Here we go, the final chapter of Fighting Back.
Melinda POV
I stood in front of Principal Principal's door. He wanted to see me, so my geometry teacher excused me ten minutes early. I hesitantly knocked on the door. "Come in." I opened the door then let it close behind me.
"Ah, Melinda, please sit down." Principal Principal motioned towards the chair in front of his desk. I sat down and looked at the nametag on his desk. Principal Smith. He cleared his throat. "I'd like to apologize for what happened to you. I know you've been through a lot in the past year or so." He paused, expecting me to say something.
"It's fine, Principal Smith. Really."
He nodded. " I already called your mother and told her everything. Including the fact that Heather confessed to creating the page."
So Heather did do it. What a snot.
"I thought she did," I said, which was kind of the truth. "Is she going to be expelled?"
"In a way," Principal Smith answered. "I planned to suspend her. I won't tell you how long, that's for privacy reasons. But I also called her mother and she said she would be taking Heather out of public school permanently."
Permanently. Heather will be completely out of my life. The thought thrilled me. "Okay. That's good, because I don't really think I can stand her anymore."
Principal Smith nodded sympathetically. "I understand. Mrs. Billings told me this wasn't the first time Heather has done this. She did this to a girl back at her old school."
So that's why she moved here from Ohio. I tried to picture Heather as a bully. I couldn't.
"Again, Melinda I'm very sorry this happened to you. Now you do have any questions?"
"Yes. Am I the only one?"
"Actually, no. Cyberbullying is quite an issue in schools these days. Not just here, but all over the country. I'm sure you've seen some stories in the news like this."
I thought about that. I did remember one story about a girl who hung herself when she was being cyberbullied all the time. She was only around my age. "Yeah, I remember seeing a story about cyberbullying. She committed suicide because of it."
"Exactly." The bell rang. "Well, Melinda, you better go now."
I got up. "Okay. And thanks, Principal Smith. For everything.
A couple minutes later, everyone met me at the quad.
"So Heather did it." Dave stated.
"Yeah."
"Knew it!" exclaimed Rachel.
"No you didn't," Dave argued.
"Shut up."
"Nice rebuttal."
"You're a rebuttal."
"Worst comeback ever."
"Shut up!"
"Hey!" I exclaimed.
"Sorry."
"Sorry. So what's Heather's punishment?" asked Rachel.
"Well, she was going to get suspended, but her mom's going to homeschool her again."
"Serves her right," Nicole said.
"So now what?" Ivy asked.
"Well, I don't know, but we should do something to help prevent cyberbullying."
"That's a great idea, Mel," said Dave.
"Yeah," I said. "Maybe we should-"
"Excuse me."
I turned around. "Heather."
"Oh," Rachel said. "I can't believe you have the nerve to-" Nicole punched her in the arm. She winced.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry."
"I don't think you are."
She didn't seem to hear me. As usual. "And please don't sue! I can't be sued! I have to try to get into Harvard so I can be a nurse-"
"You mean UC Davis." Dave corrected.
"Ugh, whatever! Just don't sue! I mean, I don't think you can sue. Can you sue?" She was freaking out. I tried really hard to not have a laughing fit in front of her.
"Actually she can, since cyberbullying is against the law in every state." Dave said.
"Says who?"
"Says our government."
Heather's mouth dropped open into a little "O."
"Poned," Ivy commented.
Go Dave!
"Look, Heather," I began. "You really hurt me. Twice in two years. First pretending to be my friend then ditching me, now this. And I'm not going to put up with it anymore. For real, this time."
Heather opened her mouth to say something, but I held up my hand.
"No. the way you tried to get revenge on me for not helping you that one day... It's just shows me how pathetic you really are as a person."
Heather just stood there, stunned. Now she was the one speechless.
"Heather, I hope you have a nice life, and I'll see you in court."
Heather stood there for a few seconds more, then marched away from me, from my friends. Out of the school. Out of my life.
I turned to my friends. It was Rachel who broke the silence a few seconds later.
"Bad-ass," she drawled the word.
Dave walked over and hugged me. "Way to go," he whispered in my ear.
I grinned. "Thanks," I whispered back.
Ivy cheered. Nicole slapped me a high five, which hurt a little bit, but I was too happy to care.
"Come on, let's get out of here. Maybe go to my house?" I suggested. Everyone agreed. Rachel quickly texted my mom saying we were taking Rachel's car to my house, then we started walking to Rachel's car, which was parked across the street.
"Hey, Mel."
"What, Nic?"
"How did you learn to stand up for yourself like that?"
"Yeah," Ivy said. "You have to be really brave to do that, right?"
Dave turned to me and smiled. His arm went around me. I smiled back at him. "It's not too hard," I said as we got into the car. "All you have to do is speak up."
The End
THANK YOUs...
Thank you to all the people who read this story, and to the people who reviewed.
Marie King- Wow, you have supported me all the way through this fanfic, which has been the most challenging to write. I think you reviewed every chapter and you favorited, so huge thanks to you.
wacholder- Thank you for your review and giving me some tips on how to inprove my writing. And telling me the rules of fanfiction. If you're reading this, I would love to see you write a Speak fanfic.
Tegan and Sara- Okay. I know this is a little ridiculous, because why would I thank a Canadian alternative-rock duo who might not even know this website exists in my fanfic? Their album, So Jealous, has been mood music for me to write this. So thank you for existing. You're my new obsession.
Again, this is my last Speak fanfic, and I wanted to end with a bang, so thank you for reading, and I hoped you enjoyed this fanfic. (You can check out my other stuff to if you want.)
~Little Dark Dynamite