One Way by Norah McClintock

Author:Norah McClintock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2012-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

T.J. comes to pick me up the next morning, and we walk to school together. He tries to get a conversation going, first about baseball, then about tv. When that fizzles out, he gives up. We walk in silence. But I’m glad he’s with me.

People stare at me, of course.

A half hour before lunch, one of my teachers gets a call on the classroom phone and then tells me I’m supposed to go down to the office. He looks puzzled, so that tells me he doesn’t know who wants me or why. T.J. jabs me in the ribs when I pass his desk. I wince, for real. I’m thinking that probably I’m going to get in trouble for ditching drama class without a written excuse. Ms. Rego is probably mad at me for what happened to Stassi.

It turns out the cops are in the office. Not uniformed cops, but the two detectives who showed up at the hospital. Mr. Pawls, the principal, is with them. He tells me the cops want to talk to me. He also tells me that I should call my parents before I say anything to them.

“I’m supposed to call my lawyer,” I say.

One of the detectives raises an eyebrow. “You have a lawyer, Kenzie?” he says.

“My dad said I should have one. He says I’m supposed to call him if you want to talk to me again.”

“Why does your dad think you need a lawyer?” the other detective says.

Before I can say anything, Mr. Pawls steps in. “He’s a juvenile,” he says. “You have to inform him of his rights.”

The first cop sighs. He says that they want to talk to me about Stassi. He says that I don’t have to talk to them if I don’t want to. He says if I do talk to them, I have the right to have my parents or some other adults, like a lawyer, present. Then he asks me, do I want to call someone?

“I’m supposed to call Mr. Grossman,” I say.

Mr. Pawls leads me behind the counter. I lift the receiver of a phone on one of the office assistants’ desks. Then I realize that I forgot to put Mr. Grossman’s card in my pocket. I look helplessly at Mr. Pawls. He says he’ll get the number for me, then asks one of the assistants to do it.

“What’s the problem, anyway?” I say to the detectives while I wait. “My lawyer says I’ll just get a fine.”

The two detectives glance at each other. Then one of them looks me in the eye and says, “We have a reports that you ran into Stassi Mikalczyk on purpose.”

“What?” They have to be kidding. “Why would I do that?”

“That’s what we want to know, Kenzie,” the detective says. “You and Stassi used to go out, right? She was your girlfriend, and then you broke up. Right?”

“You don’t have to answer that, Kenzie. You don’t have to say anything to them,” Mr. Pawls says.

“He’s right,” the detective says. “You don’t have to talk to us.

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