When They Come

Inside the principal’s office, Cassandra, Alex, and Mr. Baldwin sat. The girls were sitting across from the principal as he was perched on his chair behind his desk.

“Now that we’re away from all of those people, one at a time, tell me what happened. Cassandra, go first,” Mr. Baldwin said nodding to her.

Alex mentally rolled her eyes. Oh boy, here we go.

“Well, if you insist,” Cassandra said earnestly. “So, I was going to set up class for today and suddenly, this clutz slammed into me! She sure took her time collecting her items and I can see why; she was tying my shoelaces together! I lost my balance and fell into an empty Gatorade container and crashed to the floor. Everyone was laughing at me! Oh! It was awful. And then Alex came and started to beat me up as if I was a ragdoll! As you can see it was a hard battle of self-defense to fend off this girl!”

“Excuse me I would like to object!” Alex interrupted, feeling her temper rise. “I never started the fight! Yes, it’s true that I made you trip, but I’d never go as far as starting a fight—not even with the likes of you! It was you, Cassandra, who was so furious that you flew at me, breaking my nose!” Alex pointed to her still-leaking nose. “It was I who defended myself. Tell your lies all you want, but you’ve seemed to have forgotten about one loophole in your victory march to shovel all your blame to me,”

“And what might that be?” Cassandra said, batting her eyelashes.

“Ask any student, look at any of their phones to see who started that fight. They were recording before it began and all the while it went on. Believe me when I say, Principal Baldwin, I never started the fight. Feel free to speak with any of the eyewitnesses or check their videos. I won’t be wrong,”

Cassandra went pale.

“Alex does seem to have you there, Cassandra,” Mr. Baldwin said, nodding. “Even though you’re faculty, you haven’t proven that you’re trustworthy enough to be proven right in this situation,”

“B—But she’s at fault just as much as I am,” Cassandra protested, a smile creeping upon her face as she looked at Alex. “She can’t go unpunished,”

“Yes, you’re right,” The principal sighed. “I’m sorry Alex, but you’ll have a week’s worth of suspension. So, you’ll be heading home immediately. You too, Cassandra,”

Cassandra immediately began yelling in protest.

Alex inhaled sharply but exhaled slowly. “Alright,” She replied. It was better than anything else. “I’ll call my parent’s immediately,” She turned to Cassandra. “Until then, Cassandra,” She said and strode out.

Alex clenched her fists, trying to tame her dying anger. It was alright. She had proven Cassandra wrong and had gotten out of it with minimal punishment. She just hoped that her parents wouldn’t be too mad.

Marching down the halls, Alex now felt the sense of dread sneak up on her. She wondered what her mother and father would say when they found out. This was the first time she’d done something like this and her parents trusted her plenty, so she should be fine.

Alex made it to the hall where it all happened and saw a janitor cleaning up the blood spotted on the floor. There wasn’t much to clean up, but it still had to be sanitized and all. The man was an old, loyal janitor. Sometimes crotchety, but only when he wanted to.

He squinted at Alex before saying, “So, you’re one of the kids that was in the fight, eh?”

Alex shrugged. “Yeah,” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

“You look like crap,” He said.

“Thank you,” Alex replied, feeling like it, and kept walking, fixing her bag as she did. She was honestly surprised that it stayed on through the whole tussle.

Alex suddenly felt sore and groggy. She’d probably get more bruising from Cassandra’s hits. That girl hit hard. And so did she. And Alex hoped that Cassandra felt them like she had hers.

“Alex!” A voice called from behind her.

She turned to see John running up to her.

“Hey, John,” Alex said flatly.

“Are you ok?” He asked worriedly. “I never knew Cassandra would start a fight like that, honest! If you’re mad at me, I’ll do anything to make it up to you,”

“I’m not mad, John,” Alex sighed. They walked out of the school and Alex didn’t recognize what didn’t chime as she passed under the scanner. “I just need to rest. I’m suspended for a week,”

“What?!” John cried, nearly tripping on his laces.

“Listen, its better than facing a Saimien and I couldn’t be happier for that. And it’ll give Cassandra time to cool off—and maybe, if I’m lucky—she my forget it. Then again, maybe not.” Alex mused.

She sat on a tall ledge where a bed of flowers were planted behind her. Alex pulled out her phone and dialed her mom’s number. Fear wrapped around her chest as the phone rang and she took a shaky intake of breath after hearing her mother’s ‘hello?’.

“Mom? I need you to come pick me up at school. Something happened,” Alex said, trying her hardest to keep her voice level.

“Why? What happened?!” Her mother’s voice said worriedly through the phone.

“I—I don’t wanna talk about it here. Can you just come?” Alex said, begged was more like it.

“Sure dolly. Does your father need to step in because of some sort of bullying?” Her mother asked.

“No. That’s—no. But it would be nice for him to come with you,” Alex replied.

“Alright, I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Her mother agreed.

“See you then,” Alex said and hung up. She then sighed in immense relief.

“You handled that well,” John said coyly.

“Oh, you’re still here,” Alex said with a smirk.

“I’m very hard to lose,” John winked at her. “But seriously, all you did was crack a little,”

“You weren’t inside of me to know that my insides felt like a blender.” Alex shot back.

“I could have lived without hearing that,” John laughed.

“Your choice for being ‘hard to lose’.” Alex pointed out.

John laughed again and fell silent.