Page 66 of Lost
A nod from the principal told the nurse that she was dismissed, and she stalked out of the room without looking back at her unwilling patient. Zack shot a glance his son’s way. Lysander sat with a tissue pressed to his nose, glaring at the floor. The cut above his eye was covered now.
“What happened?” he asked again.
“As I have already informed you,” Randall said gently, “Lysander has been caught fighting with another student. Again, I might add.” The principal gave Zack a look. “You recall what I said on this matter the last time we spoke?”
Zack recalled all right. Last time Lysander had earned himself almost a week’s suspension, and Randall had been firm on the fact that should it happen again, “further punishment” would be required. Having been a fighter in school himself, Zack was all too familiar with what these words could mean. His heart sank.
“You’re going to expel him.”
Zack hated the thought. Lysander was a good kid — asmartkid — and an expulsion on his record was a black mark that he simply did not deserve. It crossed his mind, very briefly, that he could bribe the principal. That’s what rich people did in all the movies, right?
“Usually, that would have been the case, yes,” Randall said. “Especially since a number of witnesses have helped me to determine that Mr. Maverick was the one to start the fight. But.” He paused here for a moment. “Circumstances have been brought to light.”
Circumstances. The word rattled around in Zack’s head. He was almost certain that he knew the meaning without needing to ask the question.
The blonde beside the principal stepped forward.
“Do you mind if I show them, Lysander?”
Lysander looked as though he minded very much, but he shrugged and looked away.
From the desk, the woman took several sheets of paper and held them out for Zack and Georgia to take. Curious, Zack took them and was stunned to see pages of hand-written notes. They were Lysander’s, he was certain. Why else would the woman have asked for his permission?
“I’m Delilah Lowe, Lysander’s English teacher,” the woman said. “In my classes, I start by having my students go through a session that we call free writing, where they spend ten minutes writing whatever they like before the lesson starts.” She gestured to the papers she had just handed over. “These are Lysander’s from the past three days.”
Zack had an inkling that he knew where the writings might have been going, but nothing could have prepared him for the things that he read.
She used me,Monday’s paper read,just like Dad always said people would. She’s known for ages that I was his son, and she’s been worming her way into my life ever since. I guess I should have realised — she wasn’t interested in me before the post went up, then the next second she wouldn’t stop talking to me. I thought it was because of sticking up for Jack in History. Guess I was an idiot. I hate her. I hope she rots in hell for what she’s done.
This hole in my chest is getting bigger,said Tuesday’s.It’s like losing Dakota all over again. One minute she’s in my life and I’m fine, the next she’s gone and there’s a huge piece of me missing. That’s what it feels like. Eliza Beth’s gone and now I don’t know myself anymore. Is this what it is to have your heart ripped out?
Everybody’s staring,declared Wednesday’s.I can’t walk down the hall without somebody looking at me like I’m a criminal. Whatever she’s been telling them, it must be rotten. I really wish they’d all just go back to not even knowing my name. Things were better then. Things were better before I met her. My life was a complete mess, but at least I wasn’t being used.
On and on the pages went, detailing how Lysander hated Eliza Beth and needed Dakota, how he was grateful to have Jack around but he missed Kieran. And the one that perhaps tugged at Zack’s heart the most — the paragraph that said Lysander would trade in his entire new life just to have his mother and his sister back.
The poor boy was miserable.
“As you can see,” Lowe said as Zack silently passed the papers to Georgia, “Lysander has been having a rough week. And on top of everything else that has happened in recent months, I think it would be in bad taste to expel him for a little schoolyard brawling.”
“There will still be a suspension,” Randall said before Zack could breathe again, “but Lysander will be allowed to remain at Mapleton Beach High — on the condition that when he returns from his suspension, he will attend counselling sessions twice a week.”
“That sounds fair,” Zack said without a second thought.
The look on Lysander’s face said that he would very much have liked to argue, but he kept his mouth shut and his eyes averted.
It was a smart move on the boy’s part, Zack thought. He was getting off easy and he would have been stupid to argue the point. Zack was grateful to see him take his week’s suspension without a fight, take the promise of twice-weekly counselling sessions without complaint, and walk out of the principal’s office with his head held high. He was pleased to see his son walk past the other boy that had been involved in the fight without even glancing at him, ignore the stares of the few students that were wandering the halls of the school, and step out into the sunshine without a word to any of them.
But the worry remained.
The drive home was filled with a heavy silence that nobody seemed eager to break. Zack lost count of how many times he almost opened his mouth to say something and only ended up shutting it again, but he counted nine times that Georgia did the same. Lysander spent the trip staring out of the window. He didn't speak once.
The moment they were home, he made to go straight up to his room.
“Stop,” Zack said immediately, halting the boy in his tracks. “We need to talk first.”
Lysander shot him a look that said he hated this, but he turned away from the stairs and headed toward the living room.
The boy sat and Zack sat directly across from him. Georgia stood a short distance away, her back to the wall and her arms crossed. She looked between the two and waited.
