Torn

Right after the spelling bee, during recess, all hell broke loose. Really.

Hilary and I met Kristy when she came out of her class, and Madisyn came up to us. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by Meredith and her whole gang.

Other than Madisyn calling Kristy 'half-boy, half-girl' and saying her clothes 'look like they came from her brother's closet' I don't remember exactly what she said. All I know was she made Kristy mad enough to attack her. Before I knew it, Madisyn was on the ground and Kristy had jumped on top of her.

Meredith, Sasha, and Marisa stood right there, cheering Madisyn on. Either one of them could have broken up the fight. As a hall monitor, though, it was my duty to break up the fight. But there was a part of me that didn't want to. There was a part of me that wanted the satisfaction of seeing Madisyn's chickens come home to roost.

I broke up the fight anyway, because I didn't want to see anyone get hurt. Then, on top of that, I had to take both of them to the principal's office.

Principal Ballard made Kristy take off her cap, and sent a nurse to patch up Madisyn's eye. Then he sat down. "Okay, Baker, Van Dyke, tell me what happened."

I stood there as Madisyn and Kristy repeated their sides of the story. They did even more shouting at each other. My ears were ringing.

"Enough!" the principal yelled, looking at Kristy. "How long has this been happening?"

"Since the first day of school."

"I'm suspending the both of you for two days." Then the principal looked at me. "Hotchkiss -- I'm glad you brought this incident to my attention. Someone could really have gotten hurt."

While the nurse was patching up Madisyn's eye, I tried to chase Kristy as she was running out. "Wait!" I pleaded.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Well, will you just hear me out?"

"No," Kristy shouted. "I had her, I finally had her."

"I know, but I had to stop the fight."

"But did you have to tell the principal?" Kristy gave me a look I hadn't seen before. It wasn't anger and it wasn't frustration, it was something else entirely. She looked like she wanted to hit me. "Just leave me alone, okay? Just leave me the heck alone."

"Kris --" I called, but she was gone.

I knew all this was going to come to blows sooner or later. It just had to. There was just so much tension in the air, and to be honest it's been building up since the beginning of the school year. I went over to Harriet's place and told her what happened. She didn't say anything. I took it as, she didn't want to take sides since she and Kristy are friends, too.

Then Harriet whispered something in my ear. "Come here. Let me tell you something about Kristy."

I sat and listened as she began to spill the details of Kristy's rough life. Her parents died in a car accident when she was seven, and ever since she'd been bounced between foster homes, finally settling in a group home for troubled kids right around where Harriet lives.

After hearing that, I kinda felt sorry for her.

As for Kristy, she still isn't speaking to me. But I'm entirely sure that I did the right thing by turning her and Madisyn in to the principal for fighting, even though in light of what Harriet said I still feel like crap about it. Harriet volunteered to bring Kristy's homework to her for the next two nights.