The Girl With Tattoos • Original Version

The Girl With Tattoos (7)

Ms. Larson stared at me with so much disappointment in her eyes I thought she was going to start crying. The pen in her hand made a steady beat on her desk as she tapped away, her eyes searching mine. "Are those contacts?"

The question came out of nowhere. I slowly shook my head, breaking the eye contact.

"They're not?" She sounded like she was still weary about it; like she didn't believe my words. "Well, in that case, your eyes . . . are very . . . um. They're very unique," Nodding, I took in the design of her office as it was something I might as well get used to. The wall color was a subtle yellow with a popping white trim. Behind her sat two bookshelves with a picture collage in the middle. Kids from ages three to twenty were placed in the little frames. They all looked shockingly like Ms. Larson. I counted at least five children in one photo.

She only looks around 40 years old.

There were two other chairs beside me at weird angles, all of them facing the dark oak desk that was stacked with paper and office materials. Pictures of her in a wedding dress, swimsuits at the beach surrounded by kids, and even graduations littered the surface. One mirror was hung up next to the door. That was it.

Ms. Larson opened her mouth to start talking but was interrupted by the door slowly creaking open, squeaking slightly. Bann came into view. He seemed mad, a little sad even but when he saw me sitting there, a slight smile crawled onto his face.

"Bann! I got a call you would be coming in. How is Aaron? I heard he hurt his back yesterday," So, that dude's name is Aaron.

Bann gave me a smirk before coming fully in, closing the door softly behind him.

"Well, he's okay. A slight bruise is forming on his lower back but other than that, it's fine."

He pulled the chair to my left out and sat down, crossing his arms over his dark blue hoodie.

"Okay. Well, I was just talking to Miss Marollo here. She got into a fight today," Bann snickered at her comment before looking at me. "What's so funny?"

"That was you? You gave Becky that black eye and broke Samantha's nose?" I think I like Grape better. "Damn. Her eye looks so bad." He laughed slightly, giving me a weird look. "I shouldn't me surprised, should I?"

"Why shouldn't you be surprised? This is her first fight and she hasn't done anything ill until today," Ms. Larson said as she leaned forward, her fingers threaded together. "Is there something I'm missing."

He looked at me and I shook my head, watching him give me a thumbs up from under the desk. "Nothing. She's just really strong so."

"Bann, tell me right now or I will give you a detention for not cooperating," he looked at me again and I shrugged, leaning back. I didn't want to be the reason for him to get a damn detention.

"She threw Aaron on his back yesterday," her mouth opened in shock and she stared at me harshly, breathing hard and shallowly.

"Gracelyn," Thanks for saying my first name and not my last name. "Is this true?"

Nodding, I watched her shake her head and type something into the computer.

Without looking at me, she started to speak while reading something off from the computer screen. "Now you have two offenses. Plus, you didn't show up to your detention yesterday. So three."

Oh, boo hoo.

"I'm only keeping you at this school because you just moved here and I've seen how many schools you have been expelled from. How many towns you've moved to and left plus..."

Bann stole a look at me. He squinted his eyes before looking away and staring at the wall. No emotion present in his face. Doing the same, I brought my knees to my neck and rested my chin, zoning out of the conversation.

". . . chance and if you ruin it, I will have no other choice but to give you even more detentions," Detentions. How scary.

"Can you please summarize what I just said so I know you understand?" Please don't do this again. "Miss Marollo, hello?"

I waved at her which made her release an annoyed breath. "Gracelyn, please tell me what you got from what I just said," I shrugged my shoulders, staring into her eyes. "Speak child," Did she already forget? It's been what? A day? I pointed to my lips and her eyes went wide with realization. She slid me a piece of paper and a pen. "Explain please."

'If I'm being honest ma'am, I got nothing. I zoned out. It was just a shitty lecture. But I did hear I would get detentions. Is that good enough?'

She sighed loudly, staring at me with annoyance and anger. "Fine, yes, that's enough," She flung the piece of paper into the trash and the pen into a cup out of pure anger, leaning on her palm. "Also, watch your language Miss Marollo," Chuckling a bit, I looked at Bann who was already looking at me. Raising an eyebrow, he just shrugged. "Would you like to tell me what's so funny?"

I rocked my head back and forth and got up to leave.

"Get out please," Nodding with a slight smirk, I walked out of the stuffy room.

"Was that really necessary mom?"

Mom?!