Life is Liz (LiL, #1)

Chapter 18: Speeches

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 A speech should not just be a sharing of information, but a sharing of yourself

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"And what did you do?" Jo asked, absentmindedly twirling a piece of her dark hair around her index finger. 

"Well, what do you think did I do? I talked to them." After I had come home from school I immediately sent Jo a skype request. Jo was the only person I could freely talk to about everything. And after a day like today I needed to tell her about it. 

"Uh-huh. And what did you 'talk' about?"

So, I told her. Everything. "When I heard their names being listed by the principle I knew that it had to do something with that video. That couldn't be a coincidence. So, I waited in front of his office until I could get my hands on them."

Earlier

I waited. And waited. And waited. 

I watched closely as Heather, the secretary, occasionally entered and exited the room numerous times. I had nothing else to do, so I busied myself by thinking about possible scenarios that could've happened. Scenarios that I probably shouldn't have thought about, seeing as my stomach twisted into knots as I thought about all the trouble they could get. So, I cleared my thoughts and continue on my waiting in blissful silence.

I observed as coach Edwards walked into the office, glancing at me with suspicion and curiosity. I willed myself not to analyse the situation further, but instead closed my eyes and waited. 

Until, finally, somebody opened the door and all the boys trudged out. "Liz?" Liam was the first one to notice me. A gasp slipped past my lips as I walked up to him, taking his face between my hands. My fingers skimmed over his cheekbone where a bruise was forming. He gritted his teeth together in pain. When I inspected the other boys my jaw dropped. Every one of them had similar injuries. A split lip, a bloodied nose, bruises of all sorts. 

All signs of a fight. 

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Drake asked me. 

"What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing here?!" A few of my friends looked down in shame. Several other football player walked out of the office, whom I recognized as Jensen's buddies from our little bus trip. Matthew and Drew were among them. 

"Liz, you know we want to protect you ," Jack defended. 

The other football player now decided to exit the room. "Trouble in paradise," one of them murmured, loud enough for all of us to hear. His friends laughed. I rolled my eyes. Though my friends looked ready to kill. Jack moved forward, but I turned around and slapped the jerk with the idiotic remark upside the head when he passed me. "Shut up and keep going," I demanded, my voice taking on an authoritative tone, and turned to my friends again. 

I felt the idiot behind me staring holes in the back of my head. "Touch her and you're dead," Jack warned, glaring daggers at him. 

So, they left. 

I sighed, frowning. "Where's Ryan?" I asked, just realizing that he's not here. 

"In there," Drake pointed to the door. "Principle wanted to talk alone to him." 

I nodded. "So, what's your punishment?" 

"He said he wanted to talk to coach Edwards first. But maybe expulsion from the game tonight."