The Lonely Girl

Claire was flung away as a teacher grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the way. The teacher then tried to pull Kyle off the now unconscious and slumping student. To no avail. The teacher screamed for help and other teachers and students came to help pull Kyle off of Sam.

Claire stood, mouth agape, with a look of shock on her face. This was the same look most of the students wore considering the beating they had just witnessed. Claire however, was not in shock due to the beating. She was in shock because someone had defended her. He had tried to protect her from this boy. No one had ever tried to protect her. Even the teachers usually turned a blind eye to the abuse she suffered. The only people that ever tried to protect Claire where her parents, the only people who loved her.

When Claire's mother received the call that she needed to come pick her daughter up, due to an "incident", she was a bit concerned. It had been a few years since she had to come get her daughter at school. She knew the children were still mean to her, but nothing that had required her intervention since the beginning of high school.

When she arrived at the school she was directed to the nurse's office...never a good sign. Her concern turned to anger as she entered. Claire sat on a stool as the nurse was wiping the last of the blood from her face. Claire's shirt was splattered with blood as well. For the first time ever, her calm demeanor cracked.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU LET THEM DO TO MY DAUGHTER NOW!?!?"

"Mrs. Kelly, please calm do..."

"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! THIS SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS LET THESE ANIMALS ATTACK MY DAUGHTER FOR YEARS!! NOW YOU LET THEM BEAT HER BLOODY?!?"

"Mrs. Kelly, it's not your daughter's blood."

Anger quickly turned to confusion...what did she mean it wasn't her blood? Had Claire attacked one of her tormenters? Would that really be a bad thing? These thoughts quickly flew through her mind when the nurse continued:

"Claire was in the vicinity of a fight between two boys. The blood is from one of the boys. Since her shirt had blood on it, we thought it best she go home for the rest of the day."

Claire's mother was still processing this information when the nurse added: "We also think it would be a good idea for Claire to speak to the school psychologist when she returns. The fight was quite vicious and may have been traumatic for Claire."

Claire's mother just snorted. She put her hand out for Claire to take it and led her out of the Nurse's office. The school psychologist. Over her dead body. She still remembered Claire's sessions with the psychologist in grade school. The one that tried to "get Claire out of her shell." The abuse she suffered after that was the worst that Claire had experienced. Claire trying to take the Doctor's advice and interact with the other kids, combined with the students finding out she was going to the "loony doctor" meant that the abuse was relentless. Claire's mother had gone to the School after she had come home crying for the third day in a row. Her mother suggested to the administration that perhaps it wasn't her daughter that needed the counseling, but the other children. The idea that the fault for these attacks lie with anyone other than Claire seemed absolutely foreign to the school staff. She realized that she would get nowhere with them and asked that the Dr. no longer see her daughter.

Her mother tried to get Claire to open up on the ride home. Claire wanted to respond but her mouth wouldn't form words. She was still trying to process what she had seen.

When they arrived home, Claire went and showered and changed into clean clothes seemingly on autopilot. It was a little while later, sitting in the kitchen while her mother prepared dinner that Claire simply stated: "He protected me."

"Claire honey, what did you say?"

"He protected me."

Claire's mother stopped chopping the kale on her cutting board, put the knife down and turned towards her daughter. "Who protected you?"

"Kyle, the boy in my class. The new boy."

Her mother, now thoroughly confused, walked over to the table, sat in a chair near Claire and took her hand.

"Claire sweety, I don't understand what you mean. Protected you from what?"

"The other boy...Sam. Sam was bullying me, and Kyle protected me."

"You mean the fight that happened this afternoon was because Sam was bullying you?"

"Yes...Sam was saying things to me and I wasn't reacting. So he knocked my books out of me hand...and Kyle beat him up for it."

Claire's mother tried to stifle the gasp as she thought of someone being physical with her little daughter stung her. The moment passed quickly and she gathered her thoughts: "Do you know this boy Kyle well?"

"No, he moved here this school year. He's in one of my classes, which is how I know his name."

"Have you spoken to him at all?"

Claire furrowed her brow at her mother: "Spoken to who Momma?"

"Kyle, the boy you said protected you."

"I don't speak to anyone except the teachers, Momma."

The statement was said so matter-of-factly that it made her mother wince. She knew it was tough for her daughter at school. She knew how mean they could be. She remembered how mean they were to her when she was growing up...but the thought of her little girl being so isolated that she spoke to none of her classmates made her well up with tears.

"Why are you crying, Momma?"

"It's nothing, Sweetie." She rubbed away the tears and tried to shake away the sadness. She knew that Claire didn't want pity.

Her mother got up and resumed making dinner.

*****

Later that evening, Claire laid in bed staring at her ceiling. She had read till she thought she was sleepy, put the book down, and just laid there unable to fall asleep, so she picked the book back up and again and repeated. She was now on her third cycle of this repetition when she finally gave up and climbed out of bed. She padded down the stairs and into their sitting room that had a bay window. She grabbed a blanket from the blanket basket next to the couch, sat in the corner and covered herself with the blanket. There was just enough moonlight to see the edge of the tree line in front of their house.

It was then that she heard someone else on the stairs. She turned towards the hallway as her father peeked through the opening.

"Sweetie, what are you doing awake?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"I can imagine, you had a rough day."

"That's not why I can't sleep."

The statement caught her father short. He paused for a moment, then walked into the room and sat down next to Claire. Claire covered him with the blanket as well and leaned into her father. Her father sat for a moment, staring out the window with Claire. He put his arm around her and gave a slight squeeze. "So being attacked and witnessing another attack isn't why you can't sleep."

"What Sam did doesn't bother me...not really."

"It doesn't? Why not?"

"Sam gets picked on too. He was just acting out because he's tired of it."

Her father chewed on that statement for a moment. He made a mental note to make more time to have talks with his daughter. It was obvious that she was already wise beyond her years.

"So what's bothering you then?"

"Kyle protected me. No one but you and Mom have ever done that before."

"So you were surprised this Kyle protected you then?"

Claire paused at that question for a moment before continuing. "I mean yeah...why would he do that? He doesn't know me. It just doesn't make sense."

"Well, I do remember when I was in school, some boys would try and show off for the girls around them."

"They'd try to show off by beating people up?"

"Well, that was more rare, but they did occasionally fight over girls."

"Did you?"

"Me? No, I was picked on in school too." He said with a grimace.

The statement stung both of them. Claire's father because he felt helpless to protect his little girl. Claire was stung because she could tell that what she was going through was causing her father to remember the pain from his childhood. She didn't want to cause him pain, as her parents had never shown her anything but love.

"I'm sorry Daddy. It's ok, I'll be fine."

She started to rise from the couch, then turned and gave her father a kiss on the cheek and a hug. She folded the blanket and put it back in the basket. Heading upstairs and back to bed, Claire eventually found sleep. Her father stayed on the couch a while longer and wept.

*****

One thing high schools are great at is information dissemination. Not from the faculty of course, but amongst the students. Claire's parents kept her out of school the following day and then she had the weekend before having to go back on Monday. She walked into school and down the hallway, her eyes down as always to try and not make eye contact with anyone. She noticed the glances people were giving her in the periphery of her vision. These glances were usually followed by some type of snide comment. This was different. There were hushed conversations happening wherever she went.

Claire was sitting in the lab section of her afternoon AP chemistry class. Her labs were finished and she was working on some calculus homework she had been assigned earlier in the day when Tyler walked up and sat on one of the stools at the table. Tyler was a little short for his age and slightly pudgy. He also hung out with the kids that played online role-playing games after school and was thus in the camp of students who occasional were bullied. It wasn't uncommon for him to sit at the table with her. Most of the other students were more popular and didn't want him at there's. What was uncommon was him trying to strike up a conversation with her.

"Hi Claire."

Claire was so unused to other students speaking to her, except to hurl insults of course, that she didn't even know he had spoken to her at first. She was used to other students ignoring her, lest they also attract the ire of the cabal of mean kids.

Claire looked up to see Tyler looking at her...it then registered that he had spoken to her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, Hi Claire."

"Hi"

Where was this going? Was Tyler going to start taunting her too? He usually seemed like a genuinely nice guy, which is the only reason she responded in the first place.

"I was just wondering...are you and Kyle Scott a thing?"

"A thing?"

"Yeah, you know, dating?"

What? What was he talking about?

"No, why would you think that?"

"Well, he put Sam Johnson in the hospital for picking on you. It just doesn't seem like the type of thing someone would do for just anybody."

"Oh."

Claire couldn't fault his logic...hell, she had spent the last four days trying to understand why Kyle had done what he had done. It seemed that at least some others in the school couldn't make sense of it either.

"No, we're not dating. I don't know why he did that. I've never even spoken to him before." And it was true, although not surprising as she tried to limit the people she spoke to in school to teachers.

"Huh, well maybe he likes you then."

"Why do you think he likes me?"

"Like I said, he put someone in the hospital for picking on you...I don't know...just thought maybe there was a reason."

The conversation was making them both uncomfortable, and they went back to their work. Tyler was uncomfortable because he was used to overstepping with the girls he tried to interact with and was afraid he had done so with Claire. She was uncomfortable because the idea of Kyle protecting her because he liked her was an avenue of thought that had never occurred to her.

As the week progressed, Claire noticed that the looks and conversation about her seemed to slowly die down. Except for the occasional snide comment that she seemed to always get from a trio of particularly nasty cheerleaders, most of her classmates left her alone.

*****

There were only a couple of weeks left in the school year before graduation, when Kyle got back to school. A few of his acquaintances in school tried to joke with him about the beating, but he was having none of it. He wasn't proud of what he did, he was ashamed. He found out the kid he beat, he learned later his name was Sam, spent a couple of days in the hospital and would not be coming back that year. It was just as well. If he had come back, Kyle would have felt obligated to apologize. He wasn't sure how that would go though, as while he knew he was wrong, what Sam did was not something he could tolerate either.

"Hey Sam, how's going? Listen, I'm sorry I broke your face, but if I see you bully anyone, I'll do it again."

Kyle silently chuckled to himself at the absurdity of the conversation he had fabricated in his head.

Later, Kyle walked into his calculus class and saw Claire sitting in the back corner. He paused for a moment and considered her before heading to his seat as the teacher, Mr. Inwright, walked in. He glanced over his shoulder to where she sat. She had her head down, hair hiding most of her face as she was engrossed in a book. He wasn't sure why he hadn't noticed her before. He knew she existed of course, she participated in class when called on. He stared a moment longer when the teacher called the class to attention. He turned back towards the front of the class and opened his book.

*****

When class ended, Kyle loitered in the hall outside waiting for Claire to exit. She walked out of class, books in her arms, head down as always. If it were anyone else, Kyle would have simply said hi to them and started a conversation. For some reason, with Claire, he hesitated. She had a determination to her movement that made him feel like trying to strike up a conversation would be an intrusion. He watched her disappear into the sea of bodies moving down that hall and head off towards his next class.

*****

Later that week, Kyle asked his teacher to be excused early from class. He had finished the assignment and had forgotten to drop off an assignment he completed while suspended to a teacher whose classroom was on the other side of the school. The teacher allowed it. Except for the incident with Sam, Kyle caused no trouble and was diligent with his work in class. Kyle turned down the hall where the classroom he needed to go to was located when the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Students flooded out into the hallway. Kyle was passing the next classroom when Claire came out the door and turned into him. She bounced off of him and may have fallen, but Kyle reached out and grabbed both her arms, to steady her and make sure she didn't drop the load of books she always seemed to carry.

She looked up, saw that it was Kyle and squeaked out "Sorry!"

"No, I'm sorry. I almost knocked you over."

Kyle released her arms and took a step back. Claire looked down again, turned slightly and started walking around him. Mumbling "It's ok."

Kyle turned with her, "Hey Claire!" He realized he said it a little louder than he wanted, but it had the intended effect. Claire stopped in her tracks and turned towards him.

Kyle lowered his voice a bit and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She stated and almost seemed ready to turn and start walking again.

"No, I meant are you ok from what happened the other day. When that kid...when Sam hit you."

"He didn't hit me, he just knocked the books out of my hands."

"Well he still shouldn't have done that...and I'm sorry about what I did...I mean, I'm sorry that you had to see that."

Claire just stared at him for a moment.

"You protected me."

Immediately she wished she could take the statement back. Like she had just disclosed some vital piece of information that would be used against her.

Kyle chuckled and said, "So you're ok then?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Ok, well I'll see you around then." He said a and turned to head back down the hall and drop his assignments.

Claire just stared after him and watched him disappear into one of the classrooms. She stood there staring until the bell rang again and she realized she was late for her next class.

*****

That night, while prepping dinner, Claire's mother noticed she was more distant than usual. She turned to face Claire, who was sitting in the breakfast nook, staring at nothing in particular. She put the peeler down and asked Claire, "Claire honey, what's wrong?"

Claire turned to look at her mother, "What did you say Momma?"

"I said what's wrong? There's something on your mind, what is it?"

Claire turned her had back and stared again for a moment, "He spoke to me."

"Who spoke to you?"

"Kyle."

"Kyle? The boy that got in the fight? What did he say?"

"He asked if I was ok."

"Oh, well that was nice of him."

"Yeah."

Claire's mother returned to peeling the potatoes. She was not entirely sure of the significance of the conversation. Claire never talked about boys at school, but surely they spoke to her? Why did this boy speaking to her seem to affect her? She couldn't understand, nor did she feel confident enough in the boy department to try and give her advice. Claire's father and mother getting together was just a matter of right-place-right-time. Sure, she had grown more comfortable in her skin as her career took off. But the only boy she had ever had romantic conversations with was now her husband. She felt a bit melancholy that she couldn't help her daughter and got on with peeling the potatoes.

*****

Kyle was at his locker the next day at school. Bent over, transferring books from his locker to his bookbag and vice-versa, he suddenly became aware of a presence standing next to him. He stood and turned to find Kaitlyn staring at him.

Kaitlyn was pretty in the all-american girl kind of way. Just the right height and proportions, with a pretty face and a beautiful smile. It didn't stop her from wearing too much makeup and too much hairspray he thought though. The school day had just started, but should he still be able to smell her hairspray?

She smiled at him and started, "Hi Kyle."

It was a great smile. He had to admit it. Too bad it hid an awful personality.

"Hi Kaitlyn, what's up?"

"Me and some of the other girls are going to Craig's house Friday night. His parents are going out of town, wanna come?"

The cheerleaders are going to the football player's house...how cliché he thought. If it was just the guys, he probably would have considered it. He didn't play football at this school but got to know most of the players when he used the gym and thought they were more or less a decent group.

The clique of cheerleaders that Kaitlyn hung out with were a different story though. When he looked at Kaitlyn all he saw was an older version of the girls that accosted his sister.

"Sorry, can't. Still grounded from the fight." It was a small lie, but one that would get him out of this conversation and more importantly, having to go anywhere with Kaitlyn.

"Oh yeah, that was quite the beating."

"Yeah, I'm not really proud of it." Kyle's retort seemed to go right over her head.

"Ok, well let's plan to hang out when you're allowed back out."

"Yeah, ok."

"Ok, see you later Kyle!"

"Yeah, bye Kaitlyn."

It was only a few weeks left in the school year. Hopefully he could continue to plead he was grounded and then never have to see her again after graduation. He wasn't sure how many times the girls in that particular clique had tried to get him to go out. The thought nauseated him. He had seen first-hand how they treated people and heard secondhand stories that were even worse.

*****

When Kyle walked into calculus that afternoon, he noticed the seat next to Claire hadn't been taken yet. Mr. Inwright didn't assign seats, as most of the students that took calculus were actually here to learn and weren't the type of problem students that needed to be separated. He walked to the back corner and sat next to Claire. She was leaned over her book as always.