Chapter 10
Dawn didn't know what to think of this. Buffy always closed her door when she went to sleep at night and here it was, wide open. The second thing that struck her as odd was that Buffy's bed was made. Without their mother at home, Buffy's bed was never made and if it was, it certainly didn't get fixed in the morning as she was always running late. Then a thought struck her by force.
What if she hadn't slept in her bed at all last night?
Her eyes went wide and she smiled just thinking of all the useless crap she could get Buffy to do for her so that Joyce didn't find out. She hummed to herself as she made her way down the stairs and found Buffy sleeping on the couch, the blanket wrapped around her. She tip-toed over to her and reached over to grab her when her eye spotted the shirt that Buffy had been wearing the previous night.
Did I hit the jackpot or what? she thought excitedly. She leaned over and gently pushed her sister's arm. Buffy made a sound but otherwise didn't move. Dawn tried again, a little harder. Same result. She stood up to her full height and put her hands on her hips, trying to decide the best way to wake her up without getting herself killed. They only had twenty minutes to get to school and if they wanted to make it on time, Buffy needed to get ready now.
"BUFFY!"
Buffy shot up from the couch, eyes wide and searching, before coming to rest on Dawn. Her eyes than narrowed to slits as she gave her sister the dirtiest look she possessed.
"What is your problem?"
"We're going to be late for school."
"School?"
"Yeah, Thursday? School day."
"Oh, yeah..."
"Want your shirt?" Dawn asked as she leaned over and grabbed it from the floor and dangled it from her index finger.
Buffy quickly tugged it away from her and ducked under the blanket to put it on. "If you tell Mom, Dawn, I will kill you."
"I'm sorry. What was that? You're muffled from the blanket," Dawn teased, having heard her.
Buffy sighed heavily and tried to get out from under the blanket but she was tangled all around it. Finally and with much effort, she wrenched the blanket off her and threw to the end of the couch.
"God damn it!" she yelled, giving it a final kick. She stood and ran her fingers through her hair and looked at her sister. "You can not tell Mom that I slept on the couch...like that. Do you understand me? She'll tell me I can't see him anymore or something completely inane."
"Did Spike spend the night?"
"Wasn't he here when you woke up?"
"No. Just you."
"Oh..." Buffy averted her eyes but Dawn saw the wetness come to the surface.
"Buffy? Are you okay?" she asked, putting her hand on Buffy's arm.
"Mmm-hmm. Fine. I have to get ready." Buffy walked around her and went to the stairs.
"Do you want me to put a bagel in the toaster or something?"
"No, thanks, Dawnie. I'm...I'm not hungry."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He just left her.
On the couch.
Half-naked for her sister to find.
Nice. Really nice.
They had English together next and up until this point, school had been going fine. She was tired, sore for more reasons than just sleeping on the couch and she was miserable. Oh, boy, was she miserable. Even Willow had stayed clear from her after Buffy spat out one too many answers about what she had done the previous night. Oz had even told her that she needed to calm down. Oz, for Christ sakes! The guy you had to literally pull words out of had told her to calm down.
She had told him to fuck off.
She wasn't proud of herself.
How could he have done that? Why didn't he try to wake her? Why didn't he say goodbye or, at the very least, leave her a note? It wasn't too much to ask, was it? They had fallen asleep together, practically naked, after having done some things that Buffy was still processing that she had done and he couldn't even tear out a piece of paper from his notebook and write a quick "See you at school" on it? Pig.
She should have known. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did she believe him? Why did she think she could trust him? Why did she allow herself to fall-
No, she thought, shaking her head. Not going down that road. Not even thinking about that.
They really were all the same, weren't they? Maybe he didn't get everything he wanted from her, but he had apparently received enough. God, was she that hideous? Was she really as bad as Angel had told her she was? Apparently so, since Spike went running for the hills, as well.
All she wanted was to ditch school but she knew Snyder would jump at the chance to tell her mother that Buffy flaked on the rest of her classes when she was away. The last thing she wanted was her mother coming down on her when she got home. It was going to be difficult enough to get Dawn not to say anything. Although, she had to hand it to her little sister. She didn't pester Buffy on the way to school, she didn't even talk and when they parted ways, she gave Buffy the sweetest smile she had. It spoke volumes to Buffy and had made her feel a little bit better about going off to school.
She could do this. She would simply walk into class, take her seat and pay attention to Baldy. Maybe she could even learn something today. He probably wouldn't even try to talk to her, anyway, so she didn't know why she was getting all worked up about it. She had all these feelings running through her and she didn't know what to do with them.
She felt humiliated. Out of all them, that was the strongest and the one she was least thrilled about. She could deal with the hurt, inadequacy, sadness, loneliness and confusion but humiliation? She hated that. Give her pain any day of the week; just don't make her feel ashamed. She's always tried not to, despite some of the decisions she had made through out her life. She tried not to hold onto regret, to not feel badly about wrong choices.
Now was different, though. She let herself believe in him, in them, whatever that was. He did a fantastic job of convincing her that he was sincere, that she meant something to him. She let her guard down for him and now all she could do was kick herself for being such a fool.
Buffy rounded the corner and looked up. Her heart stopped and leapt to her throat. She could feel the burn in her cheeks spreading through the rest of her body. She couldn't breathe and her eyes went wide as she began to visibly have trouble taking a breath. The last the thing she wanted was for him to see her like this.
To see her broken.
And there he was, in all his black-wearing glory, with Drusilla. Leaning into Drusilla. Talking quietly with Drusilla.
Why would he do this to her? Say those things to her? Act like he cared, like he...Why? Just so he could get Drusilla back? Something was off; all of it was off. Buffy finally took a deep breath, walked backwards around the corner she came from and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes and took small, shallow breaths, trying desperately to regain her composure. She needed to get to class.
All that stood in her way was Spike and his companion. She peeked around the corner, her heart lurching again.
They were talking. Intimately. He didn't look angry or put off to be doing so. He looked very much like he had when he confronted her at her locker a few weeks ago. Was that his thing? Box a girl into a corner and use the low, sexy voice on her?
She banged her head against the wall. God, I really am that pathetic, aren't I?
"You coming to cla- Buffy, what's wrong?" Willow asked, rushing over to her friend.
"Nothing."
"Stop saying that. What's wrong?"
"Spike."
"Did something happen?"
"Take a look," she told her friend, nodding her head in the direction of the other hall. Willow peered around the corner and her eyes went wide. "Exactly."
"You don't even know what that means. Please, don't do this to yourself until-"
"Until what, Willow? Until he hurts me like Angel did? Screw that. I know exactly what that means. Buffy Summers, duped again. And now they can share a nice, British, laugh over it. I don't care."
"Buffy-"
"I. Don't. Care." Buffy pushed past Willow and took another deep breath as she started down the hall again. She held her head high, mentally replacing each brick of her crumbled wall. This would not, could not, happen again.
She would not give another boy the satisfaction of seeing pain on her face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike stood in the hall and waited, knowing that Buffy should be coming soon. He had a bad feeling that when she woke up and saw that he was gone, she didn't take it too lightly. Not that he could blame her. He wanted to apologize and then he wanted her to kiss his swollen cheek and have everything be okay again.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the locker. Despite that there could be a potential fight between them, he was still on cloud nine over the night before. The way she looked, felt, the things that she had done...It was by far better than anything he had cooked up in his imagination. She was so soft and warm, surprisingly demanding and the sounds she made...It was enough to drive any sane man mad.
And he couldn't wait to do it again. Over and over, whenever, wherever. He didn't care as long as the end result was her moaning out his name.
He was half convinced that it had been wet dream number 20 when he had woken in a daze that morning but then she had curled against him even more, he realized it had really happened. He kept repeating it to himself all morning to solidify the reality of it. However, in the four hours he had been at school, he hadn't seen her once and he was beginning to wonder if it really was a dream or worse.
What if she clammed up again? What if last night was too much for her? Did he push her into it?
No, he thought, she attacked me so I wouldn't leave. She was fine with it. Wasn't she?
He needed to see her, to talk to her, to make sure everything was a-okay between them. They'd come this far and he be damned if he was just going to let her retreat. If she was embarrassed, then he would just have to prove to her that there was nothing to be embarrassed about. If she had trouble believing that, he would just have to prove it to her somehow, in some way. All he knew was that he wasn't letting her go.
"Something troubling you, my pet?"
Spike opened his eyes and sighed when he saw Drusilla standing in front of him. "What could you possibly want now?"
She lifted her hand and ran it over his risen flesh. "What happened, dearie? She get a little rough with my delicate boy?"
He grabbed her hand and held it away from his face. "I'm not your anything, Dru. Get it through that thick noggin of yours."
"Why must you persist in delaying the inevitable, William? It will take too much groveling to win her back now and-"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, forcing her against the wall. He dropped his hands and leaned into her. His voice low, harsh and menacing. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
"Your chippy is not pleased."
"You've seen her today?"
"In more ways than one," she sing-songed. "You shouldn't stand so close someone might get the wrong idea."
"You tell me now."
"And what do I get?"
"Me not beating you black and blue."
She laughed. "Oh, my boy, you know I like it rough. Don't tease me so."
"You listen to me, you half-witted-" He stopped abruptly when he smelled Buffy's perfume go by him. He turned his head quickly and saw her walking towards the classroom. Not paying any further attention to Dru, he went after her.
"It won't help. Don't even bother," Drusilla called out to him but he ignored her in his pursuit. "Suit yourself." She turned to leave and stopped short when she took notice of the red headed girl standing in front of her.
"I think we need to have a little talk," Willow said, her face broaching no argument.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Buffy, will you hold up a second?" he asked, grabbing a hold of her arm.
"Let. Go. Of. Me."
"No, come with me." He tried pulling her towards the doors to the hall but she wouldn't budge. "Don't be like this. Please, let me-"
"You don't get to do anything. Now let go," Buffy interrupted, her voice soft and measured. She yanked her arm from his grasp and winced when he accidentally pinched her skin, trying to keep his hold of her.
"You alright?"
"Like you care."
"Look at me, pet."
"No and if you ever call me that again, I will castrate you. Do you understand me?" She didn't wait for his response and continued on her way.
Spike ran up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her and started walking to the doors.
"Put me down!" Buffy shrieked, her face burning in embarrassment as the other kids in the hallway stopped to watch them.
"No."
She started swinging her legs and smiled when she knew she clipped him a couple of times. She dropped her books and began to slap his hands and arms, hoping she'd hit him hard enough that he would drop her. He made it through the double doors and walked behind the staircase. He let go of her and as soon as her feet hit the floor, he turned her around with her back against the wall.
"Now you listen to me, you stubborn chit-"
"Name calling won't help, you idiot!"
"I'm an idiot?"
"Yes."
"You may be right because I can not for the life of me figure what's got that temper of yours flaring up."
"Oh, please," she huffed.
"I'm sorry I left-"
She pushed him away from her. "You're an asshole, you know that? I don't want your apologies. Shove them some place really painful." He lifted his head to look at her and she took in a sharp breath. "What happened to your face?"
"You happened."
"I did that just now?"
"No, you did that this morning when I tried to wake you up."
"What?"
"I woke up, saw what time it was, knew for certain my mother was probably having a coronary and I tried to wake you. You wouldn't budge so I shook you a little, tried every trick I could think up and when none of that worked, I shook you a little harder than I probably should have and you punched me."
"I punched you?"
"You clocked me good and you went right back to sleep. I figured I couldn't wake you without taking the risk of more harm so I tucked you in all nice and snug-like, left you a note and went home."
"Wait," she said, holding up her hand. "You left me a note?"
"Well, yeah, I didn't want you to think-" He stopped talking when she broke out into hysterical laughter. "It's not funny."
"You left me a note?" she repeated.
"Yeah, we covered that bit already."
She laughed harder, bending over and holding her sides. "You left me a note..."
"Let me guess, you didn't see it?" She shook her head, continuing to laugh. "I put it inside your book so you wouldn't miss it."
"What book?" she asked, wiping her tears away.
"MacBeth. I knew you didn't read the assignment and I figured you would've during your study period."
"No, I was trying to understand chem for the quiz today..."
"So it's-"
"Still in my book, which is now on the floor out there." She gasped and put her hand to mouth. "What if someone saw it?"
"Who's going to care?"
"Mr. Alden, Miss Summers, come with me, please," Principal Snyder said. He held up a piece of notebook paper and grinned maliciously. "I believe we have something to discuss."
Dawn didn't know what to think of this. Buffy always closed her door when she went to sleep at night and here it was, wide open. The second thing that struck her as odd was that Buffy's bed was made. Without their mother at home, Buffy's bed was never made and if it was, it certainly didn't get fixed in the morning as she was always running late. Then a thought struck her by force.
What if she hadn't slept in her bed at all last night?
Her eyes went wide and she smiled just thinking of all the useless crap she could get Buffy to do for her so that Joyce didn't find out. She hummed to herself as she made her way down the stairs and found Buffy sleeping on the couch, the blanket wrapped around her. She tip-toed over to her and reached over to grab her when her eye spotted the shirt that Buffy had been wearing the previous night.
Did I hit the jackpot or what? she thought excitedly. She leaned over and gently pushed her sister's arm. Buffy made a sound but otherwise didn't move. Dawn tried again, a little harder. Same result. She stood up to her full height and put her hands on her hips, trying to decide the best way to wake her up without getting herself killed. They only had twenty minutes to get to school and if they wanted to make it on time, Buffy needed to get ready now.
"BUFFY!"
Buffy shot up from the couch, eyes wide and searching, before coming to rest on Dawn. Her eyes than narrowed to slits as she gave her sister the dirtiest look she possessed.
"What is your problem?"
"We're going to be late for school."
"School?"
"Yeah, Thursday? School day."
"Oh, yeah..."
"Want your shirt?" Dawn asked as she leaned over and grabbed it from the floor and dangled it from her index finger.
Buffy quickly tugged it away from her and ducked under the blanket to put it on. "If you tell Mom, Dawn, I will kill you."
"I'm sorry. What was that? You're muffled from the blanket," Dawn teased, having heard her.
Buffy sighed heavily and tried to get out from under the blanket but she was tangled all around it. Finally and with much effort, she wrenched the blanket off her and threw to the end of the couch.
"God damn it!" she yelled, giving it a final kick. She stood and ran her fingers through her hair and looked at her sister. "You can not tell Mom that I slept on the couch...like that. Do you understand me? She'll tell me I can't see him anymore or something completely inane."
"Did Spike spend the night?"
"Wasn't he here when you woke up?"
"No. Just you."
"Oh..." Buffy averted her eyes but Dawn saw the wetness come to the surface.
"Buffy? Are you okay?" she asked, putting her hand on Buffy's arm.
"Mmm-hmm. Fine. I have to get ready." Buffy walked around her and went to the stairs.
"Do you want me to put a bagel in the toaster or something?"
"No, thanks, Dawnie. I'm...I'm not hungry."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He just left her.
On the couch.
Half-naked for her sister to find.
Nice. Really nice.
They had English together next and up until this point, school had been going fine. She was tired, sore for more reasons than just sleeping on the couch and she was miserable. Oh, boy, was she miserable. Even Willow had stayed clear from her after Buffy spat out one too many answers about what she had done the previous night. Oz had even told her that she needed to calm down. Oz, for Christ sakes! The guy you had to literally pull words out of had told her to calm down.
She had told him to fuck off.
She wasn't proud of herself.
How could he have done that? Why didn't he try to wake her? Why didn't he say goodbye or, at the very least, leave her a note? It wasn't too much to ask, was it? They had fallen asleep together, practically naked, after having done some things that Buffy was still processing that she had done and he couldn't even tear out a piece of paper from his notebook and write a quick "See you at school" on it? Pig.
She should have known. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did she believe him? Why did she think she could trust him? Why did she allow herself to fall-
No, she thought, shaking her head. Not going down that road. Not even thinking about that.
They really were all the same, weren't they? Maybe he didn't get everything he wanted from her, but he had apparently received enough. God, was she that hideous? Was she really as bad as Angel had told her she was? Apparently so, since Spike went running for the hills, as well.
All she wanted was to ditch school but she knew Snyder would jump at the chance to tell her mother that Buffy flaked on the rest of her classes when she was away. The last thing she wanted was her mother coming down on her when she got home. It was going to be difficult enough to get Dawn not to say anything. Although, she had to hand it to her little sister. She didn't pester Buffy on the way to school, she didn't even talk and when they parted ways, she gave Buffy the sweetest smile she had. It spoke volumes to Buffy and had made her feel a little bit better about going off to school.
She could do this. She would simply walk into class, take her seat and pay attention to Baldy. Maybe she could even learn something today. He probably wouldn't even try to talk to her, anyway, so she didn't know why she was getting all worked up about it. She had all these feelings running through her and she didn't know what to do with them.
She felt humiliated. Out of all them, that was the strongest and the one she was least thrilled about. She could deal with the hurt, inadequacy, sadness, loneliness and confusion but humiliation? She hated that. Give her pain any day of the week; just don't make her feel ashamed. She's always tried not to, despite some of the decisions she had made through out her life. She tried not to hold onto regret, to not feel badly about wrong choices.
Now was different, though. She let herself believe in him, in them, whatever that was. He did a fantastic job of convincing her that he was sincere, that she meant something to him. She let her guard down for him and now all she could do was kick herself for being such a fool.
Buffy rounded the corner and looked up. Her heart stopped and leapt to her throat. She could feel the burn in her cheeks spreading through the rest of her body. She couldn't breathe and her eyes went wide as she began to visibly have trouble taking a breath. The last the thing she wanted was for him to see her like this.
To see her broken.
And there he was, in all his black-wearing glory, with Drusilla. Leaning into Drusilla. Talking quietly with Drusilla.
Why would he do this to her? Say those things to her? Act like he cared, like he...Why? Just so he could get Drusilla back? Something was off; all of it was off. Buffy finally took a deep breath, walked backwards around the corner she came from and leaned against the wall. She closed her eyes and took small, shallow breaths, trying desperately to regain her composure. She needed to get to class.
All that stood in her way was Spike and his companion. She peeked around the corner, her heart lurching again.
They were talking. Intimately. He didn't look angry or put off to be doing so. He looked very much like he had when he confronted her at her locker a few weeks ago. Was that his thing? Box a girl into a corner and use the low, sexy voice on her?
She banged her head against the wall. God, I really am that pathetic, aren't I?
"You coming to cla- Buffy, what's wrong?" Willow asked, rushing over to her friend.
"Nothing."
"Stop saying that. What's wrong?"
"Spike."
"Did something happen?"
"Take a look," she told her friend, nodding her head in the direction of the other hall. Willow peered around the corner and her eyes went wide. "Exactly."
"You don't even know what that means. Please, don't do this to yourself until-"
"Until what, Willow? Until he hurts me like Angel did? Screw that. I know exactly what that means. Buffy Summers, duped again. And now they can share a nice, British, laugh over it. I don't care."
"Buffy-"
"I. Don't. Care." Buffy pushed past Willow and took another deep breath as she started down the hall again. She held her head high, mentally replacing each brick of her crumbled wall. This would not, could not, happen again.
She would not give another boy the satisfaction of seeing pain on her face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike stood in the hall and waited, knowing that Buffy should be coming soon. He had a bad feeling that when she woke up and saw that he was gone, she didn't take it too lightly. Not that he could blame her. He wanted to apologize and then he wanted her to kiss his swollen cheek and have everything be okay again.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the locker. Despite that there could be a potential fight between them, he was still on cloud nine over the night before. The way she looked, felt, the things that she had done...It was by far better than anything he had cooked up in his imagination. She was so soft and warm, surprisingly demanding and the sounds she made...It was enough to drive any sane man mad.
And he couldn't wait to do it again. Over and over, whenever, wherever. He didn't care as long as the end result was her moaning out his name.
He was half convinced that it had been wet dream number 20 when he had woken in a daze that morning but then she had curled against him even more, he realized it had really happened. He kept repeating it to himself all morning to solidify the reality of it. However, in the four hours he had been at school, he hadn't seen her once and he was beginning to wonder if it really was a dream or worse.
What if she clammed up again? What if last night was too much for her? Did he push her into it?
No, he thought, she attacked me so I wouldn't leave. She was fine with it. Wasn't she?
He needed to see her, to talk to her, to make sure everything was a-okay between them. They'd come this far and he be damned if he was just going to let her retreat. If she was embarrassed, then he would just have to prove to her that there was nothing to be embarrassed about. If she had trouble believing that, he would just have to prove it to her somehow, in some way. All he knew was that he wasn't letting her go.
"Something troubling you, my pet?"
Spike opened his eyes and sighed when he saw Drusilla standing in front of him. "What could you possibly want now?"
She lifted her hand and ran it over his risen flesh. "What happened, dearie? She get a little rough with my delicate boy?"
He grabbed her hand and held it away from his face. "I'm not your anything, Dru. Get it through that thick noggin of yours."
"Why must you persist in delaying the inevitable, William? It will take too much groveling to win her back now and-"
He grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, forcing her against the wall. He dropped his hands and leaned into her. His voice low, harsh and menacing. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
"Your chippy is not pleased."
"You've seen her today?"
"In more ways than one," she sing-songed. "You shouldn't stand so close someone might get the wrong idea."
"You tell me now."
"And what do I get?"
"Me not beating you black and blue."
She laughed. "Oh, my boy, you know I like it rough. Don't tease me so."
"You listen to me, you half-witted-" He stopped abruptly when he smelled Buffy's perfume go by him. He turned his head quickly and saw her walking towards the classroom. Not paying any further attention to Dru, he went after her.
"It won't help. Don't even bother," Drusilla called out to him but he ignored her in his pursuit. "Suit yourself." She turned to leave and stopped short when she took notice of the red headed girl standing in front of her.
"I think we need to have a little talk," Willow said, her face broaching no argument.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Buffy, will you hold up a second?" he asked, grabbing a hold of her arm.
"Let. Go. Of. Me."
"No, come with me." He tried pulling her towards the doors to the hall but she wouldn't budge. "Don't be like this. Please, let me-"
"You don't get to do anything. Now let go," Buffy interrupted, her voice soft and measured. She yanked her arm from his grasp and winced when he accidentally pinched her skin, trying to keep his hold of her.
"You alright?"
"Like you care."
"Look at me, pet."
"No and if you ever call me that again, I will castrate you. Do you understand me?" She didn't wait for his response and continued on her way.
Spike ran up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, lifted her and started walking to the doors.
"Put me down!" Buffy shrieked, her face burning in embarrassment as the other kids in the hallway stopped to watch them.
"No."
She started swinging her legs and smiled when she knew she clipped him a couple of times. She dropped her books and began to slap his hands and arms, hoping she'd hit him hard enough that he would drop her. He made it through the double doors and walked behind the staircase. He let go of her and as soon as her feet hit the floor, he turned her around with her back against the wall.
"Now you listen to me, you stubborn chit-"
"Name calling won't help, you idiot!"
"I'm an idiot?"
"Yes."
"You may be right because I can not for the life of me figure what's got that temper of yours flaring up."
"Oh, please," she huffed.
"I'm sorry I left-"
She pushed him away from her. "You're an asshole, you know that? I don't want your apologies. Shove them some place really painful." He lifted his head to look at her and she took in a sharp breath. "What happened to your face?"
"You happened."
"I did that just now?"
"No, you did that this morning when I tried to wake you up."
"What?"
"I woke up, saw what time it was, knew for certain my mother was probably having a coronary and I tried to wake you. You wouldn't budge so I shook you a little, tried every trick I could think up and when none of that worked, I shook you a little harder than I probably should have and you punched me."
"I punched you?"
"You clocked me good and you went right back to sleep. I figured I couldn't wake you without taking the risk of more harm so I tucked you in all nice and snug-like, left you a note and went home."
"Wait," she said, holding up her hand. "You left me a note?"
"Well, yeah, I didn't want you to think-" He stopped talking when she broke out into hysterical laughter. "It's not funny."
"You left me a note?" she repeated.
"Yeah, we covered that bit already."
She laughed harder, bending over and holding her sides. "You left me a note..."
"Let me guess, you didn't see it?" She shook her head, continuing to laugh. "I put it inside your book so you wouldn't miss it."
"What book?" she asked, wiping her tears away.
"MacBeth. I knew you didn't read the assignment and I figured you would've during your study period."
"No, I was trying to understand chem for the quiz today..."
"So it's-"
"Still in my book, which is now on the floor out there." She gasped and put her hand to mouth. "What if someone saw it?"
"Who's going to care?"
"Mr. Alden, Miss Summers, come with me, please," Principal Snyder said. He held up a piece of notebook paper and grinned maliciously. "I believe we have something to discuss."