Chapter 5

My newfound good mood lasted until two minutes into first period, when I received a note to see Vice Principal Keller right away. Sitting in the front office, waiting to be called into his office, I realized I was starting to become a fixture. The office personnel didn’t even bat an eye when I headed straight for the row of chairs outside the vice principal’s office. I didn’t think of myself as one of the trouble kids in school, but apparently, I’d become that way, since I think I spent more time in the principal’s office than even the worst kids in school.

“Charlie,” Vice Principal Keller said, opening his office door. “Come in and have a seat.”

I knew the drill by now and made my way to one of the two chairs in front of his desk while he circled around to sit back down in his chair, and waited quietly to find out what I’d done this time.

“I want to start off by saying I didn’t bring you in here to discipline you.”

“Then why am I here, sir?”

“I understand you had an altercation with Mr. Campbell just before Christmas, is that right?”

“Yes, sir, but it was outside of school.”

“I know, and you’re not here for fighting. We’ve received a notice from Aaron’s father this morning that they have received a restraining order for you requiring you to stay five hundred feet from Aaron at all times, which puts us in a bit of a bind.”

“They got a restraining order against me? He attacked me!”

“I think your mother was also served with notice of this today, and I’m sure she can take it up with the city if you have questions. I didn’t call you in here to place any kind of blame or accusation against you. The reason you’re here is that we are required to abide by this until you and your mother address it in court. Now, I’ve spoken to the district lawyers this morning, who have in turn spoken with Mr. Campbell’s lawyers. While they are demanding you be removed from school while the restraining order is in place, we believe this violates your right to obtain an education, especially as we are not set up to provide any kind of distance learning. Our attorneys have determined a workaround to this. Apparently, if maintaining an exact distance violates other laws for either party, then reasonable accommodations can be made as long as direct contact remains impossible. We’ve looked at both of your schedules and we are rearranging your schedule to keep you two as far apart as possible. The good news is that since you two don’t share activities, the changes should be minimal. We’ve petitioned the courts to allow an exception for inside the school itself, since you’re both supervised, so hopefully, this will be a temporary situation.”

“It’s not a very big school, I mean he’s in the conditioning class right before mine and everyone has the same lunch. What happens if I run across him accidentally?”

“You’re right, it’s not a big school, but our attorneys have assured us that as long as you promptly remove yourself from the area, then you won’t be in violation of the order. Just in case, you will have to be accompanied by a teacher or staff member between classes for now, until we get this sorted out. As for your conditioning class, we’ve removed you from the one you’re in. Coach Dean has agreed to work with you one on one during your last period instead and we’ve rearranged your schedule to accommodate that. Lunch is a problem since we’re not allowed to limit the areas Aaron would normally have access to. Come here at the beginning of lunch, by then we’ll have figured out a workaround.”

“So I’m not allowed to eat lunch?”

“You are, just not with the rest of the student body. We’ll have to figure out a place for you to eat, but you will be allowed lunch, don’t worry. One final thing. Because of the situation, the district has removed you from all extracurricular activities for the time being while we sort this out. Now, I know you just got on the baseball team. Because of some of the guarantees for access in Title Nine, we are erring on the side of caution and allowing you to continue participating as long as you are properly supervised, which Coach Dean has assured us you will be. Other than that, you are not allowed to participate in any school-sponsored activities until this is sorted out. This means any trips that are outside of normal school hours, such as competitions, as well as non-class related activities during school hours, like the tutoring program.”

“This is insane. I only defended myself and now I have to bend over backward! How does this make any sense?”

“I know it seems extreme, Charlie, but this is the situation we find ourselves in. Here’s your new schedule. Your first two periods are the same, so you have a little time to adjust. Remember to come here at the beginning of lunch and if you see Aaron you are to turn around and walk away.”

“This is bullshit,” I said standing up and snatching the schedule out of his hand.

“Charlie, I know you’re upset and this is a surprise, so I’m not going to hold your attitude against you for now, but remember that we are just following the law. You are still expected to comport yourself like a responsible adult while you’re inside this school.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

I guess he was right, it wasn’t his fault Aaron and his dad were massive assholes. They’d managed to keep me in school and make sure I stayed on the baseball team, so that was something. I was starting to do better in school, so losing the tutoring was going to suck and Kat wasn’t going to like me skipping lunch, but at least she could hang with Hanna. I looked down at my schedule as I waited for my now required escort to first period and had to physically restrain myself from cursing.

The switch to conditioning class had gotten me out of Coach Bryant’s history class, which had been amazing news. Now with the rearranged classes so I could do conditioning at sixth period, somehow I’d ended up back in Coach Bryant’s class.

Except at baseball, I’d managed to avoid him all semester and it was all but certain he was going to try and make me pay for what happened at the end of last semester. For whatever reason, Coach Bryant took it personally any time Aaron and I came into conflict.

Third period I was back in his class, dreading what he was going to do. I was surprised when he started the lesson without calling on me or otherwise embarrassing me in front of everyone else, which was one of his favorite methods of torture. I spent most of the class wondering if the principal had taken him aside and warned him to go easy, since at least Vice-Principal Keller knew about the problems between us.

The longer the class went, the more it seemed like I might have avoided whatever evil he had planned for me. That went out the window as the bell rang, however.

“Nelson, stay after.”

I sighed and stopped next to his desk as everyone else filed out, a few of the football players in class giving me evil grins as they left. They’d enjoyed my torture throughout the year and were no doubt trying to imagine how Coach Bryant was going to stick it to me this time.

Once the last kid left, the Coach shut the door behind him keeping the next class out for a few minutes.

“I don’t know how you fooled the administration into ignoring your restraining order, but you haven’t fooled me. Aaron told us what you did to him last month. That kind of attack on another student is unacceptable, I don’t care if it’s outside school or not.”

“Sir, they aren’t ignoring the restraining order. Vice Princ...”

“Shut up! I didn’t say you could talk. If there was any justice you would be expelled and they’d be done with it. You know Aaron might never get his full range of motion back? He’d already gotten an offer from Northwest Missouri State, who’s now reviewing his condition before actually signing him. If you’ve ruined his future, I’ll make sure you pay for it and no one from the administration’s going to be able to stop it.”

I knew Coach Bryant well enough to know he wouldn’t listen to reason. Instead of saying anything else I just stood there quietly, waiting for him to finish, which actually seemed to enrage him more. He was probably hoping I would mouth off so he could stack on some other form of punishment or report me to the school administration.

“I’ve got my eye on you. Now get out of here,” he finally said, slamming his open palm on his desk.

I didn’t reply and just left the room, opening the door for the students waiting in the hall.

A confused teacher I didn’t know was standing there with the students said, “Charlie Nelson?”

“Yes.”

“Everything okay?” he asked, looking past me into the classroom.

The slap on the desk had been loud, as had the yelling, which he’d probably heard through the door. I could imagine that wasn’t normal behavior from a teacher, but they’d already proven they didn’t care how badly a teacher behaved as long as there weren’t major issues, so I didn’t see any benefit from saying anything. They knew Coach Bryant was a hothead and apparently didn’t care as long as he did what they wanted him to do on the field.

“It’s fine.”

“Okay, I’m supposed to escort you to English.”

“Sure. Lead on.”

Since the whole school did lunch at the same time, there wasn’t another class after English. That meant they could have my English teacher, Mrs. Rowe, escort me instead of some random teacher with a free period waiting outside for me. That wasn’t so bad, since I at least got along with Mrs. Rowe.

I was surprised to see Mr. French waiting in the office when we got there.

“Hey, Charlie. You’re going to be eating with me today. Did you bring your lunch, or did you need to pick it up?”

“I need to get it from the cafeteria.”