The next day, Friday.

“Alright, class, settle down. I have to make an announcement today,” Mr. McKenzie said.

Not every student in the class turned to pay attention, so Mr. KcKenzie had to repeat himself a little louder.

“I’m sure you’re all excited to learn, but I do actually have to make an announcement,”

With the added volume, the rest of the class finally settled down to listen to the announcement. Mr. McKenzie looked out to the class seated in front of him and began:

“As you have certainly heard, some of the students in the school have been involved in an incident outside of school. The school wants me to tell you that if you are feeling stressed about it, that you can see the counselor, and that the school is supposed to be a safe space for you to learn,”

 

Mr. McKenzie sat at one of the tables in his classroom, lunch in front of him. The reason for the somewhat unusual location was the two in the room with him: Mike and Myra.

“Thanks for letting Mike have lunch here,” Myra said.

“Not a problem, there’s already been enough problems going around lately, I don’t need more of them,” Mr. McKenzie mused.

“Mhm,” Mike sounded.

The classroom functioned as the antithesis of the cafeteria: quiet, still, and uneventful. Mr. McKenzie, being Mike’s homeroom teacher, was a point of familiarity - and a trusted one at that.

“I’m not sure if this is floating around the school yet, but I’ve heard that the coach was let go,” Mr. McKenzie said.

“Who?” Myra asked.

“The head coach of our football team. One of the players on the team reported that Johnny was abusing teammates outside of practice for ‘underperforming’, and the coach was covering it up,” Mr. McKenzie explained.

“Re… really?” Mike stammered.

“Yeah.. unfortunately.”

“But why?”

“Who knows. Maybe he wanted to use a successful season to springboard to a college job, maybe Johnny had dirt on him. Maybe he didn’t care,” Mr. McKenzie lamented.

“...and no one stopped him?” Mike asked.

“Until now, it seems.”

The room dropped into silence. Mike looked at his food, not eating it. Mr. KcKenzie simply returned to eating his lunch. Myra looked over at Mike.

“Are you thinking why no one called him out before?” she asked.

“I- uh- um-... yes,” Mike said.

“If I had to guess…” Myra began.

She let out a tired sigh.

“My guess is that ‘the football team winning’ was a better look than ‘we successfully dismissed an abuser’ in someone’s mind. I couldn’t name who, but someone did. Or, I guess, someones, plural.” she explained.

“Yeah, but that’s terrible!” Mike protested.

“Yep. It is, but some people are terrible too,”

“But--,”

Mike stopped before continuing, once realizing he didn’t have a follow up. He looked downcast at the table he was sitting at for a moment before continuing to eat lunch.

“If it makes you feel any better… word on the grapevine is that one of the other teachers may be getting fired as well,” Mr. McKenzie said.

Myra and Mike looked over at Mr. McKenzie.

“Oh, but don’t go telling the rest of the school that I said that. Though, I trust you two are good enough people to know that,” he added.

“Who? Why?” Mike asked.

“I don’t know who’s getting the boot exactly, but the police were here yesterday afternoon to investigate an abuse case between students. Someone filed an anonymous police report in regards to Johnny.” Mr. McKenzie said.

“About the football team thing?”

“No, it seems like an unrelated case.”

Mr. McKenzie sighed.

“What a whole bunch of shit the board’s gotten into. Who knows how many heads are gonna roll,” he said.

“What?” Mike asked.

Mr. McKenzie suddenly turned his attention to Mike.

“Oh, sorry… I was venting a bit. This makes my job harder, too. Now the school has everyone breathing down their neck, trying to find out how much has gone wrong.”

“Friends in misery, I guess then,” Myra remarked.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Mr. McKenzie took a moment to continue eating his lunch. Myra finished hers, while Mike started finishing his. Myra leaned back in her chair to stretch, got up and looked out the window. After a moment, she turned around to face Mr. McKenzie.

“Hey, so I have a question,” she asked.

“Hm? What’s up?” Mr. McKenzie said.

“Should the situation with students targeting Mike get worse,”

As Myra said targeting, Mike tensed for a split second. Though she didn’t show it outward, Myra noticed.

“Do you think you’d stick up for having Mike do work at home?” she asked.

“Like, at the next parent-teacher meeting, or…?”

“Well, I’m not sure if we’re going to get there as soon as next Tuesday,”

“Oh. Well, otherwise… yeah, probably. It wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to gather materials for him.” Mr. McKenzie said.

After a moment, he followed up with a question of his own:

“Are you going to also ask if you can help him with it outside of school?”

Myra shook her head. “No, I’m still holding steady. Not so much Mike, though.”

Mr. McKenzie turned his head, confused.

“Really? You follow Mike around that much and you don’t want to follow him home?”

“I appreciate that you recognize how I look out for him, but even the best ideas have limits on what you can do reasonably, unfortunately.”

“Sure, but I feel like you could swing it,” Mr. McKenzie remarked.

“Well, I appreciate the approval… but getting Mike out of coming into school seems hard enough, I’d rather get the important things rather than shoot for the moon,” Myra said.