Chapter 130 – Lasting Consequences – Holly Hayfield

It was Friday and I wanted to be happy that the school week was coming to a close. I was too busy to fully appreciate that at the moment. I was going through a headache-inducing planning session and my lack of results was getting to me. I started working before lunch began and now it was almost over.

"Another dud," I said as I ripped a sheet of paper out of my notebook and tossed it into the garbage bin.

"You've been at this for a while now." Lilith said, "Just watching you throw yourself at this is making me tired."

"I think she's right..." Alyssa agreed meekly. "You should at least eat lunch, Holly."

I turned to a fresh page in my notebook and started writing again.

"I can't." I said without looking up. "Leigha's funeral is tomorrow and Val needs a speech worthy of the occasion. It's not every day that a student passes away. The quality of this speech needs to reflect that."

We were currently sitting in my counselor's office during lunch. Alyssa and Lilith came here to eat lunch with me since they knew I'd still be here working. My tray of food was sitting beside my computer monitor, left untouched.

The problem was that I had difficulty writing something that could express the gravity of the situation. Val would be delivering this speech in front of Leigha's friends and family. Thinking about that made me anxious about the material I was producing. It wasn't like writing another school speech. This was going to have a lasting emotional impact on the people in attendance.

I sat back in my chair and dropped my pen onto the desk.

"I'm getting nowhere with this." I admitted. "It wasn't like we were friends. Quite the opposite, in fact... I don't want to foam it in and create a speech that her family will resent. It needs to be something that helps them cope with their grief."

"You will probably get mad at me for asking this…” Lilith started.

“Then don’t say it.” I suggested.

“…but do you really have to go through with this?" Lilith asked. "I knew Leigha and I'm not surprised you're having trouble with this. It's not like there were a lot of nice things to say about her to begin with. Whatever you write for her is more than she deserves."

"Seriously...?" I asked Lilith, appalled that she was talking like this. It wasn’t surprising, but even she normally wasn’t this blunt.

"I… umm… I actually feel the same way." Alyssa quietly added. "I mean, I appreciate what you're trying to do for her, but she was a mean person. She'd always knock my books out of my hands in the hallway or pull on my hair when she sat behind me in class. I won't say that I'm glad that she's gone, but I won't miss her either."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Lilith said.

I sighed heavily and gave them both a deeply troubled look.

"Contrary to what you believe, I'm not writing this for Leigha. Leigha won't be the one listening to the speech in the audience. I'm writing this for her family. Whatever Leigha's done to warrant this type of response, her family had nothing to do with it."

"How do you know that for sure?" Lilith challenged, "Weren't you writing a college essay on student life balance and environmental pressures the other day? How do you know that her parents aren't exactly like her?"

"I..."

"For all we know her family may not appreciate any speech that a student comes up with. They may see your intervention here as a mere school formality. Like you said yourself, it's not like you were friends."

"She's got a point." Alyssa said.

I sighed again and looked down at the notebook on my desk. I picked it up with both hands and gave it a hard look over. Why was I putting so much effort into this anyways? It definitely wasn’t for Leigha’s sake. Maybe it was the principle of how these things unfolded that bothered me.

"Then maybe I'm writing this for myself." I said. "It feels wrong to send her off without saying anything about it. She wasn't popular and it feels like hardly anyone is mourning her. Even Ms. Logan's passing caused a bigger wave throughout the student body. It’s not like Ms. Logan was greatly loved either."

“That says something about how people feel about her.” Lilith said.

“Maybe,” I said and sat my notebook down. “The point is that I don’t want people to look back on this event pessimistically. As everyone graduates and grows older their memory of Leigha will remain frozen in time. The thought of that makes me wonder about how to proceed. At the very least I want Val to deliver a speech that feels like a proper farewell.”

“That’s fair, I guess.” Lilith said, shrugging her shoulders, “I won’t be attending the funeral tomorrow either way. I was really hoping you’d come with me to check out where that woman went missing in the Western Heights district. She was another person involved in the ritual of knives!”

“It was in the news this morning before I left for school.” I said, staring down at my notebook, “Our community is becoming too notorious for this type of thing. They dispatched a group of federal investigators to look into the situation.”

“I know! Isn’t it awesome?” Lilith asked excitedly. “There’s a proper mystery going on here! We should be investigating this, not wasting time at a funeral!”

I gave Lilith a pained look.

“I know that’s what you’d rather be doing but my mind is made up. I’m going with Valentina to see this through.” I said.

“Have it your way.” Lilith said and turned to Alyssa. “Want to go check out the area with me tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Alyssa said, “I can pick you up once I get finished with some chores at home.”

“Fantastic!” Lilith said.

Someone knocked at the door and let themselves in before I could say anything. It was Amy Jordan and a few other girls I didn’t recognize.

“Hey Amy, what’s up?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Amy said as they all queued around my desk. “We were hoping that you could help us.”

“What is it?”

“Our clubroom was taken over!” One of the girls behind Amy said. “Naomi’s gang took it over yesterday and haven’t let us use it since.”

“What?” I asked in confusion, “Naomi is still suspended.”

“Well, it wasn’t her specifically.” Amy said. “It was… Hmm… What’s her name…? That girl that has all those wacky piercings in her ears...”

“Perri,” Alyssa supplied.

“That’s the one! Also, that tall girl who got into a fight with the SCA on Wednesday,” Amy said.

“Jin,” I said, putting my palm into my face. “Explain to me what they did this time.”

“We’re the jazz music club.” Amy said, indicating to the group of people around her. “We didn’t plan on practicing yesterday so we didn’t pick a fight with them when we found them in the room we normally use. We just asked them not to touch our equipment.”

“We thought they’d only be there for one day, since they have their own hideout place.” One girl said, “Now though, they’re refusing to give our clubroom back.”

“We even saw them playing on the instruments we left in the room!” Another girl said. “We told Ms. Sampson about this and she told us to tell you.”

“That figures,” Lilith said with a snarky laugh.

“Anyways, can you kick them out?” Amy asked bluntly. “We asked nicely plenty of times. If there were another large room we could have band practice in then we’d change rooms, but there isn’t. That’s the best room for our type of club.”

I closed my notebook and stood out of my seat.

“I’ll talk to them immediately.” I said. “You’ll have your club room back soon enough.”

“Thank you.” Amy said.

They filed out of the room as I walked around to the other side of my desk. Alyssa and Lilith picked up their lunch trays and left the room also. They went a different direction from me, heading to the cafeteria. I planned to go directly over to the jazz music room to talk to Perri and her friends about what they were doing there.

Of all the rooms to take over they chose the worst one. This was one of the few clubs that were around before the new club system was introduced. Ms. Sampson was probably too busy to bring the hammer down on them, which was why she sent them to me.

If it weren’t settled soon she’d probably just ask me to write up another round of suspension notices. The school had reached a new paradigm in how it dealt with delinquency and these girls didn’t seem to appreciate that fact. It wasn’t like there was a shortage of empty rooms for them to use, either. They were causing trouble for no real reason.

I made it to the clubroom in question and walked inside without being immediately noticed. Naomi’s girlfriends inside seemed to be too preoccupied with the girls playing on the instruments at the front of the room. They weren’t skilled with the instruments but were messing around with them anyways.

These weren’t cheap off-brand instruments they were toying with. I was familiar enough with instruments to recognize that much at least. The guitar that Violet was hammering away on would take me several weekends of babysitting to afford. Her friends were circled around her, cheering her on.

When I saw them behaving this way I could feel my earlier frustration bubbling to the surface. I walked into the room, still unnoticed, to unplug the guitar amplifier. This was impulsive behavior for me, but I was drained of patience after working on Val’s speech.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked them as they all turned towards me.

"Holly!" Perri called out to me like an old friend.

She pushed through several of her friends in order to walk up to me. She threw her arms around me and I didn’t hug her back in return.

"Welcome to our new club!"

"Your new club…?" I asked in annoyance, "What do you mean your new club?"

"Well, we had a bit of a falling out with our other girlfriends..." Perri explained.

"A bit..." Violet said teasingly.

Violet walked over to plug the guitar amp back in. I stopped her by keeping my foot on the cord.

"Holly, let go!" She said playfully as though I was here to tease her, "We're working on starting a band and I need to practice!"

"This isn't your equipment to practice with." I said. "This isn't school property either… This equipment is owned by the members of the jazz music club!"

"I'm just borrowing it until I can afford one just like it." Violet said. "It's nothing to get mad over."

"I don't think you realize how much that guitar your holding costs." I said, and then gestured to the other instruments in the room. "Or any of these instruments for that matter! These aren't toys for you to play with. The members of the jazz club paid for these things with their own money."

"Relax mom, we’re not gonna break ‘em." Jin said. "Did the jazz club tell on us? We told them we'll give their room back as soon as we find a more permanent place. They can still come in and practice."

"That's not your decision to make." I said. "All of you will be vacating this room immediately."

Perri smiled diplomatically and tried waving away my concerns.

"We won't be here long. We just..."

"Not later, now." I insisted. "You never should have kicked them out in the first place. This room is formerly registered to them. You can’t whimsically kick them out because you liked the room."

"What if we don't want to?" Jin asked challengingly.

"Then you can discuss this with me instead." Valentina said as she walked up from behind me.

Everyone turned to face her. It wasn't just Valentina that entered the room while we were talking. A number of the SCA were streaming in behind her. A few members of the jazz music club came in behind them. It looked like I wasn't the only person they informed.

"Amy told me what happened." Val said. "If you don't want to use your old base then that’s fine, but that doesn't mean you can take over someone else's spot."

"Like I was telling Holly, this was only a temporary arrangement." Perri said, "We were going to give it back to them."

"Likely story," Riley said from behind Val. "There's no way in hell that you would have given it up if we weren't around. You saw them as too weak to defend it and took it for yourselves, instruments and all. You're a bully."

"Takes one to know one," Jin said. "How much have you got away with just because you're SCA? Don't think you're any different from us just because you have a pretty badge on your uniform."

"That's beside the point," Val said, "The point now is what we're going to do with you and your so-called gang. You see, Violet gave me an interesting idea."

"What...? When...?" Violet asked.

"I was asking you how to stop the fighting between your group and Black Brittney's. Do you remember what you said to me?"

Violet stared at Val questioningly for a moment, until she remembered. Her eyes widened once she realized what Val was getting at.

"You can't disband our group!" She said. "That's not what I said, either! I was talking about how to handle Black Brittney’s group."

"I was asking you about how to handle both." Val said. "I was planning to talk things over with Holly before going through with anything. Your actions here today really aren't helping your case."

Perri, Violet, and the others looked at me. I shrugged.

"On any other day I'd defend your group's basic right to exist but you're causing unnecessary trouble for innocent people. We share the facilities at this school and have to treat others with consideration. The jazz club gave you time before coming to us and you disrespected them. Val may be right."

"We'll leave." Perri said quickly and turned to wave her friends over, "Come on girls, we'll find a different spot."

They slowly marched out of the room awkwardly while the SCA watched them like hawks. The SCA seemed ready to respond to any sudden acts of violence. Val had the same suspicious look on her face. Perri was purposely the last one out.

"There's no need to do anything dramatic." She said. "This was just a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding my ass..." Riley whispered.

"We'll talk about this later." I said. "For now, just don't go causing any more trouble."

Perri nodded and walked out of the room. I exhaled a tense breath and Val put a hand on my shoulder.

“That could’ve gone worse.” Val said.

“It could’ve gone better.” I said. “I wasn’t able to defuse the situation on my own. There’s merit to what Riley said. They wouldn’t have stood down without the involvement of the SCA.”

Riley puffed her chest out proudly.

“Right…?” Riley said. “I’m used to dealing with them by now. Girls like them are always trying to test the limits of the rules.”

“And there’s some truth in what Jin said back to you.” I said to Riley.

Riley deflated in response but didn’t say anything back. Val put an arm around me and we began walking out of the room. The members of the jazz club began picking their things up and cleaning their clubroom. It was probably for the best to leave them to it and allow things to return to normal.

“Did you mean what you said about me being right?” Val asked. “Would you really allow me to disband Naomi’s group like that?”

“I don’t like the sound of it but at the same time I don’t have a realistic solution to stop the fighting between groups. I think their group provides something unique to the school culture and I don’t want to see it torn down over something so petty.”

“That’s a generous way of looking at it.” Riley said heatedly as we walked out of the room.

I glanced at Riley, then turned back at Val.

“Let’s discuss this privately in my counseling office.” I said. “Class starts in a few minutes but I can write you a pass. Ms. Sampson will forgive me for pulling strings since we’re working on a problem she wants us to solve.”

“You’re right.” Val said.

She gave the SCA members around us a hand signal and they walked away from us, leaving me and Val to ourselves.

“Naomi herself will raise hell over this once she gets back to school next week.” Val said. “Next week is the last week before Christmas break and it may not be the best time to make such changes.”

“Actually, I spoke with Naomi’s parents over the phone just this morning.” I said. “They contacted me through the school to have a discussion about Naomi turning over a new leaf. They don’t want her being involved in what they consider to be a violent gang.”

“Her parents saying that is one thing, actually seeing that through is another.”

“The way I see it, this depends on Naomi. She’s impulsive and energetic, but I believe she’s the more reasonable of the two between her and Black Brittney.”

“And speaking of Black Brittney…” Val prompted.

“I haven’t had any success with talking to her yet. I asked her to come to my counseling office and she totally blew off the appointment. Additionally, Candace hasn’t returned to school after what happened to Leigha. She isn’t suspended anymore. She just stopped coming. I haven’t been able to get into contact with her or her guardians.”

“She isn’t taking Leigha’s passing well.” Val said. “She seems to be the one that cared the most for her.”

“I don’t think there’s much I can say to console her, but maybe I can try talking to her if she comes to school on Monday.” I said.