Monstrato by Christopher Ganey
Chapter 16
The next day, Mrs. Garrison was sitting up on her stool in front of class trying to get us to talk about a book we were reading. She was asking us why this character did this, and why another character did that, and what their motivations were. She really liked taking a book apart, piece by piece, and talking about each little part. Only thing was, we never seemed to put it all back together again in the end. And she was in one of her moods where she wanted everyone to participate, where if you weren't raising your hand, she'd call on you, and you had to answer. You couldn't just say, "I don't know," or she'd keep leaning on you and asking more questions until you said something that satisfied her. I hadn't even read the chapters we were supposed to read. I knew it was just a matter of time before she was gonna call my name, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with the guilt trip she was gonna try to put on me. I knew what she'd say, that I was taking something away from the class by not doing the reading, that she values my input and other bullshit. So I asked if I could go to the bathroom and acted like it was an emergency to make sure she'd say yes.
I went to the bathroom, fixed my hair and make up, and talked to some junior high girls that were in there, just trying to kill time. When I came out of the bathroom, I was in no hurry to get back to class and was considering running outside for a smoke. That's when I noticed Makayla and Mrs. Bouchard in the hallway. Makayla was getting the books out of her locker and handing them to Mrs. Bouchard, who was looking through each one and stacking them on the floor. They didn't see me, and I stood there watching them for a while, wondering what was going on. I heard Mrs. Bouchard ask, "Is that all of them?" Makayla nodded, then reached in, grabbed her purse out of her locker and shut it, and stood there staring at her locker door. She looked like she was preparing herself for some sort of doom, like a woman waiting to walk the plank or something. Mrs. Bouchard looked at the books on the floor, then looked at Makayla and said, "Just leave the books here. I'll have somebody get them." Then, as if on cue, Makayla turned and started walking down the hall with Mrs. Bouchard, leaving her books stacked in the middle of the hallway.
Makayla didn't look at me as they came near. She was frowning at the floor with a zoned out look on her face. She didn't even look up when I asked Mrs. Bouchard, "What's going on?"
Mrs. Bouchard kind of bit her lower lip and said, "They're kicking Makayla out because she doesn't live in the district." Then she rolled her eyes, letting me know how ridiculous she thought it was. Makayla didn't live in the school district; she never did. Tammy knew this but had been letting her come to Lifegate anyway—until now.
I watched them walk through the double doors to where the offices were, then watched through the glass as Mrs. Bouchard escorted Makayla to the front doors of the school. Makayla was moving in her peculiar way, as if she were on a leash being led somewhere she didn't wanna go. They stopped walking when they got to the front doors of the school, and Mrs. Bouchard said something to Makayla. Makayla didn't answer. She just stood there staring at the front doors, motionless. Mrs. Bouchard put her hand on Makayla's shoulder. She looked like she wanted to say something else to her or give her a hug, but Makayla wasn't paying any attention to her. Mrs. Bouchard reached out and pushed open one of the doors, and Makayla stepped through. I watched her disappear down the sidewalk, still clutching her purse to her stomach, and being pulled by an invisible leash. I wondered where she was gonna go. She didn't have a car.
I went back to Mrs. Garrison's room feeling disturbed and anxious. As soon as class was over, I ran down the hall to Tammy's office and knocked on her door. She said, "Come in," and when I opened her door, I saw her sitting behind her desk stapling papers with country music playing on the radio behind her. She looked up at me, sort of frowned, and said, "Yesss?" like she knew what I was gonna ask.
I asked, "Why'd you kick Makayla out?"
She said, "She doesn't live in the school district," as if it were that simple and not any fault of her own.
I said, "But she's never lived in the district. Why now?"
"We're cracking down."
"What about the other kids who don't live in the district? You gonna kick them out?"
She reached behind her, turned down the radio, sat back in her chair and said, "I didn't know there were any other kids, but if we find out, we'll deal with it."
I thought to myself, Aw, man, here we go again. I hated how these people would look you right in the eye and lie to you like they didn't have any shame—or like they thought you were stupid or something. I said, "That's bull! You know there are other kids…"
"Don't get that way with me."
"I think you're just looking for an excuse to get rid of her."
"Well, maybe we are. She can't expect people to keep doing her favors when she's causing trouble like she's been. Some girls are getting tired of her flirting with their boyfriends all the time."
"Oh, Jesus. You mean Corena?"
Her face immediately turned red. She sneered, "It's not just Corena. There are a lot of girls who are sick of the way she's been behaving."
"That's low, Tammy, and wrong, and you know it."
"I don't think so. I'm the one who's gotta deal with all these girls coming to my office, complaining about each other all the time, and I'm tired of it. We did her a favor, and she didn't appreciate it…"
I yelled, "It's wrong! She wasn't doing anything, and she needs favors…"
She said, "You better watch it, girl. Don't think you're gonna come into my office and tell me…" I turned and walked out. It was disgusting listening to a grown woman trippin' over high school girls—FLIRTING—I mean, God! Such a lame excuse.
I wasn't surprised they kicked Makayla out, but I sure was pissed. Next period, in Algebra 2, I told all the kids about it, and they got pissed off, too. Everybody was whispering back and forth and passing notes to the point where Ms. Strauss could hardly teach her lesson. She kept telling us to be quiet, and I could see her getting irritated. After she gave us an assignment, I decided I was gonna tell her because I thought she might be interested. I went up to her desk and, in a low voice, started explaining what happened. She was interested all right. She even asked me to go out into the hall with her to talk, which was pretty unusual.
Out in the hall, I told her all about Makayla, the things she's been through, and how she'd come to Lifegate in the first place. Ms. Strauss thought it was a raw deal Makayla had been kicked out and wanted to know why. I told her what happened to Bobby, him getting stomped, and how Corena had caused it. I couldn't believe she didn't know anything about this; everybody else in the school did. Ms. Strauss had this way of acting real confused whenever you were explaining something to her about our school. I'd noticed it before when I'd tried filling her in on some other things. I figured this acting confused was just her way of getting you to keep talking so you'll say more—and boy I tell you, out there in the hall, she was acting real confused, furrowing up her brow and doing all kinds of funny things with her lips, as if what I was telling her just didn't add up. It even seemed like her dead eye had come alive—I saw it moving—and it felt as if she was really seeing me for the first time. Maybe she just wanted me to give her more details. But it also occurred to me that most other kids never talked to her, and she might not've known about any of this.
You see, Ms. Strauss didn't have any students who would stay after class and shoot the shit with her like the other teachers had. She was too weird, and all the kids ever did was make fun of her. Kids were scared of her, and some were even saying she was a lesbian because she made a comment once to these girls about what they were wearing that day, saying they looked nice. Now, Mrs. Garrison would say stuff like that all the time, and no one thought she was a lesbian. Of course, Mrs. Garrison was married. Thing is, even the teachers seemed to avoid Ms. Strauss. I never saw them talking to her, and I never saw Ms. Strauss hanging out in Mrs. Garrison's room after school, which is where all the teachers would go to chill. I guess I was one of the