The darkness began to fade as light flooded my eyes; the piercing bright white burning my retinas. My right hand started to throb. The pulsing ache growing more and more intense as I came to consciousness. As the kaleidoscope of shapes and colors came to form an image, I was able to make out a blurry face hovering above mine.
"Anna! Are you okay? Anna wake up. Get up, come on let's go before you get into trouble!" the worried voice urged in a hushed tone.
I blinked a few times and brought my hands up to my face to rub my eyes. My right hand still pounding and tender as I rubbed the cloudiness away, allowing me to see the scene before me with clarity. Susie sat on the linoleum floor of the grade nine hallway covering her face and crying as blood poured from her nose. Debbie rushed to her side frantically pulling tissues from her bag and nursing her friend. They both looked at me with fear and disgust urging other students to find Principal Martin. I looked down at my swollen knuckles, the top of my fair hand now purple and discolored. Confused and disoriented, I felt a tug on the collar of my shirt.
"Anna, c'mon you gotta get up or you're gonna get expelled." said the voice again.
I looked up to see a worried Peter Graves frantically searching my face for any sign of comprehension, trying his best to remain calm and get through to me. Although I had no idea what was happening his words resonated with me somehow, and I rose to my feet.
"Careful now..." Peter urged as I stumbled to walk. He put his arm around me and guided me away from the school in one swift motion. My left hand gripping his muscular right shoulder as tightly as I could, grateful that I still had one good hand to keep me steady. I cradled my bad hand close to my chest, careful not to accidentally bump it against the railing as we rushed down the stairs. My feet seemed like they were moving much slower than his, but somehow I managed to keep pace. We rounded the corner of the last set of stairs and burst through one of the emergency exits.
The morning autumn light illuminated us as we tumbled onto the dewy grass. Both of us out of breath and trying to come down from the adrenaline rush. We breathed deeply, in and out, together. I tried my best to calm myself and make sense of what had happened, but it was clear that Peter had no intention of lingering for too long, as he quickly rose to his feet and reached out his hand for mine.
"C'mon. We can't stay here, they will be looking for us. We gotta go." he said.
"What? Go where?" I replied breathlessly.
"Anywhere but here! Do you want to get in trouble?"
I shook my head no and reached for him with my good hand. We quickly headed for the outskirts of the ball fields toward the exit of the parking lot. Luckily the first bell had already rang and all students were in class. Once we finally reached the sidewalk and went a couple blocks down the road, I knew I had to stop. The brisk air was stinging my narrowing windpipe with each breath I took.
"Stop..." I whispered.
Peter stopped dead in his tracks looking concerned. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I need...to just...take a minute...to catch my breath. I wheezed. "Where the hell are we going anyway?"
With a boyish grin he said "I was thinking we could go back to my place, get away from all these crazy townies."
"Your place? On the Northside?" I said uneasily.
"Yeah. You got any better ideas?"
I thought it over for a second and quickly realized that I had nowhere else to go. Anywhere would have been better than school, so I agreed to go with him.
I finally caught my breath and regained my ability to walk on my own. Peter walked slowly by my side, watching me through his peripheral to make sure I didn't trip. A shiver ran down my spine as each hair on my exposed arms stood up from the cold fall morning.
"Here take this." he said, as he handed me his leather jacket.
"Oh... that's okay, I can manage." I said hesitantly.
"You sure? It's chilly out here this morning."
"No I'm okay, thank you though."
He shrugged, lit a cigarette between his teeth and took a long drag.
"Ah... that is much needed after what I just witnessed." he sighed.
I couldn't remember anything that took place before I woke up on the floor of the grade nine hallway. I tried to piece it all together, but I couldn't remember anything. Judging by what I had witnessed when I came to, I assumed I clobbered Susie Cavanaugh in a fit of rage.
"What DID exactly happen?" I asked.
He raised his dark eyebrows with surprise. "You mean you have no idea what you just did?"
"No... not really."
He gave me a sly smile, "You clocked that bitch Susie Cavanaugh square in the nose!"
"Ugh! I had a feeling that's what happened."
"Yeah! Who knew you were such a bad ass? I don't think I've ever seen a girl hit that hard!" he giggled.
"Wow... that's insane. I can't believe I did that. I don't even remember hitting her."
"Yeah you probably blacked out. I do that sometimes when I'm really mad. It's happened to me in a few fights."
It was not in my nature to be violent. In fact, it was extremely out of character for me to even act on my feelings, which is why I had a hard time accepting that I had punched my sister's best friend in the face.
"Hey, don't feel bad, Susie Cavanough is a royal bitch, and I heard all those nasty things she was saying about your sister. She deserved it. I hope her pretty little face is ruined." Peter said with pride.
"She did say some really awful things. I guess I just couldn't take it anymore."
"Hey, that's okay, no big deal. We will just fly under the radar for now and start our weekend early." he smiled.
"I guess you're right. Maybe Principal Martin will give me a pass on Monday considering my... you know... situation"
"Possibly, but Principal Martin is kind of a dick." he scoffed.
"Yeah... that's true. So how far do you live from school anyways?" I asked.
"About a mile."
"That's a long walk." I said disappointedly. My hand was really starting to hurt. I held it out in front of me to examine it. My knuckles were twice their normal size, all four of them turning a deeper shade of purple by the minute.
"We're halfway there, no worries. How's the hand?"
"It hurts. Like really hurts." I whimpered.
"Well I'll get you fixed up when we get back to my place. I'm used to dealing with this kind of injury."
I toughed out the pain the rest of the walk while he shared war stories of his fights in the schoolyard back in primary school, a few of which I witnessed. The walk went by faster than I thought it would, and I came to realize that I really enjoyed talking with Peter. He was a breath of fresh air during all the chaos, and before we knew it, we were strolling through the Northside.
