So as you've probably guessed already I couldn't update at the airport. Darn those British people! (minus of course the Anubis people of course). More A/N notes at end so stay tune after (if you don't hate me by the end of this chapter)

Chapter 17 Justice Systems 101

October 21, 8:05 A.M.

Nina's P.O.V.

It was tense in the hallway outside the Student Court room. There were seats on both sides of the hallway and everybody was either staring daggers at each other or looking at the floor, hoping they could become invisible.

Tony's face hadn't improved much. In fact, Michael had broken his nose and had him sent to the hospital to get it fixed. A bandage was now placed on Tony's nose, with a dark purple bruise covering it. 'Serves him right.' I thought.

Michael was fidgeting nervously next to me, and he had every right to in my opinion, even I was nervous. Tony father, Mr. Anthony King Senior, had flown from London to the school to plead on his son's behalf. Apparently, Tony's father is a big money giver to the school and he thought he could get his son out of trouble. He wasn't able to stop the hearing, but he would be able to testify for his son's good behavior in front of the student court, something Michael's father couldn't do because he was across the Atlantic.

Another thing that had me nervous was this hearing itself. When I had told my friends at Anubis about it, Jerome decided to help me understand how the system worked. "Each person is interviewed individually, and each testimony is counted towards one person. If one person lacks enough testimony, then they will probably lose the case."

"That isn't justice! That's a popularity contest!" I said shocked. Jerome shrugged, acting like I just told him the sky was blue. "Well I hope Michael's popular amongst your housemates. From what you're telling me, there are not a lot of people that you can rely on."

As of now, I have to agree with Jerome. Because it was such a small incident, there weren't a lot of witnesses. Even Debbie couldn't be one, who was testifying currently in the court, because she was in the other room when the fight began. That left only us eight housemates.

Sophia, Alan, and I were going to testify that Tony had provoked Michael, securing for him three witnesses. Tori and Mitch were no doubt going to testify for Tony, and the thousand dollars that Tony's father had graciously given to the school would no doubt give him an 'extra vote'.

That only left Charlotte. The wild card. If she side with us against Tony, that means that Michael could get off. If she side with Tony however, Michael is screwed. Even though it was a small fight, the consequences were dire.

I was brought out of my thoughts when my name was called. I got up and walked towards the room, giving Michael an encouraging look. He smiled and looked away. I walked into the room to find a single chair below a raised platform with five teachers sitting above behind a large desk. On the left side was a typist who would be taking notes for the entire session. The right side were empty seats that Jerome had told me once belong to the student portion of the student court. He said they got rid of that part because they were prone to corruption by money or thoughts of increased popularity and the teachers thought that by getting rid of them it would make the student court better. "It didn't." Jerome said plainly.

As I sat down, I looked at the teachers to get a feel for the judges. Mr. Sweet and Mrs. Anderson were there, sitting close together and near the center of the judges. 'They are the power house of this court.' I realized. The three other teachers I didn't know so well. One of them was the debate coach Mr. Hamilton, who I hope would be kind and would remember me from when he met with Fabian. The other two were Mrs. Keyes the guidance counselor whom I met several times to talk about colleges with, and Mr. Daniels, the head of the Admissions office who I've never met before. 'The Money Man' Jerome had said. I couldn't help but wonder if Mr. King Senior had bought him out.

Mr. Sweet tapped his microphone and began speaking, "Date October 21st, 2011. Honor court hearing regarding physical assault between two students, Mr. Michael Ericson and Mr. Anthony King II. Current Witness: Nina Martin." I saw him pull out a folder that I recognized as my school folder. The typist was busy typing away at everything Mr. Sweet said, who began reading off my file.

"Nina Martin. Junior, age 17. Second year at this school on the International Scholarship program. GPA 3.9. Formally a resident member of Anubis House and now currently a resident member of Odin House. Let the record reflect that this is Nina Martin's first time appearing before this court and that she is appearing as a witness only." Mr. Sweet looked up from my file and took off his glasses. "Ms. Martin, were you at Odin House on the night of October 17?"

"Yes." I responded.

"Were you present when the assault by Michael Ericson occurred on Anthony King II?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't really call it an assault-"

"Ms. Martin, as of now only answer 'yes' or 'no'. Understood?" Mrs. Anderson said coolly.

"Yes ma'am." I responded after a moment of silence.

"Thank you, Mr. Sweet."

"Thank you Daphne. Now where was I? Ah yes, Ms. Martin you were present when the assault occurred?"

"Yes." I answered grudgingly.

"Was Mr. King just passing by when Mr. Ericson assaulted him out of blind rage?"

"NO! Tony was provoking Michael."

"Provoking him? How by?" Mr. Sweet said, seeming to forget what Mrs. Anderson just said. I heard Mr. Daniels clear his throat in the microphone to gain everybody's attention. "Ah yes, James, did you have something to add." Mr. Sweet asked.

"Yes sir I do. I was wondering if I could take over the questioning from this point on for Ms. Martin." He said, though it was more of a statement then a question. Mr. Sweet chuckled softly.

"Well that would be highly unorthodox James. I am head judge and as such I should be asking the questions I believe, as is school policy." Mr. Daniels chuckled himself, I already disliked this guy and I had a bad feeling of where this was going. He was taller than most of the judges and had striking black hair that was gelled back. He sat with amazing posture and had a super white smile. If I had to guess, I'd say he was about 30, 31. But there was something about him that set me on edge.

"I understand that Eric, but I believe that there is a line of questioning that I can provide that can be… fruitful to this committee in its attempts at reaching a proper decision." Everybody there was looking at him confused and only the sound of the typist typing could be heard. "Trust me Eric, this is important."

Mr. Sweet held up both his hands, "Very well James, if you insist." Mr. Daniels looked happy while Mrs. Anderson looked shocked by the change of events. I wasn't feeling any better about this. Mr. Daniels turned to me now, smiling and spoke eloquently into the microphone.

"Hello Ms. Martin. I am James Daniels, head of Admissions office. You are here today to speak as a witness in this assault case, correct." He asked smoothly. I smiled, 'I hate the way they use 'assault' to describe what happened.' I thought.

"That is correct sir." I answered. Mr. Daniels smiled again, "Ms. Martin, please, just yes or no sir."

"Yes sir." I responded, through pursed lips.

"Thank you." Mr. Daniels said, with no sincerity what so ever. "Now, did Mr. Ericson assault Mr. King?"

"Yes, but-" I began before he raised his hand to stop me.

"Yes or no sir, Ms. Martin." He responded, as I sat steaming from this treatment. He continued again like nothing had happened, "Did Mr. Ericson continue to assault Mr. King, even after Ms. Evenstad attempted to remove Mr. King from harms?"

"Yes, but she wasn't removing him from the fight! She was trying to restrain him to stop him from-"

"Ms. Martin, what did we talk about?" Mr. Daniels said. I shut up reluctantly. Jerome was right, there is no honor here.

"Ms. Martin, did Mr. King ask Mr. Ericson to stop attacking him?"

"NO! He attacked him back!"

"Ms. Martin." Mr. Daniels said again with no change in his tone. I wanted to throttle him at that moment, but instead I jumped out of my seat in a full rage.

"NO! Would you people listen to me! Tony was provoking Michael! He said terrible things about Michael's personal life. He was talking bad about me before the fight also! If you would just listen to me!"

"James, please let's at least listen to what she has to say." Mrs. Keyes said kindly.

"I agree." Mrs. Anderson said, "Policy be buggered, we should listen to what she has to say."

"Oh I wouldn't give much thought to what she has to say," Mr. Daniels said casually, "Ms. Martin, what is your relationship to Mr. Ericson?" I was caught off guard by the question, and slowly I answered, "He's a friend."

"How good of a friend?" Mr. Daniels asked. Everything stopped for me at that instant. I was wide awake and I knew where this was going. Now I know that Mr. King Senior had bought him out.

"How dare you insinuate that Mr. Daniels!" I said with anger in my voice.

Mr. Daniels just shrugged. "What am I insinuating Ms. Martin?" He asked casually.

"That I am dating Michael!" I shouted. I mentally kicked myself, I let this guy get to me! I was going to blow everything for Michael! By even just mentioning that Tony was mocking me before the fight makes it look like Michael was protecting! Like he did it out of love for me or something! Luckily Mr. Sweet came to my rescue.

"That's quite an accusation James! It is well known that Ms. Martin and Mr. Rutter are dating." He said confidently.

"Ah yes Fabian, what a good lad!" Mr. Hamilton spoke up, "He's on my debate team you know? Such a good student and with such a good girlfriend too! I suppose that's you Ms. Martin?" I nodded and he smiled, "Ah yes! I'm know to be a good judge of character and I know that Ms. Martin would never cheat on her boyfriend or do anything dishonorable."

"Since you are offering your own evidence on her behalf Richard, allow me to enter my own." Mr. Daniels said, "I have several witnesses who are willing to testify that Ms. Martin has been looking to start a relationship with Mr. Ericson and vice versa. I believe that by testifying on Mr. Ericson's behalf she hopes to gain his love and affection."

I started laughing at how ridiculous that statement was, though it was more of a hysterical laugh than one that I would use for something funny. "And who are these witnesses?" I said still laughing lightly.

"Joy Mercer for one." Mr. Daniels answered plainly. If my jaw could have it would have dropped to the floor in shock. "I have several others who would be willing to testify." He continued, now reading off a list of names that I recognized to be Joy's friends.

"That isn't evidence!" I said stunned by everything that was happening, "That's hear say testimony! That isn't valid!"

"Isn't this entire hearing hear say Ms. Martin?" Mr. Daniels asked smoothly, pushing his fingers through his perfectly gelled hair. I had no retort to that as he was right. 'I'm losing!' I realized shocked.

"I have these witnesses standing by to testify if need be. If you do not think that is necessary than I move to have Ms. Nina Martin's testimony stricken from the record and her credibility as a witness dismissed on the grounds of a 'personal relationship bias'." Mr. Daniels continued. I was so shocked I couldn't come up with any retort. I just fell back into my seat shocked.

Mr. Daniels hand was the first up to dismiss my testimony, then Mr. Hamilton who looked so heartbroken. If one more of them raised their hand it was over. And it was. Mrs. Anderson raised her hand. Mr. Sweet sighed and raised his gavel, "Motion carries, Ms. Martin you are dismissed from this court and your testimony is stricken. Because of these proceedings you have the rest of the day free. Thank you very much for your time." He slammed the gavel down and a loud bang thundered through the courtroom.

I got up slowly, still unable to process what had just happened. I walked what seemed to be miles to the door that exited the court room. As I exited, everybody's eyes in the hallway turned to me.

"How'd it go?" Sophia asked, I gave her a sullen look and then found Tony. I gave him the dirtiest look I've ever given somebody and sat back down next to Michael even though I was dismissed to do whatever I wanted.

"I'm sorry Michael." I said, "But you're screwed."

8:38 A.M.

It was finally Charlotte's turn, the person who Michael's fate rested on entirely.

After about twenty minutes things were not going well for Michael. So far only Sophia was able to testify on Michael's behalf. But even her testimony had been dissected by Mr. Daniels, she told me. He had looked for any loop hole in her story, but Sophia was a fighter and a week with no sports had left her agitated. She wasn't going to lose in her first competition of the week to some sleazy guy with gelled hair.

Alan fell through entirely as he wasn't even in the room when the fight began, so he could only give previous examples of Tony's misbehavior. We had originally hoped that would be good enough to count in Michael's defense, but of course Mr. Daniels wasn't interest in what happened two weeks ago which meant that the rest of the panel wasn't either.

Tori and Mitch did exactly what we expected them to do, side with Tony. They didn't say much as they emerged from the court room but I'll guess the judge's sympathy were with Tony now. I couldn't believe how things were going.

After about ten minutes Charlotte emerged and walked back to her place, sitting down trembling slightly. Everybody's eyes were on her. Before we had time to question her, the doors opened and Mr. Sweet came striding out.

"All of you may enter now and a wait for our decision. But before we go into conference, we want to have a word with all of you." We all got up and moved into the court room, but Mr. Sweet stopped me before I entered. "Ms. Martin, you were excused from this hearing."

"I know Mr. Sweet, but can I still sit inside and listen. I won't say anything, I promise." Mr. Sweet sighed and bowed his head, moving to the side to allow me into the room. To differentiate myself from the group I took a seat a row back from the rest of my housemates. I began to think about what I could do to help Michael, but nothing came to mind.

Mr. Sweet retook his seat on the panel, clearing his throat as he did so. "Before we go into deliberation, we wanted to address all of you first. We want to thank you all for your cooperation in this investigation and would to apologize for an inconvenience this has caused you in your academic or extracurricular lives. I know that it has been hard going in my Physics AP class and if any if you were in that class you would of found it hard to concentrate, which would have affected your grade significantly."

Suddenly it came to me; I knew how I could help Michael win. How I could balance the scales. If Mr. Daniels could call Joy as a witness, then why couldn't I do this?

"Now if at this time anybody wishes to enter in new evidence or testimony please just say so now." Mr. Sweet said, expecting nobody to say anything. But I jumped up and shouted.

"Mr. Sweet, Michael would like to ask one more person to testify on his behalf!" All head spun around to look at me. Michael looked shocked but I smiled at him triumphantly.

"And who is this Ms. Martin?" Mrs. Anderson asked, before Mr. Daniels could begin to protest me speaking. I smiled at her.

"Probably the most trustworthy and honorable person any of you will meet!"

So Mr. Daniels is a pain, and I'm sure you guys can guess who Nina's going to call to Michael's defense!

In response to a review I got from someone named "tqwder" (anonoymous), I just want to say that I don't mind negative reviews, but the one posted by that person does not help at all. "Boring" "and don't like where this is going" are two seperate things. If you do leave criticism (and by all means do, I'm here to make this story better for you) at least have the decency and guts to a. leave your actual username and b. give something a little more specific than just vague complaints.

With that said REVIEW!