Monday morning arrived right on time and the students were having to report to the school auditorium for yet another surprise announcement. Scarcely anyone actually knew what was going on. Noisily, they sat in roughly the same seats in which they were growing accustomed. In the case of Chloe and Bre, they could always be found in the back row towards the center. Wesley was typically on the right side about three-quarters of the way back. But this time, Mike and Curtis were sitting with Wesley.
The lights on the stage were on their full brightness and indirectly lit up the entire room; nevertheless, someone had pulled the house lights up to about half of their capacity. This gathering was a last minute idea, so a couple of the A/V guys were rushing to get off the stage after quickly pushing out the podium and plugging in the microphone. A few in the crowd gave sarcastic applause which were received with embarrassed smiles and a quick wave.
Mrs. Dunbar, being as professionally dressed as ever, made her way onto the stage. She waited for a half-minute or so in order for the late-comers to settle. When it appeared that everyone was there, she began her brief announcement. “Students, may I have your attention please? This will only take a few minutes and then you can get back to your classes.”
Some students continued to talk, but a little strategic shushing from their classmates brought the room into silence. Their love and respect for Mrs. Dunbar outweighed their desire to be humorous.
Mrs. Dunbar continued. “Thank you. Many of you already know what happened over the weekend …”
Chloe looked around. A slight wave of panic tickled the back of her neck. The party may have been a bit wild at first, but she did not think it worthy of the school’s attention. She barely had enough time to remove all traces of the fiesta before her dad returned late Sunday night. Could this really be about her? As far as she knew, nothing else happened that weekend – other than a little confusion over the time change. Luckily, she felt more comfortable as she listened to Mrs. Dunbar’s next statement.
“But in case you haven’t heard, our English teacher Mr. Harris and his wife Diane lost their home to a fire in the early hours of Sunday morning.”
What a relief, Chloe thought.
A loud laugh echoed throughout the auditorium and was quickly restrained. Some turned toward the back of the room to see where the laugh was coming from. Even Mrs. Dunbar was caught off guard by this rude outburst. Looking into the spotlight, she was unable to see the source of the laugh.
“Many of you are familiar with their son Billy, a sophomore here at Pecan Falls High …”
Another quick laugh managed to escape from Chloe. At once, she covered her hand squarely over her mouth. She was painfully trying to keep herself from laughing, but only because others around her turned to look at her in disgust. Even Bre grew uncomfortable, wondering what was going on. Chloe looked back at her apologetically.
Just a few rows down from her location, one of the senior boys whispered to his girlfriend, “That’s funny. Chloe mentioned something at her party about the Harris’ house burning down Saturday night. Remember? She said that it would be a service to the community or something like that. Then it actually caught fire just hours later. Weird.” This comment to his girlfriend was not unique; other students began to whisper similar statements to each other. Some were even texting.
Mrs. Dunbar had to regain their attention and the whispering stopped for now. But the texting continued. “I have asked Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Abernathy to distract them while I make this announcement. From my understanding, there is very little left. Naturally Mr. Harris denies that there is a need, but if any of you wanting to donate money or clothes, you can see Mrs. Parker in the biology lab or Mrs. Abernathy in the journalism department. I have been told that the church where the Harris’ attend is already helping them with food.”
Chloe lost it. Another momentary outburst confirmed to the student body who it was having a laughing problem. Again, she quickly stifled the sound as much as she could. She was now feeling a bit embarrassed about it – and Bre was embarrassed to be next to her. Thanks to the miracle of texting, the few students who were at Chloe’s party had managed to connect Chloe with the burning of the Harris’ home. And from there, the rumor began to spread like a wild fire.
Mrs. Dunbar was furious, but never showed it. This would have to be dealt with another time. “That’s all. Students, you are dismissed.” Controlling her disappointment, she walked off the stage as the house lights were raised to its normal level of illumination. Students began to get up and leave at a predictable pace. Mike, Curtis, and Wesley were among the first to leave the room; they were in a hurry to find Billy.
One of the older boys sitting three rows in front of Chloe turned toward her and spoke. “Smooth work, Chloe. Real slick. Confessing your crime before you actually do it? That’s the gutsiest thing I have ever heard of.”
Chloe’s enjoyment of the announcement dropped along with the smile on her face. She looked at the senior. “Huh?”
One of the girls sitting between them had another comment. “That wasn’t even funny. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt. You could’ve killed someone.” The girl did not stick around for a rebuttal; she simply walked off.
Chloe was aghast. “What are you talking about?!”
Everyone who had been sitting in that section was now listening to what was being said. The first boy spoke up again. “That number you just did over at the Harris place. Mighty brave. You said something about their place burning down while we were at your party. Later that night, it actually does burn down. That sort of math is so easy, even I could figure it out.”
“Do what?! You think that I had something to do with that?!”
“If the shoe fits …”
People around her were now vocalizing in agreement.
Chloe was losing her patience. “That is completely stupid. Your imagination is getting away from you. No one is going to think that.”
At that point, a boy way at the front of the room, way beyond earshot of their conversation, yelled at her from the entire length of the auditorium. “Hey Chloe! What do you do for an encore? Fix his brakes?” All students still in the room heard what he said.
One of the girls on the other side of Bre asked, “Are you a part of this? What time did you leave the party that night?”
Bre was now on the defense. “About 9:00 or so. The party kinda fizzled out after Billy left. Why?”
“Uh-huh,” she replied doubtfully and walked away.
Chloe and Bre looked around. Everyone was getting as far away from them as possible. In fact, the room was emptying out at a breakneck pace. The two would be alone in no time at this rate.
Did I just miss something? What just happened? Chloe wondered. She was feeling rather insecure, but made up for it by getting angry. “Well, that deescalated quickly.” She rolled her eyes in her usual, annoyed fashion and said, “Come on, Bre. Let’s get outta here.”
Bre was furious and spun her head over toward Chloe. “ …or what? Are you going to burn my house down too?” She stormed off getting away from Chloe. If Chloe was in any way responsible for that fire, Bre wanted nothing to do with it. She was already unhappy with the way Chloe made a complete fool out of Billy at the party. Just what was not beyond her abilities? How far would she go? What would she not do? This was too much - - way too much.
With a school presently full of students, Chloe was now alone in that enormous room.
About ten minutes earlier, Mrs. Dunbar was preparing to walk on stage and make the announcement about the Harris’ losing their home. Students were filing into the room at normal teenage speed. Chloe and Bre had already found their way to their seats. Wesley walked in with Mike and Curtis. Billy and Mr. Harris were out of the room somewhere – probably talking with Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Abernathy about the fire.
Coach Holton had been subbing for Maggie’s regular PE teacher who was still on maternity leave. He told them early on not to dress out due to an assembly. When he released the kids, Maggie caught up with Berly out in the hall next to the trophy case.
“Do you know what’s going on?” she asked Berly.
“No idea. They don’t run these things by me,” she joked.
“Well, I guess we are about to find out.”
Nearly everyone was already seated when the two of them walked into the auditorium. They quickly found seats near the aisle. Berly looked around the room but did not see Billy anywhere. She did, however, see Chloe and her friend in the back, cheerfully talking and laughing with the people around her. I wonder what that’s like, she thought. She pushed her glasses back up her nose. Pretty and popular. Must be nice. The two girls engaged in their usual small talk and wisecracks until the lights dimmed.
Mrs. Dunbar’s announcement knocked their breath out. Berly was especially surprised. A fire? Poor Billy. I wonder what they are going to do, she thought.
Someone in the back of the room let out a single uncontrolled laugh.
Berly leaned in toward Maggie. “Who was that?”
“I don’t know, but that was pretty rude.” They both turned around momentarily and then drew their attention back toward Mrs. Dunbar.
Another laugh.
Maggie turned. Even in this limited light, she noticed everyone looking over at Chloe, who was now covering her mouth. “Oh wow. Okay. That’s that Chloe girl that Billy seems interested in. Remember the queen bee?”
“Do what?” Berly spun around to see. “Sure is.”
Right then, a girl sitting on the other side of Maggie leaned forward and told someone in front of them about Chloe’s fire comment at the party. Both girls overheard the remark and were shocked. But Mrs. Dunbar commanded everyone’s attention once again, finished her bit, and left the stage. The lights came back up to normal prompting the students to rise out of their seats. Maggie and Berly stood up as well.
Berly’s mind was spinning. “Well, this couldn’t come at a worse time – right on the heels of his buddy’s accident. Not cool. I wonder if there is anything that we can do.”
Maggie was sympathetic. “Yeah. I have Spanish Club during lunch today so we’ll have to talk about this after Chess this afternoon. Heh. When I say it like that, I sound busy.”
At that point, their attention was drawn to the back of the room. Something was happening. It looked like a handful of students in the rear of the auditorium were exchanging heated words with Chloe. The bubbly demeanor she was previously wearing had changed to extreme agitation. To make matters worse, a boy in the front of the room yelled back at her at full volume. “Hey Chloe! What do you do for an encore? Fix his brakes?” It was impossible to escape the sound of his voice as it filled the room.
“What’s going on here?” Berly asked.
“The plot thickens,” Maggie said. “It sounds like she made a comment about the Harris’ house burning down before it actually did. Now the students all think that she did it.” As she was talking, the two girls got caught up in the crowd of exiting kids. At the last minute, they looked up and saw Chloe surrounded by others in full-debate fashion. Chloe looked mad. Even her friend Bre looked unhappy with her. Then that was it; they both found themselves in the hall standing next to that same trophy case.
Berly pulled her hair back behind her ears and readjusted her glasses. “Sheesh. That got bad. Tell me, is this always how high school is?”
Maggie shrugged. “Pretty much.” Her face became distant. The wheels in her mind were turning. “You know what I think? I think this isn’t right.”
“I know. Who would do that sort of thing?”
“No, no. That’s not what I mean. I mean this is too easy.”
“Too easy? What is?”
“Well, look around. What do you see?”
Berly looked. Everyone was walking to their lockers or to their next class. But they were all talking about Chloe – and it was not nice talk. She said, “They all look like a battle is about to break out and everyone is getting on the same side.”
“Exactly,” Maggie added. “And on the other side, there sits Chloe. Something about this is plain wrong.” She looked down the hall in the other direction. “Yeah. If there is something that I don’t like about high school, it would be this playground mentality. You would think that we would’ve grown out of it by now. An argument breaks out and suddenly everyone is taking sides – preparing to fight in a war that isn’t theirs. People are always looking for ways to get involved in stuff that isn’t their business. It’s childish.”
That reminded Berly of something. “What was it that we heard the other night at church? It was something Paul said about childish things. When I was a child …”
“That’s right. ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’ Sadly, I picture a lot of our classmates dragging these same childish attitudes with them into the adult world. This is too much drama for me. Whatever happened to ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’?”
They noticed that Bre stormed out of the auditorium using the other door. She came out looking as angry as a wet hen. And she was noticeably alone. Turning both ways, she regained her bearings and stormed over to her next class. Chloe was probably still inside the auditorium.
“So what do you think is going on here?”
Maggie considered the question. “Judging from how childish everyone is acting, I can’t see them possibly being right – the crowd, I mean. The bandwagon is loaded with misinformed people who aren’t thinking clearly. I don’t know.” She paused in thought. “Maybe Chloe didn’t do it.” More confidently now, “Yeah. In fact, I would be very much surprised if she had anything to do with this at all. And as usual, people are turning on her as if they needed to find someone to blame.”
“Popularity is a fickle game.”
“True dat.”
Chloe popped out of the door next to the girls. They instinctively looked up at her. But they were caught off-guard by this sudden action and did their best to ‘look natural.’ Chloe was not fooled.
“You. Yeah, you.” Chloe took a few steps closer to them. “I’ll bet you two were just talking about me, weren’t you?”
Busted. The truth is that they were, but not in the way that Chloe assumed. Being put on the spot like that, Berly tried to speak. “Umm. We uh …”
Chloe’s face turned red with fury. Before Berly could say anything else, Chloe stomped off and disappeared around a corner.
About a minute later, the two girls finally exhaled.