Bullies Sla-pped New Girl Cheerleader — Unaware Her Father Is A Hell Angels
Chapter 22
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In the room two floors down in a different building, Cass did not fall asleep easily. She lay on her back and looked at the ceiling and thought about the hearing. About what she had and didn't have. About Amber's pale face and Coach Reeves' determined voice on the phone when she'd called that evening to confirm she'd be there. About her father saying Friday in that way that meant a thing was already done.She thought about the school cameras and whether Madison had been thorough or whether she'd been sloppy. She thought about whether there were other cameras: businesses along the street, a stoplight camera she'd seen at the corner of Main and Collins. She didn't have time to check. She filed it anyway.She thought about the form Tyler had brought to Amber. A printed form, which meant someone had written it. Which meant someone with more planning behind this than Tyler usually did. Madison, maybe. Or Greer himself. Someone who was thinking two steps ahead.She turned over. She thought about what her father had said once, sitting on the porch in Clarksville on a warm October night. She'd asked him about a situation that had happened with the chapter. A dispute with a neighboring club, how he'd handled it.He'd been quiet for a while. Then he'd said, "Most fights aren't won in the fight. They're won in the room before the fight. By the time it gets loud, somebody already knows how it ends."She turned that over in her mind. She fell asleep at 12:40.Friday morning came in gray. Clouds from the west, the kind that don't commit to rain, but don't let the sun through, either. The leaves on Miller Street had turned more overnight: rust and amber. Some of them on the ground now, wet from the overnight dew.Cass arrived at the college at 7:15, an hour before she needed to be there. She walked the campus once, slowly. She went past the entrance to the administrative offices, past the hallway where it had happened. She stopped at the spot, looked at the floor, then she moved on.She went to Coach Reeves' office. Donna was already there. She had the legal pad. She had the dates and times written out cleanly. She had a folder with documentation of Cass's attendance and performance since she'd joined the squad. She had a second folder with a printed copy of the college's code of conduct and a highlighted section about what constitutes grounds for a formal review.She looked up when Cass came in. "How are you doing?" she said."I'm okay," Cass said."Your father coming?""Yes."Donna nodded. "Good."She didn't ask more than that. She was a woman who had been watching people for a long time, and she had learned to read the shape of a thing from its outline.