[sic]

26. All fires, one fire

My heart skipped a beat. Despite my certainty that whatever else I uttered would be shot down upon reception, I was elated to make some progress with Nora.

Unfortunately as we turned a corner in the halls, Kent was waiting, close-set eyes and little stubby nose red and puffy.

He didn’t look at me or say a word as we walked past. So, of course, I couldn’t resist taunting him. “Have a good day, Kent,” I said, smile beaming through my voice.

“Fuck off,” he said, banging his head against a nearby locker.

“Don’t say that,” Nora objected.

I stared at her, as surprised as Kent.

“You fuck off, and leave Jacob alone. He never did anything to you,” she continued.

“Would you shut this bitch up?” Kent said, turning to face me now.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” I said reflexively, surprised by the power in my voice.

As strong as my voice sounded, though, my legs froze as the larger boy approached. My center of gravity seemed to fall around my ankles.

I saw the hand moving toward me in slow motion. As it connected, Kent’s fist filled my entire view. I fell backward and banged my head against the linoleum floor with so much force, I blacked out for a few seconds.

Nora let out a little yelp and ran.

Kent stood over me, rubbing a red fist. “I really hate you. You didn’t have to do that.”

I tried to say something, but was too shocked by the taste of blood in my mouth; so much I might drown by attempting to speak.

Both of us were interrupted by Nora arriving with the principal in tow.

I got treated by the school nurse for my injuries, including an icepack on my swollen lip, that hurt more than it helped, and a mouthful of gauze. In the meantime, Nora flitted between the principal, to whom she told everything, and me.

She was a star student, the cameras backed up her story, and no one knew anything about Eureka, so Kent would get the same punishment I’d gotten. He would finish out the year at Hope High, now officially a bad kid.

I thought I’d feel better about it, but was still pretty shocked by the whole thing. I’d been prepared for a punch from Kent for weeks, figuring I’d move or block it or something. Of course, he was meaner, stronger, and heavier than me, so any sort of defense against such an assailant was fantasy.

It didn’t help much that as I left the school an hour and a half later, I saw Kent wearing handcuffs, being escorted to a police cruiser by two officers.

I turned to Nora, trying to voice a question through the gauze that still filled my mouth. “Mmff?!”

“They found drugs in his locker,” she said. “Pot. It serves him right.”

I remembered when they’d unceremoniously cut the lock off my locker and dumped the books into a box to be shipped to Hope High. But weed and Kent? It didn’t mix.

I contained my reaction to keep Nora from becoming suspicious. I didn’t even realize she kept talking until she was halfway through her statement, “…and thanks for standing up for me.”

I shrugged and nodded, which could have meant anything, but hopefully meant “It was nothing” to her. As we stepped into her car, I noticed an old white luxury sedan across the school parking lot. A thin, pale young man with spiked blond hair and thin rectangular glasses stood, leaning over its hood and watching us. Smiling.