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“That kid she punched is going to the hospital. She’ll be lucky if his parents’ don’t press charges. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
My throat closed in, my fingers hovering over the base of my neck. Someone wrapped an arm around my shoulders, a chest against my back. I breathed in spice and relaxed back against Kota. Luke came up quietly next to me and took my other hand, squeezing it. If charges were pressed, there were plenty of witnesses to point out who did the damage. Would I be arrested?
“What you wanted,” Mr. Blackbourne continued, “was for Kota to break his head and then charge the group of students to get them arrested or expelled? You deliberately set up my students, knowing this tradition was going to happen and being fully aware he could have broken his neck or worse.”
“You agreed to this,” Mr. Hendricks shouted at him. He pointed a finger at Mr. Blackbourne’s nose. “I warned you this place was dangerous and not meant for prissy private school preps.”
Mr. Blackbourne squared his shoulders. “These prissy students just brought to a halt a sick tradition in this school that should have been stopped a long time ago.”
“That little girl...” Mr. Hendricks growled.
“That little girl,” Mr. Blackbourne snapped back, “just got the entire football team and other students to step in and take over your job. She had more power than you did to encourage them to step up. If it wasn’t for her, you would have had students trying again next year. Now they won’t dare at the risk of angering half of the school. She’s the martyr.”
My body trembled. Kota squeezed me tighter to him. My head rested against his chest. What did I do? I didn’t mean to do anything except to stop Kota from being flung over. If he had been pushed, he might have broken something or worse.
“What she is,” Mr. Hendricks said in a low, menacing tone and pointing a finger at my face over Mr. Blackbourne’s shoulder, “is fucking stupid. She should have stayed out of it. I should have her expelled for starting a riot.”
A surge started around me. Silas and North moved in front of me and blocking my view of Mr. Hendricks. Kota pulled me away from the desk, another arm wrapping around my waist and he drew me in. I quaked against his body. Victor, Gabriel, Luke and Nathan surrounded us.
Expulsion! My poor mind couldn’t comprehend the damage it would mean. It was more than getting kicked out of school. My mother may finally see fit to have me start home schooling, and I’d never be able to leave the house again. I’d possibly not be able to see the boys ever again.
Mr. Blackbourne headed off his students, standing in front of Silas and North. “You’re going out there,” he said, his tone cold. “You’re going to talk to the police. You’re going to say it was self-defense against that boy and we have many witnesses to prove it. Miss Sorenson stays here in school and you won’t breathe a word about her to anyone.”
“She should be calling a lawyer.”
“The Academy’s lawyers will be at her disposal,” Mr. Blackbourne commanded, his tone rising. “But it doesn’t have to come to that if you’ll listen to me. I’ll talk to the school board downstairs.”
Mr. Hendricks growled. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. This is my school.”
“I talk to them or I’m sure they’d like to hear about how you’ve let people get tossed from balconies every year for who knows how long. Why was this never reported? Why was it allowed to continue? They might also like to know why you preconceived who was going to be thrown this year. Your teachers abandoned the area knowing this was going to happen. It was all a set up. If Kota had gone over or if anyone had gotten hurt, you would have been at fault.”
“You can’t prove it.”
“I’ve got eight witnesses,” he said, gesturing behind himself toward us.
I hopped up on my left tip toe to look over North’s shoulder. Mr. Hendricks stared down Mr. Blackbourne. He glared over at me. I ducked my head behind North’s shoulders again.
Mr. Hendricks started across the room, slamming the door behind himself as he left.
The air shifted around us.
My knees buckled. Kota caught me, catching under my thighs and picking me up, holding me against his chest. The others pulled back, stepping in a circle around us.
Victor approached, putting a hand on my forehead. “What’s wrong?” he asked. His fire eyes searching mine.
“Sorry,” I breathed. I trembled again against Kota. It felt good to be held. I couldn’t stop shaking. “I can’t believe I did that.”
“Oh now you’re nervous,” Victor said, a gentle smirk appearing.
“She’s in shock,” Mr. Blackbourne said, his eyes softening, but his mouth was stern.
Luke removed his blazer and tossed it over me. “Can we take her home?”
“Not yet,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “We need to talk to the police and figure out if that kid’s parents are interested in pressing charges. We need to make sure Mr. Hendricks doesn’t pin this whole mess on her.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Eight eyes narrowed on me. Mr. Blackbourne broke into a millimeter smile. “Why are you sorry?”
“I hurt a bunch of people.” Now that it was over, I worried I had gone too far. I’d never hit anyone before. I’d lost control and now I was sorry I got in the middle. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I would have done it again for Kota and the others, I knew. It didn’t make what I’d done any less appalling.
“Fucking shit,” North bellowed. “Sang baby, you just sacrificed yourself for Kota and nearly killed yourself and you’re sorry you hurt someone else.”
I sunk my face into Kota’s chest, trembling. I knew it was terrible but I couldn’t take fighting any more. I didn’t want to appear to be so weak after they had been through so much but I didn’t have the strength to take them on, too.
“Oh god, I’m sorry,” North said. A hand dropped on top of my head. “Don’t cry. God damn it, Kota.”
“She’ll be fine,” Kota said. He pressed his cheek against my forehead. “But I owe her a beating.”
I smirked, shaking my head against him. Did they have to do this now?
“Fuck yeah,” Gabriel called out. “She’s grounded.”
“No,” I said. “I’m already grounded.”
“Fuck you,” he said. “You’re double grounded.”
I started giggling. Why was this funny to me? “No,” I half-whined again.
Kota’s hand slipped away from my thighs and he held me steady as I stepped to the ground. I buried my head into his chest still, my shoulders shaking from giggling now.
“I mean it,” Gabriel said. “Do you know that girl that came after us nearly gave me a heart attack? She said Trouble’s in trouble. Again. Second time in a week. And what do I see when we get to the hallway? Trouble jumping from the fucking second floor, does a barrel roll and hobbles up to get back into the fight. And then I get up to that second floor, and you’re on top of some motherfucker on top of Silas. You took on the whole goddamn school. Fucking beautiful. So that’s like quadruple grounding because you went in twice. I swear if you go over that balcony again, I’m going to break your damn feet so you can’t go anywhere near it.”
I peeked out at Gabriel, who was grinning.
“You should have seen her kick that guy that had Kota by the throat,” Luke said, pushing his blond hair away from his eyes. “She’s a secret ninja.”
“You fucking ninja kicked?” Gabriel gasped at me. “I missed that? Someone go steal one of those phones that recorded everything. Did we get that on camera? Do we have cameras there? I need to see it.”
“Stop,” Victor said to him.
“No,” Gabriel squared off his shoulders. He smirked. “And you owe Sang a beating, too.”
That reminded me. “I think my phone is missing,” I said quietly.
“Yeah, I found it,” Victor said. He pulled it out of his back pocket. The front glass was smashed. The button on the front caved in. “I’ll get you a new one.”
“No…”
“Don’t argue with me. You’re grounded,” Victor said. “You’re not allowed to argue.”
“How long am I grounded for?” I asked.
