protest.

He held up his hand cutting her off.

"It doesn't make any difference what you said, and of course that's the problem. It is what they felt you did. I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on Frank, because my guess is he thinks you put him down and he's the kind of guy who might retaliate. I'm just telling you that, because I can only watch on school grounds. You take care of yourself."

"This just isn't right," Beck said.

"I know," Cyn lamented. "The Principal said I should never be alone. I might need a witness."

"I'll be with you as much as I can," Beck said, "but fourth and fifth I'm not even close to your classes."

"I'm in her fourth."

"I'm in her fifth. We'll watch your back."