Page 63 of A Vicious Rumor

He rolled his eyes, but shifted his weight to pull a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I wrote this at lunch," he said.

"Fabulous," Ms. Murdoch said sarcastically.

"Lunch was really good.

"I had a slice of pizza.

"I enjoyed it lots."

Zachary finished reading his poem with a huge grin on his face.

"Well, I can't say that it doesn't meet the requirements. It's a pass, Mr. King," the teacher said.

"Yes!" Zachary said, balling up the piece of paper and throwing it into the trashcan.

"Ms. White. Perhaps you can redeem your classmate with something more thoughtful."

I smiled and opened up my notebook. I'd spent a really long time on this assignment. I'd actually written a number of Haiku's but landed on the one sitting in front of me. I guess I just hadn't expected to be asked to read it in front of the class. And, I hadn't expected Tyson to be in the class, either.

But, I'd left the others at Zachary's. So, I took a deep breath, and started to read:

"A fight formed friendship.

"A walk formed a connection.

"A night sealed a fate."

The class was silent for a moment before finally, the teacher said something. "Well, Ms. White, I'm not sure what it means, but I'm sure it has meaning for you, and that's the whole point."

"Alright, who's next?"

Tyson raised his hand and lifted his head off the desk. "I'll go," he said, not waiting for Ms. Murdoch to give him the okay. He locked eyes with me and started to speak.

"You are fake like them.

Your clothes, your hair, your face. Gross.

I hate you for it."

He didn't break eye contact the entire time. He just stared at me as he said the words. The entire class was dead silent as he put his head back down on his desk. It was obvious that the poem was directed at me. I tried my hardest not to let a tear escape my eyes, but they were welling up and obscuring my vision so badly.

"Mr. Stone," Ms. Murdoch said in a stern voice. "I don't know what just went through your head, but I think you owe someone an apology."

"No," Tyson said. "She owes me one."

Ms. Murdoch pointed her finger at the door. "Principal's office. Now!"

I watched as Tyson stood up, grabbed his bag, and left the classroom. As he walked past, I noticed that he had pulled the bead I'd made for him on his bracelet between his fingers and was twirling it back and forth. My mind started to spiral about what that could possibly mean, just getting me more emotional. Zachary put his arm around me and moved in close. "Don't let anyone see that you're upset."

I opened my eyes up wide to try and let the tears air out and put a smile on my face. "So weird," I said to the girl next to me.

I looked over at Kitty. I sort of thought she'd be upset by the whole thing. Instead, she was writing notes down in her own journal, which I found really odd.

"Alright. Let's get back to it, shall we?" Ms. Murdoch asked as she continued to go around the room and have people read their poems.

19

LILY

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