Chapter Five: Collective Responsibility
"Oh! My! God!" Faye had rushed through the classroom to get to Bonnie's table and practically threw herself on it. Now she was half leaning onto it half lying on it. Bonnie was surprised to see her because Faye wasn't even in this course. But she was now staring expectantly into Bonnie's eyes. That entangled Bonnie because she had no idea what her friend's show was all about.
Faye Matthews was one of Bonnie's first friends in Portland. On her first day in middle school she sat next to Faye in the cafeteria. The girl had been so lively than Bonnie instantly liked her and over the years Faye hadn't lost any of her wildness. She was the extrovert of the group, a little girly at times and known by everyone in the school. She always had the latest gossip about everyone and was sometimes contributing a story for the rumor section as well due to her diverse encounters with the opposite sex.
Bonnie didn't blame her, she actually envied her a little for her bravery and self-confidence. But if Bonnie would look like Faye, maybe she would behave exactly the same way. Some people might say that Faye did not fit into their group of regulars, with her perfect long red hair and the fashion outfits, but they had been friends for so long that Bonnie didn't bother about the talk.
Her friend was still staring at her with open eyes, demanding some kind of reaction from her, but about what? No clue. Bonnie looked questioningly at Faye and saw that Liza and Perry were entering the room, too.
They were greeting Bonnie and sat next to her in the back row. Bonnie looked at them for clues about Faye's behavior.
"Don't look at me; she's been like this the whole lunch break. I think I've never seen her this quiet for this long." Liza shrugged.
"Don't listen to them. I need to know everything! Spill, Bennet!" Faye hadn't shifted her gaze from Bonnie and it was starting to feel a little uncomfortable.
"Spill what exactly?" Bonnie asked.
Faye sighted, annoyed. "Why do I have to pull everything out of you, girl? I'm talking about the obvious elephant in the room that is Malachai Parker! How the hell did you end up with that incredible slice?"
Bonnie blinked about 50 times in a row to reassure herself that Faye had actually just said that.
"Come on, Faye. Don't exaggerate. If there was something going on between Bonnie and Kai don't you think she would have mentioned something?" Perry said in his unique nasal voice and made wave with his hand.
Faye turned to look at her gay best friend and looked shocked. "Isn't that the point my dear Perry? I for one didn't even know the two of them had ever exchanged a single word and I thought that information like this would have been worth mentioning, but Ms. Bennet over here has a different opinion." Faye turned back to face Bonnie.
"There is absolutely nothing to tell, Faye. You know everything there is to know. We have history together and that's it. Today Ms. Gibbens gave us an assignment that we have to do together and that is why we were talking earlier." Bonnie was feeling like she had to defend herself. Well, she kind of had to because A: she knew that Faye had always tried to get into Kai's orbit but failed and B: she was in a relationship with Jeremy and she didn't like to be accused of having any interest in Kai.
"Naaah, that's not it. Kai Parker isn't just spending his lunch break with some random girl he has to do an assignment with. Plus, what was that stunt you pulled with him, the one that you did on the first day back? You're hiding something, Bennet. SPILL!"
"I'm not hiding anything. I don't particularly search for his presence; he just keeps popping up. I don't even like him; I am actually intimidated by him. But I think he kind of thinks it's funny to taunt me because he keeps doing it. First on the flight back to Portland; then when I met him in front of Mr. Bright's office the other day and then today by showing me off in front of the whole cafeteria."
"Ha! There it was! I knew it!" Faye pointed at Bonnie and Bonnie couldn't exactly tell if her friend was exited or angry at her. "You never told us about those encounters, Bon. What do you mean with the flight back to Portland or the thing with Mr. Bright?" she kept asking.
"Well, he was sitting next to me on my plane ride back. No idea what he did in Virginia but he suddenly was there in the seat next to me. And I did tell you about the thing with Mr. Bright. That Ms. Gibbens send me to him because I fell asleep in her class?"
"You did say that, but you failed to mention that you saw Kai there." Faye was now looking down on Bonnie with a raised eyebrow. She was trapping her long red hair behind her ear as she looked down on her.
"Well, I didn't tell you guys anything because I didn't think it would matter. I thought I would never speak to Kai again when we were back in school, but he kind of had a different plan. I would wish that everything would go back to as it was before, because I can't stand the guy but he won't leave me alone now. I thought if I kept it from you it would help me forget it ever happened."
Bonnie was looking from Faye to Liza to Perry. She had addressed her speech to all of them, even though Perry and Liza had been quiet this whole time. The two of them nodded to Bonnie reassuringly. And now that Faye heard Bonnie's point of view her expression softened too.
"Oh, dear Bonnie I wish I could swap positions with you." She now resumed to her sweet self and Bonnie knew she hadn't been quiet as mad as she had pretended to be.
"You and me both!"
"So, how is he like? I have to know everything!" Faye was almost screaming in excitement now.
"But not in the next hour, Ms. Matthews." It was Mr. Collins who had spoken. The class had started and Faye was clearly not part of it so he tried to calm the class down by suggesting that Faye would find her own class to attend. On her way out she mouthed to Bonnie 'Text me!" and then she was gone.
Bonnie sighed. Faye was an intense person to be around but she still loved her. Nevertheless, Bonnie was afraid of the hour-long phone call that she would have to have with her tonight. Faye would ask her questions about Kai Bonnie didn't have the answers to and didn't want to have them either.
"Alright people, turn your attentions away from your phone screens and into your books at page 124, please." Mr. Collins told the class.
Bonnie opened her book as she was told and looked at the topic. Integral calculus was written at the top of the page. Bonnie sighed.
"Oh, Ms. Bennet I nearly forgot to tell you. Mr. Bright asked me to release you earlier today so he could have a word with you." Mr. Collins was about to sit down behind the desk as he presented this news to Bonnie.
"Me? Why?" Bonnie was scared all of a sudden. Was it still about the falling asleep in class thing? Or did she do something else? Was she endangered to fail all her classes? Bonnie had no idea.
"It is about a new school project he told me. So you can leave for his office 15 minutes early, alright?"
Bonnie holed up behind the huge boy sitting in front of her. She looked to her left and saw Liza and Perry watching her with concern. Bonnie only shook her head to tell them she didn't know what the principle wanted from her. Then she tried to focus on the math exercise in front of her but she failed at that.
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She was headed to the administration desk and greeted Mrs. Percyville. She didn't seem to be surprised to see Bonnie which told her that she had been expecting her. So she knew what this was about?
"Ah, there you are, child. You can go straight ahead to Mr. Bright's office. He is already expecting you." She smiled at her and that kind of reassured Bonnie a little that nothing bad was going to happen.
She went to Mr. Bright's office and knocked on his door twice. As she heard a silent 'enter' she pulled the door open and stepped inside. Mr. Bright was sitting behind his desk and was gesturing her to take a seat. "Hello, Bonnie. Please take a seat."
She did what she was told and placed her bag on the remaining chair next to her. She sat upright because right now her muscled wouldn't let her sit differently. She was tense and nervous and Mr. Bright seemed to notice that.
"You probably wonder what this is about, but I can assure you there is nothing to be afraid about. You can relax. I actually have something I need your help with."
Bonnie's muscles relaxed a little by Mr. Bright's words and Bonnie slid back in the chair. She nodded to show the principle that he was right about his assumption about her wondering about the reason of this meeting.
"So, here is the thing. You probably know by now that you will have to do an assignment with Mr. Parker for your History class." Mr. Bright waited until Bonnie had nodded to resume.
"And maybe you also heard that my colleagues and I are trying to handle Malachai Parker differently from now on."
Bonnie remembered the conversation with Ms. Gibbens earlier. Was he talking about the 'measures' she had been referring to?
"I am not sure if I can follow you, Mr. Bright." She admitted.
"All right, in my conversation with Mr. Parker I made clear that his behavior will no longer be tolerated at this school and I announced that the teachers are going to initiate measures to make him wake up. But of course I know Mr. Parker and I also know that he will give a damn about my announcement. And he proved me right when he skipped school for the following 4 days after our conversation, so I had to initiate my first measure to make him aware of the fact that this is a serious thing."
Bonnie understood. What she still didn't get was what this all had to do with her.
"So that is why you had Ms. Gibbens match me and him for the assignment and let me give my assessment afterwards?"
"Indeed. Tying his mark to the assessment of another student and not his capability of handing in incredible work on the last minute is supposed to make him work a little harder on this."
Bonnie nodded but she was in thoughts.
"You don't think this is going to work?" Mr. Bright asked Bonnie.
"Not sure. We will have to see about that." Bonnie really wasn't sure. She was sure that Kai gave a damn about his marks and school in general and she knew that a few different assignment wouldn't change any of that, but she still had hope that he would pull himself together for at least their history assignment. "Sorry, sir. But what exactly does this all have to do with me?" She finally asked.
"Right. Well, I want you to know that I personally guarantee that this assignment isn't going to have any bad effects on your merit. But, I want to ask you for one thing. I am really trying to contain Mr. Parker a little, so I need someone to, let's say become a part of his life, influence him in the right direction and report the progress back to me and I want this person to be you."
Silence. Bonnie was watching her headmaster like he had told a bad joke. She actually had to fight back a laugh. Mr. Bright only watched Bonnie and waited for some kind of reaction.
"Why? Why me?" Bonnie finally managed to say.
"Because I am under the impression that you are a strong person and can stand up to Malachai, something that I would not say about a lot of people in this school, some teachers included. Also, I think Mr. Parker likes you and that makes the whole thing way easier." He explained.
"Like me? I didn't have that impression but okay." Bonnie closed her eyes for a second and shook her head to clear it. "So let me recap: You want me to babysit Kai Parker and spy on him in the process?" This is how Bonnie would put it, Mr. Bright had just described it a little fancier.
"If you put it like that it sounds really bad, but basically you are right."
"And what did you mean with become a part of his life? Because I am not a good actor I cannot pretend to want to become Kai Parkers friend." Bonnie was shivering form the thought only.
"Oh, no. I don't expect you to become his best friend, I solely want you to be his confidante maybe. You would be the one he does his school projects with and maybe make a little small talk nothing more."
Bonnie nodded. "Why are you doing all of this? I mean, why go through so much trouble if you can't even be sure that it will be helpful? What is so special about Kai?"
"Well, Kai is a very smart boy, as you might have noticed. But he has risen to be a real problem for our school, our reputation. The authorities have informed me about the reputation we have among the town's people and that is also because of him. Not only but he plays his part. We are a very exclusive school and are proud of that, we need to remain that. And the everyday work is much harder because of him. I want to ensure that my staff is able to work properly and I want to make sure that Kai gets the promotion he deserves and I can only prevail both if I can get him in check, you understand. Also, his father is on the school board and he is really giving me a hard time. He wants me to get his son under control, as if it was that easy." Mr. Bright shook his head and Bonnie saw that this was really bothering him.
"So, I can't make you do anything you don't want to do, so I am asking you if you are willing to take this task and become my right hand in the Malachai Parker case? I assure you, I will give you a good recommendation for any college you want if you do this for me."
Bonnie had to think about it. She wasn't really keen on spending more time with Kai than necessary but she was a selfless person and probably too good for this world, and who said any of Mr. Bright's plans would work out. But she saw that Mr. Bright had the best reasons to implement these measures.
Bonnie sighed. "All right, I'll do it."
Mr. Bright looked surprised but relieved. "Thank you so much, Ms. Bennet."
'Good lord, the man is really taking this seriously.' Bonnie thought to herself.
"You are really helping me, Ms. Bennet. Oh, I forgot to mention, I want to adapt your schedules so that you have more classes together, is that okay with you?"
"Well, if you grant me the freedom of a few Kai-free hours and promise me not to pair us in every course there is, which would be a little obvious by the way, and if you only adapt the schedule when everyone else is getting a new one for the next semester, than I give you my permission." Bonnie couldn't believe what she was committing herself to. Did she really just agree to have more classes with Kai?
"Of course, we'll do it like that."
"Alright, anything else?"
"Not that I can think of. Just thank you again, Ms. Bennet."
Bonnie grabbed her bag and stood from the chair. Mr. Bright was staying on put as he took leave. When Bonnie was at the door Mr. Bright addressed her again.
"Oh, and Ms. Bennet? You would have to keep quiet about this. No word to anyone, not even your friends and especially not Mr. Parker."
"Of course." Bonnie smiled at Mr. Bright once more and went out of his office. She couldn't believe what kind of hell she just voluntarily stepped into.
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"So did you agree to this because you are such a do-gooder, because of the recommendation for college or because of him?"
"Caroline!" Bonnie saw Elena punch her blond friend on the screen. She had been telling her two friends about everything that went on the past weeks in a half hour long monologue via Skype. She even told them about her deal with Mr. Bright even though she promised not to tell anyone, but Elena and Caroline were in Mystic Falls and didn't even know Kai, so no worries here. The two had patiently listened to her story and now it was their turn to say something. And of course Caroline was going to point something like that out.
"What? I am just stating what we were both thinking!" Carline said to Elena. The two turned their heads back at the screen to wait for Bonnie to answer Caroline question.
"I just can't help it, when I see someone in trouble I have to rush to their aid. So, the first option obviously." Bonnie was leaning back onto her wall and made sure the laptop was steady on her lap.
"Well, actually it was not that obvious considering who we are talking about here." Was Caroline's reaction to Bonnie's statement.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bonnie asked a little angry.
"Come on, Bon. This Kai Parker we are talking about. The same guy you had a terrible crush on for … like forever. Since the day you arrived in Portland, I guess. And you were never brave enough to talk to him and now you practically have him kissing your feet, it is not that obvious what your driving reasons are for your actions. At least not for me."
"You forget that I am in a happy relationship, Care."
"With my brother by the way, so could you please stop talking like Bonnie should consider making a move on Kai?" Elena sounded a little uncomfortable. This conversation was actually a usual conversation between friends but Bonnie regretted telling Caroline and Elena about her crush all these years ago. But who could have thought that it would come around to bite her in the ass someday? And for Elena's sake Bonnie tried to change the subject but Caroline wasn't done yet.
"Come on, Elena. You know just as good as me that Jeremy is kind of off the rails at the moment and that no one would blame Bonnie if she flirted with someone else in Portland to feel a eligible, especially if that someone is as hot as Kai Parker."
Elena only shook her head. "I'll go grab something to eat real quick." And then Bonnie couldn't see her anymore.
Caroline followed Elena's figure until she had closed the door behind her and turned back to Bonnie.
"Bonnie, now that it is just the two of us, be honest. What do you think of him?" Caroline looked a little like Faye this afternoon in school.
Now that Elena had left the room Bonnie felt the need to talk about her image of Kai rise again. She had that the whole day; that was why she called her two best friends in the first place but the second she saw Elena, the urge to talk about Kai had gone. She didn't want to exclude her from these kinds of topics, she wanted her to know, but the fact that Bonnie was with her brother always made it awkward and put Elena in a difficult position. But now that it was just Caroline and her she really wanted to report.
"Well, I knew how I expected him to be from all the things you hear in school and the things I observed myself. Mean, arrogant, mocking, annoying, childish and too self-confident for his own good. And he is all that. He is a real pain in the ass and I am not looking forward to spend more time with him."
"But?" Caroline had always had a talent to find the hidden secrets and meaning in things people told her.
"But there were moments when he seemed so different. Like when he helped his sister or when he was promising me to really help me with the project. He was sincere and honest and caring. So there is another side of him somewhere in there. I just can't figure him out. One minute he is cheerful and funny and the next he is pissed and grumpy. I have no idea how to take him. Sometimes I am really scared of him, Care."
"Well, maybe you just have to get to know him better."
"That's the thing, I don't know if I want to get to know him. There is something damaged inside this guy. And I mean really damaged. Not the I-was-bullied-in-second-grade damaged but I-have-no-trust-in-people damaged. When I was holding him back earlier he looked at me as if I was an alien. And he couldn't even understand why I was asking him what's wrong with him. Like no one ever cares about that with him." Bonnie let herself slide down on the wall. She was now lying on the bed and facing the ceiling.
"So maybe you have to figure out what makes him tick and be his savior in shining armor."
"Care!" Bonnie was looking back at the screen to reprove her friend.
"Alright, okay. I bent. I will leave the team Parker corner once and for all. You're with Jeremy and as long as you are happy I am happy, too."
"Thanks, Care."
"Just one more thing: on a scale of 1 to 10, how hot is he?" Caroline's eyes were sparkling because of the anticipation.
Bonnie had to repress a grin. She had no reason to lie to her friend so she didn't. "Definitely a 10!"
Caroline and Bonnie both started laughing and in that moment Elena rejoined Caroline in front of the computer.
"What are you guys laughing about?" she asked throwing a popcorn into her mouth and munching on it.
"Ah, nothing really." Caroline said.
"So, I did all the talking, it's your turn. Any news from home?"
"Well, Elena has made a decision about Matt." Caroline stated with a look at Elena.
"Really? And what is the verdict?" Bonnie rolled around to lie on her belly now.
Elena hesitated to answer, so Bonnie already knew. "Well, I'll end it tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" Bonnie was actually relieved to hear it. Elena and Matt had never made a good match. And they hadn't been happy in quiet a long time.
"Yes, it's for the best. I just don't know how I am going to do it, though. And I am a little afraid of being single again."
"Ah, don't be. There are thousands of guys out there and you will find someone again." Bonnie tried to reassure Elena.
"And if Kai Parker is continuing to bother Bonnie, we can just get you to Portland and you can personally guarantee that he leaves his fingers off of her and puts them onto you. You know you would want him to, he's hot."
And after Caroline's statement the three girls laughed for 5 minutes straight, imagining different ways Elena would beat Kai up only to heal him back to health.
After she ended the call with Elena and Caroline a few minutes later, she felt relieved. She didn't realize how much she had needed to get all the stuff about Kai off her shoulders. She could have told Faye or Liza but she needed to talk to someone that wasn't into Kai and that actually knew the whole story, even the embarrassing part about her long time crush on him. And that small fact only knew Caroline and Elena. She felt good now. But also a little guilty that she had talked about a guy she barely knew for hours and hadn't thought about her actual boyfriend once.
She tried to reach her bag from the bed where she was still lying and grabbed her phone. She called the number and was relieved when he picked up a few seconds after that.
"Hey, Jer." She smiled into the phone.
"Hey, Bonnie." His voice was warm but not as happy as she might have wanted it to be.
Author's note: Thanks for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it all. Sorry for any mistakes I made. Until next time, LiLaAir.