Iris

The next morning was not much better than the night. I woke up just to empty stomach acid into the toilet. After brushing my teeth and getting ready for school, I hesitated with my hand on my door knob. Finally, I took a deep breath and headed downstairs. I was greeted with a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and a note explaining that Dad had a meeting with a competitor’s firm and Mom’s hospital had an emergency they needed her for.

Just the smell of the food alone was enough to make my stomach turn. I scraped all of it down the garbage disposal and placed the dishes and unused utensils into the dishwasher. To blow thirty minutes, I decided to play some Left 4 Dead online. After cursed at for my ‘zombie killing skills’, I began my solitary walk to the bus stop. As usual, the rest of the kids were in their circle, but today they were glancing at me occasionally and were talking in hushed tones, yet again.

I frowned and tried to get lost in my music, but the stares were really getting unsettling. My anxiety was buzzing by the time the bus finally appeared and I was really beginning to hate myself for forgetting my medicine. When I climbed the steps and sunk into my usual seat, it became an eerie mixture of silence from some kids and more hushed whispers. There was no bullying today, which made my body more tensed than it ever was when I was being harassed.

Arriving at school was even worse. As I passed people, they went from loudly laughing and talking to silence, their eyes following me as I went. Once I was unable to see them, the soft buzz continued. I thought I would puke again as this phenomena happened throughout the halls. I arrived to first period early (as usual) and the few people there followed everyone else’s examples. Glances and whispers. By then all I could hear clearly was the frantic beating of my heart.

What was going on?!

By the time I had gotten to lunch, the sinking feeling was much worse. I had heard snippets of people mentioning me and Jimmy again, but today was much worse than before. And a heck of a lot more unsettling. Behind the baseball field, I finally decided to see if I could find out what all the buzz was about this time. Pulling up the internet on my phone, I typed in our names again to get a full article about it. On our trip to Gena’s a paparazzi had caught a picture of us and Brian together. I could feel my stomach twisting again and had to close my eyes and breathe deeply through my nose for the next five minutes until I was sure my stomach wouldn’t reject its contents.

Without much thought to it, I was instantly dialing Jimmy’s number and lightly rocking myself back and forth for some sense of comfort. It rang so long I was sure he wasn’t going to answer, but then the line clicked to life and he was panting slightly. “Hey Iris, how’s school?”

“Why do you sound like you ran a mile?” I questioned, unable to stop myself. He let out an airy laugh and coughed a little.

“I was doing my drum track and got a little too into it is all.”

“Oh. Are you in the studio?”

“Nah, just messing around at home. I have to go in in a bit, but I have time for now.” By then his breathing was back to normal and I could see him lounging on his couch. “What’s up?”

“Have you seen the article online?” A soft sigh was heard down the line and I frowned. “I guess so.”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t have affected you, but I’m going to take a guess and assume it did.”

“Yeah, just a bit. Kids are whispering worse than before and I know everyone wants to nose their way into it, but at the same they’ve been trying to avoid me all day.”

“Probably worried that if they did bother you, they’d have me to answer to,” Jimmy scoffed. He quickly added as an after thought, “Not to sound conceited or something.”

“No, no, I get it. I have connections to a big celebrity now. They figure I’d have you shame them all over the media and that’s just downright embarrassing, even if most people in the world won’t know who they are,” I agreed.

“Well, the only plus side is that they’re not being punks to you,” Jimmy pointed out, trying to sound perky about it. I groaned and buried my face into my knees.

“I think I’d rather have them bullying me than have them trying to take blind guesses as to how we know each other. I’ve heard guesses ranging from kidnapping to make me a maid straight to you being a sexual deviant.”

“Wow. Kids in your area really have big imaginations, huh?”

“It’s not just the kids. I’ve heard some teachers talking about it too. They don’t think I can hear them, but my music hasn’t been on at all today. Even my evil math teacher asked me if something was going on at home I wanted to talk about. And this is coming from a lady that hates my guts.”

Jimmy let out a breath of air. “Well this is escalating at an alarming rate. Okay, so I’ll need to talk to your parents too, but Thor came to a decision on this.”

“I’m listening.”

“Either we ignore all the media and shrug it off, or we come clean and admit who you are.” I lifted head, blinking across the field in a dumbfounded kind of way. Jimmy noticed my lack of words and explained, “We don’t have to. I realize that if we come out and admit you’re my biological daughter, people are going to harass you constantly. The paparazzi have no idea who you are, unless kids from your school are talking on those articles. So you’re practically invisible to the world. But if we own up to who you are, that’s going to change very quickly.”

“So you mean I can either deal with just the attention of my area or have the whole world on my case?” I squeaked out.

“Honestly? Yeah, that’s what it boils down to. The only good thing about doing that is that the people at your school will finally be able to stop spreading ridiculous rumors, but there’s no telling what kind of attention you’ll get afterwards.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry about this mess, Iris.”

“No, it’s fine. If having to deal with this stuff is the consequences for meeting you, I’ll deal with them. It was worth it,” I spoke. It was silent on Jimmy’s end for a few moments and I almost thought he had hung up. Right before I pulled the device away to see if he was on the line, he cleared his throat.

“Thank you, Iris. That means a lot.”

I began to blush profusely, realizing how heartfelt that actually was. I meant it all, but it just seemed a little too feelsy to be said so casually. I wasn’t like that ever. “It’s no problem, really. I mean it.”

“I know you do,” Jimmy vowed. “But, yeah. I’ll call your parents whenever I can and talk to them about it. It’s only a matter of time before they get a whiff of it.”

“With Dad’s client list? Yeah, he probably knows by now,” I sighed. It was surprising he hadn’t already tried to call me about it yet. He had an associate hird just to read through any kind of publicity he got and the guy was also hired to see if anything about our family leaked out. Either he wasn’t really paying attention or Dad was just too busy to deal with the situation.

“Right. People would have a field day on a big shot like him,” Jimmy agreed. He tried to hide it, but I could hear the sneer in his voice.

“What about you? It’s mostly going to affect you,” I retorted, my tone being much more defensive than it needed it be. Natural reaction, I guess.

“Hun, I deal with crazy rumors all the time. Once there was a rumor I was smuggling crystal meth over from Canada,” Jimmy said with a snort of laughter. I laughed too, some of the tension leaving my body.

“Why can’t they just assume you’re mentally insane without drugs?”

“I know!” I laughed again. Suddenly the electronic bells were ringing all over the campus, letting me know lunch was over. Jimmy must have heard too since he asked, “Gotta go?”

“Yeah. Talk to you later?”

“Definitely. Bye Iris, I love you.”

I paused for a moment, smile tugging at my lips. “Bye Jimmy. I love you, too.”

With that, I pocketed my phone and headed across the campus to my next class period. I almost made it there, but I was stopped by the last person I needed to be stopped by; Stephanie. One moment I’m heading down the hall, the next my hood was being yanked back. My arms flew out to try to get purchase, but I couldn’t find anything, effectively allowing myself to be yanked onto my butt. My bag slid fell next to me as I busted my ass on the linoleum.

“Ah, Kingsley. Glad you could stop for me,” she crowed as she circled around me to stand before me. Two of her lackies stood behind her, smirks on their faces matching Stephanie’s. As much as I wanted to snap at her I kept my lips sealed. They were pursed so tightly I know that they formed a strained, white line. Stephanie’s smirk didn’t fade, looking down at me with the same amount of amusement that a cat has before it attacks the mouse it’s hunting.

“So, I’m hearing and seeing some very interesting things about you on the internet. Rolling with the big shots now, huh? A certain, tall rockstar? I find it very cute that he’s pitying you and spending time with you. Is Make A Wish doing a thing for you? I didn’t realize they granted wishes for suicidal losers.”

God, she’s so fuicking stupid. I guess she didn’t get her reputation for being a bookworm. I finally gathered myself to stand to my feet and try to walk around her. She pushed me back by my shoulder, locking me in the middle of the loose circle that was forming. Most kids looked familiar, probably people who had witnessed our spat last week. I let out a small huff, rolling my eyes to stare at the ceiling and hope the bell would ring soon and make everyone disperse.

It wasn’t that time yet.

“You must really be getting Daddy to buy you everything, huh? Or...” Stephanie paused, her eyes mockingly wide and tapped a perfectly manicured index finger to her lips. “Or maybe, Daddy’s making you work for your stay, since your brother obviously can’t. He sold off your virginity to that dirty, old rockstar. What a disgusting pervert.”

“Shut up,” I hissed, glaring forward. The edge of Stephanie’s lips twitched, obviously realizing she had struck a chord.

“And what is little Iris gonna do to stop me?” Stephanie mocked, her hands being placed on her hips. I didn’t reply, simply glaring at her instead. “Aww. Did the cat catch your tongue?”

“Fuck off, Stephanie,” I grumbled, planning to walk past her. Yet again, she shoved me back. Instinctively my fist flew towards her chin. She caught my fist with her hand with far better reflexes than I thought she was capable of having. She swung her own fist and I barely avoided her fist, but ended up falling to my ass again. As she went to slam her foot into my ribs, I kicked at her knee that was holding her up. She let out a scream of pain as she crumbled to the floor with me. I instantly rolled away and to my feet to make sure I kept my distance. Right as I was huffing and leaning over with hands on my thighs, the shouts of adults reached my ears.

Suddenly a hand was clasping my upper arm, yanking me forward and out of the crowd. I looked over to see the baseball coach, Mr. Miller, was directing me towards the office, my backpack in his other hand. I took a deep breath through my nose and I forced myself to keep up with his fast pace. I could hear another teacher bringing along Stephanie who was continuously whining about her knee. I couldn’t help the smirk and snort of laughter from leaving my mouth. Mr. Miller gave me a disappointed look which caused my lips to purse.

Soon enough we were being placed in the two seats in front of Mrs. Fitzgerald’s desk. She seemed ready for us, letting me guess a teacher in one the nearby rooms had called the confrontation in ahead of time. I quickly decided to study my hands which were laced together, my left leg bouncing erratically. The office’s door was shut, but I could feel the presence of Mr. Miller and whoever else had grabbed Stephanie was still here. Mrs. Fitzgerald let out a sigh and leaned forward, resting her chin on her arched fingers.

“Okay girls, what happened?”

“She fuckin’ attacked me!” Stephanie exclaimed, pointing her finger at me. Mrs. Fitzgerald gave her a look and she deflated slightly. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“You would be wise to watch your language, Ms. Waters. Considering the fact that you just lied straight to my face.” Stephanie opened her mouth to argue, but Mrs. Fitzgerald was already turning around her computer monitor. On the screen was the footage of her yanking back my hood. The whole interaction continued, but she turned the screen back towards her. Stephanie’s mouth hung open in surprise as Mrs. Fitzgerald gave her a pointed look. “You are going to be suspended for the rest of the week and next. I will not allow fights to be started in my school Ms. Waters. Mr. Walker, can you please escort her to Mr. Caputo's office to write up the paperwork.”

Once the door shut and Mr. Miller excused himself, I was left alone with Mrs. Fitzgerald. She leaned back in her seat and only offered me a frown. “You have to have some consequences too, Ms. Kingsley. This is the second time in a week - a week that had a vacation in it - that you have ended up in my office. Maybe I gave you some misguided idea of approval with Mrs. Clearbond, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be okay with everything you do out of retaliation.”

“It’s not that. Stephanie has been antagonizing me for months. I’m just sick of it,” I sighed. Mrs. Fitzgerald’s face got a lot more stern and she crossed one leg over the other. She straightened up in her seat and held my gaze.

“Why didn’t you report this before, Iris?”

“Because it wasn’t important. I was handling it.”

“Iris, is she the only one?”

“Yes,” I lied. She frowned at me, but didn’t say anything to contradict me.

“If something arises again, Iris, I want you to tell someone about it. No one should have to play victim to bullying. Its cruel and anyone who participates should be punished.” I didn’t reply as she pulled out a paper from her desk drawer. As she uncapped her pen I fidgeted in my seat. I recognized the paper as a detention slip. I had to kind of send a silent pray of ‘thank you’ to whoever the fuck must be watching over me. It could be a lost worse than just a couple of detentions. “I have to do this only because you fought back, Iris.”

“I understand.”

“Three days of after school detention with the janitor. You will be cleaning the cafeteria and the art rooms. Starting today. We have a late bus to take you home.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Well, it could be worse.