“I didn’t touch anyone!” Jordan wailed, his hands desperately trying to break Kale’s hold on him.
“You did!” Kale bellowed, grasping Jordan’s collar with his other hand. “You hit Lane! She is only a little girl. She is only six, and you punched her in the head!”
Drew gasped at Kale’s announcement and held me to her, rubbing her hand up and down my back. I hated that it comforted me and helped slow my tears. I hated that I was holding onto her, and I hated that it made me feel better. I didn’t want to need Drew to help me, because Kale had said she was beautiful.
“Drew, what are you doing back – hey!” When the voice of an adult bellowed from behind us, I gasped and pressed my face against Drew’s shoulder.
I was frozen with fear as a grown man rushed past Drew and myself and shot over to Kale and Jordan. He pulled Kale off Jordan first and held him to one side, and then he reached down and pulled Jordan up to his feet. Jordan was crying, and so were his two friends who were still on the ground. Kale was the only boy not crying. He was just glaring hard at Jordan and had his hands balled into fists as his chest rose and fell swiftly.
Now that Kale stood up and faced me, I could see his face, and I didn’t like what I saw. He had a little cut over his eyebrow. A trickle of blood ran down from said eyebrow and stopped halfway down his cheek. Both of his eyes were red, a little swollen, and his lips were stained with the blood that was smeared across his mouth. I could see blood stained his teeth too, because he had his mouth open as he was breathing heavily.
Now that things weren’t as loud, my whimpers could be heard. Kale turned his head in my direction, and his entire demeanour changed.
“It’s okay, Lane,” he assured me, giving me a wink. “I’m okay, I promise.”
“Liar!” I cried. “You’re bleeding! Look at all the blood. You’re probably dying!”
The thought of that turned my stomach.
“What the hell happened here?” the man who was holding Kale and Jordan snapped.
I gasped. The man said a bad word too.
“He punched Lane in the back of the head!” Kale stated, throwing his accusation in Jordan’s face.
The man looked at me, then looked to Kale, Jordan and the two boys still crying on the ground. He shook his head and walked forward, pulling both Kale and Jordan with him.
“Everyone to the principal’s office,” he ordered. “Now!”
The fear that settled inside me was enough to make me want to pass out. Drew set me down on the ground and took my hand as we walked ahead of Kale, Jordan and the man who’d stopped the fight. He called for the other two boys to get up and follow or he’d come back for them.
“Yes, sir,” both of them rasped.
Sir.
The man was a teacher in the school, and he was bringing us to the principal’s office. We were in so much trouble.
The next while passed by in a blur. I had to sit in the waiting room to the principal’s office with Kale, Jordan and the two other boys as our parents were called. Drew was sent to class because she’d had no direct involvement in what had happened other than witnessing the fight. She told the teacher what happened and was sent on her way.
I kept my head down, even though the “sir” who stopped the fight told me that I had nothing to worry about and that I wasn’t in a bit of trouble. That made me feel better, but I still felt horrible that Kale was going to get in trouble because of me.
The waiting room to the principal’s office was quiet one minute and then loud the next as our parents arrived. I could hear my father and Kale’s arguing with multiple grown-up male voices from somewhere outside. I then heard our mothers’ voices trying to calm things down; other female voices did the same thing.
I ran to my mother when she entered the waiting room, and I sobbed as she lifted me up into the air and held me to her chest. I felt a hand press against my back, then lips brushing against the side of my head.
“Lane?” my father’s voice murmured.
I looked to him, my vision blurred from my tears.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
I shook my head. “Jordan punched my head, and it really hurts.”
My father’s jaw set as he looked over his shoulder. “Deal with your kid before I do.”
Arguing started again, and the teacher who had stopped the fight entered the waiting room and had to intervene to calm everyone down. Jordan’s mother was kneeling in front of him and pointing her finger at him as she told him off. His father stood next to them and glared down at Jordan, with his arms folded across his chest.
I swallowed when I spotted Kale’s parents. His daddy was next to him, checking his face; his mummy was worried as she fussed over him too, even though Kale tried to tell her he was fine. He didn’t look fine; his red and slightly swollen eyes were now blue as bruises formed on them. There was a dark bruise forming around the cut on his eyebrow and on his busted lip too. It had to hurt him, but he grinned and winked at me whenever he caught me staring.
I had to go into the principal’s office with my parents and tell him what happened. I did exactly that, and when I was finished, I had to sit in the waiting room with my parents as Kale, Jordan and Jordan’s two friends all went into the principal’s office with their parents. We waited for ages then, and sometimes there were raised voices, and sometimes there was crying. I knew neither came from Kale. He never cried. Ever. Not even when his grandmother died last year.
I was playing the game “I spy” with my daddy when Kale and his parents re-entered the waiting room. I jumped up and ran over to Kale at full speed, making him and our parents laugh. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my head against his stomach as I squeezed him. He placed a hand on my shoulder and gently rubbed the back of my head with the other.
“You okay?” he asked me.
Now I am, I silently said to myself.
I looked up at him and nodded.
“I love you,” I said, making our mothers sigh and our fathers chuckle.
Kale snickered. “I love you too, Laney Baby.”
I pressed my face into his stomach as I smiled. He was the best friend ever.
“What did the principal say?” my father asked Kale’s as we all exited the waiting room and headed out of the school.
My mum whispered that we were allowed to go home, and I thought it was really cool, because I didn’t want to go back to my class anyway.
“He understood Kale was upset and felt the need to defend Lane, but violence wasn’t the way to go about it. Kale is suspended for two days, but Jordan and his friends got a week.”
I frowned. “What’s ‘spended’ mean?” I asked, my head tilting to the side.
Kale laughed and slung his arm over my shoulder. He leaned down and whispered, “It means I get to stay in bed all day while you have to go to school.”
What?
I gasped. “No fair! I want to be spended too!”
Kale’s rich laughter filled the corridor we walked down, but he stopped when a door further down opened up and out stepped Drew with her stupid pretty red hair. Kale’s arm tensed around me, but he grinned when Drew’s gaze fell on him.
“Kale!” Drew squeaked when she spotted him, and she ran all the way down the corridor to reach him.
She really ran all the way.
I stepped to the side when she crashed into him and gave him a big hug. I glared hard at her and stepped back until my back pressed against my daddy’s legs. I looked up at him and noticed he was sharing a grin with Kale’s daddy and shaking his head. Our mummies were also smiling and shaking their heads as they observed Drew and Kale.
I don’t get it, I thought. Why are they happy?
“Hey, Drew,” Kale murmured into her hair as he inhaled.
I was disgusted. He sniffed her hair. I saw him sniff it!
Drew pulled back from the hug. “I’m so happy you’re okay, I was worried about you.”
“You were
worried about me?” Kale asked, his voice disbelieving.
“Of course,” Drew said, nodding. “Are you suspended?”
Kale shrugged, seemingly not caring. “Two days.”
I frowned. He was acting like it was no big deal.
Drew’s mouth formed into the shape of an O. “For defending your sister? That’s so stupid.”
“Tell me about it,” Kale chuckled, scratching the back of his neck.
Drew blushed then when she noticed my parents and Kale’s were watching the exchange. “Well, I’ll be in every day. I can get notes for you and mark chapters you will miss,” she said, and flushed so much her entire head turned the colour of a tomato. “I can bring them to you after school every day so you don’t fall behind.”
Kale’s face was red too, but he remained silent. I wanted to kick him and say no to Drew for him, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do a thing. I was so angry, but I had no idea why.
“That’d be great . . . Drew, is it?” Kale’s mummy said after Kale still hadn’t replied to her.
Drew looked at Kale’s mummy and nodded, smiling shyly. “Yes, my name is Drew.”