Wilson Coffee Shop (Part 4)

On Kylie’s tenth day at North High School, Mr. Wilson showed the class a video about bullying during homeroom. During the video, Kylie unzipped her sequined pencil pouch and emptied the contents onto her desk. One black pen, two red pens, one green pen, four mechanical pencils, and two regular pencils. She looked around the classroom. Four boys and four girls, not including herself. She looked up at the clock on the wall. 7:59. Looking back down at her desk, Kylie thought about how she wanted to arrange her pens and pencils. She decided to line the pens up green, red black, red and green on the right-hand side of her desk. On the left-hand side, she placed the two regular pencils outside of the four mechanical pencils. After she had arranged her pens and pencils, Kylie looked up at the back of Megan’s head and smiled.

~

Linda set down a plate of chicken, brown rice, and asparagus in front of Jeremiah and kissed his forehead before sitting down across from him.

“How was your day?” she asked as she unfolded her napkin and placed it on her lap.

Jeremiah shook his head as he picked up his fork.

“These kids, I just don’t understand them.” he said as he pushed around individual grains of rice. “There is a girl in my homeroom and math class who is late almost every day, and sometimes she doesn’t even show up at all.”

“Have you sent her to Principal Ferguson?”

“Yes, once.” said Jeremiah as he put down his fork to rub his temples. “I should send her again, but I honestly don’t want to, because my class is, well…less stressful without her anyway.”

Linda looked at Jeremiah as he rubbed his temples and ignored his food.

“Do you need some medicine?”

Jeremiah shook his head and stood up.

“No, no…I’ll be fine.” he said as he walked out of the kitchen towards the bedroom. “I think I just need some rest.”

~

Mrs. Schwartz felt her phone buzzing in her purse as she drove to Hy-Vee to pick up groceries for the week. It had been two months since her meeting with Principal Cross. Keeping her eyes on the road, she dug through her purse. She glanced at the screen of her phone, reading the caller ID.

Davenport Central High School

She silenced the call and set the phone back in her purse.

~

In homeroom on Kylie’s thirtieth day at North High School, she pulled a blue spiral notebook out of her backpack after she had arranged her pens and pencils. She flipped through dozens of full pages until she got to a blank one. Picking up her black pen, she smiled.

Megan Turner is the most beautiful girl I have ever met.

~

On Kylie’s seventieth day at North High School, a boy tripped her outside after school. A group of students gathered around, including Megan. They laughed as Kylie scrambled for her things. The boy picked up her sequined pencil pouch, unzipped it, and dumped the contents into a nearby storm drain.

“Arrange them now!” he said.

Megan grabbed the blue spiral notebook that Kylie was reaching for.  

“Oooh, is this your diary?” said Megan. The group laughed. Megan flipped open the notebook and did her best impression of Mr. Wilson clearing his throat while holding up his white binder.

“Alright, class!” she said in a deep voice as the group snickered. “Today, we will be reading Kylie Schwartz’s diary!” Megan cleared her throat again in a convincing impression and the students held their sides as they laughed.

“Page one!”

Kylie stayed on the ground. While on her knees, she watched Megan’s beautiful brown eyes widen. She saw the specks of yellow glowing like tiny fires. A gust of wind blew her black velvet hair wildly. It lapped against her pale neck like rushing water against white rocks. Kylie closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of her shampoo. She opened her eyes and saw the brown eyes looking directly into her own. The normally pale pink cheeks were hot pink, and her soft lips were slightly open and trembling. The sun came out from behind a cloud and illuminated Megan, giving her a warm, bright outline and causing her skin to shimmer. The sight was blinding, terrifying, and beautiful all at the same time, and Kylie couldn’t look away.

“What is it, Megan?” a boy said.

“Yeah, Megan! Aren’t you going to read it?”

Megan looked at Kylie, to the notebook, and back at Kylie, who was still kneeling before her.

“What the fuck is your problem, you freak?” yelled Megan, throwing the blue spiral notebook on the ground in front of Kylie.  

“Megan, what’s wrong?” said one of the girls, rushing to her side.

“This girl is fucking crazy.” said Megan.

Kylie picked up the blue spiral notebook and clutched it tightly to her chest. She stayed on her knees and kept her eyes on the ground.

“Let’s get out of here.” said Megan.