Forever Remember: The Rose Code

Chapter 14: Justice

The memory of my father dying usually generated a panic attack. If I was asleep, I would wake up screaming. But I was already awake. My heart pounded so hard against my chest I feared my ribs would break. Thoughts swirled in my mind faster than kids on the scary mixer.

Justice for my father totally depended on Tyler's cooperation. I needed to gain his affection and trust, but in order to succeed, I had to appear normal. No more running away from my fears, I had to overcome them.

A sheen of cold sweat painted my skin as the office walls closed in. Why did I close the door? With extreme effort, I convinced myself that my imagination was only playing tricks on me. I took several deep breaths in and out, and somehow, willed my speeding pulse to slow and my spinning head to stop.

Mrs. Shepherd studied me with her tired, brown eyes while she waited patiently for me to answer her question about how I was feeling. Her short, frizzy perm was like a halo around her kind, round face. I felt sorry for poor Mrs. Shepherd and all guidance counselors who had the thankless job of trying to help angry, rebellious misfits like me. I decided to tell her a little white truth.

"I feel claustrophobic. Only a sadist would design a building with windows that don't open."

"So why you did run out of gym class?" Mrs. Shepherd asked.

 "I was playing a joke on Melaney," I lied.

She did not look amused. "Let me be very clear. The next time you run out of a class I will recommend to Mr. Brown that you serve after school detention. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Ma'am." She wasn't pulling any punches this year. No in-school suspension which I loved, but instead the dreaded detention, which meant I would have to spend another hour locked up inside this airless building.

Mrs. Shepherd picked a pink pass off the stack, put the time and date on it, and signed it. "Jasmine, please ask to come see me if you need to leave a class. My door is always open. Okay?" She held out the pass.

I nodded and took it from her chubby fingers. I dashed back to gym class to get my belongings before the bell rang. I didn't want to be late for lunch. That would really ruin my day.

Melaney waited with Emily outside the locker room and handed me my books. "Did you get detention?"

"No, but I will the next time I run out of class."

"There won't be a next time. Right?" she insisted.

"I hope not."

We hurried down the hallway to our lockers, shoved in our books, and rushed to the cafeteria. Various smells-pizza, chicken nuggets, hamburgers-assaulted my nostrils as we entered the vast room filled with long, orange and black tables and attached benches. A huge black panther mural was painted on the right wall, and glass trophy cases covered the left.

Over two hundred students vied for a place in the two long lunch lines. Sixty of them came from our gym class. Tyler and Todd stood near the front of the right line next to the eye of the panther. Mimi and her minions were in the left line admiring their cheerleading trophies. We joined the end of the right line at the tip of the panther's tail.

Melaney pulled a folded piece of notebook paper out of her front pocket and handed it to me. My name was printed on the top in bold block letters.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Tyler gave it to me in Calculus," Melaney said with a silly grin on her face. "I was going to give it to you in Gym, but you ran off."

"What does it say?"