The following is an excerpt from the beginning of my novel The Fiennes. The scene: Pleasant Valley High School, fall 2005. Helen Fiennes is the protagonist. Jess, one of Helen's fellow cheerleaders, may have intentionally let Helen fall during cheer practice the preceding day.
Lydia
gasped when she watched Helen hobble up to the main entrance the next morning.
Her gait was so uneven that she placed one foot on the first stair, then
lifting up the other foot to the same stair, before continuing up again. In one
hand she held a round mauve cushion. Her father had painstakingly written “H.
Fiennes” across it, on both sides, in black permanent marker.
“No
more cheering for the season,” Helen grumbled.
“Did
you tell Mrs. Baker yet?”
“No,
but I’m sure my dad will. I broke my tailbone. I have to sit on this doughnut
thing to keep the pressure off my ass.” She held up the mauve cushion.
“That
bitch,” Lydia spat.
“Mrs.
Baker?”
“No,
her.” Lydia gestured towards Jess,
looking over her shoulders to make sure they weren’t heard.
Jess
swished her ironed platinum hair over her shoulder and resumed an animated conversation
with Kristen. Her hair was cut straight across and came down to the top of her
chest. Lydia and Helen wondered if that length was intentional.
“She’s
going around saying you were with Max in the girls’ locker room showers,” Lydia
scoffed. “Like you would do anything with Max.”
“God.”
Helen rolled her eyes.
“A
bunch of girls in the squad have been asking me if I knew about it.”
Helen
met Jess’s narrowed eyes long enough to see that her liquid eyeliner was too
thick around her left eye, and barely visible on the right eye. Jess held up
her right hand and lowered her thumb and pinky fingers, leaving her three
middle fingers pressed together. Just as a teacher turned her back, Jess
flipped Helen off.
Helen
scoffed. “Congratulations, Jess. I can’t cheer for the rest of the season. You
broke my tailbone!”
Jess
threw her hair back, pulled it into a high ponytail, and walked up to Helen
slowly.
“Back
off my man, Leni, or next time it’ll be Lydia,” Jess whispered.
“I
don’t think so,” Helen snapped. She slipped her backpack off her shoulders and,
remembering that she had her chemistry and algebra textbooks inside, swung it
in front of her. Her intention had just been to show Jess that she was able to
defend herself.
While she successfully demonstrated her
self-defense skills, Helen also managed to hit Jess’s arm. The blow left a
purple bruise. Several boys hollered for a catfight. Kristen shouted at Jess to
not hit back, because that would mess up her manicure. Jess swung out her right
fist, but Helen stepped back, put her backpack on again, and told Jess firmly:
“I
don’t want to be with Max. I never did.”
Principal
Klein, who normally stationed herself just outside the front steps with a pack
of Marlboros, marched to the scene, her comfort heels clicking on the concrete.
“You
two interrupted my last cigarette before school,” Klein huffed. “My office.
Now.”
Jess
and Helen sat in front of Klein’s desk, arms crossed, giving each other the
side eye.
“I
don’t care what this is,” Klein said,
pointing at the two girls disdainfully. “But keep it off school grounds.”
“I
can’t believe it, Ms. Klein,” Jess whimpered. “This totally came out of
nowhere.”
“She
threatened to attack my friend Lydia,” Helen corrected. “She let me fall in
cheer practice yesterday. Congratulations Jess, you didn’t kill me.” She turned
to Klein. “She broke my tailbone.”
“This
is unbelievable,” Klein sighed, clutching her head.
“Aren’t
you going to file a report on her?” Helen asked.
“Mrs.
Baker filed an incident report yesterday. She said the fall was an accident.”
Jess
kept up her high, singsong voice. “It’s true Leni and I have had issues, Mrs.
Klein, but I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
Helen
gripped the side of her head, crunching her hair and just scratching her scalp.
She had heard Jess use the same voice whenever she asked a teacher for an
extension or a bump in her grade. To her, that strained baby voice sounded like
nails on a blackboard. When Jess bit her lip and shuddered, Klein stared at the
wall clock. “I can’t believe you would think that of me, Leni. That really
hurts my feelings.”
“God, shut up,” Helen replied. She may have hit Jess with
a backpack, but she still thought she was a better person for using her real
voice when talking to adults.
“Both
of you stop talking,” Klein said. She rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t have
enough time to get coffee this morning, which means I’m in already caffeine
withdrawal and your backpack stunt put me in nicotine withdrawal.” She pointed
at Helen.
“She
threatened my friend,” Helen said. “Everyone out there heard her.”
“I
would never hurt Lydia,” Jess whined. “I just want her to leave my boyfriend alone.”
“You
were there, Jess, how could you think—”
“Backstabbing
SLUT!”
“ME?”
Helen shrieked, baring her glistening white teeth like daggers. “YOU went around telling everybody I hooked up with Max
when you know that’s not what happened at all!”
“I’ve
heard enough!” Klein said. “I’m calling your parents. You’re suspended for two
weeks for fighting on school grounds.”
“Fine,”
Helen said. She knew she couldn’t walk away unscathed after hitting someone
with a twenty-pound backpack, but it felt good to know Jess was getting some
kind of punishment. She just wished the same were true for Max.
“Suspension
includes extracurricular activities… including cheerleading.”
Jess’s
jaw dropped, and for the first time that morning, she was visibly scared. “No
cheering for two weeks?”
“It
sucks, doesn’t it?” Helen said, lifting up the corner of her mouth in a vicious
smile.
“If
you two keep talking, it’ll be four weeks.”
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