they unpacked their lunches, Liv and Kate joined the table.
“OMG, this is the craziest day I’ve ever seen at AHS guys,” Liv said, as she took out her iced tea.
“Um, yeah! It’s sick what’s been going on,” Kate added.
“Did you guys hear the police chief has been here questioning kids about last night? I heard they questioned Amanda, who had been driving out of the parking lot and saw the fight. Rumor has it, she snapped a pic from her cell and gave it to the police,” Liv said.
They all looked at Rachel, expectantly, as if waiting for her to say something. Clearly, this was the moment when they all expected her to fill them in on everything that had happened.
But Rachel didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to gossip about last night with her friends, so she sat there and began to eat her sandwich as she thought about what she was hearing. Her world was being shaken upside down and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“Guys, can we change the subject?” Rachel asked. “I’ve been dealing with this all day. I need a break.”
“Are you serious?” said, Taryn. “This is the biggest thing to happen to AHS in years, thanks to you!”
“We want to hear your side of the story. Please, just tell us. We won’t tell anyone,” Liv said, as she leaned into the middle of the table.
“I’ll tell you,” Rachel said, “but not at school. It’s too dangerous.”
“Ah!” shrieked Liv, “I can’t wait!”
“Tell us now,” Emily begged. “We’ll leave you alone after, we promise, not a peep about it.”
Rachel felt as if she were under fire. She wanted to tell them what was going on, but at the same time, she wanted to keep her secret. After all, she had sworn to Benji that she would never tell. But, at the same time, she had to give them something.
“Well,” Rachel began, thinking what to say, “the principal called me into his office, too. The police were there. They asked me a lot of questions.”
“OMG,” Emily said. “What did you say? What did you tell them?”
“Are you in trouble?” Liv asked. “Are you suspended?”
“And what happened to him? Who is he, anyway?” Kate asked.
“Are you guys dating?” Emily asked.
Rachel felt overwhelmed by all the questions. She didn’t know who to respond to first, what to say. She tried to think of a response that would satisfy all of them. She could have even sworn that she saw people from the table over quieting down and listening in on their conversation.
“I barely know him,” Rachel said. “His name is Benji. We had just met. He had asked me out, but I said no. Then we met at the dance. Rob saw us, and I guess he got jealous. Then they to started to fight. But I really had nothing to do with the whole thing. I tried to stop it, but it didn’t do any good. So, like, I don’t know what to say.”
“This guy sounds like a real creep,” Kate said.
Rachel, despite herself, felt herself flushing red, getting angry, wanting to defend Benji.
“Don’t say that,” she snapped back. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, right,” Liv said. “He just beat up our team for no reason.
“That’s not how it happened,” Rachel snapped, and was embarrassed to realize that she actually yelled.
Half the cafeteria turned around, dead silent, listening to her, as she stood at the table.
“They attacked him. He was just defending himself. You guys should get your facts straight before you go around accusing other people!” She yelled.
Now Rachel was mortified. She was the only one standing in the cafeteria, and she was screaming at her friends, her face entirely red, and the entire place was dead quiet. She looked around and realized how bad the situation had become. She was rotating, oscillating between anger and dread.
And to make things worse, her new friends now looked up at her as if she were some kind of anger-fueled freak, some kind of maniac. She could actually see fear in their eyes. Rachel didn’t blame them. She was afraid of herself at this moment. She had never felt herself explode with this kind of anger before.
“OMG,” Kate said quietly, in a timid voice, “I was just saying. I didn’t mean to like mortally offend you.”
Rachel tried to think of something witty to say back to her, but she was too overwhelmed. She wasn’t thinking clearly, and her mind wasn’t functioning properly.
So instead, she just turned, pushed back her chair, and stormed out of the cafeteria, between the rows of tables, everyone watching her. She could hear a pin drop. It was dead silent, except for the sound of her beat-up Converse scraping along the floor as she walked down the hall, and out the cafeteria doors. As they closed behind her, the one thing she realized was that she had finally messed it all up for good: now she didn’t have a single friend left at AHS.
Chapter Five
Rachel stormed into her house and up to her bedroom. She couldn’t believe what had happened at school today; not in her wildest dreams did she think her day would turn out that badly.
Rachel took out her diary and began to write. She knew it was the only thing that would ease her mind and calm her nerves. She didn’t know what else to do.
A tear came streaming down her face and landed on the cover of her diary. She brushed it off, but it left a small wet stain on the front. As she opened the lock with the key she wore around her neck, she heard footsteps coming towards her room. They grew louder and louder, and Rachel got tense. She couldn’t imagine who could be storming down the hallway at 3:30pm. She thought nobody was home. She knew it couldn’t be her father; he never came home before 6pm. Ever.
“Rachel, you get out here this minute,” her dad’s voice came shouting through the door.
Rachel quivered and leapt to her feet. She couldn’t imagine what this was about and she had never heard her dad use such a forceful tone.
“What?” Rachel yelled through the door.
“You better get yourself down to the kitchen, young lady, and fast,” her father repeated. “Your mother and I are waiting.”
Rachel got scared. She locked her diary up, threw it in her desk drawer and swung open her bedroom door. She quickly walked downstairs, not knowing what would happen to her once she saw her mom and dad. Rachel peeked her head into the kitchen where she heard her parents whispering and hoped to catch a glimpse of them before she entered the room, but they had spotted her. Rachel stood there like a deer in the headlights.
As Rachel crept into the kitchen, her parents just stood there, looking at her and waiting. Rachel looked back at them, and then saw her father look down towards the kitchen table. Rachel followed his gaze as her eyes spotted it. She couldn’t
