Miss Me Not

"Do you know what these notes say?" he asked, indicating the stack again.

"I have a rough idea. They all pretty much say the same thing," I answered.

"I will admit I am appalled at what is written on these sheets of paper. It gives me no pleasure knowing students at my school behave like this," he said, slamming his fist down on the notes. "Bullying will not be tolerated."

I watched his sudden passion in amazement. Where was the guy that had earned the name Douche? The man sitting in front of me almost seemed human.

"I am going to let you off with a warning. As unacceptable as bullying is, violence is also unacceptable. If you are a victim, we need to know, so we can take the appropriate measures."

I could have laughed at his ignorance, but didn't want to push it.

"So, I'm free to go?" I finally asked.

"Yes, but no more flying books," he chastised.

"Yes, sir," I said, standing up.

"And Madison, I'm going to send a recommendation to your parents. I believe counseling will help the situation."

I bit back a groan at his words. That would definitely be a letter I would have to intercept.

"I will also be talking with the young lady who started today's altercation," he said, picking up his phone in dismissal.

Ms. Jones trailed behind me. "Madison, I'm sorry I wasn’t paying more attention. Maybe I could have alleviated the situation," she said compassionately.

"No biggie," I replied, anxious to get away. The fact that she had just saved my ass made it impossible for me to continue with her nickname. If I stood here any longer, I ran the risk of actually liking her.

"My door is always open," she called after me as I hurried down the hall back out to the reception area.

I skidded to a stop when I saw Dean sitting on one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he leapt to his feet.

"Looking for you," he answered, looking harried. "There's a ridiculous rumor floating around about you," he added, grabbing my hand.

"Uh, how ridiculous?" I hedged, not sure what his reaction would be. After all, I had assaulted another student. The fact that I got off on a technicality didn’t it make it any less of a crime.

"That you threw a book at Katie and broke her nose," he said, looking at me critically. "Did you throw a book at Katie?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, I guess," I said, suddenly not proud of my actions at all.

"Why?" he asked, pulling me out of the office. "Are you suspended? Is she going to press charges against you?" he said in rapid succession.

I couldn’t tell if he was pissed or not.

"No, I'm not suspended, and I don’t think she'll be pressing charges. Douc… I mean, Mr. Wilson, is going to call her parents. He has evidence that shows I was provoked."

"What kind of evidence?" he said in a calmer tone, sounding relieved.

I debated telling him. The notes were my secret. They were the things that were supposed to keep me centered, but suddenly everyone was finding out about them. "She said some shit and was throwing stuff at me."

"What kind of stuff?" he said in an even tone that I recognized as his pissed-off one.

"Just some stupid crumpled up notes. It's nothing that hasn’t happened before. I was more pissed off at the crap she was saying about you. I really didn’t think about it before I threw the book. I just knew I wanted her to shut up."

"Madison, what did she say?" he said, halting my steps and dragging me into an empty classroom.

"Just stupid stuff. What does it matter? I told you I would ruin your reputation," I said miserably. "It's one thing for them to say crap about me, but it's a whole other thing for them to drag you down too."