There’s an awkward beat of silence.
I force myself to keep talking. “If you want to join it, that’s fine. I’m not about tearing everything down. I don’t have a problem with football, or the Dolces, or anyone here. Gloria’s one of the best people I know. Dixie here, she’s on dance as well as running the blog. But I don’t think we should have to conform to one thing in order to be allowed basic human decency at this school.”
Duke cups his hands around his mouth and hollers, “Go home!”
A bunch of people laugh. I wipe my hands on my jeans. “That’s the thing,” I say. “I have a right to be here. And so do all of y’all. You shouldn’t have to look a certain way, or live in a certain neighborhood, or wear a certain thing on Fridays to be allowed to thrive here. You shouldn’t have the threat of being thrown in a dumpster or dragged to the basement hanging over your head if you don’t comply. You shouldn’t have to worry that if a boy calls you, you have to go to his house whether or not you want to. Maybe that’s the way things were, but that’s not the way they should be. And it’s not the way they have to be.”
“Yeah, it is,” Duke calls out. A bunch of guys laugh, but I see more than a handful of girls in the rest of the room averting their eyes, and that gives me strength. I’m not doing this for the twins. I’m doing it for everyone else, all the girls they’ve hurt. Maybe not the way they hurt me, maybe they just slept with them and didn’t call them back, but it doesn’t matter.
“So, that’s what this protest is about,” I say. “It’s not against anyone. It’sforsomeone though—for y’all. I have no beef with anyone, including the Dolce boys. I made a truce with Baron, and I stand by that. I’m not trying to take anyone’s place. I just want to have a place, period. I want to have a voice, and more than that, I want everyone else who wants a voice to be able to use it.”
“Boo,” Duke yells. A handful of sweet potato fries bounce off me. I cringe, but I don’t step down.
Two teachers come through the doors and head for our table. A buzz of excitement goes up around the room.
“And I want the teachers to have the same expectations of everyone and not treat some people different,” I say, speaking over the voices.
“Miss Apple,” says Mr. Harris, the science teacher who accused me of stealing his cockroaches last year. “Please get down from there.”
“I want the administration to discipline everyone the same,” I say, raising my voice until I’m almost shouting. “No matter if you pay tuition or have a scholarship.”
The other teacher is speaking into a walkie talkie, and I know my time is up.
“We’ll be here every day,” I call over the roar of voices filling the room. “If you agree with our protest, you can sit with us, no matter who you are. We don’t care what you look like, what you’re into, or what car you drive. You can even eat lunch.”
A few people laugh when they notice our empty table. Mr. Harris reaches for me, but Colt stands, stepping between us.
“Don’t put your hands on her,” he says, his voice low and filled with warning.
I remember him telling me he used to run this place. This teacher knows that. And judging by John Darling’s estate, I’m guessing that family pays for more than my scholarship here.
Mr. Harris drops his hand, but I’m done. I give a little wave before stooping, bracing my hand on the edge of the table, and hopping down. I hold out my wrists. “Going to arrest me for daring to speak up?” I ask.
“Let’s go,” says the other teacher, looking annoyed. She holsters her walkie and waves me toward the office, a place I am all too familiar with by now.
thirty-nine
Harper Apple
MrD: So now you need me.
I straighten in the cushy chair outside the headmaster’s office. I’ve been sitting here for thirty minutes while they decide what to do with me, since apparently they have no precedent for someone standing on a table and talking about making the admin accountable for doing their job.
BadApple: lol u kno it
MrD: Seems you caused quite the commotion.
BadApple: just telling it like it is
BadApple: So what r the charges? Disturbing the peace? Inciting a riot?
MrD: Was there a riot?
BadApple: lol
MrD: Was there?
BadApple: u been 2 WHPA. Can u imagine anyone at this school rioting?