Charlotte's Web

"She is so cute " Charlotte cooed as Spike held McKenna in his arms. It was the day after Adrienne had been released from the hospital. They allowed McKenna to go home with her as she was doing fine and her surgery was a success. They were sitting in the living room simply admiring McKenna.

Spike gave the baby to her glowing father and Billie Joe made a silly face that caused a giggling burp to come from McKenna.
"You better get to school Charlotte. I am sick of having to come sign you in because you're an hour late."

"All right." Charlotte said huffily as she got her books. "Come on Spike."

Spike had gotten into the habit of driving Charlotte to school every other day. Call her cruel, but Charlotte loved the look Brice got when she and Spike made out in his car before the first bell rang for homeroom. It was a cross between pain, regret, and something else she couldn't pinpoint.

This morning, she only had time to peck him on the lips; the bell was ringing as they drove up to the school. Charlotte practically ran up the stone steps of the school and down the halls to her homeroom. When she reached Mrs. Gonzolas's class, she noticed a lot of people giving her curious stares, mostly guys.

"Miss Cauthen." Mrs. Gonzolas said in an authoritative voice. "You are needed in the principal's office.

Bewildered as to what she could have done as she hadn't been at school for the past three days, Charlotte turned around and walked back out the door to the principal's office.

"Miss Cauthen, please have a seat." He said when she reached his office. Principal Winters was an elderly man with no sense of humor.
"Why is it," He began as he paced around Charlotte like a vulture. "That I have every male student in my school racing to the computer lab to look at this website?"

He pointed to the site on his computer and Charlotte nearly fainted at the material that was shown. She, Charlotte, was the subject of the site and it had many questionable, sexually charged pictures of her at concerts, taking a shower, and... "Intercourse." Principal Winters hissed. "Is this what you want to do with the rest of your life? Be a pornography star?"

"Mr. Winters... I didn't... "

"I have already called your guardians and they are on they're way." He snarled, angry at this interruption of his school. "In the meantime, I want to know why you felt compelled to create a website called 'charlottespixsanddicks' and tell everybody in the school about it."

He ignored her weak protests and continued. "I'm sure you are all ready aware of the forum board that is linked here that talks about the size of your chest, your... "

He checked the site for reference,

"Favorite positions and even your partners. There are over two hundred responses all ready. What do you have to say for yourself? Do you have no respect for yourself?" He pointed furiously at the thumbnail of Charlotte and Spike having sex.

Charlotte began to tear up and hyperventilate, unable to say anything. Who could have done something as mean and vile as this?

"Mr. Winters, Miss Cauthen's guardians are here." The secretary's voice scratched through the intercom.

"Send them in Wendy. We'll get to the bottom of this." He told Charlotte just as Billie Joe and Adrienne came into the office apprehensively. Ollie was in the outer portion of the school's office with McKenna.

"Please have a seat Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong." Mr. Winters said as he held out his hand in gesture for them to be seated. He purposefully stood in front of the computer screen.

"Has Charlotte done something wrong?" Adrienne asked as she noticed the clammy, distressed look of Charlotte's skin.

"Yes, Mrs. Armstrong, Charlotte has done something very wrong." Mr. Winters said in a stern voice.

"I did not." Charlotte burst out, her tears flowing freely. She hoped that Billie Joe and Adrienne would believe her, even if her principal didn't.

"So you don't call posting nude pictures of yourself on the internet wrong?" Mr. Winters shot back. Billie Joe and Adrienne were taken aback; they had not expected anything like this.

"I didn't do that." Charlotte insisted as she stood up in rage.

"Well they just didn't magically show up and sit down Miss Cauthen."

"Hey." Billie Joe said loudly. "Don't talk to her like that. What are you basing this shit on?"

"Do you have evidence of this?" Adrienne asked. She saw Charlotte give her a helpless look. Adrienne took her hand to show her that she believed her, not Principal Winters.

"This." Principal Winters stepped to the side and revealed the website. "Is all the evidence I need."

"Fuck." Billie Joe swore as he saw all the content of the page.

"Mr. Armstrong, we do not allow swearing on our campus." Principal Winters reprimanded sternly.

"Whoa, I am not one of your damn students so you have no right to tell me what I can or cannot say." Billie Joe stated viciously. "And, I think you need to call Brice McNeal in here because I believe he is the one that posted those pictures because I know he was the one that took them."

It was now Principal Winters' turn to look bewildered. "Brice McNeal? I doubt it. Why would one of our star football players and scholars post pictures of his ex-girlfriend on the internet?"

"Well why not?" Billie Joe shot sarcastically.

"Because Charlotte broke up with him." Adrienne informed Principal Winters, ignoring Billie Joe. Her tone was firm, yet slightly rude. "And then she started to date Spike. We know Brice managed to sneak into the concerts to take pictures of Charlotte but we didn't know why. We have witnesses to this so I suggest you call your precious football player down here."

"Spike? You must mean that purple haired freak. And do I understand this correctly, you encouraged this kind of behavior from her?"

"We encourage free thinking." Billie Joe said tightly. It sounded to him like this Principal Winters was insinuating that he and Adrienne were bad parents. "We encourage doing your own thing just so long as it doesn't harm anybody else. We know she goes to concerts and we know she has sex. We also know that she is smarter than what you are insinuating and we know Spike uses a rubber and Charlotte uses birth control."

"That still does not explain this " Principal Winters shrieked as he pointed, yet again, at the screen.

"Wait a minute." Adrienne leaned forward in her seat. "How could anyone pull this page up here? Aren't you supposed to have blockers on this sort of stuff?"

"Well," Principal Winters began, less confidant. "I'm not sure, but bottom line, they did and it's disrupting my school."

Charlotte, who had remained silent suddenly jerked out of her seat and ran out of the office.

"Miss Cauthen, come back here " Principal Winters shouted after her as he followed her, Billie Joe and Adrienne behind him.

Charlotte ran down the halls and burst into a classroom. "How could you do that to me?" She screamed at Brice, who was sitting in a desk near the back. She ran up to him and began to slap and hit him; furious at what he had done, still screaming.

"Quit hitting me." Brice yelled as he shoved her away. The force of his shove caused her to fall backwards over an empty desk. "You stupid whore, I didn't do anything "

Everybody in the class moved into a big circle, trapping Brice and Charlotte inside.

"You took those pictures " Charlotte began to throw books at him. "You put them on the internet You are trying to ruin my life you bastard " Charlotte had tears and mascara streaks streaming down her eyes as she threw books at Brice.

Brice ducked and deflected the books and charged towards her where he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her violently. "Well you deserve all that you got bitch."

Charlotte slapped him across the face.

Brice growled, a red handprint on his cheek, and punched Charlotte. She fell to the ground whimpering but managed to kick him in the shins with the pointy heel of her shoes.

"Ahhh, you bitch "

"Mr. McNeal, control yourself " Principal Winters blared as he stepped within the circle of students who had done nothing to help the situation. Charlotte managed to get back to her feet, ready to fight again, but Billie Joe held her back.

"The office, both of you."