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Chapter 9 | ❝ Zach, relax. ❞

Monday, November 19th, 2020 - 11:42 a.m.

OUT OF THE five people convicted of an inevitable fight which broke out mere minutes earlier, only one of them had been to the principal's office. Jaylen was quiet as a mouse - a mouse in a leather jacket to be precise - since he knew any bitter remarks would be completely pointless. Instead, he shot occasional glares at the four he blamed for the whole dilemma.

Zach was the angriest out of them all—even Jaylen. His eyes glowed with bitterness towards the situation, especially when they landed upon Jaylen on occasion. He believed Jaylen had no right to speak to and treat someone like he had done while Zach was away. Zach also thought he himself had done nothing wrong by punching Jaylen in the face as a retaliation. He was defending the honor of someone he deeply cared about.

Next were Harper and Mason. Harper had briefly stopped by the nurse's office to obtain a bandage for his head wound along with an ice pack, which he was holding awkwardly against the back of his head. Mason on the other hand, was more worried than pissed off. His best friend had ran off after everything ensued as if he was about to have a panic attack. Mason knew better than to follow August. He was a very closed off person who needed some alone time.

Lastly was Kelsey, who was numb in her own emotions. She did not want to blame herself for anything, but that was exactly what she did. Beginning with simply getting to know Zach in the first place, Jaylen's emotions and insecurities had been on overdrive. She should have known that befriending and eventually catching feelings for another boy would cause something like this. Jaylen was overall a mess.

"What have I done...?" Kelsey asked herself in dismay.

Mason took in a deep breath as he knocked on Principal Miles' office door which the group of five arrived at seconds prior. Instead of three minutes like the authoritative woman instructed, they were about five minutes late--one of the main reasons being Harper taking care of himself. Hopefully the principal would understand.

"Come in, you five," Principal Miles instructed when she heard the knocks.

Zach, Kelsey, Harper, Mason, and Jaylen entered the room in a single file line to find five chairs set up in front of her desk. They all decided to sit since that was expected of them. The order went as such: Zach on the left end chair with Kelsey next to him, Harper next to Kelsey, Mason next to Harper, and Jaylen on the far right.

Principal Miles did not appear amused. "I would like to be informed on why Miss Walker dashed into my office moments ago and notified me of a fight occurring in the cafeteria."

"He punched me in the face," Jaylen instantly accused Zach, pointing a finger at him

Zach's eyes narrowed. "Only because you were insulting Kelsey and being a jerk to me as well. I can't believe you would do such a thing to her."

"Because she cheated on me with you!"

"How is that my fault? Besides, it's over and done with. We've talked about this."

Principal Miles interjected with her loud, nasally voice which made everyone's skin crawl. "One at a time!" she boomed exasperatedly. "Someone else, please explain."

Harper decided to politely cut in and share his side of the story. "Mrs. Miles, Jaylen was the one who began the fight by walking over to our lunch table, where we were peacefully talking, and grabbing Zach by the collar. He then started screaming at him and accusing him of things which happened outside of school. I tried to push Jaylen away, but he shoved me and I fell and cut my head on the table. That's why we were late getting here. Blame me, not them."

"Mhm. Then what happened?" Principal Miles questioned in disinterest.

"Harper and I were trying to hold Jaylen back from hurting our friend, but Kelsey began speaking about how Jaylen had cheated on her with her ex best friend. When Zach found that out, he got angry, which is understandable, and punched Jaylen in retaliation before he was able to insult her and call her the b-word," Mason thoroughly explained without leaving out a detail.

The sandy-haired boy continued after Mason was finished, "Jaylen and Zach tried to fight each other, but I held Zach back while Mason did the same with Jaylen. Kelsey jumped in the middle to prevent any physical contact. That's when you came in, Ma'am."

"I see," Principal Miles replied, analyzing the situation in her mind. She then turned to Kelsey, who was nervously fiddling with the strings with her hoodie. "Kelsey, do you have anything to say?"

"That pretty much covered it," she mumbled just loud enough to be heard.

The principal laid her eyes on Zach and Jaylen. "Do you two have any objections?"

"No, that's exactly what happened," responded Zach honestly while Jaylen gave a curt nod without a word.

"Very well," Principal Miles concluded. "Harper, Mason, and Kelsey, since you did not contribute anything to the fight but rather acted in an attempt to prevent, you two will not be receiving a punishment. Zach and Jaylen, since you two resorted to violence, you two will be having detention in the library starting tomorrow and resuming until next Wednesday due to Thanksgiving break beginning after tomorrow. These detentions will begin directly after the seventh block and will last for an hour each. I expect you two to be cooperative. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Zach answered without making complete eye contact.

Jaylen had a neutral expression. "Yep."

"You are dismissed. Jaylen and Zach, your detentions begin tomorrow afternoon," she told the group of them. "I don't want to hear of any trouble."

A cluster of responses followed as the five of them stood up. Jaylen slipped out of the room first to avoid any unnecessary conversations. Zach, Harper, Mason, and Kelsey stayed together and calmly left the office with a polite farewell to Principal Miles. The four remaining teenagers were quiet, especially due to what had just occurred between them.

Zach was feeling pretty guilty about his response to Jaylen's actions. "I'm sorry for randomly punching Jaylen in the face."

"He deserved it," Harper flatly countered. "If we were outside of school, I wouldn't have tried to stop you."

"Me either," Kelsey added on to her own surprise.

Zach turned towards her. "...You don't mind that I punched your ex in the face?"

"No, not at all," she laughed as if it was the simplest question in the world. "He's my ex for a good reason."

"If you and Jaylen broke up, does that mean you two will get together?" Mason bluntly asked, pointing to Zach and Kelsey.

The pair stopped in their tracks which were side by side—possibly too close. Zach pretended to clean his glasses, taking them off and wiping them on his sweatshirt while Kelsey broke eye contact. Neither of them knew what was going to happen. They had a vague idea, but then again, it was quite obvious to the two of them what was going to happen.

The question was "when?"

Harper's brown eyes widened. "Woah, buddy, isn't that a bit direct?"

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly.

"Can we change the subject or something, please?" Zach asked with a bit of shyness. "It's not something I really want to talk about right now."

Mason replied, "Yeah, of course. Sorry if I made you both uncomfortable."

"You're fine," responded Zach and Kelsey nodded in agreement.

The taller boy with black hair had a conversation alteration of his own. "I'm gonna try and find August," he declared worriedly. "Do any of you have any idea where he went?"

Harper shook his head. "Not really. Let us know if either of you need anything, though. Hope you find him!"

"Thanks." Mason hurried off a second later in the direction of the library.

That left Zach, Kelsey, and Harper standing awkwardly in the middle of the empty hallway. Neither of them wanted to say a word in particular, but then again, the silence was growing to be quite annoying. The silence gradually became a period of overthinking, especially for Zach. A sudden thought approached his mind faster than a speeding bullet.

"Oh, crap."

Kelsey turned towards the nervous teenage boy beside her. "What's wrong, Zach?"

"My mom's gonna freaking kill me when she finds out I have detention for the rest of the week," he admitted. His voice began to get frantic.

"Zach, relax," Harper attempted to settle his friend's nerves. "She's not going to kill you. Hayleigh wouldn't like that anyway."

Kelsey added on with a grin, "She really won't. She loves you, Zach."

"I didn't mean literally," Zach laughed quietly. "I'll probably be grounded or something, though."

"Not necessarily."

"I probably will, though."

"Let's hope not, then," Kelsey settled with a smile, which was instantly contagious to the formerly worried Zach.

Long story short and a few hours later, Zach did not end up getting grounded by his mother. As soon as he arrived home after school, he explained everything that had happened, saying how he only punched Jaylen since he was defending Kelsey. Mrs. West was more than understanding - concerned, but understanding - and told her son that he did the right thing.

Hayleigh listened in on the lecture her mother was giving her brother and at the last second, she butted in saying "how proud she was of her brother for kicking someone else's butt." Surprisingly, it made them both laugh and Zach a bit happy. Jaylen indeed needed a wakeup call from the intrusive thoughts he had making their way up to the surface. He took it out on Zach.

After a quick snack since he was quite hungry, Zach found himself in his bedroom once again. Rather than working on homework like he was supposed to, his eyes were glued on a certain object in his room. It was no ordinary object.

It was the mystery known as his acoustic guitar.

He had never seen it with his own eyes. In fact, he had not properly seen a guitar since his parents purchased him one as a coping mechanism after his childhood trauma at the age of six years old. The guitar helped him feel less alone and like he was worth something after his blood parents decided he was not. Zach knew it fret by fret, note by note, string by string.

Looking at it was a completely different story.

Zach moved so the instrument was comfortably on his lap. At first, he had no idea what to do with it since he relied solely on feeling it. Now, he had to analyze it with his eyes, which was something very foreign to him. His fingers ran across the neck of the guitar, which gave him a sense of familiarity.

A semi familiar tune of which Zach was working on then filled the room. It was a song by Taylor Swift, who he remembered that Kelsey loved. After he found that out, he did a bit of research and began listening to some of her songs even though it was not his favorite. There was one song he did like, though, which he decided to learn to surprise her:

Don't Blame Me from the Reputation album, which had come out a year prior.

The key of A minor was one of the easiest keys to play on guitar, but once a melody was incorporated, it became much more complicated. Zach decided to close his eyes, "turning off" the ability he was recently given, and focus on the music he was creating. He was planning on continuing until there was a sudden knock at his closed door.

He stopped playing immediately as if he was self conscious, but when the voice turned out to be high pitched and full of anticipatory joy, Zach did not mind as much.

"Hey, Zach! Can I have my guitar lesson, please?"

Zach smiled, placing his guitar down on the bed. "Yeah, of course. Come on in!"

The door opened a brief two seconds later and Hayleigh skipped inside. She was grinning from ear to ear at the sight of the guitar. She had heard Zach playing the gorgeous instrument moments before and decided she wanted to learn the chords, so she marched from her room to his own. Hayleigh then hopped on her brother's bed, her small feet kicking.

"What were you playing?" she asked with a grin. "It sounds good."

Zach shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Thanks, Hayleigh, and Don't Blame Me. It's a Taylor Swift song."

"Since when do you play Taylor Swift songs?"

"Since Kelsey told me she liked them," he replied—not realizing what he said until it was too late. He felt his cheeks become pink with a sudden blush.

Hayleigh's smile reached her beautifully shocked eyes. "I knew it!"

"...Knew what?"

"You like Kelsey!"

"Hayleigh, stop," muttered a timid Zach.

His little sister was more than happy to continue speaking. "You do! I just know it, and look--you're even blushing!"

"No, I'm not." Zach broke his formerly stern eye contact with Hayleigh.

"Yes, you are!"

"I'm not."

"Yes!"

"No."

"Yes!"

Zach shifted his position uncomfortably and placed his guitar in Hayleigh's lap. The overly excited girl held the instrument as carefully as she would a newborn child. She took great pride in being able to play such a cherished musical object of her brother's and Hayleigh would never jeopardize any chances she had with playing Zach's guitar.

"How about we get to work on that song?" he suggested to get the topic of the conversation off of himself and his not-so secretive crush on a certain girl.

Hayleigh nodded eagerly in reply.

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