Lovely Girls(45)
“Let me guess.” My voice sounded too thin and too sharp. “Bullying?”
If the principal was startled, she hid it well. She inclined her head. “You’re aware of the situation?”
“I know some of the details. The girl who accused Alex is Daphne Hudson, correct?” The principal didn’t deny or confirm this statement, so I plowed on. “Well, actually, it’s Daphne who’s been bullying Alex. Not the other way around. And I know this isn’t the first time Daphne’s bullied another student. She has a history of targeting girls in this school.”
“Obviously, I can’t discuss other students with you.”
My hands, sitting on my lap, were clenched. “You can if you’re accusing my daughter of being a bully. I spoke to Taylor Taunton. Her daughter used to attend this school. She told me that Daphne and her two friends, Callie Nord and Shae Thacker, bullied her daughter so badly, Taylor had to move her family out of the district to get away from them. And the thing I don’t understand is, How is it that this one group of mean girls is allowed to get away with this, not once but multiple times? Has any action been taken against them?”
Ms. Hopkins seemed surprised by my anger. She spread her hands in front of her.
“At the moment, the allegation is that someone sent Daphne Hudson a series of disturbing texts. She believes that your daughter is behind them.”
The principal turned to the file cabinet behind her. She opened one drawer, pulled out a manila file, and then retrieved a sheet of paper, which she handed to me. I looked down at it. It contained a printout of a series of texts.
You are such a skanky whore.
Coach only fucked you because you’re a slut.
If I were a whore bag like you, I’d kill myself.
The list of texts went on, but I stopped reading them at that point and set down the paper on the edge of the principal’s desk. I’d gotten the point. If anything, they were worse than Genevieve had said. I felt shaky just reading them.
“That’s terrible,” I said quietly.
“Yes, they’re quite disturbing.”
“I assume you tried calling the number the texts were sent from?”
The principal nodded. “Several times. There’s an automated message that says the customer is unavailable.”
“I’m very sorry that Daphne received those texts. They’re awful. But I can assure you Alex didn’t send them. And there’s absolutely no proof that she did.”
“No, there’s not,” Principal Hopkins conceded. “But when I asked Daphne if she’d had a conflict with another student, Alex was the only person she named. Apparently, the two have had some conflict about the tennis team.”
“It seems like there are quite a few problems with that tennis team.”
The principal took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. It was the first sign I’d seen of the stress she must have been under. I knew there wasn’t any point in asking, because she wasn’t going to confirm or deny it, but it wasn’t that hard to connect the dots. The coach had been fired for having a sexual relationship with a player. The anonymous texts accused Daphne of having sex with the coach. And Genevieve hadn’t shown up at the parents’ meeting.
Now I just needed to find out how Alex figured into this mess.
“There’s also the issue of the video that went around the school. I’m going to ask you to keep this information to yourself, but the girl on it is Daphne.”
“After reading those texts, I thought it might be her. I’m so sorry that she’s going through this.”
“Yes. I can’t help but wonder if the video and the texts are somehow related. Whoever sent the texts already knew about the video. And both were texted anonymously. It would seem an odd coincidence.”
I stared at her. “I hope you’re not suggesting that Alex was the one who sent that video to her classmates. She barely even knows anyone here.”
Principal Hopkins held up a hand to stay me. “I’m not accusing Alex of anything. I’m letting you know my concerns.”
I shook my head, overwhelmed by how terrible the situation was. Alex had been upset before. Now she was being dragged into a scandal involving abusive texts and an underage sex video. It was hard to imagine it could get any worse.
“I know Alex. She didn’t have anything to do with any of this.” I stood, bringing the meeting to an end. “I’m very sorry about what’s happened to Daphne. If I can be of any help, please let me know.”
“I appreciate that, Mrs. Turner. Thank you for your time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
* * *
VIDEO DIARY OF ALEX TURNER
* * *
OCTOBER 13
Alex frowned down at her tablet. She reversed the camera image so that the deserted school courtyard suddenly appeared on screen. Alex propped up the tablet so that the camera angle was pointed at the empty seat kitty-corner to her.
“Okay, I’m here. What do you want?”
Callie appeared and sat down at the table, in full view of the camera. Her long red-blonde hair was loose around her face.
“Thanks for meeting me,” Alex said.
Callie snorted. “Like you gave me much of a choice. Although I don’t know how you think you’d prove that I was the one who texted everyone that video. You’re the one who filmed it.”