Grace Under Pressure (Grace Walker Series Book 1)

Chapter 12:

Mom picked me up a few minutes later. I had to run from the house to the car because I didn't have an umbrella and the rain hadn't let up.

"Sorry you had such a rough night, punkin. Have you heard anything about the kid that fell? Mason I think you said." Mom stated.

"Yeah, Mason is his name and it's okay. I just feel bad for Reni." I told my mom.

We drove home in mostly silence. My head hurt and I just wanted to get back to the solace of my room. Yesterday was a lot on me and I haven't had to deal with that sort of stuff for a while now.

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Monday morning, that's all you heard about. Everyone was talking about Mason. Some of the kids that weren't there were starting rumors about what happened. Some of them were just plain silly. Like Mason and Chris were up there fighting and Chris pushed him, really far-fetched stuff like that. The kids that actually knew the story tried to explain, but this is high school and kids believe the juicy stuff over the truth. I managed to make it through the first half of school without incident.

I headed off to lunch. I still had a touch of  headache from the weekend, so I wasn't sure what I was gonna eat. I walked in, and my eyes instantly went to the spot where the Fearsome Foursome sat. Everyone was there, except of course Mason. No cheerleader was hanging around the table today. As a matter of fact, no one was hanging out at their table, which was strange. I walked over to the lunch line to see what they had. I ended up going with Fiesta Pizza and some juice. I had some Tylenol in my backpack I needed the juice for. As I was standing in line, I overheard one of the football players saying something like "off the team for the season" and "can't play in the Sectionals". They both looked super mad and everyone around them was trying to ignore them because it was all so devastating. The only person I could think of was Mason. Mason can't play football the rest of the school year and he's going to miss the championship rounds because of his leg. This was turning out to be worse than I thought.

So now from this one careless act, my best friend is grounded, the only one I truly talked to and hung out with, aside from the few times with Gretchen and the star quarterback is out for the rest of the season, ahead of the championship games. Where is that Tylenol?

                **************

I went to Spanish, hoping to see Reni. That's the first of the few classes we have together and I haven't gotten to message or call her since Saturday morning, so I'm dying to talk to her. I walked in and seen her sitting at her desk, but she had her head on her books, so I couldn't tell if she was happy or not. I walked to my desk, the row next to hers, put my books down and tapped her on the arm. She looked up and you can tell she'd been crying again.

"What's wrong Reni?" I asked.
"Well word around school is Mason can't play football the rest of the season and I feel like it's all my fault." You could tell this was weighing heavy on her mind. Reni is always dressed to the nines in something cute and today it looked like she pulled a number out of my closet. She had on a faded t-shirt from a amusement park we went to a couple of years ago, ripped jeans and flip-flops. And she even had her long, perfect hair in a messy bun. She NEVER puts her hair in a messy bun. She still looked beautiful, but she was sad, and it showed.

"Reni, it's not your fault, please don't say that. Mason knew exactly what he was doing. It's not your fault he got up there and it certainly wasn't your fault he fell. He was the jackass Ren, not you." I said.

"I just feel like all this stuff started going downhill since I had my party. The news about him has enraged my father even more. My parents even fought last night and they haven't done that in months. I'm not allowed to have my phone unless for absolute emergency, I have to go to school and come home. That's it. No mall, no hanging out with you and especially no parties. I guess they think all of them are like that. And the biggest mess of it all, they took my car away! I'm sorry Reni, I can't take you home. "

"It's alright, girl. I can take the bus. I'm sorry all that is going on."