Kenzie's Time to Meet the World

~15~ Bullies and Screwups

(BTW, this chapter is soooooooooo cringy. It was a really hard chapter to write, but its necessary for the timeline to be right.)

(Nov. 8)
I'm not sure how he found out. I was so careful. I'm pretty sure he looked it up, found a newspaper article online... I just know that Billy knows. He knows what happened to my mom.

He had walked up to me after school. We had never really talked before, but I knew he was one of Lucas's friends. He had handed me a newspaper article. One I knew all too well. "Do you think your friends would still hang out with you if they knew what had happened?" He asked me. I couldn't answer that question. I really wasn't sure. "They wouldn't." He answered for me. "Your dad didn't show up for Career Day, did he? Probably hates you for what you did. You're a screwup. You're all alone."

Then I ran. I couldn't take it anymore. Farkle came after me. He told me that Billy had done the same thing to him. He had called him a nothing. Thankfully, Farkle didn't hear why Billy had bullied me. Still, I'm glad I didn't have to go through this alone. Even though sometimes I feel like I am.

~<3~

Farkle and I had decided to stay in Janitor Harley's closet. We didn't want to face Billy. "Maya, Riley, where is Makenzie?" I heard over an intercom.

"We've tried calling and texting her, Dad."

"She hasn't talked to us since Friday." Maya added.

"Well if she was here, I'd tell her that she wone the John Quincy Adams Kindness award. And our two finalists for the Scholar Athlete Award are... Lucas Friar... and Billy Ross."
I leaned against Farkle.

"Farkle, you are being awarded the Joseph T.R. Epstein Confidence Award. Congratulations. Farkle?"

We pressed a button on the machine.

"Farkle-"

"And Kenzie"

"Can't come to their desks right now. If you have a question for them, say, "One;" a comment, say, "Two;" billing questions, "Three.""

"One. Where are you?"

I laughes, before pressing the intercom button. "You have selected "Three.""

"No, I said, 'One!'"

"Sorry, we are experiencing unusually high call volume. Your call will be answered in approximately..."

"35..." Harley said.

"Minutes." Then we played elevator music.

"He's never missed a class in his life, and Makenzie rarely ever misses." Cory said, amazed.

The bell rang, and Riley started tellingCory about how she didn't get an award.

"Sometimes it's better not to be noticed, Riley."

~<3~

"My congratulations on your confidence and kindness awards. Will you both be leaving the luxury of my custodial suite now?" Harley asked.

"You think we're hiding out, don't you? Well, Farkle doesn't hide out from anyone... except my aunt Barbara."

"She's a lip-kisser." I added.

"You're avoiding someone. What happened?"

"I don't really think it's something you can relate to, Janitor Harley." I told him.

"Oh, right, because I would never understand how cruel kids could be to each other, right?"

"You were like me as a kid?" Farkle asked.