Unscripted - Nicole Kronzer Page 0,87

with my shirt. “Yes!” I cried, a little over-enthusiastically. Karen chuckled and shook her head.

Except for the swollen nose, Jesse was back to looking like himself. I expected him to come over next to me, but he said, “There are some people here to see you . . .” He opened the door all the way, and Will’s and Jonas’s and the Gildas’ concerned faces filled the frame.

“Okay.” Karen stood between Jesse and me and the others in the doorway and shooed them away. “That’s too many people for this tiny office. Let’s go into the main hall. I’ll stand sentry there.”

As I passed through the door, Will grabbed me and locked me in a hug. His arms felt like home, and I fell apart again. Neither of us said anything for a long while.

?

By the time the pair of police officers arrived, dinner was starting. I insisted the Gildas and Will and Jonas go eat, and the police interviewed me in the Pauls’ office. The Pauls and Jesse waited in the hallway—P2 looked ready to pass out the whole time.

After I spoke to the officers, it was Jesse’s turn. I regarded Paul Paulsen, still in the hall. “You know why girls don’t come back now, right? You can see that?”

He fixed his gaze at a spot near his elbow. “Ben is—he’s passionate. Talented. He’s . . . he’s just very intense.”

I stared at him. “Dion. Roger. Also talented. Also passionate. But not inappropriate and not violent. How can you defend Ben?”

Paul DeLuca put his hands on Paul Paulsen’s shoulders. “Best not to engage right now, P2. We have a lot of things to chat about.”

Paul Paulsen just stared at the floor, looking pale.

Paul DeLuca turned to me, shifting a little, not meeting my eyes. “I have some bad news, I’m afraid, Zelda.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Worse than, ‘You have an abusive coach but no one cares and, whoops, now he broke your friend’s nose’?”

He grimaced. He clasped and unclasped his hands. “Maybe. We have a very strict policy about physical fighting. Remember the first night? We talked about it before dinner. If you get involved in a fight . . . you can’t perform.”

My jaw dropped. “Even if I was defending myself?”

Paul DeLuca shook his head and weakly lifted his shoulders. “Paul and I had arrived on the scene. You struck him after that.”

I gestured to Paul Paulsen. “You told me if Ben went too far to give him a little slap!”

If it was possible to grow even paler, he did. “Well . . . that was more of a figure of speech. Plus, what you did wasn’t little.”

“This place.” I shook my head. “This is insane.”

Paul DeLuca frowned. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for physical aggression.”

“Incredible. Okay. You know what? That’s fine. I have six days left here. I’m just going to hike. Maybe play with JV. I really don’t need those Varsity guys anyway.” Even if I couldn’t play, I could at least meet Nina Knightley.

Paul DeLuca coughed uncomfortably. “Uh, see, you misunderstand me—it’s not just that you can’t perform. You can’t stay. We have to ask you to leave.”

Suddenly, I was cold all over. “What? I have to leave? Why am I being punished for defending myself—especially when you guys wouldn’t?”

“You’re making her leave?”

I whirled around. From the direction of dinner, Karen approached our trio with two sandwiches in hand and passed me one of them. “Eat.” She smiled at me, then turned sternly back to the Pauls. “Where’s the sense in that?”

“Karen—” Paul DeLuca began, but she cut him off.

“You’ve got a camper who came to you for help, and you blew her off, and now you’re making her pay for your mistake?”

Hopeful, I took a step closer to her.

“Karen—” Paul DeLuca tried again but she cut him off once more.

“Guys, I like you. You know I do. But when Jane died, you lost your—”

“Those are the rules!” Paul Paulsen shouted. “She has to leave!”

I felt like I had been slapped.

No one said anything. Finally, I opened my mouth. “My parents are hiking in the mountains for two weeks. They’re unreachable.”

Paul Paulsen exhaled sharply through his nose. “You signed a form. Your parents signed a form. You’re expected to have contingency plans in place.”

“Can she stay with us?” Karen asked. I looked up at her face, her set jaw. “I can take her in my cabin back at Scout camp.”

“I . . . I’m not sure . . .” P2 rubbed his eyes with the