Chapter 17 – The Special File – Holly Hayfield

When Ms. Sampson asked me to stay behind alone, I thought it might be a pressing and urgent matter. It turned out that she had other matters to attend to before addressing me. She spoke on the phone to someone from the school board. She filled out some paperwork that was piling up on her desk. She even left the room to go refill her coffee mug in the teacher’s lounge down the hall. I was still sitting there in the middle seat wondering if she had forgotten about me. I stood up to leave just as she was coming back in.

“Sorry for my interruptions. Go ahead and sit back down. Let’s talk.” She said.

I did as she ordered, feeling incredibly anxiety. Was this delay tactic because she legitimately had things to be doing, or was this a ploy? She sat down at her desk and looked through some folders while drinking her coffee. It looked like the waiting game was going to presume. That was until she pulled out a folder, a folder with my name on it. I had no idea what could be inside it. Naturally I leaned forward a little to try to get a peek as she opened it up. She shot me a sly smile as she turned the contents out of my sight.

“Holly Hayfield,” She announced as she sat down her coffee and picked up the folder with both hands. “It says here that you were in the track and field team at your last school? Isn’t that fascinating? It’s too bad we don’t have one here. Have you joined any of the clubs here?”

“No. I’ve recently joined a student council election group though. If we win then I won’t have any time for clubs.”

“That’s true. Do you think you’ll win? Who’s the presidential nominee in your group? Is it you?”

“No… I’m not the type of person for that. It’s Valentina Ivanovich. I’m not sure what our chances are.”

“Valentina Ivanovich… So that’s the type of person that you’re friends with? I mean aside from Samantha, Naomi, and Lilith.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say we’re friends. She didn’t leave me a lot of room to turn her down.”

“I see. Then you’ll be running as vice president perhaps?”

“Yes.”

She turned through the multiple pages of paper in the folder.

“I’m not sure we’ve ever had such an astounding student as the student council vice president. Before coming to this school, it looks like you won several awards in both academics and sports. This is all quite impressive.” She said.

“Thank you.”

“However, it isn’t the most impressive thing here.” She said.

She pulled a single paper out of the folder and then closed it.

“This one, I think, is the most amazing.” She said.

The look she gave me a look to let me know that something bad was coming. I tensed up in my seat and folded my hands together in my lap.

“This is the police report from the day you were arrested. It says here it was your friend Opal that called the police and reported what had happened. They say you weren't cooperative with the police after being taken in for questioning. You're lucky that your friend Ellie vouched for you, otherwise you'd be sitting in juvie instead of my office." She said.

Now I understood the sly look she had been giving me this entire time. She knew. She knew everything about my past. I had hoped that when I changed schools that nightmare would’ve been behind me. She even had the audacity to mention Opal and Ellie’s involvement in my story. The look she was giving me was a hint. She was hinting that this was what she would be holding over me.

“That’s private information.” I said.

“Is it? Everything that happened was kept out of the media because of the fact that you and Ellie are minors, but the evidence is hard to dismiss. There are photographs of the incident taken by an anonymous person that happened to pass by after the police arrived. It isn’t too hard to find them on the internet if you know what to search.” She said.

She wanted me to be scared, and it worked. My life at this school was mediocre, but if people found out about me it would be even worse.

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to keep your mouth shut about what you think you saw.”

“And if I don’t then you’re going release my personal information? Is that how this works?”

“Oh no, I won’t release anything. I’ll just stop protecting you the way I have been.”

“Protecting me? How…?”

“Did you know there was a condition that comes with you being sent here? The court ordered us to keep an eye on you. You can only stay in school here depending on how well you behave. They suspect that your misbehavior was a one-off occurrence. However, if they were to find out that you broke some serious school rules, jeopardized the safety of yourself and others, then it would be off to juvenile detention. Don’t put your mother through that. Our school may not be the perfect high school but it sure as hell beats juvie.”

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking as I held them together.

“I understand.” I said nervously, “I won’t talk about the school basement.”

“That’s all that I ask for. It isn’t safe for anyone to be down there. Angelica would be beside herself if you got hurt.”

I looked up at her inquisitively.

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“That’s right. I’m very familiar with Angel. You know she went to school here, right? Did she ever tell you that we were close friends?”

I shook my head.

“Angel and I don’t speak a lot these days. I hadn’t spoken to her in years when I suddenly get a phone call in the middle of the night about a precious teenage girl that would be coming to school here soon. She went on and on about how much you helped her when she was recovering. She loves you very much. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Then for her sake, I want you to stay out of trouble. Do that and you don’t need to worry about this stupid file. You’ll graduate from here with flying colors, go to college, and forget about all this. This is your chance live a normal life again, Holly. Don’t ruin it.” She said.

That marked the end of our little chat session. I wanted to feel relieved when I walked out of her office, but I didn’t. Knowing that the vice principal had that folder on me left me more concerned than I was when we found that corpse. The vice principal said it was a mannequin. Lilith believed with all her heart that it was a body. I never got close enough to it to see for myself. In the end it didn’t matter what I believed. What mattered was that I couldn’t let my past follow me to the present.

Erica gave me a funny look as I walked out of the office alone. She probably wanted to know why I was the only one given a one-on-one chat. She started to ask me something but I rushed out of the office before she could finish her sentence. Revealing anything to her could give her insight about my file. This was a new thing that I’d have to keep secret.

In my short time here I had acclimated to the students that were bullying me. What I never expected was that there would be teacher bullies as well. Who could I even talk to about this? Angel? She did something about Candace. Would she be willing to do anything about her ‘friend’?

The file on me stayed on my mind all the way until lunch. When I got my lunch tray from the cafeteria I was thinking about where I could eat without being disturbed. That thought had become so ingrained into my mind that when I closed my eyes I could see a mental image of the school’s layout. It was like the act of being hunted awakened my third eye. Such adaptations were necessary for survival.

A new area added to my mental map was the rooftop that I visited with Sam. The spot was beautiful and had potential for development with the plant holders that lined the area. Gardening was a hobby of mine that I had to give up when we moved. Maybe this could be my secret area? Maybe I could use the area to take my mind off of things?

The main problem was that Brittney’s girls had found me there before. Would they come looking there again? A part of me still wanted to try it out anyways. I was in the hallway, heading to the staircase to the rooftop when someone stopped me. They abruptly pulled me by my arm. I only barely managed to keep from dropping my lunch tray.

“Did you miss me?” Val asked.

I turned around to look at her. She looked different. Most of her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Normally she wore the school dress shirt and tie without the cardigan, like most students. Today she was wearing the cardigan as well as some medals that were hanging from her neck. The medals had the school’s symbol on them. It took me a moment to realize they were awards she had won from the years before.

“What, you don’t recognize me?” Val asked, “Let me give you a reminder.”

Both my hands were on my tray, so I was defenseless as she brought her face in towards me. She kissed me lightly on the lips and quickly pulled away before anyone else in the hall could see. That was bold, even for her. I took one hand off my tray to cover my mouth.

“Val…”

“Come on, we don’t have time to waste. We have a meeting right now.”

“A meeting…?”

She pulled me by my free hand and dragged me along with her. She didn’t bother giving me any more information. I was going to find out one way or another. She started out by pulling me by my wrist like a prisoner. Slowly, over time, she let her hand slide down my wrist to take hold of my hand. By the time we had reached the library, the target location I presumed, she had intertwined her fingers with mine. I was surprised we weren’t stopping at any of the library tables. Instead, she brought me all the way to an office room in the back. There was one other person standing there waiting for us.

“What’s she doing here?” Jay asked.

“I told you before. She’s the other person I invited to the team.” Val said.

“I get that,” Jay said, aggravated, “But do we really need her here right now. I thought she was just meant to fill out the roster requirements?”

“No, she’s going to be the real vice president.”

“Vice president…?! If she’s the VP, then what am I?”

“You’re going to be the treasurer.”

“Ugh! I thought…”

“You thought wrong. Sit down and listen to what I have to say.”

Jay did as she was told. It was only just now that I remembered that Val was still holding my hand affectionately. Jay noticed that too. Her eyes sharpened at the sight of it and she looked up at me with a glare.

“Are you just going to hold her hand all day, Holly?” Jay asked.

I pulled my hand away from Val and set my lunch tray down on the office table.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Jay.” I said.

“You already know her?” Val asked.

“Sort of…” I said.

“I told you, only my friends call me Jay.” She said.

“Holly’s my friend.” Val said, “Which means she’s your friend too, got it?”

Jay crossed her arms and huffed.

“Fine…”

“Where’s Lilith?” I asked.

“I told her to vacate the area while we’re having our meeting.” Val said, “Unless of course, she decides to join us. Do you think that’s likely?”

“I don’t know. Some things happened and Lilith probably has a lot to think about right now.”

“No matter then, let’s focus on the task at hand.” Val said, “Monday has been announced as the date that the school will officially begin accepting student council nominee groups. There will be an assembly in the gym.”

“Is that why you’re dressed like this?” I asked.

“Yep, this is what I’ll be wearing for the assembly. What do you think? Would you vote for me?”

“Something tells me I wouldn’t have a choice.”

Val laughed. She wrapped her arm around me and pulled me close. Jay clawed the arms of her chair and inched forward.

“You always have a choice. The question is, which choice would you regret the least?” Val said.

“You have a point.” I said.

Val let go of me and began pacing around the table.

“The question is how do we sell that message to the public? How do we make them understand that I’m what’s best for them?”

That was a dubious statement if I ever heard one. Still, I was on her team. It was too late to stop now. Only, I seemed to be the main one here lacking in information. Val seemed more direct with Jay than she was with me, even if she favored me. Information on their relationship was another thing I was interested in, but it’d have to wait.

I sat down at the table.

“Do we know who else is running?” I asked.

“There are two other girls that I know are running, a deceitful snake and a hopeless idiot.” Val said.

“That doesn’t tell me much.”

“It isn’t important.” Jay said, “We aren’t running a smear campaign against them. We just have to make a campaign that brings out Val’s best traits.”

This was bad. Jay was going to make me laugh about Val right in front of her. Whatever Jay saw in Val I’d need a space telescope to see the same thing. My confidence in this student council group was plummeting. If we were going to have a chance at winning we’d have to do things differently.

“Let’s start with Val’s strengths.” I said, “She seems to be known and respected by pretty much everyone, right? We can work with that. If we approach people on a personal basis then we can start small and work our way up from group to group.”

Val looked at me as she continued pacing around the table.

“That’s a good plan. The only problem is that I’m sure the two other candidates are saying the same thing. We’ll need something unique.” Val said.

We all went silent as we tried to come up with something. The door opened. It was Lilith. She was carrying a book that had the school logo on it. Val waved her off.

“If you’re not here to help us then you’ll have to wait outside until we’re done.” Val said.

“That’s just it. I’m here to help.” Lilith said.

Lilith looked over at me.

“I want to join your student council group.”