Chapter 5
Letty came into first period shop class ornery and exhausted. Some shitty old GM engine was awaiting her expertise on a workshop table for a project, and Mo was standing next to it, inspecting her nails. She looked up and beamed, cheery and sweet as ever, and Letty shook her head.
“I don’t know where you get it from. Weren’t you at that party last night?” she asked.
“Eyy, it’s Letty. How you doin’ today?”
“My ass hurts.”
“What?” Mo blinked, confused.
“You don’t wanna know. Hand me that crowbar.”
Mo lifted the device and handed it to her friend, who gripped it at the base without reservation and banged heartlessly on the engine before her.
“Look at this piece of shit. What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”
“What are you so pissed off about?” Mo asked, cocking her head to one side, wrapping a silky strand of hair around her index finger.
“I’m not really pissed off, I’m just dog tired. Weren’t you there last night?”
“Yeah.”
“Then how the hell come your ass ain’t draggin’?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t drink.”
“I didn’t either. But I’m still tired as hell. Man, I hate that fuckin’ kid.” Letty looked past Mo’s shoulder at Chad Holmes.
“What kid?”
“Nice jockboy Emmit Smith wannabe checkin’ out your ass at the moment.”
Mo turned around to look, then rolled her eyes, sighing deeply.
“I know, right? I don’t like him either. Thinks he’s God’s gift to women. He’s a pain. And he smells like a locker room. And he can’t take a hint.”
Chad apparently mistook their glances in his direction as an invitation, because he sauntered over, coming up behind Mo and taking her hips in his hands. She stepped out of his grip and turned so her side was to him, rather than her back.
“Sup, ladies?” he asked, his dimpled smile lighting his face. Letty gave the engine another pointed whack with the crowbar and fixed Chad with her best ‘I’m a crazy bitch’ glare.
“Not much, Chad,” Mo said, and Letty shook her head. Mo didn’t seem to have it in her to be mean to anyone. Even Chad Holmes. “What’s up.”
“Just thought I’d come on over and holla.” He put one hand on the small of Mo’s back, and she stepped away from his touch again. Letty watched.
Two strikes, boy, she thought. I dare you to touch her again.
“Who’s your partner for this project?” Mo asked, putting a little more space between Chad and herself, but Letty couldn’t see the point in her smalltalk. She either wanted him to fuck off or she didn’t. Mo just wasn’t getting the signal across. Letty tightened her grip on the crowbar, wielding it around in the air before her like a sword. Chad wasn’t taking any notice of her, though. Let met Mo’s gaze, trying to persuade her to direct Chad to fuck off, but the point was either not gotten across or ignored, because when Chad pressed himself up against Mo’s side and wrapped his arm around her waist, she just wiggled away and said,
“Ick. Don’t.”
“Come on, baby,” he said, smiling and heading for her again, and Letty shook her head, swinging the crowbar through the air with a whistling sound and connecting it with the top of his head.
“For fuck’s sake, didn’t you hear her?”
Chad’s legs buckled beneath him and then gave way, and he sat down at Mo’s feet, holding his head in both hands.
“You BITCH!” he spluttered, shocked out of any further comment, and Letty raised her arm, all set to deal out another blow for that insult, but she stopped at the teacher’s shrill exclamation.
“Leticia! Don’t you dare!”
Let froze mid-swing and looked up at Mr. Guerrera, dropping her weapon, and Mo just watched the scene, stunned and speechless, and across the room, Susana was laughing her ass off.
“He was bein’ a cock, Guerrera, I swear.”
“That’s Mr. Guerrera, Leticia. I can’t believe you sometimes. What is wrong with you? You smash him in the head with a CROWbar? Are you all right, Chad? Get down to the office, Letty, right now. I don’t even want to see your face. I’m calling them to let them know you’re on your way.” He headed for the phone, then stopped and turned back to her. “Actually, no. Wait right here.”
Letty stopped, halfway to the doorway, and couldn’t help but smirk at Guerrera’s indecision. What do you do with a student who’s just assaulted another kid with a crowbar? As this thought passed through her mind, she burst out laughing, and Guerrera turned on her with a cold, ebony glare, shutting her up. He went to the shop phone and dialed the office.
“I need a security escort. We’ve had an incident here involving Leticia Linares….Yeah, that’s right….Hit another student over the head with a crowbar. Can you get the nurse down here, please?”
The security guard was a big black guy named Eric, and when he took her by the upper arm, she yanked it back out of his grasp and he jumped, as if she would turn on him next.
“Don’t touch me,” she spat, and he nodded.
“All right, then you walk nice.”
“I’m walkin’, I’m walkin’.” She kicked open the shop door and stepped into the cool, clean air of the main hallway, Eric quickly positioning himself at her side, watching her out of the corner of his eye. Letty walked as if she were on her way to buy groceries, completely nonchalant and unaffected by the turn of events, and he shook his head.
“You smacked another kid with a crowbar?”
“He deserved it.”
“He deserved to get smacked in the head with a crowbar?”
“Yeah. He’s fucking irritating.”
“Jesus,” Eric chuckled, and then quickly gained his composure as they reached the office.
Jesse was sitting in one of the chairs behind the counter, waiting to be seen by the principal, and Eric directed Letty to sit, as well. Reluctantly, and carefully, she took the seat next to Jesse, slouching and folding her hands on her stomach. He looked at her face from beneath heavy eyelids and immediately cracked up.
“Look at that face,” he laughed. “Oh, I know you did some shit.”
Letty just shook her head, leaning back into the chair and closing her eyes. Christ, she was exhausted. She hoped they would give her in-school suspension, put her in one of those little booths and let her sleep.
“Come on,” Jess pressed. “How bad is it?”
“Not too bad. A bump on the head.”
He inspected her briefly, then said, “I don’t see no bump on your head.”
“No. A bump on Chad Holmes’s head.”
“I hate that fuckin’ kid.”
“I know.” Letty couldn’t help but laugh now. “Dude, I smacked him in the head with a crowbar in shop.”
“You have got to be shitting me.”
“No, it was great. He wouldn’t keep his hands off Mo, and-“
“Sshh!” one of the office secretaries hissed at her, and Let shot her a cold, black glare. It didn’t seem to do any good. The office ladies were hard to scare. Those bitties were weathered. “People are trying to work,” the secretary said, and Letty just closed her eyes again.
“And so I smacked him,” Let finished, and Jesse shook his head.
“He hit the deck?”
“Yeah, he hit the deck. Legs went right out from underneath him, and he-“
“Miss Linares, if I have to ask you again, you’ll be separated.”
Letty feigned horror.
“Oh, Jesus, NO! Not separated. Anything but th-“
“Letty.” This time it was the principal who interrupted her. Mr. Robert Atkins, fearless leader, tough-as-nails disciplinarian. Letty sighed and stood up at his motion to come hither, and Jess patted her on the back as she went.
“Best of luck to you, soldier,” he said, and she saluted with a cocky smile. “Do me proud.” He thumped his chest and she shook her head, following the massive bulk of Atkins into his private office, the last door on the left in the little whitewashed hallway.
“Take a seat, Leticia,” he said, pointing at the rolling office chair across his desk from him, and she wrinkled her nose.
“I’d rather stand.”
“Leticia. Sit.”
“No.”
“Sit…your…ass… down so I can talk to you eye to eye. Right now.” He was loud, angry. There was a vein in his forehead that became easily visible whenever she got worked up.
Letty braced her hands on the edge of his desk and leaned into his personal space, face to face with him.
“I took it rough and rugged in the ass last night and my boyfriend’s a big guy. I’d rather stand.”
“That’s not my problem,” he said, unflinching, and she had to inwardly commend his control. “Now. I, quite frankly, don’t give a damn what you’d rather do. SIT.” Letty stepped back a little, arms folding over her chest. “And if you don’t want to cooperate with me, we can just remove you from the decision-making process altogether. Bring your stepfather in. See what he has to say.”
Letty sighed, folding her arms over her chest and circling the chair once before easing down into it.
“There. Sitting. Happy now?”
“You can drop the attitude with me, young lady. This is more serious than you appear to realize,” Atkins said. “Chad Holmes is in the school nurse’s office and he’s going to be taken to the hospital. We think he has a concussion.”
“Boo-fuckin-hoo for him. He was sexually harassing Milissa Morales.”
“I’ll just bet he was,” Mr. Atkins said, the telephone on his desk ringing off the hook. Letty opened her mouth to press her point, but he held up his index finger to keep her quiet and picked up the phone. “Robert Atkins’s office…Yes, I have her right here…No, she’s reasonably sedate.”
Letty scoffed. “Sedate? Who talks like that?”
Atkins covered the mouthpiece on the phone.
“Linares, shut your mouth, or so help me…” His face was flushed with anger, and he looked stressed beyond belief. Letty glowered horrifically at him, but said nothing. “Yes, I’ll keep her here with me…All right, then. The door to my office is open. Send him right in when he gets here.”
“Send who in?”
“Yes, sir. We’ll sort it out…Thanks. Bye for now.” Atkins hung up the phone.
“Send who in?” Letty repeated, leaning forward and snatching a Koosh ball off the top of his desk. She pulled off several of its rubber tentacles and dropped them on the floor beside her.
“The police officer who’ll be overseeing the incident, Leticia, and don’t do that, please.”
“He’s had his hands all over Mo for weeks. Maybe you should bring her in here, too. She’ll tell you.”
“If it comes to that, we will.”
“If it comes to that? You mean if that pig prick decides to pay attention to anything I have to say.”
“Your belligerent past has compromised your credibility, Letty. Now, if Milissa had bonked Chad over the head with a crowbar, and had consequently reported to us that she’d been on the receiving end of unwanted advances, I wouldn’t hesitate to believe her. But this is you, Letty. This is your eighth fight this year, Letty, and that’s only the ones on school grounds. We’ve offered to arrange regular meetings with the school guidance counselor, but you’ve declined. And this time you used what could be a deadly weapon on another student’s skull. We need to look at the next step here, Letty, seeing as suspension seems to be more like a vacation for you than a punishment.”
“A deadly weapon? Are you kidding me? I hit him once. He wasn’t even bleeding. Shit, he prolly didn’t even feel it, through that nappy mess.”
“Letty, you’re not getting the picture. You’re not understanding me, here. This is serious. You have some major issues that we need to deal with. You are the most problematic student in this school, and you’re not even apathetic, you’re proud of it.”
“I’m not proud of it.”
“You’re not? You don’t enjoy fighting?”
“I don’t fight people for no reason. I don’t just start a fight for the hell of fighting, you know? I just don’t lay down and take everyone’s bullshit, that’s all.”
“Leticia,” Atkins sighed, “Sometimes, in order to be a functional member of society, you have to turn the other cheek and let someone else handle the discipline.”
“Yeah, well, in this school, turning the other cheek will only make sure you get slapped twice.”
Atkins shook his head and dusted off his hands, holding them palms-up.
“Fine. You don’t want my help? Don’t take it. Is your father at home or at work?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” she muttered. “I’ve never met my father.”
“You’re hopeless, you know that?”
“I’m not hopeless, motherfucker, just because you don’t know what to do with me.”
“Maybe I can figure out what to do with you,” came a voice from behind them, and Letty turned to see the only broad-shouldered, lean-bellied police officer on the LAPD standing in the doorway. She scowled ferociously, fearlessly, right into his eyes and slouched further down in her chair. “That’s a real angry look for such a young girl, Miss Linares.”
Letty didn’t like the way he said her last name…Lanairis. But she wasn’t about to open her mouth to correct him. She stared down at her hands, picking at the frayed hem of her denim vest. The cop pulled up a chair right next to hers, the armrest of his chair touching the armrest of hers. He was practically on top of her, and she turned those black eyes on him again, deliberately digging her heels into the floor and moving away from him. He chuckled and shook his head.
“You’re only making it harder on yourself, kid. This could be so easy.”
“I’m sure it could be. You wanna hear what really happened? Or did you wanna just book it down that this spic chick went off on an unprovoked psychotic episode and Rodney Kinged some poor unsuspecting honor student.”
The cop was silent a moment, obviously shocked by the extent of her vocabulary, and Atkins waited for the cop’s next move, saying nothing.
“All right,” the officer said finally, cocking his head to one side, clicking his pen into the ‘on’ position, and opening his notebook. “Spill it.”