Nancy N. Rue - Sorry Im Not Sorry: An Honest Look at Bullying from the Bully

2015 by Nancy Rue

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ISBN 978-0-7180-4561-6 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rue, Nancy N.

Sorry Im not sorry / Nancy Rue.

pages cm -- (Mean girl makeover ; book 3)

Summary: While in mandatory counseling to avoid being expelled from Gold Country Middle School for bullying, Kilie Steppe, twelve, focuses on getting revenge against Tory, who took her place as queen bee, while revealing details that might explain why she preys on her peers.

ISBN 978-1-4003-2372-2 (paperback)

[1. Bullies--Fiction. 2. Counseling--Fiction. 3. Tutors and tutoring--Fiction. 4. Conduct of life--Fiction. 5. Middle schools--Fiction. 6. Schools--Fiction. 7. Family problems--Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Sorry I am not sorry.

PZ7.R88515Sp 2015

[Fic]--dc23

2014047636

15 16 17 18 19 US 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

T he story Im about to tell you is totally true, and it started the summer the G.G.sthe Goody-Goodiestook everything away from me.

I didnt think they could do that. I didnt think anybody could. So when my mom and my dad and I walked up the steps of Gold Country Middle School that morning in June, I wasnt even nervous. Some twelve-year-old girls wouldve been munching on their fingernails or making breakfast out of the ends of their hair, but not me.

My just-trimmed-yesterday bob was swinging in the Grass Valley breeze.

My armpits under my pink-striped tee were powder dry.

And my mind was so calm I was practically asleep.

The only irritableness was coming from my father. He took off his sunglasses and looked down at my mom and said, I told the woman there was no need for a face-to-face meeting.

The woman he was talking about was the principal, Mrs. Yeats. I called her the Chin Freak. Not to her face, of course. Even I couldnt get away with that.

Mom tossed her straight dark hairlike mine only longerout of her face and waited for Dad to open one of the doors while she thumbed her cell phone. Its either this or Kylie doesnt get back in, so humor her.

Dad said something about that not being our only option. He was always talking about options and other boring lawyer things, but in this case, I was okay with it because it probably meant he was going to fix what he called This Situation before Mrs. Yeats could wiggle her chins too many times.

I switched to noticing how weird it was to be at Gold Country Middle when there was no school going on. No Patrick and Andrew and Douglas hanging out on the steps, making comments that sounded rude but really just meant they liked me. Especially Douglas. No signs on the door announcing all the stuff that made school worth coming to. Like dances and cheerleading tryouts.

The strangest part? My posse wasnt standing as usual by the trophy case across from the office waiting for me to start the day. Riannon. Heidi. Izzy.

Actually, Riannon and Heidi were there, but it wasnt as usual. Their parents were there too. It didnt get much more bizarre than that. Both of their moms were talking with their hands flapping all around and their gel nails reflecting off the glass on the case, and the dads had their arms folded across their stiff white shirts and foreheads scrunched practically down to their noses.

As for Riannon and Heidi, although they were flattened against the glass like they were trying to become part of it, when they saw me, their faces sprang into action and we had one of those conversations only best friends can havethe kind where you dont actually say a word.

Heidis hazel eyes bugged, sort of like a pug dog. Translation: This isnt turning out the way we planned.

Riannon darted her green ones to her mother, whose voice was now sounding like Minnie Mouses, and zippered her finger across her lips. Translation: I cant talk in front of her.

I rolled my eyes and held up both of my thumbs and twitched them. Translation: Text me.

Not going to happen, Kylie, Minnieuh, Riannons momsaid. She curled her long fingers around Riannons bare arm and peeled her away from the trophy case. Riannon wont be texting you. E-mailing you. Or calling you. Were done.

She gave a nod like a punctuation mark and dragged Riannon to the door where her dad was already waiting. Somehow Heidi had also been hauled away, and when the big door shut, all the air was sucked out of the hallway.

I recovered fast, though. My parents had already disappeared inside the office, which gave me a minute to laugh. Was Riannons mom a crazy person? Of course Riannon was going to find a way to text me, even if she had to wait until her mom got over herself and forgot about it. Which she always did.

All our moms did.

Mine poked her head out of the office door then and said, Hello? Lets get this over with.

That was the thing that made my mom different from Riannons and Heidis: she never sounded like Minnie or any other mouse. She was more like a mama panther.

So I sailed past the secretarys empty desk and followed Mom into Mrs. Yeats office. The last time I stood before the Chin Freak, Id pretty much had a screaming meltdown. This time, though, I was ready for her. I was going to be totally cool because, like my mom said, we were just there to humor her. I could do humorous. I could do cooperative. I could do irresistible.

I could do anything.

Until I saw who else was in Mrs. Yeats office, sitting in front of her desk like they were members of the faculty. It was two of the three people I most wished would break out in acne.

One was Ginger Hollingberry, better known to my posse and me as Gingerbreadand not in a good way. She was the freckly, red-haired annoyance of a person who started the whole hot mess to begin with.

The other was the Dwarf. Lydia Somebody. She was a weirdly short woman with too much hair who thought she could come in and stop it all.

Im scared.

I froze in the doorway, not because of Gingerbread and the Dwarf, but because I hadnt heard that tiny voice in a long time. It was a wee thing inside my head that nobody knew about but me. Now was not the time for it to be whispering and definitely not the time for me to start listening to it.

Kylie, Mrs. Yeats said. Come join us.

All of her chins were wiggling, so at least I had something else to think about as I plopped down in a chair next to my mom. The first time we met with the principal, Mom wondered on the way home why the woman didnt have plastic surgery.

Mr. Steppe? Mrs. Yeats said as she motioned Dad toward the last empty seat.

Im fine back here. Dad sounded like we were about to watch a movie or something. I couldnt see him, but I could hear the bright smile in his voice. Dads teeth were always as white as Tic Tacs.

Mrs. Yeats folded her hands at her thick waist. Just like every other day she wore a gold vest with all these buttons and pins on it that said stuff like, Go Miners! and Miners Make Good Citizens