“I seriously still can’t believe you all fought and beat the shit out of a teacher.” Scott said with continued enthusiasm "And then he ran away. It's the craziest shit I've heard man."

“Well, we weren’t really expecting all that to happen either, to be honest.” I freely admitted, content to gloss over the inaccuracies in his statement.

Beth though, gave me and Scott both a side eye as we made our way toward the food court in the cafeteria together.

“No shit huh. Damien was saying that there was a seriously epic throwdown in the cafeteria here. What happened, did you all start throwing cafeteria trays and bags of frozen peas or something?” Scott asked, his question and excitement unrelenting.

“Hah, uh no. Not exactly.” I replied vaguely, making an effort to look at Beth to see if she had any intention of replying.

Beth looked somewhat shy and introspective at the moment. Whether it was out of uncertainty about what she could or should say, I wasn’t sure without asking her first.

I tried to non-verbally get a sense of how she was feeling with just eye contact, but she was super closed off right at the moment, even more so than usual.

“It wasn’t really as crazy as the rumors are making it out to be.” I tried to assure Scott.

“Crazier than a teacher losing their goddamn mind on some super illegal steroid and going on a frenzy attacking his students?” Scott asked incredulously. “Cause that sounds super fucking crazy to me.”

“I mean you’re not wrong.” I admitted reluctantly.

This comment seemed to make Beth even more uncomfortable as she rubbed the side of her arm nervously with the other, and looked off into the distance, letting her thoughts wander.

“You okay over there Beth?” I asked softly.

“Hmm? Oh uh, yeah. I’m fine.” She said not at all convincingly, but she did straighten her posture and try to compose herself in such a way as to make herself look fine.

It was too late though. I caught just enough of a glimpse behind her mask to see just how unfine she was right now.

“Beth…” I said imploringly.

“What?” She replied, feigning not understanding.

“Yo, did you hear that they tried to cut off his head with an axe.” One boy nearby said to his buddy who was walking beside him.

“Yeah well, I heard it was cause Coach Philip almost started eating one of them. Teeth to neck and everything.” A different boy replied.

“Shit is fucking wild man.” The first boy said with an almost manic smile of excitement. Nothing like some juicy gossip to rile up the imagination of those who were never even there it seems.

“That’s not what happened.” Beth muttered somewhat quietly to them.

“Huh?” The first boy said, not sure if he heard Beth or was even being addressed.

“I said, that’s not what happened man.” She replied louder, and with her anger leaking through this time.

“How would you know?” He said with an irritated glare toward Beth. I didn’t recognize the two boys, but given that they clearly didn’t know Beth, and she didn’t seem to know them either, they were probably freshmen or sophomores.

“I was there you dumbfuck.” Beth shot back, her expression turning into an angry snarl.

“Woah, you were.” First boy asked, all hostility gone from his demeanor. “Tell us what it was like. Did he really go all ‘roid crazy and start hulking out.”

“Just, fuck off.” Beth said dismissively before hurrying past him to get into the line for lunch.

“Is Beth really okay? Maybe she should have taken another day off.” Scott ventured, while looking at Beth, clear concern visible in his eyes.

“I said the same thing, but she insisted that she was fine and didn’t need to be babied anymore.” I replied with a helpless shrug.

“Babied? Is she talking about you or her Mom?” Scott asked.

“Eh, I think she more meant her Mom, but I can’t rule out that I might have contributed.” I admitted.

We both quickly caught up to Beth as she continued to silently fume, and seemed to be attempting to bore a hole through the person in front of them in line with just her angry glare.

“Seriously Beth.” I said quite enough that hopefully only she could really hear me. “You can talk to me. What's going on?”

After only a few moments of resistance, she gave in and decided to respond.

“It’s just…” She said, her shoulders slumping and letting go of some of the tension she was holding in. “They're all wrong about what happened. Even worse, there making Coach Philip, our Coach Philip, out to be some kind of deranged evil psycho. But that’s not even true is it?”

Her eyes looked into mine, desperate for the truth.

“No.” I said sadly. She was right, it was horrible that this man, another victim, was being made out now to be the scapegoat for all that happened the other night.

“He was a good teacher, before all this.” Beth said quietly, sniffling slightly and obviously trying to hold back any tears from coming loose. “I mean, I wasn’t a big sports girl, but he was kind, supportive, funny, and just… a good person. But now…”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I know.” I replied, not knowing really what else to say as I agreed with everything she had already said. “It’s messed up.”

“It is.” Beth agreed, latching onto my words as her eyes went wide and her expression became much more animated. “Why are we just letting this happen, can’t your people correct the story, at least somewhat?”

“I’m… not sure.” I admitted. “It’s possible they could, but from what I’ve seen they prefer to let people come to their own conclusions, so long as it isn’t uh, leading them to the one answer they don’t want them to reach.”

“Pff, fuck that. Just don’t say that part, and make up some other story.” Beth insisted.

“Like what?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I don’t know-” She started to respond before we were interrupted.

“What’cha want?” The loud voice of the nearby lunch lady asked us.

“Oh um… What kind of salad dressing and toppings are there today?” I asked both out of genuine interest and as a means to buy time for myself to decide what I wanted.

“For you, blue cheese and croutons.” She said with a slight sneer on her face.

“What do you mean for me?” I asked not quite understanding the obvious hostility. “Are you saying I have my own special menu or something?”

“You could look at it like that.” She said with a more obvious sneer this time. “Both the blue cheese and croutons are getting close to their expiry date. Very, very close, if you know what I mean.”

“What the hell lady?” Beth said, eager to come to my defense. “What’s with the shit attitude and treatment.”

“Pffft, you can have the same freakin’ thing too, if you’re hungry.” The lunch lady replied without any remorse.

“Seriously, come on Mrs. Paige. What’s going on here.” Scott added.

“You sugar, can have whatever ya like. We’ve got some fresh slices of pizza coming out of the oven, if ya’d like one or two. No extra cost.” She said with a playful smile.

“Um thanks, two please.” Scott said happily.

“Scott!” Beth chided.

“What? It’s pizza man.” Scott responded only somewhat embarrassed about his behavior.

“Gah, boys.” Beth said derisively.

“Seriously, can you please tell us what’s going on here Mrs. Paige? Did we do or say something to you?” I asked her earnestly.

“You seriously don’t know, or are you just messing with me?” The lunch lady said with a still very irritated expression. “You destroyed our kitchen! I know the two of you were involved in all that, and you’re only lucky the fire didn’t spread further from that entryway.”

“What?!” Beth responded before I could. “We didn’t have a choice lady, we were fighting for our lives here, you know.”

“Uh huh, so the rumors say. In the meantime though, we had to spend hours of overtime just clearing up the mess you made, and still, a lot of our appliances and ingredients are gone and need replaced.”

“Is that our problem?” Beth replied angrily.

“Okay, okay. That’s fine, we’re both very sorry for what happened to the kitchen” I said while pinching Beth’s arm to hopefully at least distract her, somewhat. “And we want to do whatever we'd be happy to make up for any damages and time you spent on the mess we made.”

“Humph, well… I’ll have to think on that.” She said while looking at us more consideringly than she had. “In the meantime, I suppose you can have your usual Caesar salad, seeing as the ingredients weren’t destroyed with your mischief.”

“And me?” Beth demanded.

“You can have a muffin. There plain, and definitely not at all stale.” She said a large malevolent smile on her face.

“You fucking b-” Beth tried to say before Scott and I both covered her mouth with our hands.

“She’ll take it. Thank you Mrs. Paige.” I said with a forced smile on my face.

“Any time sweethearts, and I’ll have a think about your offer.” She said before moving on to the next student in line.

“What a fucking bi-” Beth tried to say again, before I interrupted her cussing once more.

“Just give it a rest Beth, it’s not worth it. Besides, don’t tell me you wouldn’t be pissed if someone came in and trashed your kitchen and left you to clean it up.” I said while we made our way to an empty table together.

“I know I would.” Scott said between mouthfuls of pizza that he was eating as we were still walking. “My Mom would literally kill whoever did that to her kitchen.”

“Right, kill…” Beth said, her mind seeming to drift back to darker thoughts once again.

Before I could even delve into that problem though, my attention was distracted by the sight of Jackie and her posse moving through the cafeteria and navigating deftly through the many onlookers who were looking and talking about her.

“Did you hear that she almost single-handedly took down Coach Philip?” One girl asked her friends.

“No way, it was a team effort with her two friends that were with her.” Another boy responded.

“Don’t be crazy, you really believe all this made-up bullshit about steroids and crazed teachers? It was obviously aliens. That is the only explanation that makes any kind of sense.” A very animated voice from nearby insisted.

“Frick, there still gossiping nonstop about what happened. Even Jackie isn’t immune.” I said, while observing the spectacle.

"Good thing Letitia isn’t here. At least she won’t have to deal with all the looks and whispers being flung about.” Scott said while looking in the same direction I was.

“Yeah, that’s something at least.” I agreed, but the reminder about Letitia caused my emotions to roil a bit in my stomach.

It was clear, last night, that Letitia was super not okay after what had happened to her. Not enough that she needed to be hospitalized, but having back-to-back traumatic events, and then having her whole world turned upside down clearly pushed her too far.

She spent most of the night that we were there crying while being comforted by various emergency service workers. Only after she had calmed down enough to talk again did Gunderson try to speak with her again.

He apparently wanted to reassure her that she was safe and okay now, and that he was here for her for whatever she needed. Gunderson also made an effort to, gently, explain that she couldn’t and shouldn’t try to tell her family and friends the truth about what happened.

Apparently, Letitia vehemently disagreed with the idea of lying to her friends, and unfortunately her emotions got the better of her again. The EMTs then shooed Gunderson away as they worked to calm her down the rest of the night.

“Poor Letitia…” I said out loud to myself as the three of us took a seat at a vacant bench away from most of the crowds.

“Yeah, poor girl.” Beth said with a meaningful look in my direction before absent-mindedly taking a bite out of her plain, not at all stale, muffin. “Uughh!”

Spitting it out onto her tray, I turned away in disgust and to avoid seeing it and caught sight of Mira headed our way.

“Hey, Mira.” I said cheerfully as she slowly came over to our table.

“Uh, hi.” She replied nervously. “It’s okay if I sit with you right?”

“Course it is.” Scott said loudly, a broad welcoming smile appearing on his face. “You’re always welcome to sit with us you know.”

“Oh uh, th-” Mira started to reply only to be stopped by a loud shout that came from Beth’s direction.

“What the hell is going on with your ears!” She said while pointing an accusing finger in Mira’s direction.

“W-wha, what are you t-talking about?” Mira desperately stuttered out while frantically clapping both of her hands onto the sides of her head in order to hide the subject of Beth’s outrage.

“Oh frick's sake. Why can’t I just get a break for once?” I said while sadly putting my face in my hands.