Page 35 of Surrender
Colbie had just finished packing up her bag when there was a knock on her door. Looking over, she found that it was Coach Porter.
“Coach Porter?” Colbie stated, a bit surprised.
She had been working at the school since the beginning of the year, and though she had met and had conversations with most of the other teachers, he wasn’t one of them. She knew who he was, naturally, but they had never spoken.
“Ms. Morris,” he stated, stepping into the room. “Can we talk?”
Colbie slightly raised a brow at him but nodded. She knew what he wanted to talk about. Max. She had found a tutor to help him, but he hadn’t bothered to attend the scheduled sessions. His project hadn’t even been half attempted. He had simply copied and pasted pieces of papers he had found on the internet, put his name on it and turned it in.
It was as if the young man didn’t care about his grades and expected them to be handed to him. She was sure that most of the other teachers graded on an extreme curve to accommodate the athletes and allow them to pass, but she didn’t believe in that. There was no way she would give someone a grade they hadn’t earned.
“I wanted to speak to you about Max Watts,” Coach Porter stated, confirming her thoughts.
Colbie nodded. “What about him?”
“I noticed that he’s failing your class. The boy has managed to somehow get himself an F.”
“Yes, he has.”
Coach Porter came to a stop in front of her, and she took a step back instinctively. He was crowding her space, and she didn’t like it. He was also far taller than her, standing at about six foot two.
“He needs a two-point zero to be eligible to play. He has a C in every one of his classes. That is except yours. The F you gave him has him at a one-point seven.”
“You mean the F he earned,” Colbie corrected.
She watched as he rubbed his chin. “It’s nothing but a little number switching to get him where he needs to be.”
Colbie shook her head. “This project was worth fifteen percent of their grade. He had a sixty in my class; he made a twenty-six on the project. For him to even pull off a seventy, he would have needed to make at the very least a seventy-eight. You’re asking me to consider giving him fifty-two extra points.”
“No,” Coach Porter told her, shaking his head. “I’m telling you to.”
“That’s not going to happen. I don’t know how the other teachers do it around here or what you’re used to, but I’m not going to give a student a grade they didn’t earn. That sets an unfair precedence for the rest of the students.”
“Look, girl,” Coach Porter snarled, grabbing her arm. “Max is playing on the team. He made the cut, and the team needs him. You’re going to change his grade, and that’s final.”
Colbie tried to yank her arm from him. “Let me go.”
He didn’t, though. He squeezed tighter, and Colbie knew he was trying to intimidate her, but it wouldn’t work. Her decision was final, and she wouldn’t be bullied into changing it.
She opened her mouth to tell him as much when he was ripped from her. She watched with wide eyes as Dallis pushed Coach Porter backward before punching him in the stomach and then in the eye. After that, it seemed to be an all-out fight. She shrieked out, and the noise drew the attention of a janitor passing by.
Before she knew it, there were four more people in her classroom separating the two men. While she had been shocked that Dallis had hit Coach Porter, she hadn’t thought the man would begin to fight him. Regardless of whether or not he was hit first. Dallis was still a student.
“All of you. My office,” Principal Coe, who was standing at the door, demanded.
Almost as if she was on autopilot, Colbie made her way behind Mrs. Coe while the four men kept Dallis and Coach Porter separated as they brought them along.
Once they were inside the office, no one said a word. Colbie felt much like a student at that moment, having been called to the principal’s office. On the way in, the older woman had requested that the secretary call Dallis’ parents.
Colbie glanced over at him, and she could tell he was angry as he glared at Coach Porter. His lip was busted, and she knew he would have a bruise on his jaw simply from the redness that had formed. However, he looked better than Coach Porter. The older man’s lip was busted at the top and bottom, but she knew he would also be sporting two black eyes. His jaw would be a bit bruised too.
“Someone better tell me what happened in that classroom,” Mrs. Coe spoke.
“I was conversing with Ms. Morris when this little punk attacked me out of nowhere,” Coach Porter spoke.
“Bullshit!” Dallis countered. “I was walking by, heading out of school, when I saw him assaulting my...iss Morris,” Dallis stated, correcting himself at the last minute, and Colbie had to stop her eyes from going wide.
“Assaulting?” Mrs. Coe questioned.
