The Rules They Broke

Chapter 9: Pictures in the Hallway

OLIVIA

"Alright, everybody, take out your homework. Pass it to the front."

Olivia pulled her papers out of her backpack and set them on her desk. She reached down into her bag to find her pencil.

There was a sudden movement above her head, and the papers were swept off her desk.

With much satisfaction, Cody viciously tore her papers in two before she could even yell.

"Mr. Hall!" Mrs. Peterson barked. "What's going on?"

"Just ripping the pages from my notebook, Mrs. Peterson." He smirked and held up his own homework for her to see.

Mrs. Peterson shook her head and looked away to talk to another student.

Cody snickered from behind Olivia while she steamed. She could feel her face going red. She could feel all the blood bubbling up to her brain, threatening to come out and burn Cody with it.

Don't kill him, don't kill him, don't kill him.

"Pass it up, whoever's left! Anybody that doesn't have it turned in the next thirty seconds will not receive a grade!"

Instead of passing it up to Olivia, who knew she would have ripped it into pieces given the chance, Cody passed it to his friend next to him, who passed it up to Milo.

Milo took the paper, glanced at it, and proceeded to rip it into teeny, tiny shreds.

Olivia's and Cody's eyes fell out of their sockets.

"Mr. Cortez, what's going on?" Mrs. Peterson hollered.

Milo grinned and held up his homework. "Just ripping out my papers too."

*****

"Milo, you didn't have to do that."

"Why not?"

They were both at her locker, standing alone in the empty hallway as the last of the students filed into their classrooms. Milo was waiting for her to get her lunch so they could go down to the cafeteria.

"He had it in for me. Not you. But now you made him mad."

"I never liked him anyways."

Olivia slammed her locker shut and pressed her forehead against it. "Now he's going to rip your homework to pieces too!"

Milo leaned the side of his head against the locker next to hers so they were face to face, so close she could smell his shampoo again.

Lean away. Lean back. 

Olivia stayed where she was.

"I'll make sure he doesn't rip anybody's homework anymore," said Milo.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Milo winked at her. "I have my ways."

"And what ways are those?"

He pushed himself off the locker and they began walking down for lunch. "Oh, y'know. Something or other will come to mind."

"You have no idea, do you?"

Milo laughed and his warm, easy laughter put Olivia at ease. "Nope! But we'll figure it out as we go."

"We?"

"Yeah." He nudged her arm. "You don't want him ripping up your homework either, do you?"

Olivia opened her mouth, but Milo turned to stand in front of her. She stopped. He held up a finger dramatically. "And don't say you're going to handle it yourself. I'm stuck in this mess too now, so the least we can do is use both our brains to try to figure it out."