Hello

I let myself fall into the highly uncomfortable metal chair of the school’s main office. Looking around I see that, luckily, no one else is here except for Lisa who I’m trying to forget about. She took the seat three away from me and hasn’t so much as looked in my direction since. I’m willing to bet this is her first time ever being in here—probably her first time ever being disciplined. The only air-conditioning in the entire school is in the office, go figure, so all the plump office ladies sit behind their desks happily with perfectly made up faces. They pretend like we’re not even here, though I did catch one of them shriveling her nose in disgust as I walked in.

Lisa makes a loud coughing noise, and waits for the office ladies, who look up quickly, to turn away from us once again before speaking. She leans across the chair next to her and hisses, “Just so you know, this isn’t over. I have a brother too, one that actually isn’t a big pussy, and when I tell him about this he’s so going to kick your ass. Maybe he’ll have some words with Scotty, or whatever the fuck your brother’s name is, too.” She shoots me a grin, like we were just having a pleasant conversation and sits back up in her seat. Bile rises in my throat, I don’t want to be scared but there is no way I can take on some big soc guy and Johnny definitely can’t deal with this. Before I can say anything in response, maybe beg her not to tell her brother, the principal Mr. Badgley steps out of his office, with some kind of file in his hands.

“Miss Cade, please come join me in my office,” he says in a stern tone, glaring at me and then turning towards Lisa. “And Miss Grey, I’m very sorry for the inconvenience, please return to class.” He gives her a warm smile, motions for me to follow him and heads into his office.

“What the fuck?” I mutter, looking at Lisa aghast.

“Have fun in there, I hear he can be pretty brutal to you greasers,” she says with a triumphant grin, walking towards one of the desks to ask for a pass, and bumping her arm against mine as she walks by me. I stand there a moment in shock until Mr. Badgley shouts for me to hurry up and I rush into his office as quickly as I can.

“Take a seat right there…” he says, pointing to the chair in front of him. He’s flipping through the file he had in his hands and doesn’t as much as look up at me. “Well it looks like you have a pretty clean file Allison. You’ve only been in trouble once since entering high school—what made you decide to start picking fights now?” He looks up at me for the first time since I entered his office and raises an eyebrow.

“I didn’t…” I start to explain that I’m innocent, but then realize that I was the one who started the fight, regardless of what Lisa had said to provoke me. “Listen, I know what I did was wrong, but Lisa was saying some really horrible things about my brother and I couldn’t just sit back and not do anything.”

He clears his throat loudly and scratches the back of his head; I can tell this isn’t going to end well. “Allison, I understand the desire to say things that aren’t true in order to protect yourself. But you and I both know who the victim is here. Lisa Grey is a very good girl, her father is a very affluent man and donates thousands of dollars a year to this school, I’m sure she did nothing to provoke you. Now I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me what happened.”

I swear my jaw must be at the floor, I know that the socs are looked more highly upon then us greasers, but seriously? “What do you think happened, Mr. Badgley because you seem to know so much? Do you honestly think I just punched Lisa because, I don’t know, I felt like it?” The words leave my mouth before I realize what I’m saying, but I don’t take them back either.

“I think that she hangs out with different people than you do and that may make you a tad bit jealous. But I can tell you this, Lisa doesn’t talk back to figures of authority.” he scolds me; his face is turning a deep, angry red.

“I’m sorry, but why is it that the rich kids can get away with murder while the rest of us who just happen to not be so lucky get blamed for things that we didn’t even do? How is that fair?” I yell indignantly, jumping up out of my chair.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Miss Cade, now sit back down please.” His voice is tense and I can tell he’s trying to keep his composure. I do as he says, slowly taking a seat and crossing my legs, hands folded on my lap. “Good. Now, I have no choice but to suspend you for the next week. I suggest you use this time to think about what you did, and when you come back please try and keep your distance from Miss Grey. You can wait in the office while I call your parents to come pick you up.”

I take a sharp intake of breath, if he calls my parents I’m absolutely done for. “Don’t do that!” I shout out, a bit too loudly. He already had the phone to his air and stops right before he can dial any numbers, raising an eyebrow at me. “I mean, please don’t call my parents. My mom’s at work and my father works nights so he’s probably sleeping right now, I swear I’ll tell them as soon as I get home,” I practically beg.

“I’m very sorry…” He begins, obviously not sorry. “…but I can’t do that, it’s in my contract to call every parent, especially when it’s something as big as this.” He points a finger towards the office and goes back to dialing in my number. I’m screwed.



I wait in the office for what feels like hours, I start to wonder if maybe my parents decided not to pick me up, but then I hear the office door slam shut and somebody stumble in. “Girl…” my father slurs, I look up hesitantly and he is pointing his finger at me. The office ladies are all looking up at this point, watching intently as my father makes an ass out of himself, and of me.

“Okay dad, I’m coming,” I say in a pleading voice, hoping for once he will understand and back off of me. I get up and walk towards him as he grabs the sheet of paper from the front desk and signs me out. He grunts and then heads back out the door, letting it slam behind him. ‘That could have gone much worse,’ I think to myself, following him out the door and to his car.

One of the ladies gives me a look which almost seems to be empathetic, but when I smile back at her she looks away as if her life depends on it. I shrug and walk to the door, following my father over to his car and taking a seat in the passenger side. “Why didn’t mom pick me up?” I ask in a soft voice as I buckle my seatbelt. My dad works in construction during the day and my mother doesn’t have a job.

“I had the day off…” he grunts, starting the car up and violently driving out of the parking lot. That certainly explains why he is drunk, usually he waits till night time for that, but I should have known—ever since he started getting back pains he hasn’t been working as much. “Besides I wanted to be here to personally punish you, you’re really in for it girl.” He points his finger at me, and I hold onto the bar above my door as he swerves back into his lane. He has the tendency to slip onto the other side of the road when he drives, especially when drunk. “I’m going to beat the shit out of you!” He’s screaming now, the vein in his neck bulging as he continues to point at me. “When I’m done with you you’re never going to disgrace me or this family again!”

“But dad, she was saying horrible things about Johnny, they were disgusting, I had to do something.” I plead with him, knowing that it isn’t going to change his mind about anything. Once he’s upset about something his mind is made up.

“I don’t care what she said bout your brother Allison, they were probably true! If you’re gonna get yourself into trouble at school you’re gonna get punished.”

I sit silently as tears roll down my cheeks the rest of the way home, elbow rested on the window as I watch the houses pass me by. As the houses change to old beat up ones I know we’re almost home, and then before I know it we are pulling into our driveway. “Get in there right this instant,” he yells, slamming the door and heading into the house. I briefly consider making a run for it, maybe he’ll forget about it by morning and then I can come back home, but I know that won’t happen. If I run off I’ll get it even worse then if I stay, and then Johnny will get involved and everything will only escalate.

Heading inside of the house as slowly as possible I let the door slam shut behind me and walk into the living room where my father is sitting on the couch with his belt in hand. I see my mother quickly walk out of the room and into the kitchen, which she always does so she can pretend she hasn’t seen anything. “Come here Allison,” he says in a frighteningly calm voice, staring ahead of himself at the television which is muted on a football game. I head over and stand in front of him, looking down at the ground and rubbing the side of my arm. It all happens in a blur, he grabs me roughly by the arm and throws me onto the ground, taking the belt and whipping me in the face with the buckle side. The pain is horrible, my vision is blurred in red and it feels like I was run over by some kind of motor vehicle. “Say that you deserve this!” he screams, leaning down and grabbing me by the hair, pulling me up to face him directly.

“I deserve this!” I scream, blocking my face with both my hands. For a moment I think he may be done as he stares at me blankly, shaking slightly but not saying a word. Then he moves his fist back, and I wince as he slams it into my face, hitting me directly in my right eye.

“You deserve more you little bitch,” he drags me over to the couch and bangs my head against the leg, kicking me in the stomach and leaning in as close to my face as possible. “Does that hurt sweetheart?” he asks, running his hand along the side of my head, acting like a concerned father. I try my best not to make eye contact with him and spit out blood onto the carpet. “Huh?” he asks when I don’t answer him.

“Yes…” I whisper, sobbing quietly and brushing away some of my tears.

“How bout this?” he asks, slamming his foot down on my leg. I let out a shriek of pain as he continues pressing down, grinding the sole of his shoe into my leg—it feels like its breaking—he stops suddenly. “Think about how that feels next time you think about starting problems at school.” He releases his hold on my leg and backs up. “And clean up that fucking blood before you go anywhere.”

I lay there for a moment as he leaves the room, shivering in pain and sobbing hysterically, every inch of my body is searing with pain and I feel like I can’t even move. After at least five minutes I get up, limp into the kitchen and grab some paper towels. Then I go back into the living room and clean up the blood before discarding the paper towels and heading out the door. All I know is that I need to get to the Curtis’s house where I can relax and catch my bearings in peace before school gets out and everyone returns home.

It takes me an extra ten minutes to get there, as I think my leg might be broken or at the very least sprained and all I can do is limp. I let out a sigh of relief as I walk up the driveway and to the door, opening it without even bothering to knock, nobody will be there anyway. When I step inside I let out a sudden gasp and consider walking back out, but he’d already seen me.

Dallas is on the couch, feet resting on the coffee table and a cancer stick perched between his middle and pointer finger—his jaw drops at the sight of me. He looks shocked at first but after a moment that shock changes to anger and after putting the cigarette out in the ash tray he jumps off the couch and onto his feet. “Holy hell Ally! Who did this to you?” He walks over and runs his finger underneath my eye, causing me to flinch. I was really hoping no one would be here and I could clean myself up before anyone saw the damage. He takes my silence as a sign that I’m not going to answer him and shakes me roughly by the shoulders. “Who did this Ally?” he asks again, his eyes darting around frantically, I’ve never seen him like this and to be honest it kind of frightens me.

“My dad!” I yell, my throat is dry and feels like a handful of cotton balls have been shoved down it.

He doesn’t say anything for a second, just stares at me, and then he suddenly pulls me into a tight hug. “That bastard,” he mumbles into my hair, rubbing it gently. “I swear, I’ll kill him.”

“Please don’t get involved Dally,” I whisper against his shoulder, he pulls away and looks me in the eyes.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” he says, patting me on the back and pulling away.

“Dallas…” I say, my voice cracking.

“I can’t promise you anything Ally, you know, I don’t get you and Johnny, why don’t you let someone straighten out that guy if he’s going to treat you like this?” He gestures to me, shaking his head.

“Because… because he’s my father Dal, even if he is a dick I don’t want to see him injured and know it’s because of something I did.”

“Oh yeah, cause he cares so much about your well being,” she shoots back.

“That not fair Dallas.”

“Not fair? No, what he’s doing to you isn’t fair! One of these days he’s going to take it too far, and I don’t want to see you dead or in the hospital in some sort of coma and know that I could have stopped it! That’s not fair to me or anybody else in the gang, is it Ally?” He’s screaming at me, walking towards me but keeping his distance as I continue to sob, loudly this time. “Geez Allison, I didn’t mean to yell, but I don’t know any other way to get this into your head.” He walks over and wraps his arms around me again.

“I’m sorry Dallas; I just don’t know what to do anymore.” I’m practically gasping for breath.

“It’s okay Al, I won’t do anything yet, but if this doesn’t stop I’m going to have to, okay?” I nod my head and let my breathing level out. “Okay, now go sit on the couch so we can clean up those wounds. And why don’t you tell me what happened while we’re at it.”

I sit over on the couch as he told me to and tell him everything that happened, from Lisa and all the gory details of what she said about Johnny and me, to my father picking me up and what happened at the house. He cleaned up all my wounds, which were much worse than I had thought they were, and resisted the urge to say anything in anger as I spoke. I’m surprised I’m able to talk to him so easily after such a long time of being scared to speak to him, and I feel really bad for that. He’s the same Dallas he’s always been even if I do have feelings for him now.

He tells me I have a black eye from when my dad punched me, my nose is swollen and red and there are other cuts in various places on my face.

“You know how things are here, it’s messed up, and so is what that girl said. But she knows she can get away with it and this probably just proved that to her. But Ally, I’m not going to let that asshole brother of hers lay a finger on you or Johnny, so don’t even worry about it.” I nod my head; it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. “Now, did he get you anywhere else?” he asks, putting down the antiseptic wipes and looking up at me.

“Yeah,” I say standing and lifting my shirt up to just underneath my breasts. I hear him suck in a sharp intake of breath and look down, my entire torso is an angry black and blue color, and looks like I’ve gone through hell and back. Then I lean down and pull up the leg of my jeans which looks even worse than my stomach.

“Shit Allison,” he groans, motioning for me to sit back down. He wraps those wounds after cleaning them out with the antiseptic wipes. “You really should go see a doctor.”

“No!” I yell, grabbing his arm. I hate the very thought of going to a doctor, and he knows it.

“Okay fine, but if that doesn’t improve within the next couple of days you’re going, I don’t care what you say. You could have internal bleeding or that leg could be broken, it’s definitely sprained that’s for sure.” He sits on the couch beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulders. I smile and lay down on the couch, resting my head on his lap, enjoying the feeling of being close to him. He runs his fingers through my hair, rubbing it as I close my eyes. “Now get some sleep…” he whispers, and that’s the last thing I hear before the room fades to black.