Senior Squad

21| "I'm A Person Too."

"Definitely."

Lyle and I walked up the stairs and made it to the office where Dominic sat on one end with Elise next to him. I tried sitting next to her but she put her hand smack down on the wooden seat. She must've been pissed about something. With her message received, I sat in the chair next to the opposite end while Lyle sat on the end. Our last member finally arrived in a jiffy as she sprinted inside and shut the door.

"Sorry about that." Aria apologized and sat herself down in the middle seat. "I got held up on my way here. What'd I miss?"

"Not much." Elise responded while reading a book.

"Yeah, we just got here." Lyle chimed in.

"Well that's nice."

"Indeed it is." Normack's booming voice drawn our attention toward him as he came out of his side office door and plopped himself down in his little throne. He then pulled out different colored sheets of paper and distributed them to us all. Lyle's was yellow, mine was Neptune blue, Aria's was pink, Elise's was green, and Dominic's was red.

"What the hell is this shit?" Dominic scoffed.

"Language, young man." He scolded Dominic. "And if you need to know, it's your performance report."

"Performance?" Everyone including myself, exclaimed at the same time.

"What performance?" Elise asked.

"They didn't tell you did they?" Normack responded.

"You mean the students from last year?" I deduced.

"Of course. Didn't any of you take notes?"

"I sort of did." Lyle admitted as he pulled out his black planner. "Except I wrote down more questions than answers."

"Let me see this." I snatched it from him.

"Hey..." he tried grabbing it back while I scanned through.

"Seriously dude?" I asked while stopping on a particular question.

"My curiosity is my own business." Lyle swiped his planner back and brushed it off.

"Right."

Lyle scoffed and to my surprise, Elise did too. I turned right toward her and returned the same attitude. "Uh, something funny there?"

"Nope."

"It sure sounds like it was."

"Well it's not as funny as the fact you're a walking cliché."

A walking what? The moment I heard that, my eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"

Elise flipped the page of her book and then put it aside. She straightened up her body and sighed before checking out her evaluation. She was totally icing me out. Why?

I tried to ask her only for Normack to cut me off. "I must say for all it's worth, you five didn't do as bad as I predicted."

He sifted through his files and leaned back in his chair. "Though this shouldn't come as a surprise, in my notes you'll find my suggestions on how all of you could improve."

"Better attitude?" Elise groaned as she read hers aloud.

"Very scattered and tries too hard?" Lyle exclaimed. "But sir, I–"

"Hey look, he had all good things to say about me." Dominic bragged until Elise leaned in and flipped his paper before pointing out the truth.

"Was missing the first two weeks and showed little drive nor the finesse to thrive in his new learning environment–"

"Elise, he's not that dumb." I chimed in as her tone went from passive aggressive to downright condescending. "He can read on his own."

"I never said he was."

"Yeah, but you're suggesting–"

"Can you both just stop?" Aria exploded as she put her hands up in front of us. She took a moment to fix her hair before shaking her head. "I mean what is it with you two? Honestly? We're in the principal's office for god's sakes!"

"You're right." Normack nodded. "And for that, I'd like you all to take this outside. I'll be sure to send you copies of your evaluations in the mean time."

"Thank you sir." Aria smiled with gratitude.

As she gave back her paperwork, we all followed suit and left his office. Though once his door closed and we were far enough away, the gloves came off.

"How fucking dare you." Elise began with a biting remark right off the bat. "You-you think the world just bends for you? That you can keep doing all sorts of shit and expect everyone to forgive you for everything?"

"Oh my god." I recoiled at the sound of her word. "Where is coming from?"

"Uh, does sucking face with a certain redhead ring a bell?"

"You what?" Aria asked as she crossed her arms.

Dominic snickered while Lyle looked down and covered his mouth. He slowly inched away as I ran my fingers through my hair. Honestly this was the last thing I wanted to talk about, yet here we were. "So that's why you're pissed off? Because you're... jealous of something?"

"Jealous? God no." Elise denied. "I was literally going to apologize, maybe even offer, yeah offer you...a night out or something. Then I see you with your tongue down some ginger's throat and called it a night."

"Okay first off; her name's Melinda."

"Melinda..." Lyle repeated in a hollow tone to himself. "Where do I remember her from?"

I simply ignored him. "Secondly, why do you even care? You hate me."

"Nope, I'm just disappointed."

"Of course you are." I rolled my eyes at her expected response.

"But you know what? I guess you can't expect much from a stereotype on legs."

"Alright enough." I demanded and even sniffled a little as her second time referencing me as a caricature really struck a nerve. "I get that I've acted like an idiot. I also got that you were...adjusting your expectations of me but were let down. I'm sorry for that. I deserved some shit for what I said, but now you're just being ugly."

"Whoa." Dominic's jaw dropped as did the others, except Elise who stood there and took it.

To my own surprise, she didn't fire back which gave me the opportunity to continue on. "This might sound whiny to you, but I really hate when you label me as a living cliché or walking stereotype. You make it sound like I'm just a cartoon when I'm still real like everyone else. I'm a person too."

"I know."

"So please stop addressing me as that." I requested. Having to make that request in the first place made my stomach churn a bit, but it felt so good to say out loud.

Eventually Elise quietly nodded as I did too.

"Thank you." I mouthed to her before leaving her and the rest of the group. I let out a sigh and officially began my day.