The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (26 page)

              He was rewarded by a smile he had never seen before when Grace asked, “Anything else?”

              “I told him that I was going to go into communications in college.  I like sports but not playing them.  He went ballistic.  Mom had to take him home to get him to calm down.  Normally I’d be shooting some hoops to think, but I can’t and this room is driving me crazy.  It’s like the walls are closing in on me.” 

              Grace reached for the TV remote and turned it onto one of the movie channels.  They settled carefully on the bed to watch the movie and Grace was cautious to avoid touching his knee. 

Kyle whispered, “I really hope that things are going to be different.”  Before they had even settled in, he added, “I did notice you before the makeover by the way.” 

She just smiled at him. 

              She looked around the small apartment and started planning.  The list of things they needed kept growing.  Garbage bags.  Cooking supplies.  Food.  She could barely focus on everything that needed to be done and Brady had already been in the apartment for a week!

              He’d obviously been covering the big things like furniture.  She recognized one of the tables against the kitchen wall – creating more counter space – as one of the tables that had previously been in her mother’s craft room. 

              Dishes.  Silverware.  Both items were added to her mental to-buy list as she picked up a discarded fast food bag off the floor. 

              “How..?”

              “I’ve been going to class and work.  I haven’t had time to focus on getting things in order.  Besides, I thought you might want to be included in those decisions.”  Brady pointed around the room and told her where several of the bigger pieces of furniture came from.  She was surprised about how many things had come from her mother: the table, some brightly colored pillows, a bookcase, and everything needed for the bathtub including a shower curtain rod.  “That hasn’t stopped our families from bringing over the big and expensive items.”

              Hannah looked at the room around them.  “Is that one of the coffee tables where the top can be lifted up?”

              Brady smiled, “Yes.  Mom saw it and the size of the room and thought it would be a good compromise for a combined living room and dining room.  The top lifts up and can become a table where we can do homework or eat while sitting on the couch.  I thought we could angle them to face the T.V. that your mom smuggled out of your old room for us.  I checked.  It’s capable of also working as a computer screen if we connect it to a monitor so that you only have to deal with a keyboard and mouse instead of a laptop.” 

              He looked so pleased that he was able to solve one ‘problem’ that she didn’t have the heart to tell him that she could use her laptop on the collapsible table. 

The weekend disappeared slowly even though nearly everybody kept stopping by the hospital or Kyle’s house to check on him.  Monday could not come soon enough for him as the four walls in the downstairs guest bedroom had started to collapse in on him.  The walls seemed to get smaller and smaller until there was only enough room for the bed he was resting on.  Kyle never would have thought that he was claustrophobic until that weekend. 

It became even worse when half of his football teammates tried to fit into the room on Sunday afternoon.  As a group
they managed to help him avoid those questions that he was very much in favor of avoiding only because everybody was talking all over each other.  Nobody noticed how withdrawn he had become. 

When Monday morning finally arrived Wesley gave him a ride to school.  It only took a few moments for Grace to join him as soon as his friend pulled into the parking lot, and she was shortly followed by the others in her group, including Jennifer, once they entered the school.  She seemed to hang back from everybody else while talking to Wesley.  They managed to work as his bodyguards, preventing their classmates from asking too many of the same questions over and over again that Kyle was utterly sick and tired of hearing.

Grace had already visited Kyle’s locker before he had made it to school.  Minutes after entering the school and before the group had managed to reach Delilah's locker, they were chattering about wanting to see if her ‘secret’ admirer had struck over the weekend in an attempt to keep other people away from Kyle.  Everybody had their suspicions, especially since David was frequently found reading the same title that the secret admirer had left behind for Delilah’s enjoyment.

They stopped talking when David yelled, "WHO DID THIS?" loud enough to stop people down the hallway in place. 

Spray painted across the locker in bright red paint was the word "Slut" along with several other offensive words painted in other colors. However the red painted word stood out more than the black or white spray paint did over the gray lockers.

David's yelling attracted the attention of several teachers that were stationed around the corner from that bank of lockers. He also made her take out all of her books and use his locker until that door had either been repainted or replaced, despite her protests that she was already using Grace or Jennifer’s lockers for her important assignments. 

His normally non-existent overly-protective streak was emerging after being hidden from view for so many years.  He walked her to every class, even if it meant being late to his next class. Nobody minded too much when he slipped out of his classes early either. They knew, or suspected, that he was either trying to catch the bullies in action before they did anything else or he was waiting on Delilah. 

Everyone in the student body had their suspicions, but it wasn’t completely surprising that nothing had been caught on the security cameras.  Nobody could prove anything and that was utterly frustrating.

The story was beginning to circle around the school that Aimee Kirkland was the mastermind behind the destruction of Delilah's locker.  Who else would possibly want to destroy Delilah’s locker?  It was well-known that Aimee hated the girl for having David’s attention that that Aimee had done everything she could possibly think of to get David back; the entire school had either witnessed or heard about her antics.

They didn’t know that Kelly had been forced into the plan because she had unwisely given the suggestion to spray paint Delilah's locker.  At that point it was either join them and get in trouble for something she did do or back out and get in trouble for something she didn’t have any part in doing.  It had been a joke, but once it had left her lips she was forced in on the plan.  Nothing could be proven since all of the main players kept their mouths closed.

More and more of the upper classmen were looking in Aimee’s direction even as she shrugged her shoulders and said nothing.  Nobody had ever been able to prove anything against her before.  Nobody could explain how she was able to get into the school building after the doors were locked.  Nobody ever had ever been able to witness her in action. 

Instead of fearing her, people started to give her a wide berth.  Antics that were amusing as freshmen or sophomores were juvenile as seniors.  People would snub Will and Kelly in the hallways.  Not for the first time in the past weeks had Hannah ever been so thankful that she had walked out of Aimee’s bedroom that night.  Instead they would come up to her saying things like, “You were smart to get away from Aimee.” 

She savored the positive comments, knowing that in a few months they might be saying things differently, but right now she didn’t care.  Right now she was worried about just how pale Delilah had gone.  Right now she wished she had been able to better protect Kelly. 

Other rumors started to spread thanks to Will Cooper, seemingly still annoyed by David's dismissal but actually because he was being manipulated by Aimee. Will's rumors were of a nasty and hateful nature. Kelly was a bit more careful of what she spread around; she did like Delilah even if she occasionally had difficulty understanding what the bookworm would say.

By the end of the day, with her head held high, Delilah managed to escape the torture of hell with David beside her. She had refused to leave and give Aimee the satisfaction of her retreat.  Grace, Jennifer, and Penny were surrounding her, each with a ready shoulder for when the inevitable tears would emerge. Wesley and Kyle acted as body guards, ready to hit the next guy whom recalled one of Aimee’s rumors.  In fact Kyle was starting to wonder just how satisfying swinging his crutches at the gossips would be towards relieving his own lingering anxiety.  

When David suddenly stopped walking the rest of the group nearly ran into him.  Delilah looked at David concerned when she saw what, after he had been her pillar of strength all day, made him freeze up.

The convertible's tires were slashed, the lights and windows smashed in, the fire engine red paint marred from being keyed and spray painted with more black and white paint. Enough words were scratched into and painted onto the car that it would fill up one of Penny’s swear jars.  A crowd had formed around the abused car.  Students were all gaping and gasping as the injustices of the day were finally and completely revealed to each and every student, including the ones who had, at the time, joyfully joined in on spreading the rumors. 

Nobody said a word. 

It had, somehow, been skillfully managed between class periods and during restroom breaks.  So much had been happening within the walls of the school building that nobody thought to monitor the parking lot. 

Will Cooper was leaning lazily against his truck, smiling crookedly.  He was wholeheartedly sick and tired of hearing people praising David’s car whenever they had passed it in the parking lot.  So many people already knew how hard David had worked in order to buy this particular car. 

That was the one of the first things he started to hear once people got over the shock.

“Why would somebody do that?”

“He worked for two years just to be able to buy that car.”

“This is worse than damaging lockers and desks.  It is either a Class D or Class C Felony.  Those can be punishable anywhere from two to fifteen years in prison and five thousand to ten thousand dollars in fines.”

“How do you know this?”

“I took Criminal Justice last year and plan on majoring in it next year.” 

Suddenly Will paled and panicked.  It was impossible to go anywhere with the crowds gathered around David’s car, blocking everybody else from leaving. 

Wesley turned and rushed back into the school building once he had gotten over his shock. Gasping for air from his sprint, "We need the tapes from the parking lot reviewed. David Carver's car has been trashed."

"I don't know what good it will do," the secretary drawled. "Ms. Davis' locker went undetected. Whoever did this knew when the cameras would be on the locker."

"But a car is a much bigger deal than a locker, Mrs. Freeman," Principal Hodges walked out of his office.  He had managed to see and hear the crowd outside in the parking lot and had wondered why nobody was leaving yet.  It wasn’t the first time that day he had wondered if he needed to find a younger administrative assistant that didn’t appear to hate students and would actually pay attention to what was going on around the student body. 

Moments later, after reviewing and fast forwarding through the tapes, he was outside and striding towards the crowd.  He had left instructions to Mrs. Freeman to call the police department and find the campus School Resource Officer.

David's hands were fisted; he had saved for years to be able to get a decent down payment for that car and was still paying on it. Delilah, finally speaking after the entire day of silence, was trying to calm him down.

“It’ll be okay.  They just screwed up royally.  The parking lots are always monitored,” she assured him.

Behind her Kelly’s face blanched.

"I want to see William Cooper, Aimee Kirkland, and Kelly Johnson in my office right now," Mr. Hodges' voice boomed. "Regardless, your parents have been notified of your behavior and will be in my office shortly.  I’ve also had the police notified."

Before his sentence was finished Mr. Cooper sped into the parking lot in his work truck; he had been less than five minutes away at the tractor supply store.  After a quick look at David's car, "That's what happened with my missing spray paint!"

"Dad," Will cowered, wishing he could hide behind his truck.

"Busted," Mark mumbled under his breath.

"Aimee Madeline Kirkland!" a high pitched voice screeched. "What is this I hear about you terrorizing your classmates?"

Aimee was scared to turn around and face the only person she was actually scared of disappointing, "Mom."

"Oh shit," Jennifer whistled.

"My office, NOW," Mr. Hodges nearly yelled when nobody had moved.

From the moment that Mr. Hodges had called in the parents, the rest of the crowd, at least those who had yet to connect Delilah’s locker to David’s car, realized that everything that had been going on was because Aimee was enacting revenge over the fact that David refused to take her back and preferred spending time with Delilah.

Jennifer was left to drive the now carless three back to their houses.  After dropping off David and Delilah, she turned to Grace and asked, "When did they start holding hands?"

"I think it was when they saw his car."  After a long moment, Grace added, “Today’s David’s birthday.”

              It appeared as if Brady was more nervous about the first doctor’s appointment than Hannah was.  Truthfully she was extremely nervous, but had developed the habit of keeping a calm façade up whenever Brady was nervous.  It didn’t matter what she was actually feeling; Hannah appeared to be calm.  Instead she was internally bouncing up and down with worry.

              What if she waited too long to go to the doctor?  What if there was something wrong with the baby?  Was she too young to have a baby? 

              When Brady’s phone let out a loud chime, everybody turned to look at them.  He was too absorbed in checking his message to notice, but it was enough to cause Hannah to sink down in her seat and hope that she was suddenly invisible. 

              “Damn,” he mumbled once he’d read the condemning message.  “As if this wasn’t enough, she had to go and do something so stupid!”  Realizing he was speaking too loud, Brady apologized to the room before showing Hannah the text message. 

             
Kelly and Aimee trashed a classmate’s car.  Come by after the appt.

              She turned to look at him, “Whose car… Oh, right.”  Hannah thought for a moment before realizing that it had to be David Carver’s car.  Delilah Davis didn’t have a car yet.  “David’s beautiful Mustang.” 

              Brady looked at her, “A twenty thousand dollar plus car?”

              “Yeah; it’s fairly new.  He bought it a few years ago and has been paying it off ever since.” 

              Her fiancé closed his eyes, “I never should have bailed her out last year after Mr. Wallace’s car was trashed.” 

              Hannah started laughing, not caring that it was drawing stares from the other waiting room occupants.  “Well, Aimee definitely has a pattern, doesn’t she?”