Young Writers Society

Things were never exactly the same at the academy after the Coach Johnson incident. I had a smoldering, intense hatred building inside of me for what he did to Bailey that I never thought was there. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to suffer the same way he made Bailey suffer – or even worse. I wanted him to feel the same pain she felt when he robbed her of her innocence, when he shattered her heart. I wanted to see him one last time to tell him what a monster he was. But with his arrest having come soon after it all happened, it didn’t seem likely I'd see him again soon.

All in all, I was ready to explode. And if I couldn’t reach Coach Johnson, I was going to explode on someone else.

“Hello? Mom?” I asked into my cell phone speaker, sitting on the sofa in my bedroom. “How are you?”

“I’m…okay,” Mom said in a flaky, unsure voice. “Okay is a weak way of putting it. How are your grades?”

“B’s and C’s,” I responded. “I wish I could do better, but it’s sort of hard…I’m still adjusting to having missed so many years, I guess.”

“That’s great,” Mom screeched. “But that’s not why I’m calling you, actually. Err, sweetie. What is this I’m reading online that says a teacher from your school was arrested?”

I brushed my hand against my face and scowled. “Mom, that was two weeks ago,” I reminded her, doing little to hide my annoyance.

“Well, I’m working two jobs, I don’t exactly have all day to sit online,” she rebutted. “But for your information, I also read something about a student who disappeared.”

Ben, I thought to myself, loathing where this was going. Ugh…

"I’m thinking when I come to pick you up for Christmas next week, I might not bring you back,” she added. “The Heartbeat Academy doesn’t seem like a good place to be sending you."

“Mom, no!” I shouted. “I don’t need to go home. It was just one teacher, that's all."

"Well, if one teacher inviting a student into their home and raping them isn't enough to make a mother not want to send her kid there isn't enough, I'm sorry," she scornfully said. "Between your this, the card in the mail, your puberty-starting sisters, I just think it's all too much, okay?"

"But you're not listening, and—hold on. What did you say?”

“I said, the Heartbeat Academy doesn’t seem like a good place to be sending you and oh, shoot.”

“You said, the card in the mail. What card did you get in the mail?”

“Sweetie, how are your grades looking?”

“No! Tell me what you were saying—”

“Oops. Your sisters are calling me. I left the stove on,” she fibbed. “Bye, Toby!”

The line went completely dead. I called her back right away, only to get a chilling message.

We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service.

***

“Secret Santa?” Bailey asked, seated beside me on the roof of the main building, our legs dangling out into the breezy, yet crisp, air. “Mr. Tyler is doing Secret Santa this year?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. She hadn’t been to class since the incident, and understandably, nobody was rushing her to come back. “I drew a name for you…you got Jean-Luc. I got Charles.”

She shut her eyes and scrunched her fingers together in her palms, exhaling a wad of air. “I…I don’t know what to get him,” she sorrowfully said. “I barely even know the guy…what am I going to do, Toby?”

“Yeah. I don’t know him that well either,” I responded.

“But, you were his gym partner,” Bailey said. And as soon as she muttered the word—gym—a striking fear overwhelmed her and she flinched, nearly tumbling off the edge of the main roof.

I grabbed her arm, and her skin was ice cold but it still gave me great warmth. Her breaths were heavy and I could feel heart pounding as she grabbed my hand, pulling herself upright to regain composure.

And she didn’t let go of my hand.

“I talked to Headmaster Barnes about it today,” she said. “In his office.”

“What did he say?” I asked, my hand still locked with hers as I looked up to the navy sky, luminescent stars littered wondrously underneath the pellucid clouds. “Did he apologize to you?”

She shook her head. “Nope. He didn’t apologize at all,” she said. “He didn’t even act like it was that big of a deal. Well, he did, but it was sort of like, insincere, you know? He just said they arrested him…and that Diana and I will probably have to appear in court. With him. Right there, right across the room. I hoped I never had to see him again, Toby...”

“…”

“I’m just so scared Toby,” she said with a sigh, tightening her hand in mine, her soft fingers wrapped into my own. “You know what the worst of it is?”

“What?” I asked. “What was the worst of it?”

Bailey sighed again, her big brown eyes shining out towards the distance of the night sky. “He stole my first kiss,” she said. “That’s something I can never, ever get back…”

She turned her head towards me, like she wanted me to do something, and I knew what that was. I turned my head, and looked straight into her eyes. A certain sadness and anger boiled up inside of me yet again, and I saw an image of Coach Johnson. Past her lifeless eyes, messy hair and pasty skin, past her broken spirit and fallen angel, all I saw was that monster.

It was because he was still in her head. But I wasn’t going to let him ruin her. I had to be the one to bring life back into her. I had to. Nobody else would.

We grew as quiet as the pale moon. Her cheeks turned a bright pink, as my heart skipped a thousand beats.

We leaned in.

And then she jumped back.

“Ah!” She exclaimed, scrambling her feet, rushing back towards the window to the main building. “S-sorry, Ben!”

“W-wait!” I cried. “Did you just call me—”

“A-ah, I-I’ll see you tomorrow, Tobes!” she shouted. “Remember, get gifts for Charles, and then Jean-Luc, too!”

“W-wait, I never said I would—”

It was too late to argue. She was already gone through the window. And with that, I was left with getting gifts for three people.

Charles Goulagh.

Jean-Luc Yount.

And then, Bailey. And I knew just what to get her, too.