Homecoming Scandal
By: CNJ
PG-13
5: The Great Expulsion
Logan:
I saw the envelope inside my door. My heart was banging as I picked it up that last day of classes before final exams. Oh...God, right now I'd know where my future lay...if I was expelled, I'd be toast; if I was suspended...
I opened the envelope with trembling fingers, praying that I'd just get a light slap on the wrist, a fine maybe. With summer on the way, I'd probably be getting a summer job, so maybe I could use the money to pay that fine.
It took a minute to focus on the words. Dear Mr. Bruno: We regret to inform you that you are hereby suspended for one semester starting in the fall of 2003... Oh. My stomach lurched.
It could have been worse, I tried to comfort myself. I could have been expelled. But a whole semester, I thought numbly.
If I tried to tell my parents I was taking a break from college, they'd want to know why. I couldn't afford to live on my own or even anywhere else with a roommate and it was my dad who was footing my tuition bill. Glorious. Was he going to have a field day with this!
Jana:
I headed right over to Melanie's dorm after I'd gotten my letter. Expelled! Thrown out! I still couldn't believe it! I had to see if she'd gotten her letter.
I ran up the stairs and knocked on her door. She opened it and right away I noticed her eyes were puffy. So she'd probably gotten hers. I wondered if she'd been thrown out also.
"Hey, Mel, did you get your notice?" I asked, sitting on her bed.
"Yeah..." Melanie nodded and showed me hers. "I got suspended for a semester. My parents are going to be thrilled to pieces at this."
"You only got suspended!" I demanded.
"Only?"
"Yeah, only!" I practically flung my notice at her. "I got expelled!"
"Oh, Jana, I'm so sorry..." Melanie gasped. "I heard some others got kicked out too..."
"Like who?" I countered.
"Sara Sawyer," Melanie supplied. "She called a little while ago practically in tears. And I heard Keith got the boot also and is fuming."
"What about Logan and Randy?" I pushed. Melanie shrugged, her eyes welling up.
"We're toast..." Melanie reached for some tissues. "My parents are going to kill me...Mom's always lecturing me on being more focused as it is..."
"Well, my parents aren't going to be too thrilled either!" I shot back, furious at how dense she is. "Mom gets on my back too about planning my life and all that! And thanks to some little vote mishaps we mismanaged, my life is ruined! Wrecked!"
"So's mine..." Melanie protested.
"Just for one semester, then you'll go back and finish, but I'm history. Randy and I had it planned out. We were going to be college sweethearts, then when we graduated, we were going to marry, save up and get our house and Randy was going to be a football player in the NFL, then maybe later an NFL anchor. But thanks to this mess, that's all shot!"
"What about MY life?" Melanie wailed. "Sure, I'll be coming back here, but you know Logan and I had a fight and if we break up for good, I'll be all alone; I won't have anybody!" Melanie blinked back more tears and sniffled pathetically.
"Oh, quit the sniveling and self-pity!" I snapped, losing all patience with her. "You'll find somebody else, if not Logan. Can't you think of anyone besides yourself!"
"First Logan, then you!" Melanie bit back. "Maybe you and Logan oughta get together and rake me over on how oh-so-selfish I supposedly am..." She doesn't know the half of it, I thought.
Melanie and I had had this argument several times before going all the way back to high school. She IS self-centered and listening to her whining about being all alone annoyed me to no end.
"I'll see you around," I told her when she'd paused in her pity party. With that, I stalked out of her room quickly, not giving her time to say anything else. I had to see about Logan and the others.
Keith:
Just who did those weasels high on the hills on this campus think that they were, kicking me out of THEIR college! I fumed as I stormed across the quad. And after I'd helped them catch the real culprits in that election fiasco! But nooo, they still pinned a lot of the blame on me. Those stupid assholes don't know a thing!
Speaking of assholes, here came two of them right now...Parker Donovan and Matt Zeboski. They saw me and headed right toward me. Uh-oh, I realized when they glared at me, then stepped in front of me.
"Sooo, what's the idea of dumping the blame on us for YOUR sleaziness!" Mat snarled. Stay cool, I counseled myself. Act like you don't know a thing about it.
"What blame?" I shot back. "I got busted too. They threw me out."
"Good," Parker stated coolly, his hazel eyes flashing. "I'm suspended, but Matt wasn't so lucky; he was kicked out too."
"Then why are you trying to blame me for this mess!" I snapped. "You two brought it on yourselves!"
"You sure helped it along!" Matt yelled.
"How?" I shrugged innocently.
"Conway had nothing on us before he hauled you into his office, then all of a sudden, he had this new info on us!" Parker told me. "No way could he have found out any of that if you hadn't opened your fat mouth!"
I decided they were pushing me into a wall, so I took the offensive. Randy...that's right, he and Logan had been questioned right before me...
"For your info...I didn't rat you out if that's what you're thinking," I told them. "I just did MY part, but didn't say a thing about you two..."
"Riiight, Masterson..." Matt snorted.
"Did you two know that Kirwan was also hauled in right before me?" I asked. "And Bruno? Remember back in high school, when we were juniors and that fiasco happened at that baseball game at Stoneybrook High?"
"Yeah, some kids shoved each other and there was a brawl," Parker shrugged. "What does this have to do with today and with Logan and Randy? How does it all figure?"
"Think about it. Logan ratted us out so he could get off the hook. And Kirwan tried to make himself look like this big hero even though we all know he hit and shoved other kids," I told them.
"They both tried to play innocent while ratting out everyone else. So what makes you think this election deal's any different? Hey, I suspect they snitched on me too because now that I think of it, Conway had more info on me at the second hearing." I widened my eyes as if I'd just remembered this.
Matt and Parker looked at each other, then at me as if weighing my words. I guess they bought my story, because they kind of let up on me, then as they walked away, started raking Randy and Logan over the coals. I hid a grin as I headed in the opposite direction.
Randy:
Expelled! Thrown out! Dismissed permanently! I'm so far beyond screwed that it isn't funny! Boy, my parents are going to have a Dr. Laura party on me once Connecticut U. shoves me out of my dorm for good, especially since they're hoisting my tuition, including my dorm rent.
I'm not looking forward to the packing. I wondered how Melanie and Jana had fared.
As I got back to my dorm later that afternoon the day I got the letter that wrecked my life, I got another fine treat...I discovered that my door was in a crumpled heap on the floor. I stared in shock. What...! Who...!
I stepped through the frame, which still had half of the door hanging onto it cautiously, figuring maybe somebody had broken in to steal something, maybe my TV or my stereo. No one was there.
My roommate wasn't going to be ecstatic about this. Well, he'd be happy about my being pitched out of here, because he and I aren't exactly friends; he's an engineering major who sees me as this dumb jock because I'm into football. Well, it looks like next fall for me is all shot. So were my plans of being in the NFL. I couldn't believe any of this.
The other half of my door was sprawled by my bed in splinters. No, nothing appeared to be stolen or tampered with, but I did see a note on my TV. Swell sport, Kirwan! it read. Maybe you should be the next season's mascot as a weasel or a rat! After all, you've had great experience ratting out your teammates!
"Ohhh, just what I need!" I yelled, ripping the note off the TV. I studied the handwriting and it looked like...Matt Zeboski. I ripped the note into shreds, imagining it to be that clown's head and dumped it into the trash can.
"Hey, Randy, what'd you do to the door?" my roommate, Charles, poked his head in and glared at me.
"Nothing!" I glowered back. "I was some moron on the team who has some stupid pique on me. I'm not in the mood, so don't start on me."
With that, I stalked past Charles through the remains of the door and out of the dorm into the spring evening. Just then, I saw Melanie Edwards heading toward me and I waved. Seeing her made me feel somewhat better, but I was still boiling inside.
"Hey, Mel," I said once we got close. "How'd you fare?"
"Suspended," Melanie sighed.
"You did better than me." I laughed a bitter laugh. "I'm pitched out for good."
"Oh, Randy...I'm sorry," Melanie gasped. She gave me a little hug.
"What did Jana get?" I asked. Jana and I hadn't spoken in a month, but I still needed to know how she was doing.
"Not so great," Melanie sighed again. "She's been thrown out too. She's furious about it."
"Fabulous," I muttered sarcastically as we walked along.
"Sara and Keith got the boot too," Melanie continued. "So did Matt."
"And Matt's the stupid idiot who busted down my door and left a nasty little note."
"What?"
"Yep." I nodded "I come to my room and find to door in pieces on the floor and taped to my TV in Matt's handwriting is this note about what I rat I am as if it's my fault that he got busted."
"Oh, Randy..."
"Of course, he's too chicken to sign his name or say it to my face," I added. "My parents...are just going to go to town on me when I'm shipped back home to them. They're giving us...expellees a week to pack everything and move out."
I gave a short, ironic laugh. "Isn't this just great? We get out of exams next week. What an early start to an oh-so-wonderful summer vacation."
Jana:
Logan had his head down when I caught up to him. "Logan...hi," I said, falling into step with him.
"What...oh, hi," he mumbled. I wondered if he'd been expelled too.
"Bad, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah..." Logan's voice sounded a little husky and I was surprised to see tears in his eyes.
"Oh, Logan, I'm not doing so great either," I put my hand on his arm. "I'm...finished here too."
"I'm sorry about that," Logan took a sharp intake of breath. "I'm suspended."
"Lucky you," I said with a bitter laugh.
"Yeah, real lucky when my parents kill me," Logan's hand came up to his mouth and he fidgeted with it there a minute and I hoped he wouldn't break down and cry right here in public.
I had my own troubles to deal with and much as I sympathized with Logan because I know how strict his dad is, I didn't want to deal with Logan emoting all over the place.
We headed toward the cafe. Just then two guys stepped in front of us.
"Sooo, Bruno, are you going to be our mascot as the Connecticut U. rat when you get back from being suspended?"
"What!" I snapped. The goons turned out to be none other than Parker Donovan and Matt Zeboski. I saw Sara Sawyer next to Parker. I glared at the little priss and she glared back. I was glad she'd been expelled too because I never could stand her.
"Listen, you two," Logan held out his hands. "I got the shaft too, so don't rag on me."
"Sure, sure, you coward," Matt growled, balling his hands into fists. I hoped he wasn't going to start a fight with Logan. "Rat us out, then ask us to pity you, you poor little skunk from the Southern Peach Plantation because you're sooo afraid of your rich little parents yelling at you about how you've disgraced their little genteel name..."
"Hey, I didn't rat you out," Logan protested. "I didn't tell Conway about your part..."
"Right, right, right..." Sara butted in.
"Just shut up, Sara!" I shouted.
"No..." Sara narrowed her eyes at me and jutted her chin out. "You shut your phony, pompous mouth!" I fought the urge to slap her prissy little face because I didn't feel like being dragged into a fight with her; she wasn't worth my time. Matt's fist flew out and smacked Logan's jaw.
"Just be warned..." Matt hissed as Logan clutched his mouth in pain. "We remember high school when you and Kirwan snitched on us in that baseball fight at Stoneybrook High...so if you know what's good for you, you'll watch your ass."
"Hey, leave us alone!" I ordered. "Come on, Logan, let's find better company than this garbage."
As Logan and I stalked away, I heard Sara scream after me, "Two-faced, phony, fake little witch!" By the time we got to the cafe, I noticed Logan's hands were shaking a little and I saw a bruise forming on his chin.
I was tense myself and just plain mad. Who did those bozos think they were threatening us and blaming this whole mess on us when they KNOW it was their own doing!
