Free Finding Hope in Texas by Ryan T. Petty Page A

it,
‘decked Miss Silverton.’ Is that correct?” I nodded. “Well, we have
a zero tolerance rule for fighting young woman, so I am afraid that
I am going to recommend to the principal that you–”
    “Well, just hang on there,” interrupted Mr.
Peet and turned to me. “Miss Kilpatrick, what caused you to knock
the crap out of that girl, besides that she deserved it from her
parents a long time ago?”
    “Mr. Peet!” the counselor looked
astounded.
    “She just...” Should I really tell them
the story? Wasn’t there a teenager code of conduct never to
tell a teacher anything? Would I be known as the snitch, the narc?
How much worse would it be for me if I told them my whole horrible
story? “She’s just getting on my nerves,” I muttered.
    Mr. Peet grinned. “Sounds like a good reason
to me.”
    “Now, Mr. Peet, stop it. Young lady, that’s
no reason to go around hitting anyone, especially someone that
works so hard and diligently for our school and the student body.
She will probably have a black eye for weeks because of you.” I
wanted to tell her that it would be hard to have a black eye since
I hit her in the mouth but thought smarting off was probably not in
my best interest. “Now, as I was saying, I think a week’s worth of
suspension will probably be a good idea.”
    Suspension? I had never heard the
word, at least directed at me, but before I could protest Mr. Peet
interjected.
    “Hang on there, Claudia. Isn’t there some
rule about first offenses or something? Besides, she’ll miss the
first week of my dual-credit class if she’s suspended. How about
just chunking her out in ISS for a little while, only getting out
for DC history? That sounds better than suspension, don’t you
think?”
    I said nothing. Why was Mr. Peet backing me
up on this? Mrs. Tremble’s wheels began to turn in her head as she
was trying to come up with some decision. I could tell she wasn’t
used to this, maybe because Mr. Peet was making it difficult or
maybe because she was not usually the one who had to make these
types of decisions? Weren’t counselors all about trying to get the
bad students to try to find some direction in their life? Well, her
direction sucked because it landed me right into Jody’s hands.
    “All right. Six days ISS, starting today. You
will be out of your regular classes until next Friday. You will go
to the ISS room right after leaving this office and only allowed to
come out for Mr. Peet’s class since it is college-oriented. Is that
understood?”
    “Yes,” I said, gathering my belongings not
even asking where I was being shuffled off to. Mrs. Tremble handed
me a slip of paper and motioned me to the door. Mr. Peet started
out the door quickly, but Mrs. Tremble asked him to stay after I
left. I asked the secretary what ISS was and she laughed.
    “You got ISS for hitting that girl? Well,
that’s not too bad. It stands for In School Suspension. You are
suspended, but get to keep up with your work up sitting in a
cubical all day long.” Oh, what fun this was going to be. “It’s in an outbuilding across campus. Here is your pass. I’ll call
down there in five minutes to make sure you have arrived.” Did she
just refer to me as one for skipping school? I’m sure after I left,
she and Mrs. Tremble would place me on some sort of watch-list to
make sure I didn’t corrupt the rest of the student body.
    As I began to leave, Mr. Peet came out of the
counselor’s office, looking a little worse for wear. She must have
given him a stern talking to about giving his honest opinion in
front of students. He smiled and opened the door for me as he
headed back to class and I headed toward my cubical.
    “Thank you,” I muttered.
    He looked at me. “Just doing my job, kid. Now
don’t make me regret it.” He turned and walked down the hall.
    I smiled and looked at the exit door.
Somewhere across campus there was a cubicle with my name on it and
I only had four minutes to