EVIL QUEEN - Rebel Hart Page 0,52
back off and hold my hands up, but Cherri took advantage of the moment and cut a punch right across my nose.
“Fuck!” I barked.
Cherri tried to back away after socking me, but I got my hand out to take hold of her shirt in just enough time. I pulled her closer to me and used my dominant hand to punch her once, twice, three times in the face, letting her go on the last so she’d fall back and down to the ground.
“Nikita, stop it!” Avery yelped.
“She fucking started it!” I screamed, shocked that Avery would defend Cherri over me. “I tried to stop, and she sucker punched me!”
Cherri’s entire left eye was swelling to the point that she could barely hold it open, but that didn’t stop her from getting to her feet and trying to come at me again. I cocked my shoulder back, prepared to keep fighting, but Nathan shoved out of the fray and stood between us.
“Stop!” he yelled at Cherri. He looked over at me. “Stop it.” But Cherri continued to push. Nathan tried to batten down and keep her from getting to me, but when she tried to shove him aside, I got so angry that I charged toward her. “Nikki, stop!” Nathan begged.
“All right! That’s enough!”
Multiple teachers came through the sea of students, some of them working to disperse the crowd while others ran in and worked together to restrain Cherri and me. The school’s safety officer rushed over to me. He wrestled me into a full nelson and dragged me backward. Jaxon jumped out from the crowd and ran over to me.
“Let her go!” he bellowed.
“Nathan.” Principal Hix stepped out to where he was standing between Cherri and me. “Shit! I feel like all I hear lately is all the trouble you and your little group are getting into.”
“I’m sorry,” Nathan said immediately. “It’s done.”
“No, I’m sorry, kid, but I can’t just keep looking the other way.” He looked at Cherri and then over at me. “One of them is coming with me. I don’t care if it’s who started it or who was losing. Someone has to get slammed for this. I’d lose my license. Who’s it gonna be?”
That Nathan didn’t immediately defend me was painful enough on its own, but then he started to exchange looks between Cherri and me. His eyes finally locked with mine, and I knew what was coming before the words even left his mouth.
He turned away from me just as he said, “Nikita wouldn’t let it go.”
My jaw dropped. Next to me, in the crowd, Colette whispered, “Nathan, no…”
“Fuck,” Jaxon whispered.
Principal Hix looked over at me. “Fine. Nikita, my office. Now.”
The SRO released his hold on me, and Jaxon quickly flinched in his direction before wrapping an arm behind my back and leading me through the onlooking students, including all of my friends, and down to Principal Hix’s office.
“It would have been easier to suspend Cherri with all the problems she’s been causing,” Principal Hix said as he walked into his office about thirty minutes later. He sat down at his desk and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I’ll be happy when you kids fucking graduate. This has been the worst four years of my entire career.”
“You’re not the only one,” I grumbled back.
He turned and faced me. “Look, Nikita. I know your reputation around here. I also know that you’re either really good at hiding it or rich enough to pay off my staff. Either way, you don’t have a blemish on your record, and with your grades and how close it is to graduation, I’d be insane to suspend you.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“What’s her deal? Cherri? Weren’t you all friends at one point?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I responded. “Turns out, she doesn’t know the meaning of the word.”
“This can’t go without some consequence, though, you understand. This isn’t just a warning. It’s your last warning. You don’t get three. You get this one. I can’t have you out there, beating someone’s face off.”
“I tried to stop,” I replied.
“Well, try harder next time,” he said and then waved his hand. “Go, get out of my office, and don’t say I never did anything for you.”
“Thanks, Hix.” So as not to waste the second chance I’d been given or let my misery-induced nausea get the best of me in the principal’s, I stood and left the office as quickly as my feet would carry me.
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