Rock Bottom Girl(112)

I gave her the sassiest shrug I could muster. The villain was finally unveiled.

Looking back, it was probably the wrong move. I probably should have at least feigned innocence.

But I didn’t. And then Amie Jo was charging at me, closing the distance between us as fast as her heels would let her.

“Oh, shit,” Vicky whispered. “Don’t get suspended!”

But it was too late for that. Amie Jo stormed up to me and slapped me across the face.

It was a blur from there on out. I didn’t exactly remember tackling her to the ground. But that’s what Vicky swears I did. As we rolled on the grass, shouting insults and throwing elbows, I wasn’t worried about my punishment. I wanted to teach her a lesson. That there were consequences to treating people like garbage. Tonight, I was Amie Jo’s karma.

Her nicely painted talons dug into my neck as she went for my jugular. I threw her off me and rolled to reclaim my dominance. We were a tangle of teeth and profanity and pure hatred. I was dimly aware of the crowd as it reacted to my spectacle.

I wished I would have taken a self-defense class. Or a How to Kick a Bully’s Ass class. I didn’t want this to devolve into some embarrassing slap fight. I wanted to physically damage her horrible, nasty, cruel exterior.

Suddenly, there was an extra set of hands in the mix, and someone was trying to pull us apart. But hell hath no fury like two high school seniors locked in a battle for supremacy. We rolled again, and I swore it was Amie Jo that got her legs tangled up with the good Samaritan’s. I didn’t realize we were this close to the player’s bench.

There was a scuffle, a tumble, and an audible pop. And an “oooooh” from the crowd. The howl of pain that followed had me shoving Amie Jo off me and prying her hands out of my hair.

It was Travis on the ground hugging his knee to his chest.

“Oh, God. Travis, are you okay?” I asked.

“Leave him alone, you skank,” Amie Jo shrieked. She pushed my face into the dirt and crawled her way to him. “Travis, honey, are you okay?”

He wasn’t. And neither was his ACL.

A lot of things happened very quickly.

The two team mascots got into a shoving match that escalated into a brawl on the field. Referees and coaches and parents waded in.

Amie Jo and I were collared by Principal Fester and dragged off the field while Travis was carried off on a gurney.

“I am horrified at your behavior, ladies,” Mr. Fester hissed. “This is beyond intolerable.”

“I had nothing to do with this, Mr. Fester,” Amie Jo began.

“That was your voice on the loudspeaker, wasn’t it? Calling me a garden gnome?”

Amie Jo was prepared to lie, but Mr. Fester wasn’t having any of it.

“You’re both suspended for a week starting tonight.”

“But Homecoming! I’m going to be Queen,” she shrieked.

Her parents pushed through the crowd that was gathering around us. They were followed by Steffi Lynn.

“One week. You both will leave school grounds immediately,” Mr. Fester said, his face turning a shade of purple that I didn’t think was healthy.

“I want my crown,” Amie Jo screeched.

Her mother slipped an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll get you your crown, sweetheart,” she crooned.

“Mr. Fester, clearly there’s been some sort of misunderstanding here,” Dr. Armburger said. “My daughter is a victim here.”

Was the man deaf? Had he not heard his daughter talk about stealing his wife’s bottle of Vicodin over the loudspeaker?

“Dr. Armburger, your daughter is no victim. My decision stands. One-week suspensions starting now.”

Steffi Lynn glowered at me as her parents guided a sobbing Amie Jo toward the stadium entrance. “I’m not in school anymore, so I can’t get in trouble for this,” she said, before shoving me to the ground.

The gravel bit into my palms.

“I heard you flunked out of cosmetology school,” I said. She probably would have kicked me there on the ground had it not been for an incoming hero.

“Hey! You bloated ox!” Vicky’s voice rang out as she hustled forward, getting into Steffi Lynn’s face.

I jumped up, inserting myself between them. I didn’t need Vicky joining me in my suspension.

“I’m already suspended,” I told her. “Let me handle this.”

Vicky let out something close to a growl and bared her teeth at Steffi Lynn.

“You’re right,” I said to Steffi Lynn. “You’re not in school anymore. You’re not on my team anymore either. Which means I can tell you that you are a miserable, abusive, dead-on-the-inside asshole who will spend the rest of her life ruining other people’s lives. You’re not special. You’re not better than everyone else. In fact, deep down, you know that you’re not good enough. So you can take your shitty attitude, and you can go back to Mommy and Daddy’s house where you’ll be living between divorces for the rest of your life!”

I was still standing there shaking when half of the sheriff’s department showed up and jogged onto the field to break up the melee.





66





Marley





If the JV Homecoming game was any indicator of what the varsity match would be like, I was going to drive home between games, pack my suitcase, and leave town in shame. The Buglers were turning my girls into ground beef on the field.