Thrust Into His Arms

I have been taking all the shit that they threw at me before. Saying and doing nothing even though I had felt like exploding.

But I cannot with this one. Enough is enough!

Why can’t they all stop bothering me? I punched the one closest to me hard on the nose with all the damn anger inside me. He falls back, holding his nose. I prepare to also attack the other. But then I was hit so hard by something. Everything swayed sideways all at once. My head hit against a locker before I fall to the floor. My head is spinning. I felt something like a bump and a wound on the side of my head. I saw red in my fingers when I touched it. My vision is blurred. All the voices are far sounding and distorted. I can faintly see Curry’s face. She has on a panic expression. Her lips are moving, she seems to be asking if I am okay.

I feel her palm on my face, tapping me. I hold onto her arm tightly. Hoping that it would steady me from sinking further into this uncomfortable haze. I find myself being treated by one of the school’s nurses when I came to.

She is holding a pair of forceps with a ball of cotton swab on it and dabbing are what I feel is a small, grazed wound at the side of my head. A little far above my left eyebrow. I also find Curry standing besides me with a worried look. "Gwen! Are you okay? Can you hear me now?" The sharp tone which she used kinda blasted my eardrums. "I can hear you." I faintly tell her.

She exhales. "Oh, that is a big relief! Do you remember what happened? How you got here?"

"Of course she can." Chirped the school nurse before I could even think to reply. "It is nothing serious. No one gets amnesia from something this minor."

"It is not minor!" Curry asserts. "You saw how unresponsive she was when I brought her here. It was like she lost her consciousness!"

"It merely just appears so. And that is normal!" She also asserts, putting on a band-aid on the tender spot. "I’II be right back. I need to get you painkillers." She stands up and leave. Curry huffs out. "I really cannot all of them. They no longer bother to hide how biased they are. They are downplaying it because you are not a rich, privileged student!" I did not feel too surprised about that. Or maybe it is because I am all concerned about my things that those jerks robbed away from my locker.

I ask her what happened to the two boys and where they were right now. And she says; I don’t really know, but Austin was admitted here before him and the other were called to the Dean’s office. You are being called there too." Nothing I wasn’t expecting. I was already even planning to go tell him about what those boys had done.

Let me see if he can still turn a blind eye or downplay it. I took the tablets strip from the nurse and shoved them into my pocket and left the infirmary. Curry escorts me close to the Dean’s office before she goes off to whatever class she has. "Hmmm. Just who I have been meaning to see." The Dean raises his head as he sees me come in. He gestures his hand for me to sit down on one of the chairs opposite him. I complied despite feeling too angry to sit and act civil after what had just occurred.

"I heard that you were taken to the infirmary. How are you now?"

"I am fine. I just—"

"That is good to hear. You have to be fine to face your punishment for fighting, which is detention."

"What?" I shriek, my eyes going wide at that last statement he just made.

"Does that sound so outrageous and unbelievable?" He asks, eyeing me like I did something atrocious.

"Yes!" I blurted. Not giving a shit about the stern glare that he is casting. "My locker is empty! Nothing is in there now as I am speaking to you. My textbooks, some notes and my studying materials are all gone! Those boys broke into my locker and carted away with them!"

"Keep your voice down." He cautioned. "Did you catch them in the act?"

"What? . . .No, but—"

"That is an alleged accusation. You just think that they broke into your locker —as you said."

"No! I saw it! One of them—Austin Baker, he was holding my textbook. And the other—I do not know his name, but he was holding my swimwear. They had also gotten to my other locker in the swim section! I saw it and tried to get it! And then. . ."

"And then you started the fight." He incriminatingly adds.

"No! It was them! Why did they have to do that?"

"I have the testimonies of some who were at the scene. They are all unanimous. Saying that you were the one who hit him first. On the nose. There is clear evidence to that."

I facepalm.

"His nose is crooked and injured because if your assault."

"But I am telling you, that was not my fault! I got injured too!" I clear my hair away, and pointed to the band-aid so he could see. But his stern and problematic expression still does not change.

"That is nothing compared to what you did to Baker."

I let out a dry bitter chuckle. His faces changes. I continue laughing until the long awaited tears come out from my eyes. It is just so sad and funnily unfair at the same time.

I hated the fact that I am here talking to one of the school heads. One of the handful who had cornered me into suspension, turning a blind eye to what I have been facing. "I expected this much. Just not to this extent." I croak out. "So this is how much that I don’t matter because I am a scholarship student?"