mr. mara

•8•

"Game day!" Brandon yells as he sits down at our lunch table.

"Y'all are coming, right?"

"Duh," Maggie says. "When do we ever miss a football game?"

"True," Zion says. He looks at me, "You're coming too, right?"

"I always do, Zion."

"Just didn't know since you spend most of your time at the school with Mr. Mara."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm stupid and I need tutoring," I say annoyed. Zion has been really weird this whole week. He's been super distant and very off.

"Didn't mean it that way," he rolls his eyes, "I just think you like to spend too much time with Mr. Hottie."

"And I think your an ass," I stand up from the table and I walk out of the cafeteria. I'm not going to deal with his bullshit.

I go to my locker and I grab out all the books that I need for the night. Thankfully, I don't have too much homework for the weekend. The only homework I have is math and english. I'll get help on the math from Nick anyways.

"Hey, stranger." I turn around to see Zane. We used to date when we were juniors. I broke it off last year because he was cheating on me.

"Oh, hey," I say. I close my locker door.

"How have you been?"

"I've been okay," I say. "How about you?"

"Good," he says. "We haven't talked in forever. I miss talking to you."

"Well you are the one that ruined that," I say.

"You could give me a second chance. I have changed over the past year."

"No," I say. "I'm already seeing someone anyways. Plus, I don't take back cheaters."

"You could," he steps closer to me. Zane has always been an ass. To me and to others. A lot of people say he has anger and mental issues, so I try to avoid him at all costs.

"No, Zane. Just leave me alone. I don't want to associate with you in anyway."

He pushes me against the locker, "I want you back though."

In this moment I wish people were around.

"No," I yell. I kick his leg, but that doesn't phase him whatsoever.

"I miss you," he says. He starts kissing my neck and I start to scream. I kick him again, but he doesn't move.

"Zane! Get off!"

He is then ripped off of me and is on the floor. Nick is here and he is now punching the shit out of Zane.

"Stop!" I yell. I grab Nick's arm, but he doesn't stop. "You're going to get in trouble! Stop!" He stops the punching that he is doing and looks back at me. "Stop."

He lets go of Zane and Zane stands up. He only has a cut lip. He will be fine, "Get to the office."

"You'll be there too for beating up a student," Zane says.

"You were sexually harassing her. I don't want to hear it. Get there now!"

Zane walks away with his head down and Nick turns back to me, "Are you crazy? Why would you beat him up?"

"Are you kidding me, Kai? He was all over you. If I didn't hear you screaming then who knows what he would have done then."

"You're going to get in trouble now. It's also not normal for a teacher to hit a student. I don't care if he was all over me or not. Do you know how suspicious people are going to be now?"