Pick-me-up (7 page)

Katelyn went down the hall and put Kayla in
her small bed. Brianna was on her bed turned toward the wall, but
Katelyn could tell she wasn’t sleeping. Then, Katelyn retreated to
her own room again.

Chapter 9: Paying
Debts

Unbelievable! Unfuckingbelievable! That’s all
Katelyn could think. The situation was too unreal. Katelyn sat in a
standard school desk that had been positioned directly across from
Principal Gorman’s wide oak desk. The fronts of the desks touched,
face to face. Gorman sat in his desk going about his business.

Her mom barely talked to her this morning,
but made sure Brianna woke her up early. The car ride was quiet.
Katelyn knew her mom was still mad at her about the incident with
Gorman, and her dad hadn’t come home again. Despite wanting to beg
for her phone back, Katelyn didn’t want to add to her mother’s bad
mood. But, when they reached school, Gorman walked right at their
car as if he was waiting for them. Katelyn turned to her mom and
instantly understood the personal greeting was intended for her.
Gorman waved politely and was met with an obligatory smile from her
mom.

Katelyn turned in her seat to look at her
mom. “What’s this?”

“Do what he says,” she said and then steeled
her eyes forward. The conversation was over. Katelyn slammed the
door, and her mother drove away without looking back.

Katelyn was escorted to her locker to get any
materials she needed and then was brought into his office. Gorman
explained that she was a “guest” in his office for the rest of the
week, or more if needed. All the while, he kept a monkey grin on
his face. “We’ll be great acquaintances by the end of the week,
Miss Wells, won’t we?”

Katelyn couldn’t respond. That was two hours
ago. In that time, office helpers delivered a stack of late work
from each teacher, courtesy of special request by Gorman himself.
The papers sat undisturbed on her desk. Katelyn sat in protest. Her
arms were crossed over her chest and she bounced her knee up and
down. She made a point to keep the bouncing or toe tapping up to
annoy Gorman. He gripped his pen and took deep breaths several
times like he was trying to hold himself from yelling at her.

He left the room a few times to hold private
phone calls, but the door to his office would then be propped open
to where the secretary was under strict orders to guard her.

Katelyn felt powerless. Her mom was
definitely in on this, but she hadn’t said a word. Gorman even
called her mom right in front of her. “Yes, Mrs. Wells. Let’s keep
the line of communication open between us. Uhuh. Yes. I want there
to be no misconceptions or misinterpretations of actions. (pause).
She’ll be my guest this week.” He gave her another monkey grin as
he hung up.

“I have to go pee,” Katelyn blurted out at
him now.

He took his time signing whatever important
form was in front of him, then he looked up at her, shifted his
eyes down to the stack of papers on her desk, and then looked back
up at her. “Which assignment would you like to finish in order to
earn that privilege, Miss Wells?” Again, the monkey smile.

Katelyn sighed and glowered at him. She was
beyond caring about trouble. “When you look at me like that,” she
said in a growl, “I want to punch you in the face.”

He didn’t even flinch. Dead eyes and monkey
grin. “Which assignment, Miss Wells?”

She didn’t move. Another ten seconds they
held the silent glare, and then he slightly shrugged and dropped
his attention back to his stack of papers, picking up the next
form. Katelyn huffed. She grabbed the top worksheet, a science
packet, and opened her science book. Her work was sloppy, and she
skipped over questions she couldn’t find. Her teacher rarely used
the book, so she’d have to get notes from another student. The
problem was she wasn’t friends with kids who took notes.

Less than thirty minutes later, she had
completed most of the packet. Katelyn threw it on Gorman’s desk
after he walked back in from wherever monkey-grinning assholes went
for ten minutes while knowing a girl they are keeping prisoner has
to pee.

“Mrs. Wilson, when you have a free minute,
will you please escort Miss Wells to the restroom?” Gorman rewarded
her.

A few minutes later, Katelyn walked into the
girls’ bathroom by the cafeteria. Mrs. Wilson had ended up talking
to another faculty member in the hall. She now had a few minutes of
freedom. Once in the privacy of a stall, the tears surfaced, but
she forced back the urge to cry. She would not let her guard down,
even here. Gorman was already winning. Katelyn wasn’t kidding
herself, either. There was going to be no call from her dad. She
was on her own.

The bathroom door opened and Katelyn saw feet
go into the stall next to hers. She thought she recognized the
leather thong sandals. “Emily?”

“Katelyn? Is that you?”

“Oh my God, yes.”

“I saw Wilson in the hall. What happened to
you? There are rumors and stuff, ya know.”

Katelyn came out of her stall and waited for
Emily to do the same, relaying the nasty details of Gorman’s
punishment to her in the meantime.

Emily came out and touched Katelyn’s arm.
“That totally blows. He’s such a creep.” She went to the mirror and
turned her head looking for imperfections in her hair. She turned
for a profile view and analyzed her back side. “These totally make
my hips look like a hooker.” Emily smiled and switched her
inspection to her eyeliner. Finally, she looked up at Katelyn. “You
told him to fuck off?” Emily laughed as she freed a cell phone from
her back pocket.

“Yeah,” Katelyn said proudly, “he had it
coming.” Emily had turned her attention to sending a text. All
students used the bathroom as communication central. Teachers
hardly went into the student bathrooms, so it was safe from all the
rules in the dumb school. Katelyn didn’t want to lose Emily to
whoever was on the other end of the message. “I have an hour and a
half after school before I’m back to being grounded. Wanna go to
McDonalds or something?”

“Ummm,” Emily didn’t look up, but suddenly
looked uncomfortable. “I have other plans.”

“Oh, okay.” Katelyn tried again, “How about
tomorrow after school?”

Emily finished her message and then sighed as
she seemed to come to a decision. “Listen, Katelyn. People are
saying, like, you freaked out and you’re way out there. Don’t get
me wrong. Rage against the machine, fight the system and all, but,
um, how do I say this?” She paused. “I can’t get into that much
trouble. I mean, I can’t risk being with you and, like, being seen
as a serious trouble maker.”

Katelyn looked away from Emily toward the
floor.

“Look,” Emily started, then stopped. She
turned toward the door and said softly, “Sorry” and walked out.

Chapter 10: Waiting For A
Call

Day
two of no cell phone. Katelyn was going nuts. She wondered if Tim
had called; she worried that he’d take her silence as lack of
interest. Besides the Tim problem, she had no way of keeping up
with her other friends. After Emily’s rejection in the bathroom,
she suddenly wanted to check with her chat friends and see if they
were still talking to her. She had to do some damage control.
Katelyn lost plenty of friends in the past. Some were not allowed
to hang out with her anymore after her dad was arrested and spent
time in jail. Others just seemed to fall away over some spat or had
grown too materialistic. They worried more about make up and
calories than real life. So, she panicked at the thought of losing
the few people who still talked to her.

The cell phone was still at school. Gorman
just grinned when she asked for it at the end of the day. “We’ll
see how it goes tomorrow,” he said. She couldn’t believe how much
of a pushover her mom was being. Her mom wouldn’t dare try to keep
the phone from her. She let Gorman do her dirty work. If only
Gorman knew the things her mom had said about him. She was sure his
teeth would break if he tried to grin his way through her
curses.

When Katelyn reached home after walking the
two miles again, her mom was at work. She worked as a second shift
assistant manager at a convenience store in nearby Ames. The title
meant little more than that she had to do twice as much as other
employees. But, her mom qualified for health insurance and that
covered the kids, too.

Brianna was home when Katelyn walked in.
Brianna still rode the bus, another reason Katelyn did not. Brianna
had the TV blaring and was eating a gigantic bowl of cereal on the
couch.

“Turn it down,” Katelyn yelled.

“Make me,” Brianna sneered, almost loosing
half of her mouthful in the process.

“You are so gross,” Katelyn threw her bag on
the living room floor. Gorman supervised her exit from the
building, including deciding on two assignments that had to be
completed when she walked in the next morning. If Gorman didn’t
have possession of her phone, she would have told him off
again.

Katelyn brightened momentarily. The computer
was on and right in front of her. Brianna, however, was going to be
a problem—a total nark. Katelyn’s punishment included no computer
for the month, too.

“You’re late. You’re supposed to get Kayla
and Jacob at Grandma’s by four,” Brianna nagged from the couch.
Katelyn’s mom had to leave at 2 p.m. each day for work, so she’d
drop them off at her grandma’s, two blocks over, until her dad
could pick them up on his way home from work. Lately, however, in
her dad’s absences, it had become Katelyn’s job.

Katelyn plopped down on the couch and closed
her eyes. She changed her tone, “Brianna? Would you please go get
them today?”

Her response was what she expected. “What’s
in it for me?”

“Please?” Katelyn looked at Brianna, trying
to remember a time when she could stand her little sister.

Brianna chewed another spoonful of cereal and
looked away from the television. “Dishes,” she offered.

Katelyn dragged herself off the couch and
looked into the kitchen to survey the amount of work. The
dishwasher needed to be unloaded, the sink was full of lunch and
baby dishes, but it wasn’t that bad. Her dad hadn’t been around
today, so there were no pans from his omelets or late night snacks
to clean up. “Fine. Take the stroller for Jacob.”

Within a minute after Brianna walked out,
Katelyn had her web page up, logging in. Her page had a few
notifications and she quickly went to a friend request pending her
approval. Yes! Katelyn rejoiced. He found me. She quickly approved
Tim and linked to his site. A heavy metal band icon served as Tim’s
profile picture, and there were no other photos of him. She breezed
through his friend list, noting the heavy ratio of female versus
male friends. She recognized only a few of the girls, some from her
grade, but mostly upperclassmen. Most of his contacts were from Des
Moines, his last hometown. Is one of them his exgirlfriend? She
wondered.

She noted the time and gauged another five or
ten minutes before Brianna returned with the kids. She quickly
wrote a cheerful note on Tim’s Wall. Let those other girls know
there is a new girl in his life, she thought. Then, she wrote a
more detailed email briefly explaining why she hadn’t called.

A chat box popped up. It was Olivia from
school. Katelyn didn’t consider Olivia a close friend, but she was
friendly to everyone. Olivia also seemed to know everyone’s
business. And, that’s what her chat message was trying to get from
her. “Hey, how r u? Why r u in Gorman’s office?” Katelyn decided to
tread lightly.

“Hey, thought I’d spend some time in the zoo
and feed the monkeys.”

“Lol, hope u don’t get bit.”

“I’ll have him doing tricks by Fri.”

“That long? Ouch. Seriously, did u really
steal stuff from PE lockers?”

“WTF?” Katelyn’s mouth still hung open in
disbelief as she typed.

“IDK. I heard it at lunch? Money and iPods
missing.”

“No way! Just a fight with Gorman.”

“ good to hear.”

Katelyn overcame her shock and suspicion
crept in. She swallowed the urge to outright ask the source of the
rumor. Katelyn threw out some bait. “Tell your hotty boyfriend
he’ll have to buy u another iPod.”

“Not mine. Maci said hers was taken.”

Ah, Maci, Katelyn understood, even though she
couldn’t prove it yet. Maci was the type to capitalize on Katelyn’s
misfortune. Although she was offended, Katelyn felt better having
confirmed Maci as an enemy. She’d no longer play along and be nice
to Maci for the sake of offending Emily. This meant war, and
Katelyn knew how to be tough.

The dog’s barking made Katelyn look up. Out
the window, Katelyn saw Kayla running up the short driveway and
Brianna chasing after her with the umbrella stroller. Little Jacob
bobbed around in his seat.

“Gotta go.” Katelyn quickly typed and shut
the Internet window. She ran down the hall to appear as if she was
coming from the bathroom when the kids came bursting in.

“Kate'n!” Kayla enveloped her legs with a
hug. The innocent, love-filled action instantly warmed Katelyn’s
heart. She put Maci from her mind and decided to plan her revenge
later. She scooped up the girl. “Wanna play with me?”

Katelyn thought about the cleaning and work
around the house and dismissed it. “Sure, kiddo. Let’s go outside.”
Then, she walked over to where Brianna was giving up on pulling her
nephew from the stroller straps. “Actually, let’s take Jacob to the
park.”

“Yeah!” Kayla screamed and bounced on
Katelyn’s hip.

Brianna quit her attempt to care for Jacob
and left him in the stroller. “You’re not supposed to go anywhere,”
Brianna nagged while grabbing the last of the Oreos from the
package on the counter. “You’re grounded.”

Katelyn resisted the urge to tell her to shut
up. She took a deep breath and looked at her sister without any ill
intent. “Wanna go, Brianna?”