Road to Ruin

CHAPTER 8

All of the kids started filing into the gym to take a seat in the stands but instead of going to the gym I went to the projection room above the gym.

I could see that there was already a white screen put up so they were planning some sort of slideshow. They’d told us about this. It had something to do with social media and bullying at school.

I didn’t see anyone in the projection room but I could see that everything was already set up and ready to go.

I walked over to the computer and I got into the program that they were using for the slideshow and I swapped it for a USB drive that I had in my bag.

I wasn’t going to sit back and let everyone make a fool out of me anymore. I was over it. I was done. I knew that I couldn’t keep coming to school every day and deal with my friends who aren’t really my friends at all.

I needed to do something about it now.

As soon as I swapped the projection I walked back downstairs and out in to the hallway that was almost completely empty now.

I was about to walk to the gym myself when I got a message on my phone.

BRAX - Hey, just letting you know that a few more people turned up today.

ME - How many?

BRAX - A bunch of women and more of the gang. I guess they were laying low somewhere else until they came here.

ME - I don’t want them all living at my house.

BRAX - I know. I’ve already laid out the ground rules. You know that Blade will pull them up if they break them.

ME - Good. Because I’ll kick them out if they break them.

When I finally walked into the gym I saw teachers standing around everywhere and students were getting settled in the stands as the principal stood up in front of everyone with the microphone.

I stayed standing beside the stands as the principal got started.

He was rattling on about cyber bullying and a new program that they were bringing into the school. Something to make bullying stop altogether although there isn’t a whole lot of bullying at this school.

Mostly just the cheerleaders and the jocks and they were easy enough to deal with. If you knew the right pranks and how to get away with it.

He then grabbed the remote control for the projector and they turned the lights off.

The first screen showed a positive pregnancy test.

Rachel Barry - positive for pregnancy

And then it showed the paternity test.

Paternity test - It is 99.9999% confirmed that Finn Hadley is the father.

The next was a video recording taken from the choir room where no one hung out anymore except for us because the room doesn’t get used anymore.

“Alright. So, Rachel is pregnant and Finn’s the father. What the f**k are you going to do when Skylar finds out?” Elijah asked.

“She’s not going to find out.” Finn said.

“Are you expecting me to do this on my own?” Rachel asked.

“No. I’ll figure something out but Skylar can’t find out about this. Not only can we not hurt her like that but she’s also kind of scary.” Finn said.

“You’re scared of your girlfriend?” Emily asked.

“Are you saying that you’re not?” Finn asked and Emily didn’t say anything.

I could see the principal looking around really confused and Finn stood up in the stands looking around but it was too dark for him to see me.

“What the hell do you think she’s going to do to all of you for knowing about this and not telling her? We’re all screwed here. She’s gonna hate each and every one of us if she finds out. So, we need to stop acting like any of us are going to tell her.” Finn said.

The projector was finally turned off and the whole school was dead quiet. No one said a thing as they turned on the lights.

I saw Finn standing there looking for me and as soon as he laid eyes on me I could tell that he was nervous. But I just glared at him and made sure it was damn clear that I was the one responsible for that recording before I turned around and walked out of the gym.

I stopped by my locker and I grabbed my stuff before I left the school.