Fifteen Lanes - S.J. Laidlaw Page 0,64

and patted her on the back. Despite everything, I felt sorry for her. I knew exactly what she meant about trying to curry favor with Madison. I didn’t think I’d ever stoop as far as Kelsey but I’d done my own share of sucking up. Madison may have been a mean girl, but she was the one who had to be placated if you wanted to fit into their group.

“Are you going to tell?” asked Kelsey.

I thought about it for a minute. “No, I just want everyone to forget about this.”

“You’re a lot nicer than Madison.”

“That’s setting the bar a little low, but thanks.”

“You’re kind of pretty too. At least you would be if you made more of an effort.”

“We’d better get to class.” I didn’t wait to see if she was following as I walked out the door and headed downstairs.

It was an hour into second period when a messenger showed up at the classroom door with a note for me to report to the principal’s office. I felt a rush of anxiety.

The first thing I heard when I stepped into the outer waiting room was Madison’s voice. Twice in one day was twice more than I wanted. I couldn’t imagine how this could end well for me.

“She’s lying,” she howled loudly.

The response was inaudible.

“Sit down there for a minute, Grace,” said the receptionist.

Madison’s crying got even louder as a door opened somewhere in the warren of offices. Mr. Smiley rounded a corner and beamed at me.

“Grace, how are you?”

“Fine,” I said cautiously. Something told me that was about to change.

“Wonderful! Would you like to come with me?”

I got heavily to my feet and shuffled after him down the hall. I could see we were heading to the conference room, which was all too familiar. Madison’s voice got louder with every step.

For some reason I didn’t expect the room to be full. You’d think I would have learned from the last time. Both my parents, Mr. Donleavy, the school counselor, my homeroom teacher, another teacher who must have been Madison’s homeroom teacher, Madison herself, and her parents all looked at me expectantly. If Mr. Smiley hadn’t been directly behind me I would have turned right around and fled.

“Why don’t you sit here with your parents, Grace?”

I slumped into the chair next to my mom and tried to make myself as small as possible.

“Madison, would you like to start?” asked Mr. Smiley.

“She’s a liar,” said Madison.

I was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to say that. I shot a look at Mr. Smiley, who was giving Madison a disappointed look.

“There’s no proof she did it,” said Madison’s father.

Did what?

“Two other students brought this to my attention just today,” said Mr. Smiley firmly. “And Madison has already admitted that she said mean things to Grace.”

Madison glared at me.

“The sooner you apologize, the sooner we can move on,” said Mr. Smiley to Madison.

“What will the consequences be if she admits it?” asked her father.

“We’ll discuss that at a later time. First, Madison needs to apologize.”

There was a long pause.

“I’m sorry,” said Madison.

I was completely confused. What was she apologizing for, exactly? Kelsey had admitted to me that she was the one texting me. We only had her word so far that Madison had anything to do with any of it.

“That’s okay,” I said. I’d have apologized myself if it would have got us out of the room faster.

Mr. Smiley practically glowed, and there were a few sighs of relief around the table.

Mr. Donleavy didn’t seem to be buying it though. “So, you’re admitting you did all this, Madison?” he asked gently. “The texting, and sharing the photograph?” I was a little annoyed that he was being so nice to her, but it was a fair question.

“Sure,” she said, which wasn’t the same as saying yes, though only Mr. Donleavy and I seemed to notice.

“Well, that’s it then,” said Mr. Smiley. “Thank you all for coming. Grace, you can go back to class. I hope we can all put this behind us now.”

My parents and I stood up and filed out. They gave me hugs and congratulations, neither of which felt deserved. I still had a knot in my stomach. I knew for a fact that Madison was taking the fall for Kelsey on the texting. And none of this explained why Todd had been such a jerk the other day. For someone with no part in this at all, he’d certainly seemed eager to humiliate me.

I couldn’t ask Kyle if Todd might have