French Lessons, Volume 4, Part 2: Poets Behaving Badly

[fleurlb]

Three days later, Julie walked through the hallway toward the main school office in a daze. She couldn't believe that not only had Tim's warning proved prophetic, it had been an even bigger disaster than he'd warned.

 

 

The catcalls and dirty remarks from a few of the guys in the class had caused her to blush and stutter. When she got to the part about absinthe and opium, Mr. McGovern had called time on her presentation and told her to sit down. He held her after class to discuss the inappropriate nature of her speech, which had caused her to defend it vigorously.

 

Apparently she'd defended it vigorously enough to get summoned to the vice principal's office. She held the crumpled note in her hand and noticed that her steps got slower the closer she got to the office.

 

Julie turned the corner toward the school office and recognized a familiar, broad-shouldered figure, leaning casually against the counter. Even if she hadn't been able to recognize Tim from that distance, she could have guessed it was him just by looking at the flirty expression on Celeste, the student worker behind the counter.

 

The girl was standing in a way that gave the world a few right down her shirt. Julie was already angry, but for some reason,having to know that Celeste was wearing a pink lace bra made her want to punch someone.

 

Julie picked up her pace as she stalked into the office and tossed the note on the counter without explanation.

 

“Taylor,” Tim greeted her. She did not return the greeting or even look at him.

 

“Oh, yeah, you can go in. They're waiting for you,” said Celeste.

 

As Julie marched around behind the counter and headed for the vice principal's office, she could hear Celeste whispering to Tim “Have you heard? She gave a speech about two gay guys and now she's in trou-ble.”

 

Julie tried to ignore her and prepare for her confrontation with Vice Principal Trucks. She walked into his office, surprised to see her mother sitting in one of the chairs and her father leaning against the wall. Coach looked especially displeased, with a vein pulsing in his forehead and a muscle twitching in his jaw. Julie had only seen him look like that a few times in her life and it never ended well.

 

She flipped her hair back and put her chin up. Her paper was meticulously researched, her speech was based on historical facts and she had a right to free speech in a public school classroom. She was ready for whatever fight they wanted to bring to her because really, she was so sick of this small town with its small minds.

 

Julie tried to lean against the wall across from her father, but Mr. Trucks directed her to sit down and didn't look like he was going to start this kangaroo court until she did. She sighed and rolled her eyes to express her displeasure and sat down with as much dignity as she could muster.

 

“Miss Taylor, we wanted to discuss the disruption your....presentation caused in your English class today,” began Mr. Trucks.

 

“Then why aren't you discussing it with the couple of guys who actually caused the disruption? All I was doing was presenting my final project,” said Julie defensively.

 

“Hey now, is this really the foot you want to start out on?” asked her father. His eyes were burning and she could see he was just spoiling for a fight. Fine, she was more than capable of giving him one.

 

“I didn't do anything wrong,” insisted Julie.

 

“Now, hon, that wasn't exactly what I heard. It seems your little talk maybe offended some of the students and it definitely made Mr. McGovern extremely uncomfortable,” said Tami, jumping right into her customary role as peacemaker and common ground finder. But Julie didn't want peace. Not when she was right.

 

“If Mr. McGovern had let me finish my presentation, had let me go through some of the poetry and present the evidence in support of my thesis, then maybe he would have had a different opinion.”

 

“Now, Miss Taylor, I don't think we're going to get anywhere like this. The fact remains, a major disruption was caused as a direct result of your speech,” said the vice principal.

 

Julie shrugged. “It's not my fault if some people are prejudiced or easily shocked.”

 

“Vice Principle Trucks, do you think you could give us a minute here? I think we need to have a little family meeting about all this, see if we can't get it cleared up,” said Tami with her best charming smile

 

A look of incredulity flickered over the man's face, but then he sighed and relented. He pushed himself back from the desk and stood up. “Sure, just let me know when y'all are ready.”

 

Coach looked like he was following Mr. Trucks out of the room, but Julie wasn't going to be that lucky. Her father just wanted to close the door. As soon as it had clicked shut behind him, he wheeled around and let her have the full brunt of his displeasure.

 

“What in the world were you thinking, Julie, giving a speech like that?”

 

“Dad, there was nothing wrong with it. I worked on the paper for weeks. I did meticulous research. That paper was 30 pages long – it could probably get an A in any college English class in the country.” Julie insisted stubbornly.

 

“Well, first of all, you're not in a college English class. You're a junior in high school and you should know better than to deliberately use inflammatory language and facts in a speech,” said Coach.

 

“Deliberately inflammatory? If I wanted to be deliberately inflammatory, there was way worse stuff I could have used. Like the physician's report from the court case. Or Verlaine's 'Ouverture' which is all about having sex with a prostitute.”

 

“Nice, that's real nice, Julie,” muttered Coach. “Any time you want to jump in and help me out, Tami, would be fine?”

 

“Well, hon, I was just waiting until you'd both emptied your six-shooters so we could have a civil conversation about this,” said Tami.

 

“I am being civil. And reasonable. I didn't do anything wrong,” said Julie for what seemed like the three hundredth time.

 

“Now, Jules, I know maybe you didn't necessarily intend to offend anyone, but the fact is, you did, and I do kind of think you exercised poor judgement in the matter and you need to deal with the consequences,” said Tami.

 

“What do you mean?” asked Julie, looking up at her mother.

 

“I mean that you're going to start by apologizing to Mr. McGovern-”

 

“Oh no,” interrupted Julie. “I'm not going to apologize because I haven't done anything wrong.”

 

Coach Taylor had one hand on his hip and the other was pointing at Julie. “You are going to apologize,” he said quietly.

 

“I am not. I don't think you're listening or trying to understand my side of the story. But let me repeat it for you. I. Didn't. Do. Anything. Wrong,” said Julie, matching her father's ferocious gaze.

 

Coach rubbed his jaw and smiled the sort of you-don't-know-what-kind-of-fire-you're-playing-with smile that Julie had watched him give unruly football players.

 

When he spoke, his voice was quiet and controlled. “You want to think real hard about this, Julie. This really a fight you want to have? You want to make a big deal out of this? Have it go on your permanent record? Have to explain it to college admissions people?”

 

Julie tried not to look startled. She hadn't thought of that.

 

“That's right, you don't want this to mess everything up for you. Now, your mother worked hard, talking to Mr. McGovern to try to reach an agreement that would benefit everyone. All you have to do is apologize,” said Coach, suddenly the picture of reason and rationality.

 

“No. I don't want special treatment. This is ridiculous anyway. Completely fascist, in fact.” Julie's anger had sparked again and drove away any doubts or apprehensions she had.

 

“You'd rather have a Saturday suspension, spend all day in here on a Saturday?” asked Coach.

 

“If that's what the punishment is, which is completely unfair because I didn't do anything wrong. But yes, I would. It's like.....going to jail for an act of civil disobedience,” said Julie.

 

“You'll be grounded too. For weeks,” threatened Coach.

 

“All that proves is that you're fascist too.”

 

Julie nearly wished she had been able to take a picture of her father at that moment. He looked like he might truly snap. Then her mother stepped in.

 

“Sound like you've made your decision, Julie. Eric, why don't you go get Vice Principal Trucks,” said Tami.

 

Eric shook his head and left the room. When the Vice Principal returned, he was alone.

 

“So, have y'all straightened things out,” he asked as he sat down behind his desk.

 

Tami gave him a tight smile. “Well, yes, although not exactly in the way I'd hoped.”

 

“I'm not going to apologize,” said Julie, daring the Vice Principal to challenge her.

 

He just sighed and made a note on his desk calendar. “Fine. I will see you in the cafeteria this Saturday for detention. Be there before 8 am.”

 

Julie stormed out of the room, ignoring Celeste and her half-open shirt. In fact, she kept her head down because if Tim was still leaning on the counter, she didn't want to see him or talk to him.

 

It was definitely not her lucky day. As Julie took a left out of the school office, she walked right into the very person she was trying to avoid.

 

“Easy there, Taylor,” he said in an amused voice.

 

“What are you doing here? Waiting for me so you can rub it in?”

 

“Rub what in?” Tim asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

 

“I got in trouble for my speech.”

 

“Oh, right,” said Tim softly and looked down.

 

“Well, aren't you happy?”

 

“Why would I be happy that you got in trouble?”

 

Julie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Not that I got in trouble, that you were right about it being a bad idea.”

 

Tim shook his head. “No..... I was just waiting for you so I could give you back that book you left over at my place a couple of weeks ago. C'mon, I have it in my locker.”

 

“Oh, right,” mumbled Julie, trailing behind him. She sometimes left a book at his house, sort of accidentally on purpose, thinking that Tim would enjoy it. Even though she knew the probability of the book being used as a beer coaster was higher than the probability of it actually being read.

 

She usually left books of poetry or short stories, since she figured his attention span was probably pretty short. Every once in a while, though, she'd make an exception.

 

Tim stopped at his locker, pulled out Henry and June and handed it over.

 

“Um, what did you think of it?” asked Julie.

 

“Honestly, I didn't know you were allowed to write stuff like that in books,” said Tim with a grin.

 

“You'd be surprised, Riggins, what sort of stuff has gotten into books,” she said, returning his grin while hoping she could stop her cheeks from turning red. It was annoying when that happened, doubly annoying that it mostly tended to happen around him and triply annoying after the day she'd had.

Part 1                Part 3

 

Comments

[khemlab.livejournal.com]

Oh, Julie! You had me cheering and cringing simultaneously with this one:

“You'll be grounded too. For weeks,” threatened Coach.

“All that proves is that you're fascist too.”

And I loved this:

“I got in trouble for my speech.”

“Oh, right,” said Tim softly and looked down.

“Well, aren't you happy?”

“Why would I be happy that you got in trouble?”

People always think the worst of Riggs, and then he turns out to be a nice guy. ♥

[fleurlb.livejournal.com]

Thanks...glad you liked those parts. I re-watched bits of Season 2 to prepare to write this one. I think the 'research' paid off. :)