I ducked my head as I felt the hot tears touch my cheeks. Some girls looked cute, even pretty when they cried; I was not one of them. I knew Coach Kyle would want to walk me back to class, he was still waiting on me at the bottom of the concrete steps. How could I explain that I didn't want to smash Kelsi's face in, that there wasn't going to be any trouble from me? Made it hard to believe as the tears slid freely down my face.
"Waylon, I don't know the circumstances. Don't want to get involved to be honest, but I can't avoid it when something happens in front of me."

"Thanks, but I can manage affairs just fine," I tried to brush past him and step back onto the glossy linoleum floor, but he moved to block my path. I sighed and readied myself for one of the pat lectures the other teachers and faculty had given me at different times, a few were of a "self-help" sort, others took the "time heals all wounds" approach. Coach Kyle was different. He'd been here for less than a year, he was fresh out of college working his very first teaching gig.
"This wasn't my business before, but it is now. She has no right to treat you that way, I've heard all the stories that float around about what happened between your families," he still blocked my escape route, and I began shifting around nervously, hoping he wouldn't make me late for my next class. "I'll keep this short. If she comes into my gym and acts like that again, one of two things need to happen. Either you put a stop to her crap, or I will," he said it almost as an offer, like he could right the wrongs of my world with his words. I could feel myself shaking my head before the words came to my lips, the last thing I wanted was anymore animosity between the two of us. Short of packing her and her family up and moving them to the next county, the only thing that could rectify "our" situation was taking Juice back to them. That was not going to happen.
Thoughts swam in my head, which was still shaking from side to side, and then I realized he was talking to me again. His hand on my arm snapped me from my stupor.
"Nikki, don't let her do this to you. You did nothing wrong. Her coach will be making a few stops into the locker room about this time next week, so don't hesitate to come back to study if you need to."
Words escaped me. I made no effort to reply, just stood there and waited for my chance. The second he shifted his weight to make the slightest gap, I hurried through and didn't look back. Things just continued to implode today, and with half a day of classes still to go, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. The longer the day went the more tangible it became, until I was physically sick. My head was pounding, I could feel the beads of sweat dampening the back of my neck. In one of my last classes of the day, the intercom squawked to life, drawing the attention of everyone but our teacher.
"Please send Nikki to the office," was all the metallic voice said. All eyes were on me as I gathered my books and slipped through the door. Most of them had heard Kelsi's heated rants by the lockers, she was not happy with me.