Chapter 7: "Switch"

Kari walked hand in hand with Theo down the hall. She couldn’t believe what she had done. She couldn’t believe what she was doing right now. She was holding a boy’s hand. A real boy. Not just her father or her brother, but a boy her age. And he had even offered it to her. Her heart was pounding. She felt red hot from the flush creeping over her whole body. She had a hard enough time speaking to him before, but now here they were, following the teacher down the hall as if they were best friends. She didn’t dare look over to him. She was afraid if she did anything at all, this would end and he would let go.

The teacher led them down the halls. Students watched them go and there was an immediate roar of whispers and pointing. The whispers got louder as she walked and she distinctly heard the words “Dating” and “skunk” in the mixture. She did take a quick peek at Theo this time. He was as bright red as she felt. He caught her gaze and dropped her hand. The sudden loss of his warmth made her feel completely lost.

He stepped closer to her. “I don’t want you to be the one known as the girl dating the skunk boy,” he whispered.

She dropped her eyes as the rest of the school watched them parade down the halls. She didn’t mind reputations, but she would mind if her mother found out. But her mother wasn’t here, was she? She reached out and grabbed Theo’s hand.

“I don’t care about that,” she whispered.

The look Theo shot her made her wish she had a phone so she could take a picture and remember it forever. It was a mix of surprise, relief, and joy all at once. She reflected it with a little smile of her own, but stared straight ahead. She was too shy to look him in the eye. More students watched them go by. Each set of eyeballs snapped between their faces and their hands. Kari did her best not to look at them, but it was getting hard staying this brave.

The teacher finally made it to the principal’s office and opened the door. “In,” he directed with a hand.

The door shut behind them. Flynn sat in one of the chairs with his arms crossed over his chest. His face was already starting to turn purple and swell. The door to the principal’s office was closed, but the distinct shrill of the principal’s voice pounded through the closed door.

Theo dropped Kari’s hand and sat. Kari sat next to him on the seat farthest from Flynn.

“Bitch,” Flynn whispered.

Theo stood up threateningly.

The secretary looked up from his computer. “Sit down. No talking.”

Flynn eyes flashed with laughter, but Theo’s eyes were deadly serious. Kari reached up and tugged on his shirt until he finally sat again.

He leaned close to her ear. His voice was just barely audible. “He’s just mad because he got beat up by a girl.” His warm breath made her feel even warmer.

She could feel the heat in her cheeks flush harder. She stifled a giggle, but did give him a little smile and a nod. He beamed back at her.

The door to the principal’s office opened. Cayden and the other boy walked through with their heads hung low.

“Flynn,” The principal beckoned with a finger. “You’re up.” She waved him into her office with a stern look then shut the door behind him.

Kari and Theo exchanged worried looks. The minutes ticked by. Kari sat back. Her fingers twitched. She wanted to touch Theo’s hand again, but didn’t dare. His hand was right on his lap and if only she had the courage she’d had back in the hall. While she was fighting with her itching fingers, the minutes passed until she saw Theo’s hand clench into fists. Flynn appeared at the door. He had a wicked grin on his face. He passed by the chairs and spoke just loud enough for her to hear.

“You’re gonna get it,” he said in a singsong.

Kari dropped her eyes. Theo tensed, but she put her hand on his arm to stop him. He relaxed under her fingers and instead stuck his tongue out at Flynn. A little giggle escaped her lips. It was all so childish, she couldn’t help herself. Flynn left. The principal beckoned Theo. He looked over to her then closed his fingers around hers. She realized they were still on his arm. Her heart beat fast.

“It’s going to be okay,” Theo whispered.

She gave him a grim smile and when his fingers fell from hers, she let him go. She hadn’t expected it to be so hard. She’d only known him five minutes, only held his hand twice, but it was, for some reason, hard to watch him walk away from her and towards certain doom.

The door closed and then she sat alone. Her fingers knotted together. She wondered what he was saying in there. She wondered what she should say. She would just tell the truth, of course. She looked down at her blood stained fingers. Theo had done an okay job cleaning them off using what he had. She remembered how gentle he had been when he cleaned them and her heart warmed again. She felt a flutter in her stomach and then a knot when she looked back at the door. She squirmed in her chair as she waited.

The door opened to her right. She didn’t bother looking up until she heard the secretary speak.

“Good afternoon Mrs. Lam.”

Kari’s stomach tightened. This day could not be any worse. Kari felt the hot wiry fingers of her mother’s hand grip her shoulder. Her nails were sharpened into claws.

“I want to speak to the principal, now,” Mother demanded.

“He’s in with another student, ma’am.”

Mother’s talons reached down and gripped Kari’s elbow. They dug in hard as they lifted her to her feet and propelled her forward. Kari knew not to let a peep escape her mouth. It would only make her mother do it harder.

Mother pushed her to the door and barged in on the Principal’s meeting with Theo. Both Theo and the Principal’s eyes went wide when they saw Kari and her mother burst into the room.

Kari ducked her head. She knew what was coming.

Her mother’s raspy voice rang through the room. “Why the hell is my daughter covered in blood?”

The principal rose and put her hands up defensively. “Please Mrs. Lam, calm down. I’m still getting to the bottom of this.”

“My daughter is a good girl. There is no way she started this fight. If my daughter isn’t going to be safe here at this school then I’m going to pull her, and all my kids from your school district. I’m on the school board and I have some pull. Other parents will pull their kids, too. If you can’t keep an orderly safe place…”

“Please, Mrs. Lam. There is really no need for all that.”

Mother stepped to Theo and pulled him up by the back of his shirt. “Is this the boy she beat up?”

Theo’s grey eyes went wide with fear as Mother’s coffee colored eyes bored into his soul. Kari knew the feeling well. Two words fell to her lips that she didn’t dare udder, but she did mouth.

Look away, Look away.

Her own eyes dropped to the ground repeatedly. Finally Theo saw her and mimicked it. Mother scanned him up and down.

“No. Mrs. Lam. This is the boy your daughter was protecting,” the principal said.

Mother dropped Theo as if he was now undesirable. Saving people wasn’t really one her list of things good daughters did. “Well he stinks like a skunk. He must be the Knowles’ boy then. Kari, why would you go around saving a skunk boy?”

Kari dropped her eyes.

“You shouldn’t be hanging out with trash like that.”

Kari nodded ever so slightly.

“Kari?”

“Yes, Mother,” Kari said clearly.

“If you would please, Mrs. Lam. I would like to talk to Theo and Kari alone to get their side of the story,” the principal interjected. Kari didn’t look up to see her face, but she did notice a bit of shake to her voice. She was going to be eaten alive by Mother now.

Mother’s eyes raged with fire. “You most certainly will not be speaking with my daughter. I’m taking her home right this instant. We will see if she comes back to school tomorrow or even the rest of the week.” Mother raised her finger and pointed it directly at the principal. “You may not even have a job by then.”

Mother stormed towards the door. “Come Kari.”

Kari’s eyes flicked up to the principal’s gaping mouth and Theo’s sympathetic expression.

“Kari?” Mother said sharply.

“Yes, Mother.” Kari gave a deep nod of her head in apology and trotted after her mother.

The secretary offered up a clipboard. “Please sign here to release her from school.”

One look from Mother and he recoiled. Kari dipped her head at him as Mother marched out the door. She followed her out to the beat up brown truck and climbed in the passenger seat.

Mother raged the whole way home about the school system, the principal, the “skunk boy”, but never once did she ask what happened. She didn’t let Kari say any words other than “Yes, Mother.”

When they reached home, Mother turned to her. “Go get a switch.”

Kari nodded. “Yes, Mother.”

She hopped out of the truck and walked to the apple orchard. This was always the worse part. This was the reason she never angered Mother. Somehow she knew this was going to end poorly. She just knew it deep down in her core. When she had screamed, she knew it was going to end this way. But, she had one thing… one thing that was almost worth all of this. She rubbed her fingers together at the memory, the heat of his touch. Almost.

She picked an apple bow that had lain in the sun since springtime pruning. It would likely break after a good beating, but not so soon that it would make Mother mad. She snatched it up and walked slowly back to the house. Mother was waiting for her in the darkly lit den. She handed over the switch and bent over.

“I hope you’ve learned your lesson,” Mother said as she started.

Kari wasn’t sure what lesson she was supposed to learn from all this. Mother never was very straight forward when it came to punishments. She liked the game, the chase, but Kari was usually pretty quick to figure out what she meant.

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