The Heart Does Go On

I had perfected my English oral presentation! It was Monday, and I got to school early to practice it thoroughly. My technique was perfect, I was able to engage with the audience, and barely look at my cue cards. I practiced in front of Kathryn and Duke, and they were blown away and said I’d definitely get an A for sure.

All through out the day, the oral presentation was all that was on my mind. Even in Maths Kaiba, the hot shot, giggled at how obsessed I was.

Finally, the end of the day came – with English being the last class. After slaving over this oral presentation for a week and a half, I volunteered to go first. I knew I was ready, and if I went today then I wouldn’t obsess even more tonight about perfecting it even more, and I may be able to focus on other homework tasks.

I took my place at the front of the classroom. I lined up my cue cards, and took a deep breath. Everyone had their eyes on me, and I must admit, I was a little nervous. Not that I would make a mistake in front of my peers, I was nervous that if I made a mistake I would receive a bad mark.

“Good afternoon everyone, and I’m here to tell you why schools like Domino High School should not wear school uniforms” I started.

“Yeah you’d wanna wear slutty outfits to school wouldn’t ya!” I heard Joey’s voice scream from the other side of the room.

“Mr. Wheeler!” The teacher bellowed, “That is completely inappropriate!”

“But it’s so true. When we were going out, she was all over Kaiba. She’d never have time for me; she only had time for Kaiba. She’s a goddamned slut. She also made out with both Yugi AND Duke at Duke Devlin’s party. What would you call that?” Joey shouted.

I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to move on from both of those incidents, but here Joey was, bringing them back up again, in front of the whole class. Most people from the class were smirking as they were watching me, and I knew they believed every word that Joey had said. I was so embarrassed.

However, my eyes then flickered onto Yugi. Some members of the class were now looking at him, and he lowered himself into his seat. I could tell that he was embarrassed too, and I felt sorry for him. I made out with Yami and not Yugi, and now Yugi was feeling the backlash that his so called best friend had put onto him.

“Good one, Wheeler. Make up false comments about me, and drag your best friend into this too.” I shouted back at Joey.

“Oh go and cry to Kaiba!” Joey shouted at me, knowing I had a point.

“I WILL!” I bellowed, “You just did an act of defamation! If I’m so buddy buddy with Kaiba, then I’ll convince him to let me use his lawyers to sue you for defaming me!”

“ENOUGH!” The teacher shouted. “I’ve had enough. Both of you are to not continue to disrupt this classroom. Out, both of you. Come back when you’re calm enough to be civil.”

“Bitch.” Both Joey and I mumbled at the same time, as we stormed out of the classroom.

“Save it Joey, I don’t need to hear any more of your crap. I’ve heard enough.” I said to Joey, sighing as I walked into the opposite direction.

Here I was, about to start the perfect presentation that was guaranteed to give me an A , when Joey interrupted me. I hope that little outburst didn’t lower my mark; the teacher did mention if we interrupted anything we would lose marks. Did that include the class?

“Ella” I heard a voice from behind me, I turned around and saw Kaiba walking up to me.

“Hey, Kaiba.” I smiled weakly.

“Why aren’t you in class?” He asked.

“Um, I sort of got kicked out. Why aren’t you in class?” I replied.

“My teacher is absent. How did you get kicked?” Kaiba asked, raising an eyebrow.

I explained to Kaiba the comments that Joey made, and how I reacted.

“Haha, good on you for showing that mutt the intelligent side of what his actions could result in – his demise. Or in this case, his ass getting sued. But I don’t understand. He was the one that provoked you and started all that drama, why were you the one that got kicked out?” Kaiba asked, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“Yeah, well my oral presentation was ruined anyway. The teacher is a bitch, of course she wasn’t going to do anything.” I shrugged.

“Ella, you know that’s not good enough. Come on, I’ll fix all of this out. NO good deed should go unpunished.” Kaiba growled, dragging me off to the office.

The secretary was busy typing away at her computer, and failed to acknowledge both Kaiba’s presence and mine. It was obvious she was probably on a social networking website, rather than doing work, as judged by her facial expressions.

Kaiba cleared his throat, clearly annoyed.

“If any of my secretaries were to do this, they’d be instantly fired.” Kaiba growled.

“Hi, Mr. Kaiba.” The secretary said in a flat tone, instantly knowing it was Kaiba talking to her.

“Is Peter in?” Kaiba asked.

“Yep, just go in.” The secretary said, and Kaiba took no hesitation in walking down the hallway leading up to the principal’s office.

“You’re on first name basis with the principal?” I asked, amazed. I’ve never heard of such a thing.

“I sure am.” Kaiba smirked, as he knocked on the door.

“Come in.” I heard the principal say.

“Hi Peter. It’s me, Seto. I have a little problem, you see my friend Ella was unfairly asked to leave from her classroom today, and due to ongoing taunts from a particular student, I’m suggesting I can represent her, and we can all have a talk so we can come up with a solution for this problem.” Seto said, taking a seat.

“Oh alright.” The principal said, his gaze turning to me.

Even though Kaiba was doing something nice for me right now, THAT KID IS SO CONFUSING. He referred to me as his ‘friend’ but I still don’t know if he means it or not. He could mean it, or he just said it because he’s talking to the principal. However, I still appreciate his effort.

***

After the meeting Kaiba, the principal and I had yesterday; we came up with a few solutions. Firstly, Joey was going to receive a ‘warning’ and a strict talking to that bullying is unacceptable. Secondly, the teacher who kicked me out of the class had to apologise to me (I couldn’t believe that!) and secondly, I was going to move English classes. Because of this move, my free period had to be swapped to accommodate the change of English class, however now I had English AND my frees with Duke and Kathryn! Yay!

I still had Legal with Joey in my class, but he was a lot quieter in that class as he had to concentrate very hard. I now have every class with Duke, which we both enjoy. However, Kaiba was in both of my newly swapped classes as well.

Now it was English time again. The teacher said I could do my oral presentation after Kaiba did his, which I was fine with. Maybe I could copy Kaiba’s technique or something, he’s school smart.

“Good afternoon my fellow peers. Today I will be contending that public schools SHOULD be wearing school uniforms.” Kaiba introduced.

Uh oh, he’s doing the exact opposite of my contention (we shouldn’t wear uniforms) and he’s guaranteed to do well and bring up excellent points right before I do my oral presentation. Gulp, not good.