After Kelly had left, Mrs Teasely poured herself her third cup of coffee of the morning. She examined the cup ruefully. She really should switch to decaf, but on days like this she needed the caffeine to fortify her for the challenges ahead. On the surface, the meeting with Kelly hadn't seemed very productive, but she had a strong suspicion that her words had hit home. She smiled; with a bit of luck this was just the wake up call Kelly needed to get back on track.
Settling back down at her desk, she flipped through her appointments schedule, and frowned. Not all her meetings would be as straightforward as the one she'd just had with Kelly. There was one meeting this afternoon that she knew was going to be extremely unpleasant. For a brief moment she was tempted to reschedule it to different day, or have another faculty member deal with it, but she knew that she couldn't, that wouldn't be right. She sighed. She was school principal and it was her responsibility, this kind of thing came with the territory. She hadn't gotten to this position by backing off when things got a little uncomfortable.
Contrary to popular opinion, she hadn't dropped the matter of the school break in, quite the opposite in fact. She'd deliberately let the students think that the investigation had gone quiet, in the hope that the culprit would drop their guard. She'd withheld information too, like the fact that the history paper wasn't the only paper that had been copied. Several of the finals papers had been found in the wrong place in the filing cabinet. It had been something of a gamble on her part, but it had paid off. She had set a trap, and one student had fallen right in to it. She smiled grimly. This afternoon she was going to confront the perpetrator.
***
"Why is it?" Brenda Walsh wondered aloud "That the first day back after a vacation always seems to go on forever?"
Donna laughed as she closed her locker and dropped her books in to her bag "I don't know Bren, I'm just glad that it's over."
Pulling a book from her locker and adding it to the considerable pile already in her arms, Brenda sighed ruefully. "It's not over yet, I have a ton of study to do by tomorrow, and I still haven't put my college applications in." She shook her head in disbelief "Who knew senior year was gonna be this tough."
"You are still coming to the peach pit tonight to celebrate the finals results aren't you?" Donna asked anxiously.
Shifting her precarious load of books in to a more comfortable position, and closing her locker door resolutely, Brenda smiled "Just try stopping me, I worked hard for those grades, and I intend to enjoy them."
"Good." Donna beamed her approval. "I told everyone to meet at six thirty so you'd better have your studying done before then.
"Everyone?" Brenda asked suddenly suspicious. "Donna, please tell me you didn't invite Dylan and Kelly?"
She knew that Donna was finding it tough being stuck in the middle of her fight with Kelly, and she wouldn't put it past her to try and engineer another reconciliation attempt. Twice over the vacation Donna had arranged it so that she and Kelly happened to end up in the same place at the same time, once at the mall and another time at the peach pit. Brenda frowned at the memory. Both efforts had ended badly, and she wished that Donna would just let it go. Why couldn't Donna just accept that she and Kelly were never gonna be friends again?
Donna bit her lip; suddenly uncomfortable "I don't think Kelly's really in the mood to celebrate finals." She turned sad eyes on Brenda "I feel so mean, organising a celebration when she's done so badly."
"Yeah well I wouldn't waste your time feeling bad, I don't think her finals were exactly high priority." Brenda couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that". Donna argued. "I saw her this morning, and she was pretty cut up about it all, she's really miserable right now."
Brenda looked up sharply. This was news. Until now she had automatically assumed that Kelly was blissfully happy. After all, Kelly was the one who had everything, why wouldn't she be happy? For a brief moment hope surged through her at the prospect of Dylan and Kelly breaking up. Taking a deep breath and struggling to control her emotions, she forced herself to reflect more logically on Donna's words. Donna hadn't said that Kelly was unhappy with Dylan; she had said that Kelly was upset about her finals. The little feeling of hope dissipated like a balloon deflating.
Still, she guessed there was some comfort to be taken from the news. Kelly had hurt her so badly, and it felt good to hear that not everything was going her way. These last few weeks it had seemed as though everything was going right for Kelly, and everything was going wrong for her. Maybe this was a sign that the tide had turned, that things were going to be different. She couldn't help but revel in the image of Kelly's life falling apart while her own fortunes took a turn for the better. But even that didn't stop the hurt that she felt whenever she thought about Kelly and Dylan.
Donna took Brenda's prolonged silence to mean that she was on dangerous ground, and that she really should change the subject. She was still amazed that Brenda had forgiven her for her part in the deception, and she was loathed to do anything else that might threaten their friendship. Talking about Kelly and Dylan was most definitely a bad move.
She completely understood why Brenda felt the way she did about Kelly. She just wished things could be different that's all. She hated being stuck in the middle like this, and would give anything to have her two best friends on speaking terms again. She realised that she was probably being unrealistic, knew deep down that her attempts at initiating a reconciliation between the two of them were a waste of time, but she couldn't stop trying. The fact was that despite everything, she happened to believe that Dylan or no Dylan, Brenda and Kelly had a friendship that was worth fighting for. If it was up to her to make them realise that, then so be it.
Catching a glimpse of Brenda's frosty expression, she realised that now really wasn't the right time to try and initiate peace talks. It was just as well really because she had to meet David and she was already a little late.
"Well anyway, I have to go meet David at the radio booth". She announced cheerfully. "We're going to do our college applications together this afternoon". She smiled dreamily. "We wanted to wait until after he got his results, just to make sure you know. Oh Bren can you believe it, David and I will be able to go to College together next year after all."
"I think it's great Donna." Brenda smiled genuinely happy for her friend. "Now you'd better get going, you don't want to keep him waiting. I'll see you at six thirty."
"Six thirty" Donna confirmed as she headed off in the opposite direction.
Alone with her thoughts, Brenda headed slowly towards the parking lot. This morning she had been begun to feel better about things, but suddenly she was depressed again. Her anger towards Kelly boiled to the surface again, and she was glad that Kelly was unhappy. Sighing heavily, she shook her head in irritation as if trying to shake away the thought.
Wanting Kelly to be miserable was petty and spiteful. She knew that most people would say that she was perfectly entitled to feel that way, but it didn't do her any good, not really. Her mom had told her that before Christmas, and although she hadn't believed her at the time, she knew now that she was right. She raised a wry smile. Her mom was nearly always right. She didn't know if it was experience, common sense or just plain old intuition, but it didn't matter, all that mattered was that she had her mom on her side.
What she needed to do right now was to concentrate on the positives in her life, not dwell on the negatives. Obsessing over Kelly and Dylan, delighting in their misfortune, plotting revenge against them, it would be easy, but it wouldn't make her happy. No what she needed to do was forget all about them. She'd already cut them out of her life; the best thing to do would be to keep it that way.
So preoccupied was she that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps, didn't notice the guy who was rounding the corner from the opposite direction. There was no time to shout, no time to react. They collided head on, books and papers flying everywhere. Feeling like a complete klutz, she stammered an apology as she scrabbled to pick up her books that were now scattered across the floor. In embarrassed confusion her eyes searched the floor for the last book. Suddenly she realised that he had retrieved it and was holding it out to her. Slowly, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear, she reached out to accept the book. As she looked up to thank him, her eyes widened in shock "Dylan".