It was Thursday when I returned to school. Lin forced me to stay home on Wednesday, which was a 2 show day, so there was someone doting on me all day. Wednesday a doctor came as well, he told me that I was very lucky to have escaped a concussion, although that's the only front on which I was lucky. I hadn't stood up since what happened, when the doctor came in he had me stand up to check the bruising, right as I did this, I fell. I had felt an insane amount of pain in my ankle earlier, but was preoccupied with the pain in EVERY OTHER PLACE IN MY BODY. They ended up taking me to the doctors office. Nick broke my ankle. I'm not sure when exactly this happened, maybe it was after I was out, but I know it was him. Needless to say, everyone was pissed off when they found out. This was going too far.

I walked into school Thursday on crutches. The only people who knew were Franchesca, Georgia and Josie. I made it over to William slowly, as I had to get through a crowd of people. Before I even made it over one of his friends pointed me out to him, as his back was turned. He turned around and saw me.

"Holy crap!" He ran over to me, "what happened, is this why you weren't in school yesterday? I texted you. Why didn't you respond? Oh my gosh, how did this happen?" He rambled for a second whist walking me over to the table that his friends were seated around.

"It happened on Tuesday, after school, Lin made me stay home yesterday, I also had to see a doctor about it."

"No, what happened, did you fall?" They couldn't see the bruises that completely covered my torso, they had no idea of the severity.

"You could say that." I said, not wanting to share with the whole group. They talked for five or six minutes until the bell rang, I grabbed my crutches and stood up to go to Spanish, William helped me up.

"You're going to tell me what really happened later right?"

"Sure." I smiled a little and went to Spanish.

The day was going by normally, people were asking questions, but I just told everyone that I fell. About 20 minutes into biology however, I was called down to the office. I crutched myself down to the office, and groaned a little seeing Lin sitting in Mr. Shrums office. I looked inside through the glass window and Mr. Shrum montioned for me to come in. I came in and sat down. There were 3 chairs across from the principals desk, Lin in the center, I sat in the one on his right.

"Sorry to pull you out of class, but we wanted to clear a few things up, first, how exactly did you break your ankle?" He asked motioning towards my left foot, which was in a cast.

"Nick Walter." I replied softly.

"So, your story is that Nick, your old foster brother, just broke your ankle." He clarified, a touch of sarcasm in his voice, like he didn't believe me.

"Yeah, that's what happened, Tuesday after school."

"Where?" He asked placing his hands on his desk, clasped, looking at me.

"Somewhere in the back of the school, outside."

"How fortunate that this happened in one of the only places on campus without security cameras." He said, lifting his eyebrows, "I've covered the security footage from yesterday." He clarified.

"It was against the wall of the school, by Mr. Carlsons math classroom." I said.

He laughed a little and rolled his eyes, "Yep, no cameras along that back wall, how fortunate."

"Excuse me," Lin joined the conversation, "what do you mean, 'how fortunate'?"

"I just think she may have known that that was a security blindspot."

"But, what are you implying? How would she know it was a blindspot?"

"Listen Mr. Miranda, this isn't the first time that this student has tried to get Mr. Walter into trouble, I'm just saying, we should at least consider the possibility, that her stories are not entirely," his eyes flited around the room briefly, "accurate." As he concluded this sentence, I immediately found great interest in the fabric of my dress.

"Excuse you, what?" The fabric on my skirt became VERY interesting. "We have a doctors testimony that her ankle is fractured."

"I'm sure her ankle is broken." Mr. Shrum reassured, "but, are you sure about, how she broke it?" As Mr. Shrum asked this, the door opened and I turned to see Nick enter the office. "Ah, come in, have a seat." Mr. Shrum said welcoming Nick.

"Hi Abigail," he said, smiling a bit at me while he sat in the chair on the far left of the room. "What's this about?" He asked, directed at no one in particular.

"Oh, we were just trying to get to the bottom of how Abigail broke her ankle." Mr. Shrum explained.

"Oh, and what do I have to do with this?"

"You broke it." Lin responded, scoffing slightly.

"What? No I didn't!" Nick defended himself. I however, was still quite preoccupied with the fabric of my skirt.

"We believe you Mr. Walter, we just need to hear your side of the story."

"Wait a minute," Lin interjected, "what do you mean, 'we believe you'? I don't believe him."

"I didn't break her ankle? What would make you think that?" He directed this one at Lin.

"The crumpled mess I found her in on Tuesday." Lin retorted.

"Wait, what time did you find her?" Nick asked.

"About 5:30."

"I was at basketball practice from 5:00 to 6:00. I couldn't have done it."

"See, an alibi!" Mr. Shrum interjected.

"Hold up on that, Abigail," Lin said turning to me, "what time did this happen?"

"Right after school." I responded, not taking my eyes off of my lap.

"School ends at 4:00, and you have basketball practice at 5:00, there's one hour in-between 4 and 5.

"Don't you think she would have been able to get herself home? Or at least called you? You're implying that she just waited for an hour and a half for you to someone figure out where she was." This time it was Mr. Shrum.

"She was unconscious."

"Hey, I didn't knock her out or anything!" Nick tried to defend himself.

"Miss Walter?" Mr. Shrum addressed me, "what do you have to say about this?"

"Um, I was walking around the back of the school to the front, and Nick ran over, he started to tell me not to say anything about," I paused, seeing Nicks jaw clench slightly, "something. I said that I wasn't going to keep quiet about it, and then..." I trailed off, not wanting to finish the story. Lin but a hand on my knee reassuringly, "then he kneed me in the gut" I concluded.

"Wait, wouldn't that leave a bruise?" Mr. Shrum asked, "I didn't see a bruise."

"Well, it's not exactly visible now is it?" Lin noted, and my eyes fell back into my lap. "Abigail? Sweetheart? Can I show him the bruises?" I nodded slightly. He helped me stand up and then lifted my shirt slightly, so just the bruises were visible.

"Oh crap." Mr. Shrum was obviously not expecting this. I looked over at Nick who was now the one staring intently at his lap. Lin let the fabric of my shirt fall and I sat back down. "Obviously this sheds new light on the subject, Miss Walter, Mr. Miranda, can you step outside and let me talk to Mr. Walter alone please?" We both nodded and I immediately left the office.

"You ok? Lin whispered to me as soon as we were out of the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Your principal is kind of a jerk. I've never met anyone who was that opposed to a student account of them being abused."

"Yeah, he is kind of a jerk, isn't he? You do know that Nick is pretty pissed at you right?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"He's pissed about what you wrote in the letter to my APUSH class. He sort of wants to see the show.

Lin laughed a little, "That's not going to happen."

"Oh I know." After I said that, Nick left the office smirking, Lin and I went back in

"Why are you letting him go?" Lin was kind of pissed off now.

"We can't prove that he did anything to her. It could have been anyone." Mr. Shrum was getting on my last nerve.

"Who else would have done this? He's done it before! You saw him almost beat her up in the hallway!"

"Until you can show me that he did in fact hurt her, I'm not going to do anything about it."

"I'm planning on filing charges against him, you do realize that, this isn't a minor issue. I will take this to court if I have to."

I left the room seeing that I wasn't needed, I did however wait for Lin, who left the room about a minute after I did.

"I'll pick you up after school, and by that I mean, I'll come to your math classroom, don't leave without me. Be careful, I'll see you in a couple hours." I stood up on one foot, without my crutches and hugged him.

"Thank you."

Sorry it's 4:32 in the morning, I fell asleep while writing this. And then in took me from 2:45 until 4:32. Crap this was a long chapter.

Thanks for reading!

- Abi