Light 'Em Up

It wasn’t my fault. The teacher knew I was afraid of fire, and yet he still made me light the damn thing. My lab partner knew I was doing it wrong, but he didn’t even try to stop me. I honestly didn’t mean for it to happen.

No one believed me when I said it was an accident. Most people didn’t even know my name, much less who I was, and they were still calling me a liar. I guess from now on I’ll always just be the girl who set the classroom on fire. Whatever, I hated chemistry anyways.

After everyone had scrambled out of the room, it was clear that there was no hope for its survival. Good riddance, I thought. There was lots of yelling, too. Mostly my teacher. The students were freaking out, especially the cheerleaders. They were worried that their hair might have caught fire. No such luck.

I found myself being shoved aside as the fire brigade took over. In a matter of minutes, what had previously been a science lab was nothing more than blackened rubble. It smelled like chemicals.

The principal came running through the crowd that had gathered, sweat brimming on his bald head. He could definitely go down as one of my least favorite people in the world. I tried my best not to look him in the eye. He began to ask just what had happened. Heather, the head cheerleader, was happy to brief him. She made it sound like I had tried to kill everyone and burn down the entire school.

The next thing I knew, I was being dragged down the hall by the arm towards the main office. Everyone was looking at me and whispering things. Not once did I hear my actual name. Just my last name. But they weren’t sure if it was actually me.

I looked at the ground, avoiding everyone’s stares. I knew I’d have to face them sooner or later, and I picked later.

The grip on my arm was released when we reached the office. I sat there, awaiting my punishment. And man, did I get punished. Well, after being yelled at for about twenty minutes straight. I had no idea that Mr. Pierce could yell for that long without losing his voice.

Honestly, I expected the sentencing I was given. This was catholic school, for fuck’s sake. They don’t let things slide easily here. He told me I had exactly one hour to pack up and get off school grounds, or they would sue me.

With that, he pointed to the door, cueing my exit. I rose gingerly from my chair, a little stiff from having been in the same position for so long. I headed out, bowing my head to make myself look more ashamed than I felt. Sure, I was a little upset over what had gone down, but it’s not like it was the worst thing to ever happened to me. I mean, I never had to come back here again. And I was pretty sure if I did come back, they’d throw my ass into court for breaking some law about being on campus.

When I reached my locker, I was greeted by my one and only friend, Cara. She was from the Netherlands and had a funny accent that I annoyed her about all the time. She didn’t appreciate it.

“Well?” She asked, her eyebrows raised. I opened my locker and started to dump my things into my backpack.

“Expelled.” I stated simply. “No second chances, no final warnings. Nothing.”

Cara gasped. “What!?”

“Can you blame them? I nearly killed an entire class and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage.”

“You can’t leave! Who am I supposed to hang out with now? No one else tolerates my accent. I’m going to be all alone.” She whined. I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not like I’m moving, Car. I’ll still see you all the time. Just not at school.”

Cara went silent for a minute. She was thinking. I started ripped all the papers that were stuck to my locker door and shoved them in the front pocket of my bag.

“Hang on,” She spoke again. “Where are you going to go then?”

I shrugged. “Public school, my friend. The land of the delinquents.”

Her face went rigid. Then she lunged forward and hugged the life out of me.

“Car, you’re choking me.” I sputtered.

“YOU POOR BABY! I’M NOT LETTING THEM SEND YOU THERE, YOU WON’T SURVIVE A WEEK IN THAT FORMIDABLE PLACE!”

“I appreciate the support, but could you please release me?” I said as I squirmed out of her death grip. She stepped back. Right as she did so, the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. The hallway was immediately flooded with students, all going for the exits. A few stopped and looked at me. News sure traveled fast. Or maybe it had been the unavoidable stench of flaming chemicals.

I sighed loudly and began plowing through the sea of bodies. Cara stumbled behind me, following closely. She hated crowds. Lots of people were talking about me now. I hated it. I was so used to being ignored, so this was all new to me. It was a bit overwhelming.

Once we were out on the sidewalk, away from the building, I sighed again.

“How do you do it, Car?”

She looked at me, confused. “Do what?”

“Be popular. Have everyone know everything about you and talk about you all the time. Have them watch your every move.”

It was safe to say that Cara was the most popular girl in the school. She always had been, right from the first day she walked in. I met her in junior high. Her parents had divorced and her mom moved her here from across the ocean to live with her new boyfriend. Our english teacher made her sit next to me, and I guess that’s where our majestic journey began. At first, she spoke close to no english, so it had been extremely hard to communicate. But she caught on quickly. Since she didn’t know what people were saying half the time, the boys saw her as an easy target. Well, also because she was hot. Sometimes it was hard to believe she looked the way she did. Cara had long, pale blonde hair and deep hazel eyes. She was thin, but not too thin. She had the kind of energy about her that made everyone want to hang out with her. But for some reason, she chose me. This pissed everyone off, because no one even knew I existed. I was always just the weird girl who hang out with Cara.

She simply shrugged, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “I ignore it.”

“That’s the least helpful thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“What, it’s the truth! I’m not even that popular.”

I snorted.

“If you want popular, look at Heather Hale.”

I hated Heather Hale with every fiber of my being. She was your classic cheerleader, minus the slut part. Well, she was a slutty virgin, if that was even possible. Slutty virgin Jesus freak was my tag for her. She tried way too hard to be popular. Her life ambition was to take Cara down and turn everyone against her. So far, she wasn’t doing very well.

“Don’t even talk to me about Heather. That bitch tried to tell Mr. Pierce that I set the fire on purpose.”

Cara chuckled. “Now you never have to see her again.”

“Eh, I bet she’ll turn up somewhere. I’m not dancing in the end zone until I’ve won.”

It took me a second to remember that Cara wouldn’t understand that reference.

“Football.” I said quickly. She nodded.

Soon, we reached the intersection where we went separate ways to our respective houses. They were only two blocks apart. We said our goodbyes, and I didn’t get away without one of Car’s infamous bone crushing hugs.

There was only one car in the driveway, meaning my mom wasn’t home. She was hardly ever home at this time, so I wasn’t surprised. The car belonged to my brother. I groaned internally. His friends were probably here too. One of them, at least. I didn’t mind that much, it’s just that I wasn’t looking forward to explaining what happened.

I soon as I stepped through the door, I was greeted by the muffled sounds of yelling. I dragged myself into my brother’s room. There, I collapsed onto his bed, face first.

“Hey, when did you get here?” Mikey asked, looking up. I groaned in response, although I was happy to hear his voice. He had a way of cheering me up.

“Bad day?” Bob, my brother, asked, setting down his controller. They’d been playing some game on his Nintendo 64.

“That is the understatement of the year.” I mumbled into the blanket, not raising my head. I felt the mattress dip, meaning someone had sat down beside me.

“Oh, God. What did you do?”

I didn’t say anything.

“C’mon, Al. We’re going to find out anyways. Spill.”

Fuck it. “I did something really, really bad.”

“What?” Mikey prodded.

“I kinda set a classroom on fire.”

That earned a gasp from Mikey and a laugh from Bob. I reached out and punched his leg.

“It’s not funny! It was a few hours ago, but not now.”

He settled down quickly. “Did you do it on purpose?”

“No! My teacher asked me to light a thing, even though he knows I’m afraid of fire, and I dropped the match into something and it blew up.”

“Sick.”

“Fuck you.”

Mikey cleared his throat. “So, I’m guessing you got in a shit load of trouble, right?”

I sighed, lifting my head to face them. “Yeah, well, they went a little bit past trouble.”

“What does that mean?”

“I got expelled.”

“WHAT!?” Bob screeched. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?”

“No, I’m not! I’m completely serious! I’m not even allowed back on campus. Like, ever!”

“Oh my God, mom is going to kill you.” He teased. I turned to Mikey, knowing he’d be better at comforting me. I slumped against his shoulder.

“It’s not that bad, Alice. I mean, you hated that place. You don’t have to go back. See that as a good thing. Plus, now you get to go to school with us!”

I looked at him, annoyed. “That’s not a good thing.”

“Oh, come on. It’ll be fun!”

“No.” I whined, planting my face back into the bed. The two left me alone after that, going back to their game. I fell asleep at some point, liberating me of my thoughts. It was nice. There were no expulsions in my dreams.