Beautiful Bedlam (17 page)

“I made some off the cuff false accusations about Mr. Blake which were completely untrue and have apologized sincerely. I realize my actions were immature and my behavior inexcusable. I apologize to you for saying those things, sir. I apologize for wasting your time, Principal Sharpe. It won’t happen again.” Sienna said monotonously as if she were reading it from a cue card, her face remained deadpan as if she were taking a mug shot. This was not the response that Sharpe had wanted nor expected and she looked a little thrown by it.

“The hell it won’t. Don’t worry. We’ll make sure of it.” Meredith remarked earnestly and stood up with a heavy sigh.

“We’re so sorry about this, about whatever she said to you. You look like such a nice respectable young man.” Maria cooed and adjusted the collar to Mr. Blake’s shirt much to all of their shock and Sienna’s complete and utter humiliation and dismay. She knocked her mother’s hand away from him quickly. Sharpe just coughed in to her fist almost uncomfortably.

“I tried calling Mr. Rivers. Is he…at home or at work?” she asked timidly.

“He has just returned home from a business trip. He would have come himself but he was exhausted from the travel.” Her mother said airily and gave Sienna a small amused smile as if to say she approved very much of her daughter’s chemistry teacher. Sienna was confused. Was this another lie? Maybe it was because Sienna was distracted by the fact that her mother was giving bedroom eyes to her evil Professor Snape of a chemistry teacher or was Principal Sharpe actually fishing for information…about her father?
Oh. Dear. God. No
.

Was she the mystery affair woman? She couldn’t be.

Yes, her mother was a drunk but by God men never tired of looking at her. She was in the words of Usher in a scale of one to ten, a certified twenty. She was stunning so much to the extent that she realized that Mr. Blake was looking quite literally at anything other than her just to maintain his professionalism. Sharpe on the other hand was…astoundingly average, a small petite woman with small beady brown eyes and a beak of a nose but not exactly ugly either.

Sienna shook her head. God, she was getting so paranoid these days over anything. Sure, the both of them happened to leave and return to town on the exact same day but that didn’t mean anything? Sharpe didn’t just call her parents to her office in the hopes of seeing her father again? Perhaps they had argued? Maybe he decided to go back to his children and broke her heart and she couldn’t take it anymore so she lured them in to her office, locked the doors and had cyanide gas ready to be released from the air vents and-

“Sienna?”

“Yes?” she gulped and looked up to see everyone staring at her oddly. They had all risen from their chairs and seemed to be waiting for her. She swallowed the vomit that was creeping up her throat and stood up slowly.

“Next time, I’ll most definitely be calling your father and letting him know.” Sharpe said as she shook Sienna’s limp hand. The more she looked at Sharpe, the more she imagined her walking down an aisle in an ill form fitting white dress, saying her I do’s and shoving her tongue down her father’s throat and having to be forced to call her stepmother.

“Ummhmm.” were the only form of an answer Sienna’s weak lips could muster. She followed her family members out who were quick to inform her of their disappointment and how much of an inconvenience she was to them.

“Really you couldn’t have picked a better day to fail?” Meredith snarled at her.

“I didn’t fail. I got a B.” Sienna replied swiftly.

“Well what about the fights in class? Who are you fighting with?” Cora practically growled at her. Sienna wondered what they were even doing here? Shouldn’t Meredith be in college, her mother still passed out, Cora doing…god knows what Cora did when she wasn’t taking shifts at the Golden Palace Chinese restaurant.

“Are you getting bullied?” Meredith asked snappily practically talking over her.

“Only now.”

“Why is your teacher so young?” her mother asked dreamily.

“Is dad really home?” Sienna asked irritably choosing to ignore her.

“We’ll talk about this later.” Meredith said abruptly and pushed Cora and nudged their mother out of the door before Sienna could say another word.

“Wait!” she called after them.

“Sienna!” Mr. Blake called after her as he came and stood by her. He scratched his head awkwardly as he stared at her almost apologetically with her paper in his hand.

“Don’t bother.” She sighed and took it from him, folded it before stuffing in to her bag.

“Wait,” he said as he walked after her in to the deserted hallway.

“I wanted to apologize. Maybe…maybe I was a little harsh and…perhaps we could have solved this dispute amongst ourselves.” He said hesitantly, the words coming out in haggard breaths as if it really pained him to admit he might have been wrong. His arrogance was astounding. “Wow, that must’ve really hurt. Did a part of your soul just die apologizing to me?” she inquired with an amused smirk on her face.

“Oh no, I wasn’t apologizing.” He chuckled matching her amused expression. His violet blue eyes twinkled as the light hit them reminding her of the moon reflecting off the ocean waves at twilight.

“I was just…contemplating certain events that in hindsight I might have been able to handle a little differently, that’s all.”

“Whatever.” Sienna shrugged her shoulders and was poised to leave.

“Sienna, fresh start?” he said with his hand extended out to her. Today seemed to be a germaphobe’s worst nightmare filled with handshakes.

“Fresh start Mr. Blake.” She said begrudgingly and shook it.

“Blake. Just Blake is fine.” He said, his lips turned at the corner showing a ghost of a smile.

“Okay, Just Blake.” She said humorously over her shoulder as she turned and left with a strange elated feeling she didn’t quite understand.

13.

Her good mood was quickly obliterated once she got to her next period of English literature. All the seats were taken except for one…next to Logan Jackson. She cringed on the inside but alas to her misfortune sat down next to him with her hair over one shoulder blocking out his view of her. Mr. Collins their wacky eccentric albeit rather endearing English teacher came bumbling in to the classroom, fumbling with a stack of copies of some books, coffee mug forever in hand much like her mother’s wineglass.

“Sienna.” He called her softly but she pretended not to hear. Instead she looked to her right where Noah sat giving her a small friendly smile, which she reciprocated. Logan didn’t try and call her a second time. Making a fool out of himself over the same girl twice in one day was more than his ego could take. He wasn’t going to try a third time, not in public anyway.

“Now class, who can tell me what is most great literature and more specifically poetry usually about?” Mr. Collins asked loudly as he took off his tweed jacket.

“Love?” Noah suggested frankly voicing her thoughts.

“Death!” someone rather morbidly and abruptly shouted from the back of the class. She looked back to see it was the small Goth kid Talia in her seat looking back at her sheepishly.

“Religion?” Sienna suggested thinking of John Milton and Paradise Lost.

“Drugs!” Trent yelled out jovially and whooped a little too happily causing everyone to laugh a little.

“No not drugs Mr. O’Connell although you’d be amazed how many poets were under the influence of opium and other such drugs whilst conjuring up their works of art.” Mr. Collins said matter-of-factly and took another slug of his coffee and let out an audible appreciative ‘Ah!’

“So you’re saying if I get stuck on my poetry, I can find some
inspiration
in-“

“That’s not what I’m saying and you know it.” Mr. Collins sighed and grabbed his whiteboard marker and paced the classroom energetically searching the clueless faces of his pupils for the right answer. She wondered just how caffeinated his coffee was.

“Conveying a story? Or emotions?” Sienna chanced another guess nimbly.

“Sex.” Logan muttered and leaned back in his chair with his hand behind his head.

“Is that all you think about?” Sienna couldn’t help but ask acerbically as she turned her beautiful face to him.

“Me and every other red-blooded male on this planet. Why are you so mad at me? I didn’t do anything.” He hissed back. This was the first time she noticed the dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t been sleeping. Her face softened a fraction but she looked away quickly refusing to get lost in those eyes. She knew if he held her gaze a moment longer, he would have won her over and she would’ve melted in his arms and been putty in his hands all over again. ‘
No, not this time,’
she thought adamantly.

“Oh alright! I give up! You will find when studying the deep meaning of poetry you’ll find more often than most, that it’s usually talking about…SEX!” he yelled way too frantically and ecstatically as he scrawled the three letter word on to the board filling its entirety in big bold capital letters. The class erupted in titters of muffled confused laughter and exchanged baffled and slightly abashed glances with one another. He wagged his shaggy grey eyebrows enthusiastically and pointed to the board. “I know right! When studying great poetry you’ll learn lots of things about history, about purveying emotional depth and feeling in to rhythmic stanzas and you’ll also learn that most of these greats like Lord Byron were nothing but a load of perverts! Fantastic!” he bellowed with his Cheshire cat smile and tented his fingers together like Mr. Burns. She half expected him to quiver out “Excellent!”

“Now that I’ve got your full undivided attention! I regret to inform you we will not be dissected dirty poems written by dead people rather we will be reading and dissecting passages of...The Great Gatsby …a classic twentieth century novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald!” he exclaimed loudly to which he was met with audible sighs. He began handing out copies of the book whilst humming to himself chirpily.

“Now who can tell me just one theme of this book?” Mr. Collins voice boomed through the classroom as he wiped the board clean. His grey eyes fell upon her and his Cheshire cat smile returned almost as if he knew.

“Sienna, can you tell me?” he asked giddily, his pen poised at the ready.

She cleared her throat and felt her cheeks prickle with heat. Her heart pounded in her chest.

“Love, unreciprocated love.” She said feeling as if the weight of the world was upon her shoulders but that wasn’t it, it was just the weight of
his
eyes upon her.

14.

“Wow, to what debt of gratitude do I owe you for you to grace me with your presence my fair lady?” Noah said acerbically as she took a seat next to him in the cafeteria.

“Oh come on, Noah. We hang out.” She countered airily as she placed her tray down next to his. “Correction, past tense verb.
Hung
out. We used to hang out. I barely see you anymore.” He said almost wretchedly and took an angry stab at his defenseless salad with his fork. She didn’t exactly know what to say. She had
not
anticipated this reaction. His shoulders were slumped, his body slouched in his chair and he had his head cast down with his earphones blasting out heavy metal. His entire physical demeanor was darker, more depressed and gloomier than she’d ever seen him. He even wore al black which she had never seen him in…almost like Logan? He had always been the bubbliest, cutest sweetest chubby little kid. She barely saw a glimpse of that kid in this moody angry teenager. She pulled the one remaining earphone out of his ear.

“That’s not true. We have three classes together plus I eat lunch with you most days. I see you more than my own father.” She retorted jokily trying to diffuse the tension and to get to ease up a little.

“What happened to your quarterback? You two have a fight?” he asked as he nodded his head towards a forlorn looking Logan who sat at his usual table at the heart of the room surrounded by his fellow footballers and some cheerleaders including Rose.

“You
did
have a fight!” he gasped slowly with big rather too-happy-for-Sienna’s-comfort brown eyes and a cheeky grin. “Why do you even hate him? He’s been nothing but nice to you all your life. Remember that time in seventh grade when he beat practically handed Chuck Ross’ ass back to him when he saw him trying to steal your lunch money?” she reminded him, as always lurching to Logan’s defense. Noah wondered if she even realized how often she did. It was almost as if she couldn’t bear to hear a bad word against him even when they were so called fighting.

“No, because my mind has sealed off all and any traumatic events in my life which is basically my entire life before this year.”

“You couldn’t shut up about Logan when he came back to school. Anyone would have thought you had a bigger crush on him than I did.” She retorted and took a bite out of her sandwich.

“Do you…still have a crush on him?” he asked frankly. She frowned at him and looked irritated all of a sudden. Her bright green eyes sparked with anger and seemed to burn a little brighter. Her nose scrunched up a little in dislike just like it had always done when she was displeased with something or someone in this case.

“Whatever. None of my business, right?” he sighed and took another angry stab at the rabbit food.