The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (13 page)

“Boo hoo,” taunted Robert
as he bent over to get close to her tiny face and rubbed his eyes
as if to mock her. “Where’s your mommy?” Robert and his friends
broke out into laughter as she cried even harder.

Allie placed her things in
my hands and moved quickly to get just behind the frightened little
girl. She placed her hands on her hips, spread her feet apart, and
glared at Robert.

It was amazing to see how
tough and powerful Allie looked. It was as if she were challenging
Robert to take a shot at her.

Robert straightened up and
stared right back into Allie’s eyes without saying a word. His eyes
were locked on Allie and a mean smile spread across his lips. It
seemed as if the two would break into a fight at any
moment.

Robert was the first to
break eye contact, “Come on.” He laughed loudly, turned toward the
school, and led his buddies away. Robert gave Allie one last nasty
look.

Allie gently turned the
little girl around and wiped away her tears. “You’ll be okay now.”
She seemed to calm the little girl down almost
immediately.

The little girl took off
and headed in the direction of the elementary students. She stopped
for a moment, turned around, and waved her hand at
Allie.

Allie smiled and waved
back.

“
Hey,” I said nudging her
with my hip gently to get her attention. “You okay?”

“Um…” Allie paused.
“Robert…” her voice trailed off and she looked up at me with those
huge dark saucer-like eyes.

“Robert’s a jerk.” I said.
“Don’t worry Ms. Kelly is heading his way.” I continued pointing
past him to where the principal had appeared. The principal stepped
in front of Robert and his friends and quickly directed them to
head to the office. They trudged off slowly but not before Robert
gave Allie one last look and mouthed the words “See you
later.”

Allie looked back at him
as if to say, “Go for it!”

I stepped in front of
Allie, “Come on or we’ll be late.”

Allie and I ran to the
front doors and walked quickly down the hallway to our
classrooms.

I glanced back over my
shoulder to see Allie disappear into Ms. Carson’s room before
slipping into class and taking my seat beside Troy. I looked across
the room and gave a soft smile to Jacob who was watching me from
his seat next to Maddison. I was about to let him know that
everything was fine but Troy’s voice distracted me.

“Hey”, said Troy, “Cool
hoodie.” He was looking at my pink top.

“Thanks,” I replied. I was
pretty sure that I was blushing by the warmth in my face and
neck.

Troy’s eyes were so
intense when they stared at me; I was sure he could hear my heart
pounding. I couldn’t think of anything to say as his amazingly blue
eyes remained focused on me.

My brain was screaming,
“Say something! Say anything! Don’t just sit there!
Talk!”

Troy continued to smile
without saying a word.

I was completely brain
dead. Finally, I managed after what felt like an unending silence
to say, “Um, did you finish the math homework?”

“Most of it,” Troy replied
graciously. “I didn’t get number 11. Did you?” Troy leaned
infinitesimally closer. I’m sure he didn’t realize that if he got
any closer my brain would turn to jelly.

I quickly looked away and
reached down for my math book. “Ya…” I started to reply but as I
bent toward my book I bumped my head against his arm and froze. It
was like a jolt of electricity and I couldn’t move. “Um sorry,” I
mumbled and pulled away from him. “I’ve got it right here.” I
nervously flipped through my notebook trying to find my
homework.

Troy moved even closer so
that he could see my notes. I could feel him breathing beside me -
he was so close. I didn’t dare move, because if I moved at all I
would be pressed right against him.

I started to show Troy my
answer for number 11 when I began to feel like someone was staring
at me. Naturally, I looked in Maddison’s direction. Her eyes were
already locked on mine.

The blackness in
Maddison’s eyes was shocking. She was staring at me with a level of
hate that I had never seen before. I found myself staring back at
her. I desperately wanted to look away but I just couldn’t, and
then I pictured Allie in my mind standing her ground against Robert
just a little bit ago. My eyes narrowed and I became
focused.

Maddison tried to give me
her meanest look, but I just stared back at her as if I were in a
state of hypnosis.

Troy’s voice broke through
my trance, “I don’t know how you ended up with 37.”

I turned my face to answer
him, forgetting how close he was, and ended up with our noses
almost touching.

Mr. Anders’ loud voice
suddenly filled the classroom. Troy and I immediately jumped apart
as if we were guilty of doing something. I looked to the back of
the room where Oliver was staring at me with one of his cheesy
grins.

I gave him one of those
‘don’t go there’ looks.

Troy took out his things
and placed them on his desk as if nothing had ever
happened.

Maddison’s angry eyes
never seemed to leave me. It was getting kind of eerie as the
morning wore on. Every time I looked up, Maddison would be there
glaring at me with nothing but pure hate in her eyes.

I was so relieved when
lunch came and I could finally escape Maddison’s stare.

“Going to the dance on
Friday?”

“Uh,” I hadn’t even
noticed that Troy had walked up beside me in the lunch line. “I
think so.”

“Good!” Troy moved up the
line to visit with a friend. He looked back at me and
smiled.

I felt my face changing
colors again and looked down at the floor.

“You look good in red,”
chuckled Oliver as he moved alongside me.

I elbowed Oliver in the
side as we entered the lunchroom together with Jacob and Dan right
behind us.

Allie was already sitting
at the table at the far end of the lunchroom. It was beginning to
be our regular lunchtime meeting spot.

“Everything okay?” I could
see Allie was distracted by something.

“Yeh,” answered Allie. Her
dark eyes searched every table in the lunchroom before sitting back
down. “Any day without Robert in class is okay by me.”

Dan piped up when he heard
Robert’s name. “I heard he got suspended.”

“Really?” said Allie. A
look of relief came across her face almost
instantaneously.

“Yep.” Dan confirmed. “I
heard Ms. Kelly on the phone with his mom when I took the
attendance folder down.” He took a bite from his sandwich and
started to reach toward his nose with the other hand.

Jacob caught his rising
hand in mid-air, “Not while I’m eating.”

Dan nodded his head and
then turned back toward Allie and myself, “He’s suspended until
Friday.” He started to raise his free hand, but placed it in his
lap after looking into Jacob’s watchful eyes. “Also, I heard the
principal tell Robert’s mother that he could go to the first school
dance Friday night, if he behaved okay.”

“Dance?” shouted Oliver.
“What dance?”

“Can you imagine Oliver in
the middle of the dance floor?” I leaned into Allie, who seemed as
if the weight of the world had just been lifted. The two of us
giggled at the thought of it.

Lunch passed too quickly
and then we were back in class again with Maddison’s eyes following
my every move. I have no idea what Mr. Anders talked about all
afternoon or even what subjects we covered. All I could think about
was Maddison staring at me. I couldn’t focus on anything – not even
Troy.

I had to force myself to
stop glancing constantly Maddison’s way to see if she was still
glaring at me. Instead, I would look up at the clock on the wall
and watch the second hands moving as if there were in slow motion.
Tick, tick, tick the second hand moved so slowly.

My eyes looked back down
the wall and toward Maddison’s desk. She was still glaring at
me!

Mr. Anders voice
interrupted the silence of the room, “Gather your things together
and get ready for PE.”

We all lined up to head
for the dressing rooms. I stayed at my desk fumbling with papers to
make sure that I was at the back of the line so I didn’t have to
walk down the hallway with her behind me. I dawdled so much that
Mr. Anders noticed that I was well behind everyone else and called
for me to get a move on.

By the time I made it into
the change room Maddison was finished changing and headed out the
door into the gym. I exhaled slowly and quickly made my way to the
corner so that I could change with my back against the
wall.

As I stepped out the
dressing room door into the gym a volleyball went whizzing by my
head barely missing me. I stepped back bumping into the door hard.
I looked up to see Maddison staring at me with a sick smile on her
lips.

No matter what we did
during PE, I made sure I knew where Maddison was at all times. I
even skipped my shower to make sure I could keep my eye on
here.

I pulled my hoodie on,
grabbed my things, and headed out the door behind Allie.

Rebecca and Heather bumped
into me in the middle of the doorway, but quickly excused
themselves with a ‘sorry’ and left without an incident. I wondered
if things were actually getting better.

Allie and I walked
side-by-side down the hallway just as the bell rang. Students
hurriedly left their rooms and entered the bustling
hallway.

Suddenly, I became aware
of whispers and giggles of other kids as Allie and I walked by. I
quickly turned to see if someone was behind us.

Allie gasped, “There’s
something on your back!”

I reached around my back
as far I could and felt the paper. In an instant, I pulled it from
my hoodie and looked at it in disbelief.

The word ‘slut’ and been
written with lipstick in large bold letters across a picture of me
in my thong.

“Slut,” The word came from
two boys standing by their lockers. They tried to cover it up by
fake coughing and then laughter.

One boy started to repeat
the whole thing again when he was suddenly looking up into the eyes
of a very serious Jacob. Dan stood on his left side and Oliver on
the right.

“Did you do it?” growled
Jacob.

The two boys quickly
denied placing the paper on my back and said they were sorry for
making fun of me.

Jacob slowly tossed his
head sideways as if to signal them to get out of there. The boys
needed no further prompting and quickly ran down the
hallway.

I crushed the paper into a
tight ball with my fist and tried to figure out when someone had
placed it on my back.

I took a deep breath,
“Heather and Rebecca did it when they bumped into me in the
dressing room doorway.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t
see it,” said Allie apologetically.

“It’s not your fault
Allie!” I looked deep into Allie’s eyes, gritted my teeth, and
whispered, “Heather and Rebecca just made the wrong
choice.”

Allie just smiled
back.

Jacob leaned close to my
ear and whispered, “I think it is time for the Cow Pie Gang to ride
once more.”

I thought, “Yes it is!” A
mischievous grin spread across my face. “Enough is
enough!”

My Mom Died

I woke up early and just
stared at the ceiling for quite a while. It was hard to imagine
that it was already Thursday. I knew Maddison would try something
to make my day miserable, but I really didn’t care. It was time to
fight back!

“Kati are you up?” shouted
Mom from the kitchen as she walked over to the hand rail of the
stairs and looked up. She was totally surprised to see me standing
at the top of the stairs, fully dressed in some of my new clothes,
and my long brown hair brushed out perfectly.

“Mom,” I said calmly
walking down the stairs, “we gotta talk.”

My mom turned her
shoulders and walked into the small living room beside the door.
She sat down on the couch and motioned me to sit beside
her.

The words seemed to
explode from my mouth, “Something happened at school on
Monday.”

My mom smiled, “You mean
this?” She held up her phone with the picture of me in my thong and
bra.

“How did you know?” My
eyes turned toward Eric, who was finally stumbling down the stairs
- still half asleep. “Did Eric…”

“No,” answered my mom
quickly. “It’s not important how I found out.” She took my hand in
hers and held it tight. “The only thing that really matters are how
you are doing and what do you want me to do? I’d be glad to go
visit Ms. Kelly!”

“I don’t like it,” I said
calmly, “but I am actually doing fine. It seems it is all working
out for the best. Why don’t you just hold back and let’s see how it
all goes?”