The gang was gathered at a picnic table on school grounds. I was by the doors, alone. I didn't have the courage to walk up to them so I eavesdropped to what they were saying.
"It makes sense. JJ always stayed after class that must be when she did the maps." Dusty said to the others.
"Yeah to tidy up. This whole thing is bullshit anyways." Darren replied defensive. An urge in me made walk up to them. I was somehow confident that they would be responsive of having a chat. Talk things through. At least, some of them would.
"Why do you think the person who made the accusation wants to stay anonymous." Amerie declared trying to show them that I was clearly the victim of some pathetic joke.
"If someone's made this up. It's a pretty messed up thing to do." Missy replied.
"Yeah but why would someone even do that?" Ant added.
They all spotted me coming over the table. I was so nervous, I kept tugging on my skirt. Why did I wore this stupid skirt, it was way too short. Such a dumb idea, I looked ridiculous. Some didn't even look at me and others were clearly frustrated. Ant spotted me and gave me a reassuring smile.
"Hi." I paused. Everyone felt awkward by presence. "At least I got SLTs cancelled?" I joked, trying to smooth the tension. But I wasn't fully aware of how much it was the wrong thing to say. Most of them didn't really believed I was that innocent. Better safe than sorry, they must have thought. They couldn't risk beings friends with me if that meant I was possibly the creator of those maps that ruined their life and relationships.. After a few rounds of being questioned, I just left. I couldn't take it anymore.
"Babes." Amerie exclaimed as she saw I was leaving. She knew what I was going through, we were in the same social boat now. Well, maybe I was sinking further down right now and I didn't want to drag her with me. So I left.
I jogged to the closest bathroom, I needed some peace. A safe space where no one could judge or gossip about me. I stayed crawled up on the toilet rethinking everything until I heard a knock on the door.
"I know you're in there. I do the same when I feel sad."
"I just need some time alone, Quin." I said through the stall.
"Music always helps me. I'll wait." She responded. I heard her back sliding down the door, she sat on the floor as the music from her phone echoed in the bathroom.
"I love Taylor Swift."
"Her lyrics cure us all of heartbreak."
We stayed there in silence, listening to the music. Quinni always knew how to make me feel better, it was always the little attentions. We had that special bond, she always listened to me even if no one else did. Quinni was just what I needed to feel better. At the end of the day, even with SLTs being cancelled, we were all called in another classroom. I sat at the front, alone.
"I thought this shit was cancelled." Spider exclaimed.
"Alright. Can everyone take their seats? Get off the table Spencer." Mrs. Woodsy entered the classroom as Spider did what she had just ordered him.
"Are we a full contingent today? Where's Malakai?" The principal asked to everyone.
"Uh... He's not here, Miss. He's gone my country." Missy replied, bringing news to everybody even to Amerie.
"Oh, like overseas?" Ant asked confused of why he would miss school.
"No, the bush."
Spider snickered, trying to hold his laughs.
"Did you have an extra bowl of stupidity this morning?" Mrs.Woodsy said to Ant, making him doing a more confused face as before. Poor boy was clueless.
"Uh Miss why did we move class?" Sasha asked but without having time answer, Darren spoke up.
"And where's Miss Jones." They said.
They didn't knew. They didn't knew yet that I was the reason their favorite teacher had been fired. They despised me before, now they clearly won't ever talk to me again. They'll blame me for everything. My mother only resigned because I was about to be expelled. And she loved teaching, loved teaching to them.
"Miss Jones will not be taking the sexual literacy tutorial any longer." Mrs.Woodsy started. Everyone looked at each other's. Everyone looked confused except Spider and I, we knew why she had left. "There is a new sheriff in town. It's me, I'm the sheriff."
Some groaned. SLTs wasn't cancelled and the worst of it, Mrs.Woodsy was our new sex ed teacher.
"Seven weeks ago, you were put into this class. Can anyone tell me why?"
"The Incest Map." Sasha answered, not sure if her response would satisfy the principal.
"Boom. And yet the tradition of documenting sexual exploits continued right under Miss Jones' nose."
"That's because it was her daughter's doing." Harper exclaimed.
Everyone looked at me. I didn't move, I still showed them my back. There won't be any other reaction, any show of weakness.
"No, Harper. This indicates to me that you ALL have learned very little. So because you cannot learn to R-E-S-P-E-C-T sex or each other... it's time to get serious."
Mrs. Woodsy then proceeded to show a close up picture of a vagina making everyone of us gasping, chuckling and being slightly disturbed by such pictures.
"This is a yeast infection." She declared referring to the picture on the board. Everyone still hadn't recovered from the previous one that she showed us a different image, now of a pimpled penis. Everyone's jaw still opened and shocked.
"Oh. That's nasty!" Spider exclaimed.
"Oh god!" Ant added with a disgusted face.
"God will not be helping you if you get one of these, Anthony."
Mrs. Woodsy continued the class with explaining the different disease we could caught by having unprotected sex and bad genitalia hygiene. No one really listened to what she said. When the bell rang, we all exited the classroom, me first. I had intended to step away from them but instead I just froze when I saw my mother exiting the building with another box full of her things. The whole class went to her, asking her millions of questions about what will happened if she isn't there to teach. I watched them carefully.
"Miss, come back to school! We love you, you're a great teacher." Sasha said to my mother.
"Let's be honest here. None of you wanted to be there."
"Yeah but that was before Mrs.Woodsy took over teaching the class." Ant exclaimed.
"Look guys, it's already done. And I'm sorry but I don't mean to blame any of you but you need to realize, all of you do, that your actions, they have consequences. These maps, the call costed my career."
They all started at each other, maybe some felt guilty. Good, I hoped someone would feel guilty enough, that their lie would eat them from inside. I wished they felt so bad, they would have the balls to confessed what they did to me, to my mother. My mother left them full of unanswered questions. After the group had scattered, Amerie, Quinni and Darren walked up to me.
"You know we ain't mad at you yeah?" Amerie softly said trying to reassure me.
"But everyone else is. If only there was a way we could stop this." I replied.
"We can't let Miss Jones take the blame for something probably one of those idiots did." Darren added glancing at some boys.
Quinni's face lit up. She started pointing towards the bulletin board hanging on the wall.
"Let's do the same as the pink flyer!" She exclaimed full of hope.
I walked up and ripped the paper out of the board. ENVIRONMENT PROTEST was the title. Of course, a protest.
"Quinni you're a genius!" I said holding the paper and embracing her.
"And who could be the best to help us other than the protest queen herself." Darren said as Sasha entered the court with her big microphone in one hand.
We all giggled. Together, we will bring back my mother. We will protest the shit out of this. We met Sasha at the library to convince her of planning the protest with us. She was the expert.
"A protest?" She asked as we all sat down at a table.
"We have to convince Miss Jones to stay. She only got fired because of that stupid call. Because of me so we've got to show her what she means to us. That we've been hectic shits and it's not on her and it's got to happen now." I said catching my breath after this long monologue.
"Honestly, you had me at hectic shits."
I smiled. She was in.
"Okay... First, you need bodies. It's all about strength in numbers. So pick a time and a place and spread the word."
I wrote down notes to keep up with her instructions.
"Today. Fifth period." I said to Amerie, Quinni and Darren who all got up and started running around the halls to spread the word to our other mates.
"Next, you've got to make a visual impact. So posters, banners, catchy slogans. You get the gist." Sasha continued
During lunch, all the participants, mostly SLTs' students, gathered in the class room. We made shirts, we draw on posters. We did all that protest shit.
"And finally, fuel. You ran out of food, it's game over."
After Sasha's precious tips, I went to find Ant fully knowing he had a car. He was in the gym, doing some push-ups. He was wearing a cropped tank, his broad and muscular shoulders all sweaty. I snapped out of it and confidently walked up to him.
"Did you drive to school today?" I asked.
"Yeah." He replied breathless.
"Get to the shop, buy as many supplies as you can. Real food. Not just dumb shit. Yeah?"
He nodded and I left. A little voice inside me was yelling to not trust Ant with the food. But he was the only one with a car today and we needed to be subtle about this. We couldn't risk getting caught, the protest had to happened. The rest of day went by slowly, I could hardly control my nerves. I had do this yet I was shitting my panties. This was the only chance I had to save my mother's job.
I couldn't fuck this up.