Page 109 of I'm Gonna Get You Back
I study him. He’s a jerk for a lot of reasons, but it doesn’t seem like he’s lying. He seems freaked out that it was tampered with on his watch.
If they’re telling the truth, then Josh really had nothing to do with it. Which means as good as it felt, I justreallyfucked up. The Legacy terms include a zero-tolerance policy for physical assault. For all the ways I’ve tried to keep it together, I just let it all go in one impulsive moment.
Clara meets my eyes over her camera, clearly putting the same pieces together.
“Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take this incident to the board for review of your statuses and ban you both from the banquet tonight,” West says.
Josh glowers at me. “Happy? She seriously worth all this?”
I have to control my breathing as he reminds me that even if I punched him for the wrong reasonthistime, I was still right to do it.
“Can I speak to you a moment?” Dad asks Principal West.
Dad pulls West aside, and they have a conversation in low, tense tones. When they’re done, West looks notably perkier.
“Well,”—he claps his hands once—“Reid, I understand and can even appreciate how… passionate you are about this issue. It’s natural for young men to work through their conflicts this way.”
Clara’s and Delaney’s identical scoffs are the only sound in the room.
“Considering thecaliberof guests coming tonight, we can’t very well make any rash decisions today. I do believe I can convince the board we should review it at a later date.”
The “caliber of guests” meaning the Olympic coach Dad convinced to come here. To meet with the athlete I’m not sure I even am anymore. My lungs feel tight knowing I’m trapped, as a mix of relief and disgust flow through me in equal measure. I can hit the shit out of the principal’s own son and still keep my Legacy spot and scholarship, but Clara did nothing wrong and lost hers. I want to punch something all over again.
I would if my knuckles didn’t hurt so badly.
The crowd continues to disperse, but I don’t move. I’m not sure I can. My dad is about to approach me, a furious look on his face, and I catch Mitchell’s eye, silently pleading with him to intervene. He nods and slings his arm around my dad, talking a mile a minute. Somehow convincing him to give me some space right now.
Amaya is tearful as she helps Josh up. “You poor thing,” she murmurs, before shooting me a glare. He wraps his arm around her, and she nestles closer against him as they walk slowly away from the group.
“I thought you were over all that,” Nicole says to me. She gnaws on her thumbnail, a panicked look in her eye. A look I don’t quite understand but that tugs on the murky memory of our talk after the play last night.
I just stare at her, trying to remember what she said. But I don’t before Amaya calls her over.
Which leaves me with Clara.
She puts the camera down on the table beside us and lowers herself to my eyeline.
“Your beautiful face,” she scolds.
I snort at the playfully forlorn tone in her voice and regret it immediately when pain sweeps through my nose.
As she takes in the various states of my injuries, I watch her expression shift from concern to relief, landing somewhere in between. When she’s seemingly satisfied I’ll live, she leans back on her heels.
“You finally punched Josh West,” she says, her eyes shining. “How did it feel?”
I sigh. “It would’ve been better if he had actually done it.”
She shrugs one shoulder up. “It’s okay. Thanks to you, I think I know who did.”
I sit up straighter, which causes my ribs to ache. “You do?”
“IknewLogan was the one who ran the projection booth, but when Delaney and I asked around about it last year, Amaya said he was sitting with her during the assembly. It wasn’t until you called him out just now that I realized she was lying.”
My stomach sinks. “Why would Amaya lie about that? To cover for him?”
“Not him. Think about it,” she urges me. “We know Amaya didn’t take the video because she was in New York. We now know Loganplayedthe video at the assembly… and we know that he and Nicole hooked up the other night and have been acting like a couple all weekend out of nowhere. Maybe that was something going on all last year and we didn’t even know.”
“Okay…” My head hurts.
