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close for comfort. I roll my eyes but I’m determined to not let her get to me so I go back to concentrating on my form.
    Address: 156 Sheldon Lane
    Height: 5’6”
    Weight: 135
    Melissa snickers loudly next to me. “One thirty-five? Yeah, right.”
    I move my clipboard further away from her give her a nasty look. “I am actually, thank you very much.”
    Melissa looks me up and down like she’s honestly considering this, then shakes her head. “No way. I mean your legs alone are probably like seventy pounds.”
    “What’s your problem, Melissa?” I snap.
    Melissa laughs, like the thought of me starting to get angry is funny to her.
    “I don’t have a problem. It’s just you’re supposed to be as honest as possible on these forms, and you, well, you’re lying. Why are you a liar, Ashley?”
    The way she spits it at me is so conniving and so annoying that the words are out of my mouth before I even realize what I’m saying. “Why are you such a bitch, Melissa?”
    Her shove is hard and my back contacts with the wall quickly , so quick that it takes me a second to realize she just pushed me. Before I have a chance to react, Mr. White is between us and I can tell by the look on his face that he is not happy.
    “You two, office, now.”

Chapter 4
    The chairs in the lobby of the office are about as comfortable as a lock. I wonder if it’s some type of indirect punishment for being in there to begin with, since the people who are in the principal’s office are usually in trouble for doing something wrong. Like ha-ha I’ll teach you, you felt like acting out, well now you can sit in these hard chairs while you wait to get yelled at and punished. Well, the joke’s on them because someone will probably end up getting back problems from these chairs. Maybe the school will even get sued.
    Melissa comes trotting out of the office with a yellow form in her hands and smirks at me as she walks by.
    “Ashley,” the secretary tells me, “you can go on in now.” She’s a plump woman with a sweet smile and somehow being out here with her wasn’t that bad compared to whatever waits for me beyond those doors.
    Our principal, Mr. Morgan, is on the phone when I enter his office. I sit down in the chair across from him, fold my hands in my lap, and wait. Lucky for me the chairs in here are a little more comfortable because it takes him a few minutes to wrap up whatever he’s taking care of. Something about a student missing the bus and the school refusing to send it back to get him. Yikes.
    When he finally hangs up the phone a few minutes later, he sighs aloud, but forces a half smile when he looks at me.
    “So, Ashley, why don’t you tell me what went wrong this morning?” His voice is kind and unintimidating.
    I do the best I can to tell him the events of last period exactly as I remember them happening and when I’m finished he just looks at me for what seems like forever before he speaks. “Well,” he says finally, “we seem to have a little bit of a problem then.”
    “A problem?” I ask him, a little nervous now. “What type of problem?”
    “You and Melissa have a completely different version of what happened.
    She says you provoked her, were taunting her really, and she only pushed you because you got in her face and she was scared you were about to hit her.”
    I gasp aloud. “Mr. Morgan. That. Is. Not. What. Happened.” Of course Melissa would stick to the old self-defense theory, because she doesn’t have the backbone to take the consequences of her actions. I should have known better.
    “Look,” Mr. Morgan tells me. “You’re a good kid, Ashley. You’re almost never in my office. I know this is out of character for you. Unfortunately, at this point it’s your word against Melissa’s, and we have a very strict policy about fighting at school.”
    “But I wasn’t fighting at school!” I tell him. “I didn’t even touch her!”
    Mr. Morgan shakes his head. “Here’s what’s going to