Faith

Chapter Twenty-One

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV) -- Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

The four of us walked down the empty hallway. Sam and I still were holding hands, which caused my face to heat up. I better not be blushing. The only problem is that this is for a friendly, supportive reason; not because we are dating. Still, I'm grateful Sam is here to be my rock.

After heading by many filled classrooms, we realized that the next period had already started. "Whoops. That might make the teacher slightly suspicious since Ryan, Morgan, and I are in her class," I thought with a slight wince.

Ryan noticed it. "What was that all about?" she asked me.

I looked at my best friend through my side vision. "The two of us and Morgan are all in the same class this period. The teacher might think we are skipping."

"That's exactly what I am thinking. Congratulations, Kaitlyn," the voice of a sarcastic middled-aged woman spoke out loudly. 'You girls must not be smart enough to figure out that small groups are harder to sneak out than individually."

I should have known Ms. Smith, the snotty 40-year-old teacher, a single cat lady with a constant grumpy attitude, would roam the halls, hoping to punish us. While I could understand her attitude, I didn't know why she took it out on me the most. I never did anything to her.

Well, I might have came to her class hungover once. But that was a story I don't want to talk about.

I turned to face Ms. Smith and opened my mouth, ready to let some words fly. But instead, Sam stepped forward with a polite smile. "Excuse me, ma'am. The four of us aren't skipping; we are going to the counselor."

Ms. Smith stared at Sam with her bushy eyebrows raised. "Sam, don't let this girls be a bad influence on you. You have no reason to lie for them."

I gasped, offended. My eyes narrowed in on the teacher and started to talk. "Listen here, you-"

Sam's hand clasped over my mouth. "Ms. Smith, I promise that we are not skipping. I can't believe that any of these lovely ladies would be that disobedient."

My awful teacher laughed mockingly. "You obviously don't know them. Ryan and Kaitlyn skipped my class more than any delinquent, and Morgan is always tardy."

God, I hate this woman.

"Now, you four, I suggest you head back to class before I take you down to the principal. You three girls are probably close to being suspended for missing class so much."

"You know what?" Morgan huffed, exasperated. "Look at my eye, Ms. Smith. It's black and blue because a male student punched me. We are going to the counselor to report this student for domestic abuse, and if you don't let us go right this instant, your eye will match mine."

Ms. Smith narrowed her eyes and took a step towards our small group. "Listen here, young lady..." But we never gave her the chance to finish. I took off running towards the direction of the counselor's office. Rapid footsteps behind notified me that Sam, Ryan, and Morgan were following suit.

We made good time too. I came to a dead stop and tried to catch my breath. I huffed for a while before I could finally breathe normally. Morgan strode right into the office and greeted the counselor from in the room. Ryan carefully snuck in and Sam started to follow, but he looked back at me.

I stared at the name plate next to the doorframe. I wanted to take a step forward, but my body wasn't listening. This is it. I'm going to tell someone and Jake will get in trouble. This will be good. But why am I so scared?