The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 79: Chapter 79 - Back to the Office

By the time they reached the office, Briarwick had already turned into a crime scene with lockers.

Coach Miller marched behind them like he was one deep breath away from retiring on the spot. Ms. Alvarez walked ahead, clutching what was left of her folders to her chest. Coach Hayes came from the athletic office with his jaw tight and his whistle still hanging from his neck, looking at the four girls like he could not believe a cheer fight had managed to drag half the athletic department into overtime.

The students who had recorded the fight were lined up outside the main office.

Phones out.

Faces pale.

Coach Miller pointed at every screen like he had been waiting his whole career for a reason to scare teenagers.

”Delete it,” he said. ”Right now. From your camera roll. From recently deleted. From messages. From whatever group chat you think is private because you named it something stupid.”

A junior boy tried to look innocent. ”Coach, I didn’t send—”

”Delete.”

He deleted.

Another girl whispered, ”But I only got the end.”

Coach Hayes stepped beside Coach Miller. ”If any video from today shows up online, anyone who had it, sent it, posted it, or watched it while laughing is sitting in my office before first bell. You want to test me during Homecoming week?”

Nobody wanted to test Coach Hayes during Homecoming week.

Phones disappeared fast.

Roxie watched from the office doorway, scalp burning, cheek stinging, mouth tasting faintly like blood. Her hair was half out of its tie, curls pulled loose on one side. Her uniform was dusty from the parking lot, and her shoulder throbbed every time she moved.

In her right hand, wrapped tight inside a crumpled tissue Ms. Alvarez had shoved at her, was Bianca’s hair.

A clump of it.

Gross. Horrible. A little horrifying.

Also proof.

Also, if Roxie was being honest with herself, a trophy.

She tightened her fingers around it and felt Karen’s eyes slide to her hand.

Karen’s own hair was messier than Roxie had ever seen it. One cheek was flushed. Her lip looked swollen. She stood with her arms crossed, breathing like she was trying very hard not to say something that would add another week to whatever punishment was coming.

Lily sat on the bench opposite them, crying into both hands.

Bianca sat beside her, crying louder.

Of course.

Bianca had one hand pressed to the side of her head, exactly where the hair had come loose. It was not a full bald spot, but there was a thin, angry patch near her temple, red from pulling and panic. She kept touching it like Roxie had removed a limb.

”My hair,” Bianca sobbed. ”She ripped out my hair.”

Roxie looked down.

Because if she kept looking at Bianca’s dramatic little performance, she was going to smile.

And that would be bad.

Mrs. Gonzalez stood behind her desk with her glasses low on her nose and the exhausted expression of a woman who had not gone home because teenage girls had decided to settle emotional warfare through hair-pulling.

”Enough,” Mrs. Gonzalez said.

Bianca sniffed harder.

Lily cried into her sleeve.

Karen stared at the wall like she was imagining new ways to violate the student handbook.

Roxie pressed the tissue tighter in her fist.

She had already won the parking lot.

Bianca had looked caught.

But this was different.

This room had adults. Reports. Parents. Consequences that came with printed forms and signatures.

Bianca knew how to win rooms like this.

Bianca knew how to cry pretty. How to shake her voice at the right time. How to look small without ever actually being weak. She could turn herself into a victim in under thirty seconds and make adults feel useful for believing her.

Roxie felt it click into place.

She needed to win this too.

So when Mrs. Gonzalez looked at her, Roxie let her face fall.

Her bottom lip trembled before she even had to force it. Her eyes were already burning from pain, anger, and the fact that her scalp felt like someone had tried to remove it.

Mrs. Gonzalez sighed. ”All right. We are going to go one at a time. No interrupting. No yelling. No accusations without answering questions directly.” Her eyes moved across all four of them. ”Who started it?”

Bianca lifted her head immediately. ”She did.”

Karen snapped, ”Are you serious?”

”Karen,” Coach Miller warned.

Karen’s mouth shut, but her eyes kept talking.

Bianca’s voice broke in the exact place Roxie would have admired if she did not want to throw something at her. ”They were waiting by my car. I came out of photography club, and they were there. Roxie started yelling at me, and then she attacked me.”

Roxie stared at Bianca.

Bianca stared back through tears.

Lily nodded fast. ”It’s true. They were waiting for us.”

Mrs. Gonzalez wrote something down. ”Miss Jones?”

Roxie swallowed.

Then she looked at Bianca’s hand still pressed to her head.

Then she looked down like she was ashamed.

”I asked her to say it to my face,” Roxie said quietly.

The room shifted.

Mrs. Gonzalez’s pen paused. ”Say what?”

Roxie did not answer right away.

If she said it too fast, it would sound rehearsed.

If she said it too angry, she would sound guilty.

So she let her eyes fill.

Then she looked at Mrs. Gonzalez. ”The rumor she started about my mother.”

Coach Miller’s face changed.

Coach Hayes went still.

Bianca’s crying hiccuped.

”She’s been doing it all week.” Roxie’s voice shook, and this time it was not entirely fake. ”First the note. Then gum in my hair before senior pictures. Then my uniform was cut up before the game. And now people are whispering about my mom like it’s entertainment.”

Bianca sat straighter. ”I did not—”

”You said no interrupting,” Karen cut in.

Mrs. Gonzalez gave Karen a look.

Karen lifted both hands. ”Sorry.”

She was not sorry.

Mrs. Gonzalez turned back to Roxie. ”Do you have proof Miss Reeves started those incidents?”

Roxie’s throat tightened.

There it was.

The one thing Bianca always made sure nobody had.

Roxie’s fingers tightened around the tissue.

”No,” she said. ”That’s the point. She does things where nobody can prove it, and then everyone acts like I’m crazy for reacting.”

Mrs. Gonzalez looked toward Ms. Alvarez. ”You witnessed the fight?”

Ms. Alvarez’s face turned uncomfortable. ”I saw the end of it. I came out when I heard the alarm and shouting.”

Mrs. Gonzalez’s expression sharpened. ”Did you see who initiated physical contact?”

Ms. Alvarez stammered. ”I... I saw them already fighting. I saw Miss Jones holding Miss Reeves’s cardigan and Miss Reeves holding Miss Jones’s hair, but I didn’t see the very beginning.”

Bianca made a soft, wounded sound, like that answer had personally injured her.

Roxie’s stomach dropped.

Of course nobody saw the exact second that mattered.

Then one of the teachers standing near the doorway cleared her throat.

Ms. Davis from the English department looked deeply unhappy to be involved in anything after contract hours. She had come in behind Ms. Alvarez earlier, holding a tote bag and a stainless tumbler like she had just wanted to go home and eat dinner in peace.

”I saw part of it from the hall window,” Ms. Davis said.

Everyone looked at her.

Bianca’s hand slipped slightly from her head.

Mrs. Gonzalez turned. ”What did you see?”

Ms. Davis adjusted the tote bag on her shoulder. ”I saw Miss Reeves reach in first. She grabbed Miss Jones by the hair.”

The office went quiet.

Roxie inhaled sharply.

It sounded like a sob.

She let it.

Bianca’s eyes widened. ”I didn’t—”

Mrs. Gonzalez wrote it down.

Coach Miller’s jaw flexed.

Coach Hayes crossed his arms, eyes on Bianca now.

Roxie lowered her face and pressed her free hand to her mouth.

If Bianca could cry, Roxie could cry.

If Bianca could make adults lean toward her pain, Roxie could do it too.

The awful part was that Roxie did not even have to fake all of it.

Her scalp hurt. Her cheek hurt. Her mother’s name had been dragged through school like trash. Angela had worn a hoodie in ninety-degree heat because Lily had opened her stupid mouth. Karen had almost gotten herself suspended defending everyone.

Roxie’s tears came easier than she wanted.

”This whole week,” she said, voice breaking. ”I kept trying to act like it was nothing because I’m captain and I’m supposed to handle things. But how am I supposed to handle a student council officer spreading rumors about my family?”

Bianca’s face flushed.

Roxie turned her wet eyes toward Bianca. ”You’re supposed to represent students.”

Bianca looked furious now, which made her crying less elegant.

Roxie pressed harder. ”How is cutting someone’s uniform school spirit? How is putting gum in someone’s hair before senior pictures leadership?”

”I didn’t do those things,” Bianca snapped.

Mrs. Gonzalez looked at her.

Bianca caught herself and softened too late. ”I didn’t. I swear.”

Coach Hayes spoke for the first time. ”Miss Reeves, there is a difference between not being caught and not being involved.”

Bianca stared at him.

Coach Miller looked at Roxie, then Karen. ”You two should have come to me.”

Roxie’s tears slipped down faster.

”I know,” she said.

A little wrecked.

Mrs. Gonzalez sighed again, but it was not the same sigh as before.

This one sounded like trouble finding its correct address.