Sam’s words cheered me up. She was right, in a few minutes we would be at school and I would see Mark there. I decided that I would go to his class before homeroom. I no longer cared about keeping our relationship a secret anymore; I just wanted to see him.
We walked briskly to school. Sam didn’t protest the faster pace; she knew I was anxious to see Mark.
The front lawn was as crowded as ever and everyone was buzzing. I didn’t give a second thought to what had gotten them all gossiping so early in the morning. They probably found out something shocking about another student and they were busy spreading it around.
Sam and I headed right to Mark’s class.
I was disappointed to find his classroom empty. We decided to wait for him.
Sam chatted away about trivial things, trying to take my mind off the fight I had with my mom.
I appreciated her chatter; it quieted away the last lingering emotions. Despite everything that happened, I was proud of myself for fighting the emotions back, and I would be damned if I would let the emotions dictate my life ever again.
Mark was still not there as the first bell rang. His room began to fill up with his homeroom students.
“I heard he’s in the office, something about a parent complaining,” I heard a girl say to a friend as they walked in the room.
I looked at Sam. She shrugged her shoulders; neither of us knew what to think.
“Let’s head to homeroom and we’ll check back before first period since we’ll be on this end of the building anyways,” Sam said.
She was right. It would only make matters worse if my mom heard I was late to class.
We left the room and bumped into the last person I wanted to see.
“Looking for your boyfriend? I hear he’s getting the ax. Seems some parent called complaining that an intern was dating her daughter,” Matt said with an evil smile. “Could that be your mom, princess?” He added in a nasty tone.
He draped his arm across my shoulders. “Why don’t you forget about good ol’ teach and go out with me?” He said, trying to turn on the charm.
“I wouldn’t go out with you if you were the last guy on earth.” I said, jerking away from him.
His smile turned nasty again. “We’ll see about that, you’re going to get lonely without your boyfriend,” he said as he walked away.
“My mom wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t get a person fired from their job, no matter how angry she was,” I said to Sam in a distressed voice.
“I think she would, and I think she did. You didn’t see her face after you left the kitchen. She looked like a lioness protecting her cub. She thinks you’re in danger, so she’s protecting you.”
“She can’t do this. I can’t be away from him,” I said as the despair welled up in me. I felt the waves rolling in.
“I know, but you have to fight back the emotions,” Sam said, from what sounded like a long way off. “Krista, you have to fight it.
I heard her in the distance, Sam was right. I needed to calm myself.
Everything felt like it was spinning. I held my breath and closed my eyes. “Go away,” I thought as I fought to smother the waves.
Finally they receded. “I did it,” I said, still a little shaky.
“Good job, I thought you were a goner there. I’m so proud of you. How do you feel?”
“Not bad, just a little weak, but I’ve had much worse,” I said, looking at my watch. “We better hurry.”
It seemed crazy to be rushing off to class when so much was going on. I couldn’t wait until I was done with the whole school charade.
Sam and I slid into our chairs just as the bell rang. Neither of us missed how everyone went silent when we walked in the room. So, I was the new gossip material. “Twice in two weeks, that had to be a record,” I thought, sarcastically.
The rest of the day passed at a snail’s pace. Eventually, as the day progressed, the comments of the other students began to reach me. Surprisingly, the gossip didn’t bother me. I had been the outsider so often, it no longer fazed me. All I cared about was what was going on with Mark. I was anxious to get to fifth period to see if he was there yet.
When the bell rang for fifth period, my heart began to race. When we walked through the classroom door though, my heart dropped like a stone.