Emma looks at me, then quickly at Kate. When Kate doesn't protest, Emma looks at the table. She sees Simon, who waves at us. She nods hesitantly, eyeing the other people at the table. Chris isn't back and a few of the other soccer guys are just hanging around. I don't think anyone would mind so I urge her on. Simon nods at me when I sit down. He eyes Kate but nods at her too, then nods at Emma who sits next to me, across from a cheerleader named Tara.
Tara wrinkles her nose when she sees Emma. "Who told you that you could sit here?"
"I did Tara so shut the fuck up." I reply. She sneers at Emma and crosses her arms over her shoulders defiantly.
"Well, she should leave. You didn't ask the rest of us if she could sit here."
"Since when did we need permission to invite people to our table?" Simon interjects.
"Since you decided to invite her." She answers icily.
Emma cowers at Tara's glare. She picks up her books. "That's okay, I'll just go sit where I've been sitting, it's not big deal." She stands up and makes her way back to her old table. I glance back at her but she smiles at me and motions for me to stay with my friends.
"You're a bitch Tara." My jaw drops when Kate says that. I wasn't the only one. Most of the table is looking at Kate, jaws dragging on the floor.
"Excuse me?" Tara whispers threateningly.
Kate repeats herself slowly, as if talking to a child. "You are a bitch. All she did was sit down. You didn't have to talk to her, but you didn't have to be a bitch and kick her out. Dylan invited her over here because he's actually friends with her. And you know what, if she's good enough for him, then she should be good enough for the rest of us." She finishes her speech and closes her eyes for a moment then reopens them as if nothing happened.
"Screw you Kate. You're going to regret calling me a bitch." Tara sneers, picking up her half finished salad and going to sit with the football players. I watch as she whispers something to them, glancing at us, then whispering again.
Kate winces and I put my arm around her, kissing her temple. "That was great of you."
She shrugged. "I'm tired of Tara acting like she owns this whole damn place."
We don't say anything else about it, and everyone continues as though the last few minutes never happened. As if Emma had never sat down with us, as though Kate didn't call Tara out, as if Tara didn't storm away from the table. Nothing like that happens in Oakland, at least it never gets seen, it always gets ignored. You only see the perfect parts. How we all get really great grades because our school system is one of the best in the country. How the teenagers never get drunk, never hold ragers, never need to have the occasional stomach pumped. No one commits suicide, no one gets busted for doing drugs. Those things never get recognized, always hidden from the public eye. In the public's view everyone always looks the same, acts the same, thinks the same. Always.
I shake my head and Simon gives me a weird look. I shrug him off but can't get the thought out of my head. Everything has always been the same and no one has ever bothered to change it.
I walk to drama with Kate and to be honest, I don't even know what she was trying to talk about. I felt out of it, absorbed in my own mind. Mr. Holmes tries to greet me but I hardly notice. Kate snaps me out of it.
"Okay, what's up with you? I've been trying to apologize for that scene in lunch all day and you're just nodding your head saying 'mhm.' What are you thinking about that so important?" She asks, putting her hand on my arm to make sure I'm listening.
"Kate, I'm sorry. I got caught up thinking about how stupid this school is. You shouldn't apologize for what you said at lunch. Tara was being a bitch and you told her. Someone needed to speak up for Emma. I'm glad it was you."
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea Dylan, I'm still on the fence on how I feel about her. I just know that if someone talked to me like that, I'd want someone to stick up for me too."
I nod and look over at Emma. She's still sitting alone. Her expression is distant and I have an idea.
Mr. Holmes starts class and since it's improv Friday, he introduces the four games we're going to play. I hardly listen as he explains it, I know his games pretty well by now. I only start to pay attention when Mr. Holmes picks Emma.
She goes up to one of the two chairs in the middle of the room and sits. A moment later, a reluctant junior named Ben goes up to join her. Mr. Holmes asks for a location and relationship. They decide first date to Ben's upmost dismay underwater for whatever reason.
Emma tries to start it by commenting on how awkward she feels eating at a seafood restaurant while she's watching the fish in the ocean swim around her but Ben rolls his eyes and shrugs it off, ordering to an invisible waiter for the mixed sushi platter. Emma "orders" a miso soup. She tries again to start a conversation but Ben blows her off once more.
Clearly becoming frustrated, Emma calls him out on it, saying how he should show a little more care on a first date and all, how she wishes her sister had never set them up on a blind date. "Had I known I would be going on a date with some weird, vegetarian loser then I wouldn't have come either." Ben retorts.
Mr. Holmes is clearly enjoying the dramatic date they're going on but I think I can see something behind the acting. I think Emma can too. "I suppose that you think you can just go around judging people, simply because they're different from you? Vegetarians aren't bad people!"
"Well maybe people would like them more if they weren't so 'oh look at me! I don't eat meat! I'm going to flaunt it in everybody's face that I'm different!' then maybe people would like them! But then again, even once you get past the initial vegetarian drawback, you find that they're actually idiots that think they're so righteous and cool and smart but really, they're just freaks!"
"Okay, enough! And scene! That got too out of hand. You know what everyone, just have a free period for the rest of the time. No more improv today." Mr. Holmes cuts off the scene between Emma and Ben, both of whom are now standing. Emma's body is shaking, her lip slightly trembling. Ben's shoulders are moving quickly up and down as he pants from his speech. Everyone sits in shock as they watch the two retreat back to their seats.
Emma goes up to Mr. Holmes' desk and asks him something then leaves the classroom without looking back, leaving her books. Silently, I stand up and walk over to her things. I pick them up and bring them back to where Kate and I are sitting. I don't want anyone to get the idea to trifle through her this, especially without her here to stop them.
A few people watch me, wide eyed, but no one stops me. Kate just gives me a small, encouraging smile and we work together on the math homework. A minute before the period ends, Emma returns and frantically looks for her bag. When she sees it between Kate and me, her shoulders relax and she makes her way over quickly.
She mutters her thanks but runs away from us when I start to talk to her. Kate shrugs when I turn back to her and I shake my head.
Before going our separate ways to our last classes, I kiss Kate quickly and see Emma dodging around us to get to history. Kate waves to me and I start after Emma. I put my hand on her shoulder gently but she shakes it off the way one would after getting hit in the hallway. I grab her arm more firmly this time, trying to stop her. The flow of the hallway forces us to push on but now she has to acknowledge me.
"Hey." I say softly, now walking next to her. I know she heard me.
"Hi." She replies weakly.
"Ben is an asshole. You shouldn't-"
"Well it seems like just about everybody at this school is an asshole." She whispers harshly before walking into the classroom and directly to her seat, opening her notebook and shutting me out.
I sigh and walk into the classroom. Coach Kran greets me when I pass his desk and we chat idly for a second before I sit down and wait for class to start.
The class lasts for seemingly eternity. I just want detention to come so I can try talking to Emma. I feel bad that she's being treated so harshly, but really, it's been explained time and time again why she is being harassed by everyone. In no way does it make it right, but she could be doing something about it.
And that's exactly what I tell her while we wait for Mrs. Olivers to begin detention. Instead of getting maybe a relieved smile or a hesitant shrug, I get a cold shoulder.
While Mrs. Olivers makes us sit in silence until four o'clock, I sneak out a pen and a post-it. On it, I write, it doesn't have to be you against the world, you're allowed to ask for help. I slip it onto her desk while Mrs. Olivers' back to to us when she goes to type an email.
I hear sitting behind me then, in my ear Emma whispers "I never asked for help."
"No talking!" Mrs. Olivers orders, looking up from the computer screen.
"Fine, no problem." Emma says, leaning back in her chair again. I get the bad feeling that the rule isn't going to be broken when detention ends.
I'm right. When we are dismissed, Emma storms out ahead of me and by the time I leave, she's sprinted off out of sight. However, as I walk down the hallway, the further I get from the classroom, the less at ease I feel. I don't think I'm alone.
At the far end of the hallway, I see a dark figure leaning against the wall. I can't tell who it is but they're too big to be Kate. "Hey!" I call out. The figure steps away from the wall and steadily towards me. I see that again, I was correct. It wasn't Kate at all. Instead, I see Greg Horton approaching me.
"Don't even think about running. You may as well face it now Barnes." He says, almost ten feet away from me. "None of your bitches with you? Shocking." He mocks. Now he's five feet away. "No Will to protect you now." He throws the first punch.
I knew it was coming. I knew from the moment he stepped away from the wall, the moment that I recognized him, that punch was coming. Still, I can hardly flinch away from it.
I take the punch and throw one back at him. I hit him square in the jaw and hear a soft crunch. He cringes and throws a punch at my stomach. This carries on for a few moments, us punching each other, back and forth, trying to kick and punch and inflict as much hurt, as much damage as we can before a teacher stops us.
Sure enough, Coach Kran walks down the hall and spots us. He runs over yelling, "hey! Break it up! Break it up before you both get suspended!" Now, if any school yard fight has ever broken up just because someone said to stop, that'd be a miracle. He comes in between us and rips us apart, grabbing Greg's arms and holding them behind his back. I drop my eyes and wipe blood from my cheek. Whether its my own is his, I'm not quite sure yet.
"I don't know who started this fight but I have to say, Dylan you're lucky you aren't in soccer season right now. This is strong reason for suspension from a sports team." Greg groans. He's a starter on the varsity basketball team. "Yes Mr. Horton, I could suspend you from the basketball team. However, because I have strong faith that this will never happen again, I think I'll let you off with a warning." He looks us dead in the eyes and I can feel the disappointment radiating off of him.
As soon as he walks away, I throw up my hands in defeat. "I'm done with this. Nothing is going to change. You're going to continue being an ass and harassing girls and I'm going to continue hating you and defending and protecting my girlfriend and Emma and any other girl you attack." He's dumbstruck, either by the fact that I just gave up so easily or because of what I said, I don't know. Either way, he lets me walk away.
To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sore. He got quite a few solid punches in and I can't wait to explain the bruises to my mom. This is gonna be great.