Chapter 2 - Three Seconds
Grace moved before Brittany’s fist reached her face.
She turned her head, trapped Brittany’s wrist against her shoulder, and stepped sideways.
Brittany stumbled past her.
Kayla lunged from the left.
Grace caught Kayla’s forearm, shifted her weight, and guided her down onto the bench instead of the tile. Kayla crashed into a backpack, shocked more than hurt.
The cafeteria exploded.
Students jumped up. Chairs scraped. Phones followed every movement.
“Get off me!” Kayla screamed.
Grace released her immediately.
Brittany came again, this time grabbing for Grace’s hair with both hands.
Grace blocked, turned, and pinned Brittany’s arms against the edge of the table.
“Stop,” Grace said.
Brittany thrashed harder.
“I said stop.”
That was when a whistle cut through the noise.
“EVERYBODY BACK!”
Officer Reed, the school resource officer, pushed through the crowd.
Grace let go at once and took two steps away.
Brittany grabbed her own wrist and started crying.
“She attacked me!”
Kayla was already standing.
“She just went crazy!”
Grace stared at them.
Ten seconds earlier they had been laughing.
Now both looked terrified.
Not of her.
Of the story getting away from them.
Officer Reed looked at Grace’s soaked jacket, the food on the floor, the overturned tray, and the students holding phones.
“Grace,” he said carefully, “did you hit either of them?”
“No.”
Brittany pointed at her.
“She slammed us into the table!”
“I stopped them from hitting me.”
Kayla laughed bitterly. “Of course she’d say that.”
A woman’s voice came from behind Officer Reed.
“What happened here?”
Assistant Principal Linda Crane stood at the cafeteria entrance.
Brittany’s face changed immediately.
The fear vanished.
Grace noticed.
So did Officer Reed.
Ms. Crane walked straight to Brittany, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “Don’t worry. We’ll handle this.”
May you like
Then she looked at Grace.
And Grace understood exactly who “we” meant.
