stop them and shift their focus to the task at hand.”—Peer Counseling Pilot Program Training Guide by Henry Robins, MFT
CHAPTER 8
Name: Cleo Lambert
Session Date: Sept. 21
Session #2
“So? She totally deserved it.” Cleo crossed her arms and glared at Devon. Her florescent pink nails were a stark contrast to her all-black uniform. “Besides, not like what she did to me was cool at all. I’m still debating about ratting her out to Wyler.”
“Okay, let’s talk that out.* You put the pregnancy test on Isla’s bed, which, I think it’s safe to say, hit a nerve with her. Isla retaliated by slipping an Ambien into your bedside water, causing you to fall asleep in a class. So, what are the pros and cons of telling Wyler what Isla did?” Devon waited, ballpoint pen poised above her notebook. She wanted Cleo to get a good look at her crappy replacement pen before asking about her missing Mont Blanc.
Cleo licked her lips, debating whether to jump in or not. “Fine, I’ll play. Pro. I get to watch the bitch suffer. Con. I’m already on thin ice with Wyler, so why call more attention to myself?”
“Okay, sounds good so far.”
“Con. The school’s already freaking out about Hutch overdosing. If another pharmaceutical thing comes up you know there’s going to be a crackdown.”
“How would that affect you?”
“It wouldn’t really. I don’t do drugs, legal or illegal. But, it would certainly lead to a lot of kids freaking out, and I just can’t be bothered with everyone in a constant state of PMS. It’s bad enough already.”
“How is it bad?”
“You haven’t heard? People are getting cracked out around here. C’est fou.”
Devon blinked and wrote the words in her notebook. “That means crazy, right?”
“Freakin’ Sasha Harris of all people comes into Calc yesterday. She’s five minutes late, so of course, Mr. Lee calls her out on it. Sasha goes nuts, starts yelling at Lee like, ‘I did your homework, what else do you want from me?’ She threw her notebook across the room and then went to the board and wrote down all these insane equations. She wouldn’t stop writing on the board and Lee totally didn’t know how to handle it. Matt and Omar had to drag her out of the classroom and take her to Nurse Reilly. Totally crazy.”
“Is she all right?” Devon wanted to know more. Was Sasha’s meltdown because of her pill use? Was she having a bad reaction to something? Could it just be stress? Of course, none of this had to do with counseling Cleo. Stay on target, Devon.
“I heard Matt got royally pissed at her,” Cleo went on. “Like she would draw too much attention to the pills, which could lead back to Matt. Any of his people freak out, you know that’s going to bite him in the ass.” She laughed. “Although, it is a hot ass.”
Devon pushed the bangs out of her face and crossed her legs again. “You like Matt? That way, I mean?”
“Hells no. It’s just an observation. Matt’s staying busy anyways.”
“Busy? With a girlfriend, busy?”
“Who knows if girlfriend’s the right word? I just saw him walking back to Fell the other night close to curfew with a blanket over his shoulders, and we know what that means.”
“The late night hook-up uniform.” Matt’s probably hooking up with some unsuspecting freshman, Devon convinced herself. Although, now it was going to nag at her until she knew whom it was.
“The thing that’s weird about it is that Matt’s keeping a low profile. Usually he’s the biggest bragger of all the guys. But this one, this one he wants to keep quiet.” Cleo gave Devon that smug smile of hers.
She’s doing it again. Pulling me into the gossip circle.
“Well, I’m sure that’s Matt’s business,” Devon said. “Let’s get back to you. It seems like the cons outweigh the pros in reporting Isla to the Headmaster, right?”
“Yeah, it doesn’t really make sense to rat her out. C’est la vie.” Cleo shrugged. “You know who else has been on something lately? Maya.”
“Maya? Really? On drugs? But, she’s like so quiet.”†
“It’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it? I caught her the other night taking a shower at like two A.M. Scared the hell out of her I think, too. She wasn’t expecting anyone to be in the bathroom then.” Devon thought about seeing Maya in her robe around midnight the other night, too. But, Maya and drugs somehow didn’t seem like the right fit. “She must be on a bender,” Cleo continued, “because