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“Shit,” Melissa breathed as she pulled out her phone and tapped at the screen for a minute before putting it up to her ear. “Ian. You need to come meet us at Ky’s locker. Now.”
There was a pause as Ian spoke.
“I think you need to see for yourself,” she said. “Ky’s okay physically, but this is messed up.”
She hung up her phone, then turned to me and hugged my arm.
“Ky, if you’re really filming everything that’s happening, you might want to take a quick video of this before the police get called,” she whispered. “You know they won’t let you do anything once they get here.”
I nodded robotically as I pulled my phone out of my purse.
She was right. I did need to film this. Because the police hadn’t taken the dead rabbit on Ian’s front porch seriously at all, though they had confiscated the note. So I was glad I had a video of it to prove it had happened. I knew I’d want a video of this too, just in case.
I tapped the button for the camera on my phone, and I put it on the front facing camera so I could record myself.
“Today’s January fifth, the first day of spring semester of my senior year,” I started, my voice still shaking from the shock. “It’s 8:17 a.m., eight minutes before the first bell. And I just found this in my locker.”
I flipped to the back camera and got a good close-up shot of the rat and the note, then flipped it back to myself.
“I still don’t know who else was there that night, but this is proof that it was someone who attends this school. And I’m not going to stop until I find out who it was.”
“Oh, my God!” came a girl’s voice from behind me. “Whatisthat?!”
I quickly stopped recording and closed my locker before turning around. Hannah Olsen was standing there with wide, terrified eyes, mouth agape.
“It’s nothing,” I lied, not wanting her to have any more ammunition to use against me.
“It’s not nothing, Kyler,” she said, at normal volume this time. “Is someone threatening you? For reporting what Max, Tucker, and Drew did?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. I’d been expecting this, since news of the guys’ arrest had ended up making local news and my name had been used in the story. Since I was eighteen, they didn’t have to keep my name out of the articles, even though the assault had happened when I was still a minor.
But there was something about the way she’d said that. Something that told me she wasn’t trying to give me a hard time. The usual arrogant, snooty air she’d always had about her was gone, and she looked…almost unsure.
“Leave her alone, Hannah,” Melissa snapped before I could say anything, stepping slightly in front of me.
“No, please just let—”
“Get out of my girl’s face, Hannah,” Ian practically growled as he walked over to me and pulled me into his side.
“I’m not here to cause trouble, Ian,” Hannah said quietly. “I swear. I just…I wanted to tell you that it was really brave, what you did. And it made me…” She took a deep breath. “After they were arrested, I went to the police too. And I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything I’ve put you through. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I had to say it.”
I gasped as what she was saying registered with me.
I’d had my suspicions that I wasn’t the only girl at Old Settler’s High they’d hurt. People like them didn’t just stop. But actually seeing another one of their victims – someone who’d actively participated in torturing me, at that – standing in front of me and telling me that they’d experienced the same trauma I had…it broke my heart.
Really, when I thought about it, Hannah hadn’t actually said or done anything to me since that night at the homecoming dance. Maybe I shouldn’t have forgiven her so easily for everything she’d done to me, but this was so much bigger than teenage cruelty. When something like this happened, women had to stick together.
Stepping out of Ian’s embrace, I walked toward her slowly. “I do forgive you, Hannah. And I’m so sorry for what you went through.”
One corner of her mouth tipped up in a smile. “I wouldn’t have found the courage to report it if you hadn’t done it first. And I’m getting counseling now. Not just for that, but because I want to change. I’ve been so horrible to so many people, and I just…I don’t want to be that person anymore.”
I couldn’t help it. I smiled. It wasn’t often that bullies actually realized the error of their ways. Especially not while they were still in high school. And just from the way she was talking to me, I could tell she meant every word she was saying.
“You don’t have to be,” I told her.
“Um…I completely get it if you don’t want anything to do with me, but if you’re willing to give me another chance, I’d really like it if we could be friends,” she mumbled.
“I’d like that too.”
