Thirty

Instead of going to our lockers when we arrive at school, we head to Principal Ferrari's office instead. We wouldn't have been going to Principal Ferrari's office if it wasn't for what Stoner Sal said she did after she got off of the bus.

To 'make a disturbance' she started to just yank Maybelline Struther's hair. Maybelline's gal pals didn't fight Stoner Sal back either. Just looked on with a mixture of awe and fear as Maybelline shrieked in pain. "I don't understand why we have to go to the Principal's office now. I'll get called out of homeroom anyway," replies Stoner Sal sullenly.

"We're going because Principal Ferrari didn't hear Maybelline's side yet," I reply. "We have the advantage if we bring up your side first instead of the one Maybelline will undoubtedly twist to get you suspended, Sal." Kat gives me a curious look as she isn't really following me.

I don't blame her. I really came up with the idea myself. I enter the front office of the school and ask the gatekeeper which happened to be a student volunteer today, "Good morning! Is Principal Ferrari here?!" The gatekeeper looks at me for a moment longer before nodding and pointing at his office door. I walk up to the door and knock once. When the door doesn't open, I just continue to knock until it does.

Principal Ferrari gives me a tired expression as his eyes rest on my face. "Good morning, Mr. Adair. Come in; I'm very curious to see how you are today."

I gesture for Stoner Sal, Kat, and Hernando to come in as well. We all cram into Principal Ferrari's office and I even manage to close his office door; to Principal Ferrari's dismay. "Good morning, Principal Ferrari," I say as I guide Stoner Sal by her shoulders to one of the two chairs in front of his desk. Then, I wave Kat over with my hand as I say, "The other seat is for you, Kat."

She sits down and looks up at me still curiously. "What is this all about?" asks Principal Ferrari. I take in the poster of a Ferrari car he has on his wall that says underneath, 'Drive: Do it or Don't'. That poster never made much sense to me. Does it mean don't be stupid or...

"Mr. Adair?" asks Principal Ferrari as he looks at the poster I'm staring at for a moment.

"We're here because Sal has done something wrong." Stoner Sal glares up at me but I plead to her silently as I continue. "She's committed an offense she feels very bad for as she was only defending her friend Nando here," I pull at Hernando's arm so he's leaning off of the wall. "Because Maybelline as you might have heard has a penchant for not only having a big mouth but also no capability of remorse."

Principal Ferrari raises his eyebrow as he replies, "I wouldn't go too far saying that now. Everybody has the capability for remorse. It's whether or not it's used and Maybelline..."

"Doesn't use it, sir," I reply. "On another note, Sal wouldn't have even felt necessary to do what she'd done were it not for Maybelline's words. What did she call your neighborhood, Kat?" Kat jumps as I say, "Remember? Maybelline called your neighborhood something. What was IT?"

She's been zoning out way more than usual, I tell you. "Maybelline called the place where my cousin and I live, the Ghetto."

"Why would she say that?" asks Principal Ferrari. "Where is your neighborhood, Kat?"

"My cousin and I live in South Tucson," replies Kat.

Principal Ferrari has a twinkle of mirth in his eyes as he says, "Oh that makes sense."

"Excuse me?" That got Principal Ferrari's attention as intended. "Why does South Tucson being referred to as a Ghetto...make sense? Tell me, I'd like to know Mr. Ferrari." And he calls himself the Principal of a high school. "Just because it's a neighborhood that embraces other cultures that means it's okay to call South Tucson by a different name?" I pace behind both Stoner Sal and Kat's seats. "Let's say some teacher were to call you incomprehensible because of your New Yorker accent. Now, you can't help where you were raised and you are intelligent enough to be a school principal. So why should they call you anything but Principal?"

As I pause to let what I say sink in, there's banging on the door which makes me frown. "Come in?" asks Principal Ferrari with an anxious glance at the door.

Who comes bursting in but Maybelline who shrieks, wails, with eyes all puffy and blubbery. All an act, no doubt. What a phony she is. "Principal Ferrari, I came here because," she sniffles, "BECAUSE! SAL YANKED MY HAIR!"

Principal Ferrari takes a box of kleenex off of his desk and hands the box to Maybelline. "Now, now....dry your tears and tell me exactly what happened?"

"I just told you! Sal yanked my hair for NO reason and..."

"I object!" I shout. "You called Kat and Nando's home the ghetto and then Sal felt stirred to take action and defend her friends. Now, I understand that's not how you defend your friends normally, but Sal is a woman of action."

"Oh come off it!" shouts Maybelline. "Sal just wanted off of the bus to be with her Alien Boyfriend!"

"What?" asks Sal softly. Her eyes say differently. "Hernando is not an alien. Illegal or otherwise, May. It's very hurtful to say things which are so divisive and so untrue!" After Sal says that I feel a bit of something akin to pride. Stoner Sal definitely knows how to take care of herself.

Hernando looks at Stoner Sal closely. "It's true, I'm a citizen and so is my mom."

That's all Hernando has to say. Meanwhile, Principal Ferrari glances between Stoner Sal and Maybelline. "Ladies, I won't allow acts of violence to go unpunished in my school or words of malice." Kat frowns at his statement and I wonder why. "That being said, I think you both can learn to tolerate each other with some detention after school. For now, I'd like Sal to apologize to Maybelline for pulling her hair and Maybelline to apologize to Mr. Ortiz for calling his home the Ghetto." When no one says anything, I nudge my foot with Sal's.

"I'm sorry for pulling your hair, Maybelline it was uncalled for." I could tell the words were hard for Stoner Sal to say, but it makes her look maturer for being the first one to apologize.

Maybelline looks at Hernando for a moment before letting a phantom sniffle escape. Immature diva, indeed. "I'm sorry for calling your neighborhood the Ghetto instead of South Tucson."

Hernando smiles slowly at Maybelline as he says, "Thank you, May."

Seeming satisfied, Principal Ferrari gets up to open his office door. "Thank you for stopping by. Now everyone get to class!"

As we all file out of his office and exit the front office, an arm holds me back. When I look down at who it is, I notice it's Sal instead of Kat. "What's the deal, Adair?" she whispers.

Maybelline, being the first to march out of the front office in a huff doesn't notice our exchange. "Well, besides you now owing me a favor? I felt like I owed you one for being nice to Kat's cousin. As it turns out, I don't really owe you anything do I?"

"What does that mean?" she fiercely whispers at me. Kat glances back at us with raised brows, but I fling my arm, gesturing her to be off. Like Kat needs detention. Although, her ending up in detention instead of me would be refreshing.

"You like Nando, don't you?"

"He's a year younger than me, Adair," she grumbles.

"I still didn't hear a yes or no on that one," I reply. "And from where we're both standing, Nando is the tallest freshman I'd ever seen." With those words, I shrug my arm away from Stoner Sal's hand as a myriad of emotions flood her facial features. She's stunned I noticed. It doesn't take a scientist to see what was going on.

She could've told Hernando to scram and sit elsewhere after the first day they sat together, but she didn't. "Kit?" I turn to where the voice is as my brown eyes connect with Rona's blue grey ones.

"Hey Rona!"

"Kit, is it true?!"

"What is?"

"That you defended Sal even though she was the one who yanked May's hair?!" Rona looks outraged.

"What. Even delinquents deserve representation. Also, your friend May needs to learn to use her words more carefully too." Rona shakes her head and takes a step away from me.

"So, you don't believe where Hernando lives isn't the Ghetto?" The way Rona asks me is rhetorical which leaves me breathless for a moment.

"I'm saying I myself haven't seen much of South Tucson and because of that I won't stick labels on matters I don't know or understand fully yet. What do you know of South Tucson anyway Ro? Last I heard, you live in a suburb not too far from my own." Rona's cheeks redden with anger at my remark.

"South Tucson is for the moment properly defined as a ghetto. I'm not saying it won't get better, but that neighborhood has a lot ahead of them before calling it otherwise." Rona starts to walk away, but then she stops to whip her blonde hair to look at me. "I suggest before you defend people Kit, to read a freaking dictionary once in awhile. Since you care about words so much."

What she says stings, but my hand automatically pulls out my phone as I type: Definition of Ghetto. 'A part of a city, especially a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.'