Free Cheating for the Chicken Man by Priscilla Cummings

“No . . .”
    The secretary considered these answers. Then she walked to her desk, where she pulled out a drawer and returned to hand Kate a piece of paper.
    Kate glanced at it: “Bullying, Cyberbullying, Harassment, or Intimidation Reporting Form.”
    â€œFill this out and bring it back to the office,” she said.
    Kate hadn’t realized she would have to fill out a form. She’d thought she could talk to someone. She
wanted
to talk to someone.
    The form was two pages long and full of little boxes to check.
    Name of Alleged Off ender:
    Is he/she a s tudent? Yes / No
    Pla ce an x next to the statement that best describes what happe ned:
    Any bullying , cyberbullying, har assment, or intimida tion that involves p hysical aggression
    Getting another perso n to hit or harm the student
    Teasing, name-calling, makin g critical remarks, or threatening, in p erson or by other me ans
    That last one certainly fit, Kate thought. So did the next one.
    Demeaning and making the vict im of jokes
    She set her purse on the counter beside the crumpled banner and rummaged in a side pocket of her backpack for a pen so she could fill in the information.
    â€œWait a minute,” the secretary said, stopping her. “What’s your name?”
    â€œKate Tyler.”
    â€œKate, listen to me, hon,” the secretary said. “Take the form with you. Fill it out. Then return it to the office.”
    â€œBut you have to do something
now
!”
    The secretary held up both hands. “Take your time. Fill out the form and bring it back. That is the protocol. We need the form.”
    Protocol. That word again:
the rules of appropr
iate behavior
. “But this boy—”
    â€œLook,” the secretary’s voice was firm when she cut Kate off. “Give us the information we need, and we’ll follow up on it.”
    â€œWhat about the banner?” Kate asked, gently lifting the pile of papers.
    But the secretary had moved on down the counter to the next student, who couldn’t get his locker open.
    Kate was a mix of anger, frustration, and now, disappointment. Pressed together, her lips made a tight line. Quickly, she gathered up the banner and left. She would take the form home and fill it out. She would follow the rules, the
protocol
, and Curtis Jenkins would be punished. Maybe even suspended.
    On her way out of the office, Kate angrily stuffed the banner into the wastebasket, then, three steps into the hall, changed her mind and returned to pull it out, even taking the time to sit for a minute, smoothing out the papers and folding them so they’d fit into her backpack.
    When she finished, she realized she was twenty minutes late for class and, shoulders slumped, returned to the counter to wait for a late pass.

~8~
    A WEDGE
    O ur knowledge of biology helps us to understand how life on earth is connected,” Mr. Rutkowski was telling his new biology class. Kate was relieved her teacher didn’t question the late pass. He handed her a textbook, then a syllabus, and nodded toward a vacant seat.
    â€œThis knowledge of how life is connected can be used in many ways,” her teacher continued.
    Kate sat and placed the heavy textbook on her desk. A growling tiger stared back at her from the cover. Tigers were beautiful, even when they were angry. But they had a reason to be angry, Kate sympathized. All tigers were endangered. Out of nine subspecies of tigers, only six remained, and it was all because people not only destroyed their habitats but hunted them for pelts, meat, and body parts. She sighed and glanced at the open book on the boy’s desk beside hers to try to figure out where they were. The boy smiled and pointed to the page number.
    â€œThanks,” Kate mouthed. She flipped to the right page and shifted uncomfortably. She hoped she’d done the right thing marching into the office and getting that form. It wasn’t like her to be so bold. But she