to the principal’s office. Mr. Millis! Miss Aoki! You are to take Miss Hamilton to the nurse’s office and then go directly to your next classes. Understood?”
Matt immediately stepped forward and put Helen’s arm over his shoulder, helping her to stand. Claire took Helen’s hand and held it reassuringly. Helen glanced up and saw Lucas looking back over his shoulder at her as he went quietly with Mr. Hergeshimer. Another wave of loathing broke over her, and fresh tears lined up in her eyes. Matt guided her while she cried, awkwardly patting her hair and getting her to walk toward the nurse at the same time. Claire walked on Helen’s other side, shaken and silent.
“What did he do to you, Lennie?” Matt asked hotly.
“I’ve never seen him b-b-before in my l-l-life!” Helen hiccuped and cried even harder.
“Great idea, Matt! Ask her questions! Can you shut the hell up now?” Claire snapped, trying to get hold of herself.
They walked the rest of the way without talking. When they got to the nurse’s office, they told Mrs. Crane what had happened and made sure to add that Helen had come to school with heatstroke that morning. Mrs. Crane had Helen lie down with a cool towel over her eyes and went back into her office to call Jerry.
“Your father’s on his way, dear. No, no, keep your eyes covered. Darkness will help,” Mrs. Crane said as she passed by Helen’s cot. Helen heard her rush out to the hall to speak to someone briefly, then come back in and sit behind her desk.
Helen lay under the towel, grateful that she was being left alone and in relative privacy. She couldn’t think two coherent thoughts in a row, let alone explain herself to anyone. What scared her the most was that for some reason she knew that what she had tried to do was right, or at least that it was expected of her. Deep inside, she knew she would have killed that boy if she could, and she didn’t even feel guilty about it. Until she saw her father.
He was a mess. Mrs. Crane told him everything that had happened, explaining that Helen was suffering from a serious case of heatstroke and that it may have caused her strange outburst. He listened patiently and then asked Mrs. Crane for a moment alone with his daughter, which she gave them.
Jerry didn’t say anything at first; he just sort of hovered over Helen’s cot while she sat up and fidgeted with her necklace. Finally, he sat down next to her.
“You wouldn’t lie to me right now, would you?” he asked softly. She shook her head. “Are you sick?”
“I don’t know, Dad. I don’t feel right—but I don’t know what’s wrong,” she told him earnestly.
“We’ve got to take you to the doctor, you know.”
“I figured,” she said, nodding. They smiled at each other, and then suddenly they both turned their heads at the sound of hurried footsteps coming toward the nurse’s office.
Jerry stood up and faced the door, putting himself in front of Helen. A tall, impossibly fit man in his early forties burst into the room. Helen jumped off the cot and stood on the other side of it, glancing around instinctively for another exit. There wasn’t one. Helen had the feeling that she was going to die.
In the corner of the tiny office, one of the sobbing sisters appeared. She was hunkered down on her knees, her face covered by her filthy hair, moaning names and saying “blood for blood” as she hit her forehead repeatedly against the wall.
Helen put her hands over her ears. She pulled her eyes away from the horror in the corner and mustered enough courage to look back at the large man. A spark of recognition passed between them. She had never seen him before, but somehow she knew that she should be very afraid of him. At first his angular face was set with determination, but it quickly morphed into shock and then confusion. His eyes zeroed in on Jerry, and a nearly comical look of disbelief derailed what might have been a terrible fight.
“Are you . . . are you the father of the young lady that attacked my son?” he asked in a halting voice.
Jerry nodded curtly. “My daughter, Helen,” he said, gesturing back to her. “I’m Jerry Hamilton.”
“Castor Delos,” the big man replied. “My wife, Noel, won’t be able to make it. And Helen’s mother?”
Jerry shook his head. “It’s just Lennie and me,” he