Two days passed in a flash. Bella never dreamed that she would meet Brittany again.
Friday evening, the sunset reflected half of the sky. Because tomorrow was the weekend, both students and teachers were relaxed. Bella and Alice walked side by side in the hordes of students, stepped on the marble out of the school gate.
A fiery red Lamborghini arrogantly parked in front of them. Then from the car stretched out a fair leg, in the high heels in the same color as the sports car. Bella looked carefully and felt chilling.
“Who’s this?”
Alice moved close to her ear and asked in confusion.
“Kevin’s ex-wife.”
She answered quickly.
Brittany walked up to Bella, and frowned, “Are you surprised to see me?”
She skimmed the onlooking students and whispered, “Let’s find a place to talk about what’s going on.”
“Well, if I wanted to find a place, I wouldn’t have come all the way out here. Last time you embarrassed me at a cocktail party. This time I’m going to give you a taste of the same humiliation!”
As soon as Brittany finished, she took out a bucket full of ketchup from the backseat of the car, and then splashed it all over Bella’s body before she could react.
Ah-.
Alice on the side let out a terrified scream and pushed Brittany a few steps back, saying angrily, “Crazy, simply crazy!”
Bella’s head, face and body were all covered with ketchup. She froze and there were more and more teachers and students onlooking. She closed her eyes in humiliation.
Brittany’s bad behavior finally caused public outrage. Bella’s students stood up. In the face of a group of teenagers, Brittany was a little guilty and timid, but still arrogantly reprimanded Bella.
“Behave yourself from now on. This time it’s ketchup, but next time it could be acid.”
As soon as she said that, several teens stepped forward and grabbed her arm, “Apologize to our teacher now!”
“Let go of me, brat.”
Brittany growled with a livid face, “I’m not going to apologize to this bitch. She’s pretending to be decent on the surface, but she’s just slutty. Yuck!”
She spit a mouthful of phlegm on Bella, who couldn’t bear any more and slapped her in the face. Brittany just wanted to fight back, but Alice rushed up and slapped her again. Brittany was completely mad, struggling and abusing like a madman. Several teenagers were impulsive, then raised their fists to fight her.
The chaotic scene was finally stopped after Louis showed up. Brittany was severely attacked, and immediately called the police.
When the police came, Louis whispered to Bella, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
Bella shook her head expressionlessly, “Thanks, but I’ll handle it myself.”
She no longer wanted to owe him a favor. She couldn’t always rely on someone else to deal with her messy life.
She frankly got into the police car. Alice followed along as a witness, and the group of students were also taken away as accomplices.
At the police station, she directly said, “Let my students go. It has nothing to do with them.”
The policeman in charge of taking statements took a quick glance at the teens behind her and shook his head, “The reporter has multiple bruises on her body, so they can’t be released just because you say so.”
“They’re all still kids. They were impulsively hitting someone because they saw their teacher being bullied. Do you know how outrageous that woman is? She ran to the school without any reason to make trouble, and poured a bucket full of tomato sauce on our teacher Bella. She did it first. We were all in self-defense.”
Alice eloquently shifted the blame her.
“Whether it’s self-defense or not, we’ll naturally examine the situation. Now please recount the circumstances.”
Bella recounted the passing of the situation, without exaggerating or covering up the facts. Alice, as a witness, proved that what she said was not false. After the transcript was over, a leader-looking man came over and attached a few words of advice to the policeman who made the transcript. Then the policeman nodded repeatedly, before saying to them, “Alright, you can go now.”
“We’re not guilty, right?”
Alice didn’t expect things to be resolved so easily, feeling incredulous and a little titillated.
“Yes.”
The policeman nodded meaningfully and got up to pack up the transcripts. Bella wasn’t happy and turned back to the few students and said, “All of you come out with me.”
The students gradually followed her out of the police station, she was very angry reprimanded: “Why did you play the hero? You are all still students. If you have any criminal records, it will have a great impact on your future. I will feel sorry for your parents.”
Alice sighed, “Forget it, they are also protectors. They will pay attention to it in the future.”
Two cars stopped. From the car came down several students’ parents. They pulled their children over and scolded them, and then pointed at Bella, “Miss Burne-Brown, how do you teach students? Do you teach them to beat people up? Do you deserve to be called a teacher with such behavior?”
Bella looked down in guilt, “I’m sorry. It was my mistake. It won’t happen again.”
“My child is only in middle school and he’s sent to the police station. Who will dare to send a child to your school in the future? We won’t let this matter rest. We’ll go to your school tomorrow and talk to your principal!”
A few of the kids were more reasonable than the adults, though, and excused the teacher, “Whatever happened to the teacher, it was our own waywardness!”
“Why don’t you guys help each other out? If you dial the knife, then you will stay in jail for the rest of your life and don’t think of coming out.”
A few parents cursed and led their children away. Alice advised Bella, “Ignore them. They are so rude.”
Bella smiled bitterly, “It’s okay.”
These accusations were not a big deal compared to the humiliation given by Brittany.
“Let’s go to my house tonight.”
Alice took a handkerchief and wiped the ketchup from her hair, “How shameless you are when you go home like this when you are seen by Kevin.”
“It’s fine. It’s not like he hasn’t seen my mess before.”
Bella gloomily turned around and walked in the opposite direction. After walking for a long time, she felt that something was wrong behind her, and turned back sharply, only to find that Louis had been following her.
Since he had been discovered by her, Louis no longer dodged, and stepped forward generously, and teasingly said, “I know you and I had a tacit understanding.”
He was trying to alleviate Bella’s bad mood, trying to create a relaxed atmosphere.
“You did this, didn’t you?” Bella asked bluntly.
“What?” Louis feigned ignorance.
“We managed to get out. Don’t tell me that it has nothing to do with you.”
Louis laughed, “Nothing can be hidden from you.”
Bella confirmed the perception, kicked the pebble under her foot and said mockingly, “It’s just good to have a father who is an official.”
“If you really think it’s good, then you marry me. My father will be your father and you won’t have to envy me.”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit much to joke with me?”
Louis got the teasing look off his face and suddenly said in a serious voice, “Why do you let yourself live in such a mess? You could have chosen a different life.”
Bella bowed her head and walked forward, not answering his question.
“Do you want to leave?”
Suddenly startled, she looked up blankly and asked, “What do you mean?”
“The school has a program for further studies to Paris, France, for two years.”
Paris, France… It was once the country she most desired, but now that this opportunity was in front of her, she was so at a loss.
“Will you give me the opportunity?” She found it unlikely.
“Personally, I really don’t want to give it to you, but in public you’re a model teacher in our school and it’s right to give it to you. But more importantly, I don’t want to see you living like this anymore.”
“I’m living quite well now.”
“Is it really pretty good? You really think it’s good to have ketchup thrown in front of your students by your own husband’s ex-wife?”
Louis’s pressing question made Bella’s situation seem even more pathetic, and she sincerely said, “If I do go to Paris, it’s likely that I’ll stay there and never come back, and your intentions will go to waste.”
“It’s not that I hadn’t thought of such an outcome. That’s why I’ve been struggling to tell you, but now I’ve made up my mind. If you don’t come back, then I’ll give you my blessing, and of course, if you do come back, I’ll be waiting for you.”
Bella had mixed feelings when she heard his words. She couldn’t understand Louis’s feelings before, but now because of Kevin, she could understand.
“I’ll consider it.”
“Good, feel free to talk to me when you’ve made up your mind.”
Bella nodded and said softly, “Thank you.”
Bella returned home worriedly. Fortunately neither of her in-laws was there, and the living room was empty. She slowly made her way upstairs, saw the light on in the study, and didn’t walk in, but went straight into the bedroom.
Maybe Kevin heard her footsteps. He came out of the study, when Bella had already entered the bathroom.
He knocked on the door, “Are you back?”
Standing under the sprinkler, she said, “Yes.”
“Why are you back so late? Have you had dinner yet?”
“Yes.”
Kevin didn’t hear anything unusual in her voice, so he went back to work in the study. And after about half an hour, she was almost done washing. He finished his work and returned to his room, just as he ran into Bella coming out of the bathroom.