chapter 14

The first indication Sandra got that her day was going to turn for the worst was in math class. A girl walked in as the class was doing an assignment. Everyone was silent, so everyone heard the girl tell their teacher she had a note from the nurse for Sandra. Sandra's face turned beet red as the girl handed her the piece of paper.

Sandra opened it, it looked like an appointment slip. All it said was "Please be in the school library at 8:30 a.m." Sandra couldn't think of why the nurse would want her in the library. She looked at the clock and realized it was already fifteen minutes past eight.

"I'll just finish these last few problems and then go down." Sandra said to herself.

As she finished with her last problem, she realized it was eight thirty-five. She jumped up and walked quickly back to her teacher.

"I have to go." Sandra said, handing him the slip. He simply nodded his head and got back to grading homework assignments.

Sandra's hands were shaking as she walked all the way across the school to the library. She hesitantly pulled open the door and took cautious steps into the library. Off the the right she saw a few girls sitting at a round table. The woman that Sandra assumed was the teacher stood up and walked to Sandra.

"Are you here for the pregnancy class?" She asked with a smile.

"I think there's been a mistake. I'm not pregnant anymore." Sandra said, her eyes welling up.

"Oh," The woman said, looking at the notebook in her hand. "We'll make sure this doesn't happen again." She marked something in her notebook as she asked Sandra for her name.

Sandra got back to math class only seconds before the bell rang. As Sandra gathered her stuff, Imene gave her an inquisitive look. Sandra just shook her head, not wanting to talk about it right now. She made her way to History class, looking for Stacey. Sitting down, Sandra noticed the seat beside her was empty. She scanned the room and saw Stacey sitting in the back of the room with May. History class seemed to drag without Stacey sitting beside her.

Finally, as Sandra sat at her seat in English class, she felt that at least this class would go well. She pulled the disc out of her bag and set it on her desk. Sandra loved the feeling of being prepared. The English teacher walked in and closed the door. After setting up the projector and screen, she picked up a bucket from her desk.

"Everyone will take a slip from this bucket. It will be the order that you all present your Powerpoints." She said as she began walking around the room, shaking the bucket. Sandra pulled out a slip and unfolded it. It said "12". The teacher called out everyone's name and and wrote down their numbers.

Each presentation was only about five minutes long. It was a little over an hour into the class and it was May's turn to do her presentation. Sandra was next. May walked by Sandra's desk on her way to the middle of the room, and glared at Sandra as she walked by. Sandra felt confused. She barely ever talked to May and when they did it was always friendly. At first, Sandra assumed May had been informed that Sandra called her a gossip behind her back, but as the first slide came up, Sandra's confusion cleared away.

"My presentation today is on abortion." May said, glancing at Sandra.

"She knows. How does she know?" Sandra thought to herself, panicking.

As May flipped through the slides, Sandra felt worse and worse. It seemed that every statement May had was directed at Sandra. There were slides of statistics and slides about religion. There were slides of polls and slides of pictures.

"People who get abortions are horrible people." May said, emphasizing the word "horrible", as she glanced at Sandra. "According to the Bible, anyone who gets an abortion goes to Hell."

Sandra began to feel like she couldn't breath. Her heart felt as if it were beating a million miles a minute. Feeling tears filling up her eyes, she jumped up from her desk. The room felt like it was closing in on her and her vision was going black. Running out of the room, she almost knocked her own desk over. She heard everything on her desk clatter to the floor, but she didn't even pause. The classroom door slammed behind her as she rushed out of the room.

She ran down the hall until her legs felt weak. Her vision was still going black. Slowing down to a stop, she put her hand on the wall beside her to steady herself. She slowly dropped herself to the floor, leaning her back up against the wall. Trying to catch her breath, she rested her head on the wall as she closed her eyes.

As her heart began to slow back to its normal speed, she pulled her knees to her chest and put her head down on top of them, hiding her face. She could feel the tears dropping from her eyes and landing on her legs. Not being able to hold them back anymore, she gave up.

A few moments later, Imene showed up almost out of nowhere. She sat down beside Sandra and put her arm around Sandra's shoulders. She didn't say anything for a while, waiting for Sandra to stop shaking. She pulled Sandra's hair back and rested it behind her shoulders. Finally, Sandra looked up with red puffy eyes.

"How did you know?" Sandra asked with a sniffle.

"Your English teacher knew we were friends, so she came next door to my class and told me I should come talk to you." Imene explained.

"Want to tell me what happened?" Imene asked, sounding concerned.

"We had to do Powerpoint presentations on something that was important to us, like a virtue or a cause." Sandra started, her voice shaking. "May did hers on how horrible abortions are." Sandra began to cry again as she put her head back down.

"What a bitch!" Imene exclaimed, not sure of how to console Sandra. "I'll be back in five minutes." Imene said, getting up and walking briskly down the hall. She came back with Katie.

"Sandra! Imene told me everything!" Katie exclaimed as she sprinted the last few feet to Sandra. "Don't even listen to May. She's stupid and has no idea what you're going through." Katie said, rubbing Sandra's back.

Imene sat on the other side and agreed with Katie. The more they tried to console Sandra, the more upset she got. Katie began to get frustrated.

"She said people who get abortions are horrible people, and they are going to hell." Sandra said between sobs.

"First off, you are so not a horrible person!" Katie interjected. "And second of all, who cares if you're going to hell, I'll probably be right there with you!" Katie tried to joke, but Sandra's sobs just got louder.

"Come on, Sandra!" Katie urged, sounding upset. "I'm not used to this. Usually you're the one cheering me up! I don't know what to do." Katie sounded as if she were going to cry.

"Okay, calm down." Imene said, rubbing Katie's upper arm. "We don't need two hysterical people here." Imene reasoned.

"Sandra, I hate to see you cry. I don't know what to do, just tell me what to do." Katie said, trying to sound calm.

Sandra wanted to answer, she wanted to tell Katie and Imene how to make it better, how to make Sandra feel happy, but the truth was that she didn't know either. That was something that upset her even more. She wished that she knew how to stop thinking about the mistakes she had made and stop wanting to cry all the time. Her only problem was she had no idea how to deal with these feelings.

"What I would like to know is how did May find out?" Imene asked, looking at Katie.

Just then the bell rang. Katie and Imene tried to convince her to get up and walk toward her English class. People were rushing by, a few people almost tripped over them. Sandra looked up just as May was passing by. All three girls glared at May as she walked by.

They were so angry with May that they almost didn't notice who was walking beside her; Stacey. They seemed deep in conversation until May glanced at the girls. Stacey looked in that direction, and immediately put her gaze down as her face turned bright red. May kept her eyes on them until they passed, then resumed her conversation with Stacey.

"Stacey." Katie said, with venom in her voice.

Sandra finally stood up and agreed to go get her stuff from her English class.

"No." Imene said, still staring in May's direction.

Imene took off in that direction, with Katie and Sandra chasing behind her.

"Where are you going?" Katie called, but didn't get a response.

They almost ran into Imene as she stopped right behind May. Imene grabbed her by the arm and spun her around. Imene stared at May for a second before speaking.

"Who do you think you are?" Imene asked, her rage was evident by her tone of voice.

"What are you talking about?" May asked defensively.

"You know what I'm talking about. What makes you think you're better than anyone else? If anyone should be called a horrible person, it's you." Imene tried to keep her voice steady.

"Why don't you learn to speak English and then come and try to insult me." May said, trying to dismiss Imene.

"You have no idea what happened and you don't know anything about Sandra." Imene pretended she didn't hear May's last comment as she pointed her finger at May.

"Imene, please." Sandra tried to pull Imene away, but Imene shrugged her off.

"I may not know Sandra very well, but I know she's a murderer." May said, raising her voice. There was a crowd gathering.

"Who are you talking about?" Katie exclaimed angrily, as she pushed by Imene.

"I don't have time for this." May said, sounding nervous.

"You had time to humiliate someone who has never done anything wrong to you. Sandra is the nicest person you will ever meet, and you're nothing but a bitch." Sandra could see Katie's heart beating through her shirt.

May looked hurt by Katie's statement. She opened her mouth as if she were going to respond, but was cut off by a teacher pushing their way through the crowd. She got in between May and Imene and Katie, surveying both parties.

"Why don't we all just walk our separate ways before someone gets suspended." The teacher said calmly.

May was the first to turn and walk away, she seemed a little shaky as she hugged her books to her chest. Sandra grabbed Imene's and Katie's arms and pulled them away. The teacher stood there with her hands on her hips until all the girls were a sufficient distance away.

"That girl makes me so mad!" Imene said, her French accent sounding much stronger than usual.

Neither Sandra nor Katie replied. The three girls walked in silence to Sandra's English class. As bad as Sandra was feeling, a small part of her wanted to laugh at what just happened. The bell rang the second time as the girls reached the English classroom.