Down the front of her white shirt.
Paper caught in her earrings.
Filled the walkway.
Covered the broom.
Students gasped.
Then laughter.
Not everyone.
Enough.
Aaliyah closed her eyes.
Tiny strips of paper slid across her forehead and cheeks.
When she opened them, Paige was smiling.
Behind her, Tess covered her mouth.
Whether she was laughing or shocked, Aaliyah could not tell.
Aaliyah looked down.
One shredded piece landed on her hand.
Black printed letters.
She turned it.
A fragment of the newspaper.
Her article.
Paige had not shredded random recycling.
She had shredded copies of The Fairmont Voice.
Aaliyah looked up.
“You shredded the papers.”
Paige shrugged.
“They’re free.”
“You did this on purpose.”
“Obviously.”
That word ended any possible claim of accident.
A student ten feet away began recording.
Aaliyah brushed paper from her face.
“Move.”
Paige stayed.
“You don’t like your work getting recycled?”
Aaliyah looked toward the phone.
Then back.
“Move.”
“Why?”
“I’m walking away.”
Paige leaned closer.
“No speech?”
“What?”
“You always have a speech.”
Aaliyah’s hands tightened around the broom handle.
Paige saw.
Her smile widened.
“There it is.”
Aaliyah froze.
Months compressed into two words.
Angry yet?
Attitude.
Lose it once.
Real you.
She understood.
“You wanted me mad.”
Paige laughed.
“Oh my God.”
“You did.”
“No one cares that much about you.”
Aaliyah looked at the shredded article around her shoes.
“You brought hundreds of copies of my newspaper to dump on me.”
A few students laughed.
Not at Aaliyah.
Paige noticed.
Her face reddened.
“You think you’re funny?”
“No.”
Aaliyah leaned the broom against the wall.
Both hands free.
“I think you’re done.”
She stepped left.
Paige shifted.
Blocked.
Aaliyah stopped.
“Move.”
“You don’t get to order me around.”
“I’m leaving.”
“Go around.”
Aaliyah stepped right.
Paige moved again.
The recording captured it clearly.
Aaliyah’s voice became louder.
“Get out of my way.”
“There’s the attitude.”
Aaliyah stared.
“You keep saying that like you’re waiting for it.”
Paige’s smile disappeared.
“Shut up.”
Aaliyah shook her head.
“No.”
She stepped back.
That was when Tess moved in from behind.
Later Tess would say she was trying to separate them.
The video did not support that very well.
Her right hand closed around Aaliyah’s shoulder.
Aaliyah spun.
“Don’t grab me.”
Tess held on.
Aaliyah pulled free.
Tess reached again, this time around the upper arm.
Aaliyah caught her wrist and turned with the movement.
Not a throw.
A release.
Tess had been moving forward.
When Aaliyah redirected the arm, Tess lost balance.
Her hip struck a lightweight courtyard chair.
The chair slid.
Tess dropped backward into it, then partly off the side.
Students shouted.