No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep her mind focused on the lecture. Looking over to the boy sitting next to her, Sapphire watched with narrowed eyes as his pale face turned a slow deep red. He must have heard the "running the train" part, she thought dully.
By the time the midday bell rang, Sapphire was practically itching to get out of the building. Sapphire pulled the bag higher on her shoulder and marched against the sea of students, and turned into an emptier hallway that led to the front door. Freedom was in sight.
"Miss Waters, can I see you before you go?"
Her body deflated at once, and she turned in defeat at the sound of Mr. Hodgson's kind voice. He stood in the open door of the administration office with a resigned face that made her stomach twist. With little choice, she followed the principal through the office, ignoring the presence of a few teachers huddled in the small copy room. Sapphire could feel their eyes watching her as if she was a prisoner being led to the guillotine. Or maybe that was an apt description. Maybe Mr. Hodgson heard about her "whoring ways" spreading throughout the school like a wildfire through a drought-affected forest and was here to burn the whore at the stake.
"Please sit down," he waved a hand toward the familiar chair she sat in last time. And just like last time, he kept his office door open, though with the stares she was feeling at her back, Sapphire kind of wished he would close it just this once.
Sitting down in his seat, he looked down awkwardly at his folded hands. "I want to speak to you about the uh…the uh…"
"The nasty rumors running amok?" she offered in a dry tone.
"Yes." The word came out like a deflated sigh, and she could see this was not just inconvenient for him, the whole thing seemed to be a point of pain for him. Whether it was on her behalf or she was a source of blame, she couldn't be sure.
Deciding to save him a bit of trouble, she quickly ran down her conversation with the nameless girls in the bathroom. It surprised her to see the kind man's face morph from the familiar geniality to one of deep anger.
Once she was done speaking, a silence stretched between them. Sapphire shifted in her chair, trying not to stare at Mr. Hodgson's expression as he looked down at his folded hands on his desk. Was he angry at her? She supposed she could've handled the idiot girls a little less brusquely, but dammit, she had her pride. With her technically being an adult, her hands were tied when it came to the children of this school. Just what the hell was she supposed to do when they started running their mouths?!
Afraid of losing her only ally in this school, she hesitantly looked back at Mr. Hodgson's face. Catching her gaze, his face softened, and he gave her a rueful smile.
"I'm so sorry, Miss Waters, this wasn't all how I imagined your short time with us going." He shook his head as he reached for a paper from one of the stacks neatly lined at the edge of his desk. "I expected better from our students."
And staff, she secretly added.
"It seems…" He paused as if uncomfortable to say the next words, and Sapphire couldn't help but feel a little nauseous as she waited. "In order to keep the peace, so to speak, I think it would be best to make your classes completely online."
Sapphire waited for a few seconds, not trusting the other shoe to drop, but Mr. Hodgson just gave her a waiting look.
"You mean not come back up here and…just turn in my work and take my tests completely online."
Mr. Hodgson nodded gravely. "Yes. Of course, this is not at all what I wanted for you. I wanted you to have a nice senior year with your peers, but…" He let the words hang in the air, weighted by his obvious disappointment, and again Sapphire's gut twisted. She couldn't be sure if he was disappointed with the situation or just disappointed in her.
Not sure what to say, Sapphire nodded. "I understand."
She would have thought she would feel happy, excited even, not to have to come back up here and deal with the stares and whispers. But it didn’t feel like a victory. It felt like a scarlet letter being branded on her chest.
Saying goodbye to Mr. Hodgson, Sapphire shouldered her bag once more and walked through the office toward the door. She made the mistake of looking up and meeting Mrs. Hodgson's eyes. The scornful look of disgust the woman directed at her felt like a blow to the stomach. Jerking her gaze away, Sapphire hurried to the door and down the empty front hall, and past the gleaming trophy cases filled with pictures of happy students. Without looking, she waved at the security guard and practically fell through the double glass doors into the sunlight.
The tears had finally stopped burning her eyes as she made her way back toward old downtown. Cutting past the huge municipal building that housed the sheriff's department, fire department, and a few other city services, Sapphire walked across the narrow private road and around the line of historic buildings until she was finally on Old Main Street.
Directly ahead of her at the end of the street sat the café. Through the windows, she could see Julie moving behind the counter, helping a customer. Sapphire checked her watch. The lunch rush was over, so it should be fairly quiet for the next hour or so.
Good. She didn't want to deal with a crowd right now, not while her mood seesawed from one extreme to another. Unshed tears still burned the back of her eyes whenever she thought of those teachers' faces all huddled up near the copy machine casting hateful glances her way. Sapphire didn't even need to look at her face to know that her eyes were probably a little swollen just from the sheer effort to keep herself from all-out crying. And then there was the anger. The more she thought of those women's faces and replayed their murmured whispers in her mind, her anger began to spark over her nerves like flint over dry tinder.
How fucking dare they?! Her fists clenched hard in her hand, and Sapphire took a steadying breath as she let the anger roll through her burning away the last traces of her tears. How dare these so-calledteachers, supposed advocates for students, treat her like this? Did they really just believe the outright lies of children?! Did they really think she was just some loose girl giving it up to anyone just for a place to stay? How did that even make sense with her grades and attendance?
Anger fueled her steps across the road to the café's door. Sapphire barely managed a tight smile to the man, a farmer, by the looks of his Dickey's overalls, as he nodded at her on his way out.
"Sapphire," Julie said with a note of surprise in her voice. Her eyes bounced from her to the clock on the wall, and she frowned in confusion. "You're back early. Did your classes let out early today?"
"Not at all," Sapphire's voice was so sharp it felt like knives falling from her lips. Marching past the counter and into the kitchen, she practically ripped her bag off her shoulder and threw it onto the hook before coming back out to see Julie's worried face.
Desperately needing something to do with her hands, Sapphire grabbed her apron and the cleaning supplies from underneath the counter and began working on the beast.
"So I was in the bathroom, right?" she began, her body tensing as she began the story while her hands worked vigorously over the massive espresso machine.
Sapphire kept her back to Julie and the front as she worked and shared the details of her awful morning. Only Julie's occasional gasps dotted the silent, tension-filled air as Sapphire scrubbed and talked. Sapphire couldn't look at her. Not right now, not while she relayed the mortifying details. She knew the mother of two would be shocked and maybe even outraged on her behalf, but then again, maybe not. Everyone at the school had easily believed she was some sort of prostitute. Why not her too? Moving on to the mixer, leaving the beast gleaming like it was brand new, Sapphire began dismantling the parts as she kept her back to the front and explained what Mr. Hodgson had decided.
