CHAPTER FIFTEEN
By the time Reggie returned to school after the suspension, he was fairly relaxed when the bus dropped him off. He and his mom had been over and over the fight incident and the tube-throwing incident and he was tired of all the worrying. Reggie knew he’d be meeting with the disciplinary committee and probably the Principal and his mom had called the school to arrange for a session with a guidance counselor. Reggie felt he just wanted to get on with it, but most of all he hoped he’d get a chance to talk to Jennifer.
Going right to the office to check in, Reggie was told by the secretary that he’d be meeting with the disciplinary committee at third period and meeting with the Principal fifth period, otherwise he’d attend classes as usual, but was not to have any contact with Kevin as that would affect any final decision. Reggie realized that meant he would miss Jennifer during Biology class, but figured maybe he could catch her after the last class before her dad came to get her.
****
The meeting with the disciplinary committee was uneventful. They questioned Reggie much as before and Reggie gave them the same description of the events he had before the incident. Isaac would not elaborate on the incident other than telling them that Kevin was picking on him. The committee chairperson informed Reggie that no other witnesses have come forward to bolster his story or to discredit what Kevin had claimed. They pressed him to be completely truthful and to disclose any information that could help the committee decide not to expel him. Reggie had nothing to add. Reggie was not only worried that Kevin would find him and beat him up later, but he figured he was finished anyway once the Encino police contacted the school.
The committee did not say whether or not they received notification from the police department, but Reggie couldn’t be sure they hadn’t or wouldn’t. Before they released him, the committee chairperson went over the school policy on fighting and bullying and the zero tolerance part sounded pretty heavy to Reggie. He felt they were suggesting he would be expelled. They told him they had not made a final decision but expected to by the end of the week. What Reggie did not know was that all five members of the committee were in favor of expelling Kevin, based on his history. That same poll of the five members showed that three out of five, the required majority, were intending to vote Reggie out as well.
The meeting with the Principal led Reggie to believe that it was almost certain that he’d be expelled. Mr. Tremper made a big point that in most cases of fights between two students, both are deemed at fault, especially when it couldn’t be proved who started it and why. Although they believed that Reggie was perhaps trying to help his friend, they had no firm evidence that Reggie didn’t use unnecessary force. He also suggested that if they only punished one of the boys that might send a message to the student body that it’s okay to fight if you’re on the ‘right’ side. Mr. Tremper asked if Reggie had anything to say, Reggie declined. Finally, the Principal told him that they would make one last attempt to query the student body, by way of an announcement, if anyone had any information to share about the fight.
Then, he picked up the phone and called Ms. Jackson, one of the guidance counselors, and asked her if she was ready to see Reggie.
When Reggie got to her office, he knocked on the door and heard her say, “Hold on for a minute, Reggie—I’ll be right there.” Although Reggie never saw her before, the word among the students was that she was kind of weird and very young; having just received her college degree last year.
“Come on in,” she said, giving him a friendly greeting at the door. She had sparkling green eyes, long blonde hair and to Reggie, was movie-actress pretty. Until he sat down, Reggie didn’t notice her arm. He didn’t stare, but unlike her left, her right arm was only as long as where her elbow would be. It had three dangling fingers that just flopped loosely when she sat down.
“I’ve been reviewing your test scores, grades and your file,” she told him and, as she moved her working fingers through the folder said, “And, you’re an anomaly.”
“What’s that?” Reggie asked.
“When your intelligence and test scores are in to top ninetyfive plus percentile, but your grades are, well, at the bottom,” she said, “it’s puzzling.”
“Um. Yeah, well, I’m a puzzle alright, with a few missing pieces,” Reggie commented.
“I can relate to that,” she said with a warm smile.
“Seriously though, Reggie, I find you amazing,” she said with a half-smile, “Your math aptitude is very high… why do you think you don’t do better in math?”
“Too many numbers,” Reggie replied.
“Okay,” she laughed, “But what about English?”
“Too many words,” Reggie quipped and rolled his eyes.
Ms. Jackson let out an even bigger laugh and Reggie noticed that her eyes laughed too—just like Jennifer’s did. “So, I suppose, you find History too old?” she asked, “No, just dead,” he said with a smirk.
“But look,’ she probed, “You seem to do okay in Biology.” “That’s totally alive.” Reggie responded.
“I understand that,” she commented, “And I think it might be a clue to what inspires you.”
Reggie didn’t respond, but felt good that this woman would take the time to learn about him.
Looking through Reggie’s file, she continued, “When I looked at your earlier interest inventories, you also rank at the top in conceptual thinking—what does that mean to you?”
“Ha. My mom calls it ‘stare-itus’—a mental disease, I guess.
My Algebra teacher used to say I was good at playing hooky when I was in school; day dreaming all the time. But that’s when I get my ideas.”
Looking more serious, Ms. Jackson said, “I think it’s a real strength that you can apply to your chosen field—you can dream big you know. “I also note,” she continued “that you haven’t joined any extracurricular activities or sports, don’t you like sports?”
“Too sporty,” Reggie said, “you know all the competition, the cheering.”
“Come on Reggie, you’ve got to have a hobby or something that excites you?” she probed.
“I used to like hiking in the woods with my dad and my dog,” Reggie offered, “but that was before I moved to the city; can’t learn much about our natural world with only Mexican fan palms lining the streets.”
At that point, Ms. Jackson seemed to lapse into her own version of ‘stare-itus’ as she fell into deep thought, drumming her one set of fingers over the file.
For only the second time since they met, Reggie glanced over to her right arm and thought how she seemed accepting of her birth defect without embarrassment and how her personality made you hardly notice or care about it.
“Hey!” out of the blue, she blurted out, “I got it!—you could start your own school club!”
Although Reggie could feel her enthusiasm, he wondered what in the hell she was talking about.
“Do you plan on taking Environmental Sciences in the fall?” she asked.
“Probably,” Reggie answered.
“Why don’t you start a hiking club?” she suggested, “you know Mrs. Horton will be teaching the class—you get along with her don’t you?”
“Sure. I mean, Yeah,” Reggie answered, thinking of the only teacher he liked.
“Well, I know she belongs to the Sierra Club and is a real outdoorswoman—she might be willing to lobby for it, become your advisor and could help arrange school trips into the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.”
“Well, maybe. I already do some volunteering there for a wildlife research project,” Reggie said, but thought it was a fantastic idea.
“I’ll see if she’s warm to it, okay?” she offered.
“Okay.”
“Good.”
Smiling broadly, Ms. Jackson closed the file on her desk and became contemplative before she gently asked, “How are you holding up with that mess about the incident the other day?” “Not great,” he said.
“Well I’m pulling for you and I hope you can stay in our school,” she said.
“Me too.”
“Oh, yeah, one more thing,” she said as she handed him a sheet of paper, “Your mom had asked about other agencies and mentoring groups—here’s a list I compiled for you; might not be a bad idea.”
“Thanks,” Reggie said as his answer caught her caring eyes and he reached out his hand to shake hers’. Without hesitation, she did a ‘backwards’ handshake with her left.
“Good luck Reggie, and it was nice to meet you,” she said, “I’ll let the office know you’ll be down.”
It was only a few minutes before the end of the school day when Reggie got to the office. The secretary told him he could wait for his bus, so Reggie went as far as the main doors where he couldn’t miss Jennifer leaving and slouched against the wall. In a few minutes, he spotted her coming down the hall and they ran toward each other and hugged tightly.
Jennifer looked up at Reggie and asked, “Hey. Did you hear anything?”
“Maybe tomorrow,” he answered with a sour tone.
“I feel so bad for you,” she said with eyes starting to well up with tears. “And for us…I miss you.”
“You think maybe we could find a way to meet before the school year ends?” he asked.
“I’m still grounded, but we can try—my dad’s probably out there now waiting—he doesn’t want us to even meet after school—I should go.”
Reggie felt like he would never see her again, so without thinking, he gave her a quick kiss on the mouth. Jennifer was surprised, patted his cheek and said, “Bye,” and ran off.
When he got home that afternoon, his mom was working again, so he made his own supper of scrambled eggs dipped in maple syrup, went into his room and plopped down on the bed with the ‘Secrets of Meditation’ book Jennifer had given him. Maybe that will help me release some of my anxieties, he thought.
After reading the first chapter, he got into the recommended sitting position with arms relaxed and hands facing upward. He couldn’t come up with his own mantra to accompany his breathing, so he used their traditional OHMM!
The first few breaths did relax him and his mind stayed quiet for a while until he pictured Jennifer’s worried face. Having read that he was supposed to simply let any thoughts or pictures go, he tried. But the thought of maybe not being able to see Jennifer again, kept repeating with each breath. Getting frustrated he opened his eyes and said to himself, ‘Stop analyzing it, asshole, you love her—and you need to tell her that.’
Then he picked up the book and read the chapter about
‘Stilling the Voices.’ Into the position again, he decided to lose the ‘Ohmm’—as it sounded to him too much like gloom. Anyway, the book said a mantra wasn’t necessary. This time after six breaths, his mind saw pictures. He saw the principal, he shook his head at that image and closed his eyes again. Next he saw the stern looks of the disciplinary committee, which he quickly shook away and let his mind clear for two breaths. Lastly, he heard his dad’s voice warning about getting expelled.
He jumped up and threw the book at the wall, knocking over his desk lamp. Maybe I should try that vision quest thing, he thought, instead of this stupid meditation. Disgusted with himself, he went into the living room and watched Gorillas in the Mist for the umpteenth time and fell asleep on the couch. He never heard his mother come home that night. He didn’t feel when she put that red and black blanket over him. Next morning, his mom woke him up by placing milk and cereal on the coffee table. He sat up and she told him to have a good day, gave him a kiss on his bushy head and left for work.
Figuring this school day was his doomsday, Reggie sensed that his fellow tenth graders avoided eye-contact in the halls and in class. When he saw Isaac at lunch, they barely talked, but did chat about how well the barn owl’s wings at the Audubon were healing.
After lunch, Mr. Suarosky came over to Reggie and told him that the Principal would see him and to go to his office before the start of fifth period. When Reggie got to the office, the secretary said go right in and Reggie was surprised to see Mr. Tremper smiling and actually reached out to shake Reggie’s hand.
“Well, Reggie I’ll get right to it. The disciplinary committee has voted to retain you as a student. Kevin will be expelled for the balance of the year, as he was found to be the instigating student.”
Reggie was too much in a daze to immediately appreciate what the Principal was telling him. “Are you saying I’m not expelled?” Reggie asked.
“That’s correct. At the last possible moment, one of your classmates—and we are keeping his identity anonymous for his own safety, came forward with some critical information.”
Thinking it was Isaac coming out and telling them, Reggie asked, “What kind of information?”
“That Kevin was found to have brought a weapon to school and actually used it on you in the fight.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“Brass knuckles.”
Now the sharp pain and the blood on his head came back to Reggie’s mind, and he said, “No wonder.”
“Now, Reggie,” Mr. Tremper said, “this information was not available to us right after the incident, so we did not involve the local police, but I want to tell you that that information, plus the medical records indicating your wounds and bruises, are sufficient for you to file an assault complaint with the local police, if you wish to do so.”
“You mean, like going to court and all that crazy stuff? Like to put Kevin in juvenile detention?” Reggie asked.
“Yes. So you talk with your parents and we’ll set up a time to meet and resolve this.”
“I don’t know, but will Kevin not be allowed back in school?”
“For the balance of the year that is correct, but it is possible that he could return in the fall if he completes anger management counseling and his parents agree to certain monitoring and controls. “But,” Mr. Tremper continued, “If you were to press formal charges against him, we would not allow him back in school under any circumstances—that would be your call.” “Alright, I’ll talk to my parents,” Reggie said.
“Thank you Reggie and I’m sorry for all the trouble you’ve been through—this has been a very unfortunate situation. But know that you’re in the clear now as long as you continue to follow school behavior codes. If you don’t have any questions, you can go your next class now—Biology isn’t it?”
“Yup!” Reggie said, thanked the Principal and headed down the hall still in a state of disbelief. Opening the door to the class, he saw Mrs. Horton wave him in smiling broadly and said, “Welcome back, Reggie.”
Then Reggie quickly looked and saw Jennifer wave to him with a glowing smile. Then Isaac stood up and started clapping and most of the kids did the same. But before he sat down, embarrassed as he was, he had to check Kevin’s seat to make sure it was empty.
Reggie wondered who the kid was who came forward with the information. He heard a rumor than another student saw Kevin afterwards and that he was beat up pretty badly by his dad. Apparently Kevin was very bitter about it all, especially not being able to win the soccer championship.
As soon as class ended, Reggie rushed over to Jennifer, but was stopped by Mrs. Horton who said she wanted to talk to Reggie. “Can we talk next week, I gotta go?” Reggie pleaded.
“Okay,” she said as Reggie headed out the door, “but so you know, I talked to Ms. Jackson…I like her idea of the hiking club.”
Reggie turned around and said, “Great!” then waved out the door.
Reggie quickly put his arm around Jennifer and said, “Can you believe it?”
“You must feel good Reggie,” she said, “I totally knew they wouldn’t blame you.”
“You know what this means?” he asked almost bouncing down the hall.
“What?” she asked.
He looked surprised at her answer, like she wasn’t in tune with his thinking and said, “Well, so we can see each other again, now that I was found not guilty.” He could see by the look on Jennifer’s face she wasn’t feeling what he was.
“I’m not sure, Reggie,” she said, “I’ll have to ask my dad if this changes things.”
“Come on, can’t he ever cut you some slack?” he asked.
“I’ll try this weekend Reggie, but I’m not sure,” she answered.
As they approached the exit doors, Jennifer held Reggie back with her arm and peered out the side window.
“He’s here, Reggie, I gotta go—I’ll try to call you when I can talk…see ya.”
Looking dejected, Reggie stood at the door watching Jennifer get into her dad’s car and drive off. Then he lifted his arm in the air made a fist and just stopped short of banging it into the wall.