Watch your Tongue

Sorry for the post delay! I've been kind of busy and life caught up to me. I hope you enjoy the 5th part of Silverwood Academy!

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Silverwood Academy

Part 5

"Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble."

Proverbs 21:23

Cleo

The day started off horribly. Even Jammie couldn't make it sound fun. When I woke up that morning, my hair was full of gum and it took my mom 25 minutes to get it out. By the time we came downstair, the eggs were cold and rubbery, so we had to eat cereal instead. On the drive, Samuel spilt water on my lap and when my mom hit a bump, my cereal went everywhere. At school, Jammie hurried me to the washroom and helped me clean up my clothes. By lunch time, I had already had two detentions and written lines twice. But it was at lunch time when things really started to heat up.

The doors swung open with a bang and the whole hall went quiet. In the doorway stood a pretty girl with long black hair that swayed by her waist when she walked. She was tall and thin with a narrow face and almond shaped eyes.

As she sharply surveyed the hall with narrowed eyes, Ms. Kai stood up and addressed the girl, "Ms. Kathleen Pines, please take a seat. Hurry now." The chipper and stern teacher waited for a response. Instead, Kathleen sauntered to my grade's table, not even acknowledging Ms. Kai. "Kathleen Pines, when a teacher speaks to you, you will answer with a 'yes, Ms.' Thank you." Ms. Kai had jumped up again as if her seat was on fire. Now Kathleen fixed her piercing eyes on Ms. Kai without a word. The two stood there, looking at each other until Kathleen sat down across from me without taking her eyes off Ms. Kai.

"That will be fine," Ms. Kai muttered, her face red, and sat back down abruptly.

Slowly the chatter started up again but I was watching the new girl. She ate her food quietly but uninterestedly, as if no one was watching her.

"Well?" I hear Jammie whisper from beside me.

"She's... interesting," I concluded, tearing my eyes off of her to look at Jammie.

"She's mesmerizing! Did you see Ms. Kai?" Jammie was staring at Kathleen, eyes wide.

She really was mesmerizing.

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"Hey Cleo. That girl was strange." I jumped when Vee appeared from behind me.

"Ya. You won't believe what she did in class!" I said, eyes wide.

"What?" Vee asked, falling in step beside me.

I thought back to the past couple hours of being with her. When our art teacher, Mr. Pillings, left the room for something, Kathleen had gone up and done some amazing card tricks and had made things float and move on their own. When Mr. Layden, our Language Art's teacher, asked Kathleen to read something out loud, Kathleen had sarcastically refused and continued on with whatever she had been doing. If it weren't for Jammie, I probably would already be friends with this girl, but Jammie's precaution worried me. Then my cousin's rumor about Vee being expelled popped into my head. Could I trust her?

When I didn't answer, Vee said, "Cleo? Earth to Cleo!"

"Sorry, I, I have to go. My mom is probably waiting." I darted away before Vee could say anything else. If what my cousin said about her getting expelled was true, I didn't want to be around her. Yes, I could get into mischief, but I wouldn't go as far to being expelled. My mother's disappointment!

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The next day, I found that Jammie was sick, so I decided to talk to that new girl with my old mischief maker friend, Annita.

"Hey, did you know that Vee Paulson was expelled for burning down a building? That's why she's here at Silverwood." It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"Really?" Annita asked, as we walked down the hall to lunch.

"Yup!" I answered, again before I could think. Serves her right, I thought to myself. If she burned down a building, she's probably really mean underneath and is just faking her kind demeanor. But another part of me reminded me that Vee hadn't done anything mean to me and was that cousin who had told me the rumor really trustworthy? Not really. What had I just done?

Soon we made to lunch and sat down as close as we could tot he new girl, Kathleen Pines. We began to eat and finally I asked Kathleen, "Hey, you're Kathleen, right?" She looked at me suspiciously so I winked.

"Prank planning during break." It was the last thing I said before turning away.

After lunch, in the halls, Kathleen, Annita, and I made our way tot he old oak out back. I boosted them up to the lowest branch, then climbed up after them. We didn't say a word during this whole procedure until she spoke.

"So what's this prank business all about?"

I was surprised she hadn't apologized for not responding to me at lunch, but shook it off and explained the prank we wanted to pull.

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Over the next few days, Jammie and I grew apart. I spent my extra time planning pranks with Annita and Kathleen. I have to admit, some of the pranks we did were disrespectful. The pranks Jammie and I would pull wouldn't affect teachers and if they did, the teachers would laugh along. I became part of the "cool girls" and I enjoyed it. A lot. Other girls respected us, it seemed, and many were impressed with Kathleen. Everyone was mesmerized by this magical new girl. Even I was impressed at how the teachers let her get away with anything. She was the key of our mischief making and pranks. The old rumor of Vee getting expelled re-spread and I was the one who started the spreading. While I did pranks with my new friends, Jammie grew close to Vee and Jillian. This grew complicated because Jammie was only half my friend and friends with the person I was spreading lies about. Vee avoided me because she knew. She knew what I had started.

Finally my guilt caught up to me and I couldn't bare it anymore. I had to talk to my old friends the first chance I'd get. My chance came the next morning. I was late and as I hurried to my locker, who do I bump into but Jammie. Before she could speak, I burst out, "Oh Jammie, I'm sorry for ignoring you. Please, I want to be your friend again. Forgive me!"

"Cleo, oh Cleo of course I'll forgive you! I practically need you!" We hugged each other and didn't leave each other till my mom picked me up.

The next morning, I woke up to my mom standing by my bed with her phone. She handed it to me and whispered, "It's Jammie." I sighed with relief that we were still friends and greeted her.

"Hi Jammie, it's Cleo. What's up?"

"Oh, hey, I was wondering if you wanted to get together with me, Vee, and Jillian during lunch break."

"Jammie, you know I can't face Vee!"

"That's the point. It's so that you can apologize."

I didn't answer for a few moments, then sighed into the speaker. "Ok. Yes. It's a good idea. I'll be there. Your room?"

"Ya. Ok, see you at school."

"'Kay, see ya!" And I hung up.

I took a deep breath and gave the phone back to my mom. My words had power and I had the make it right.