"Whose bag is this?" Bennett growls, eyeing us- the girls.
"Isn't it yours?" Stephanie whispers, her voice trembling.
What is this doing in my bag? I swear to God, I did nothing to Aiden! I dislike him but that doesn't mean-
"Whose bag is this?"
"Jennifer's!" Anita shouts and looks at me. Shrugging, she looks back at Bennett. "That bag is Jennifer's."
"I assure you, sir," I say, my voice cracking slightly as I spoke after so long. "These pills do not belong to me. The bag is mine, but these aren't! I'm being framed!"
"Why would someone like to frame you?" Bennett barks, angrier than before. "You all watch too many dramas! This is high school, for God's sake, not some kind of soap opera!"
"No!" I yell. Shit, shouldn't have yelled. "Please sir, believe me! I- Aiden is my boyfriend! Why would I do that? Why would I want to poison him?"
"You have Benzo pills in your bag." Bennett says, suddenly calm. "Aiden was drugged by Benzos. Don't you think this is too much of a coincidence?"
Any person, in Bennett's position, would have thought the same thing. But, oh for God's sake, I'm too smart to drug Aiden with Benzos and put them in my bag, then forget about them!
"Sir, think reasonably. If anyone had drugged Aiden, why would he or she keep the drugs in their own bag? Isn't it too foolish? You know me, sir," I pause and try to convey the message 'I have the highest grades' with my eyes to him. All in vain. "I'm too smart to keep them in my bag."
Bennett narrows his eyes at me. "You show too much cunning. Way more than a normal student. I have no reason to not believe what evidence here suggests."
Oh my God, what am I trapped in? They might even send me to jail for it. I have to prove that I'm innocent. Otherwise, my Harvard plans will go down the drain.
"This proof isn't enough," I challenge him. My mother's an advocate. If Bennett even tries to rusticate me, he's in trouble. Mom will sue the school and crush him.
"What do you mean?" Bennett snaps.
"Anyone could've put those in my bag." I retort. "This isn't enough evidence to prove me guilty." Then, I play the advocate card. "My mother's an advocate, sir. Think twice before you do anything rash."
There's silence in the room. I can see the beads of perspiration forming on his forehead. He's stuck in a dilemma. If he doesn't rusticate me, the Parker guardians will sue the school. And if he does, my mother will sue him. His grey eyes bore holes on me, but I won't be scared by Mr. Corrupt Pussypants.
"Hullo, Mr. Bennett?"
We look towards the doorway. It was the janitor, holding a big yellow envelope. "Surry to int'rupt you, Mr. Bennett, but I fink you needa see this. I found it on my table, in the closet." He hands Bennett the envelope, does a comical little salute, and exits the room.
Pussypants huffs and opens the envelope. He looks in and takes out a few cards. No, not cards. Polaroid shots. He looks at them, disbelievingly, looks at me and turns to the shots again.
"Henderson," Bennett says. "Did Aiden drink any beverage, like coffee, in the entire day, or during the match?"
Oh my God, why the hell is he wasting time on this!
"Sir," I say, annoyed by the janitor's interruption. "This is not impo-"
"Please, Jennifer!" Bennett snaps. "I'm trying to solve something here! No interruptions!" He turns to Coach. "Yes, Henderson?"
Coach looks confused for a second. "Pardon?"
"Did he drink any coffee during the match?"
Coach scratches his balding head, eyebrows scrunched. "I'm sorry, Mr. Bennett but I cannot tell you that for sure." Looking at the football players, he asks, "Boys, did Parker drink any coffee during the match?"
There's some hesitation among them, and then, Evan speaks. "He drank some coffee during the halftime. We offered him our glucose drinks but he refused. He is addicted to caffeine, so nothing unusual."
"Are you sure?" Coach asks him.
"Yeah."
Okay, so we're gonna solve the case by figuring out whether Brandon drank any coffee or not. Wow.
I roll my eyes and say, "What are you trying to prove, sir?"
Bennett looks smug. "I'm trying to prove you guilty. And it seems, I have succeeded."
"Again, I will say that unless you have enough evidence against-
"Then what are these?" He slams the pictures against the table. I feel the girls and guys gathering around me, trying to see what were the pictures of. And almost immediately, I hear gasps and shocked voices all around me, kind of engulfing me.
These are..
"Pictures of Jennifer adding Benzo pills to Aiden's coffee cup?!" I hear people murmur. Somebody shakes me by the arm. I look up to see a disgusted face of Stephanie, yelling something about betrayal. I stare at the pictures again, trying in vain to spot something that could prove that it's not me.
But it is me. How is this possible? There's the familiar blond high ponytail, which always ends up in little waves at the bottom. There's the unmistakable yellow wristband, reserved for only the cheer-captain to wear. There are those silver earrings, that Dad got me for my sixteenth birthday; little dolphins with golden snouts.
"How could you do this?!" Lana screams. "How could you poison your boyfriend?"
I hear voices of guys too, cussing me to their heart's content. "Frickin' bitch, how dare she do this to Aiden!"
"It's good that she's Aiden's girl. Otherwise, you don't know what I would've done to her, that shit."
No. It was not Aiden's cup. It was Bennett's. However bizarre today's situation might be, I still clearly remember Anita asking me to get a cup of coffee with some cough-pills mixed into it for Bennett.
"Sir," I try to speak over the din of cusses and exclamations. "Sir."
Bennett is engaged in a serious conversation with Coach, which does not seem to end.
"Sir!" Bennett turns to me, his eyes shooting daggers. "Sir please, listen to me. It wasn't Aiden's cup that I was adding the pills to. It was your cup."
Shit, that came out wrong.
"What?" His eyes widen so much, that his eyeballs seem to pop out. "You were trying to poison me?"
"No, no!" I shout. "Remember today, when you had a coughing fit and you asked for your pills? During the second quarter of the game, I suppose."
There's silence in the room. Bennett looks at me as if I had just asked him to twerk in front of us. "What in the world are you talking about?"
"Sir, you were coughing violently today," I explain frantically, without crying in front of everyone. What is happening to me? Is it karma? "You saw Anita there- in front of the male-restrooms, I presume? So you asked her to bring her a cup of coffee with the pills mixed in it." I look at Anita and urge her to join me on this. Two heads better than one, huh? Wrong proverb, my apologies.
Anita looks at me blankly, her brown eyes emotionless; as if she doesn't know what I'm talking about.
Why isn't she backing me up?
"Anyway," I say, my voice trembling with emotion. "As I was saying, Anita was very tired as she had to go all the way to your office to bring your medication. So she asked me to find the coffee seller, and I did. I mixed the pills and brought them to you, but you weren't there so I kept it on the table- Anna saw me! You could ask her-"
"Slow down." Bennett interrupts me, breathing out slowly and closing his eyes. "Jennifer, either your brain has started to malfunction, or you are a very bad liar. I wasn't coughing today; I don't have a coughing problem, Jennifer. So why would I have pills for them?"
No. You have a coughing problem. Don't you?
I look at Anita pleadingly. She glares at me accusingly and shouts, "What a liar."
Huh?
She walks towards the principal, folds her arms across her chest and huffs. "Sir, don't believe any of what that girl is saying. She has lost her senses trying to cover up her crime, and now, she makes up nonsensical tales and drags me into this! Look at her audacity!"
Anita?
Bennett sighs. "This senior batch will kill me someday." He looks at me pityingly, as if he still didn't believe what was going on.
I think I'm going to faint.
"Henderson, call her parents." Bennett sighs again. "You are rusticated, Jennifer."
NO! WHAT, PLEASE!
"Sir, try to understand! I didn't do it!" Tears stream down my cheeks freely and blur my vision. I start crying and shouting at the same time; something I would never do in public, even if someone gives me a million dollars for it.
"Sir, I urge you to reconsider your decision before it's too late, and before a lawsuit destroys the reputation of this school."
I turn back to see who it is at the doorway. Through my blurred vision, I see a tall man and a short man.
I hear Anita huffing. "Here he is. If it wasn't messed up enough already, the student president is here to add more to the nonsense."