After a few minutes of waiting in the maddeningly silent office, the door opened and Principal Brown entered. Brown was a large man with a barrel chest above a round, protruding belly. James figured Brown had been incredibly fit in his youth, but age had done some damage.
Brown lowered himself into his chair and surveyed James through round glasses. He sat in silence for several long moments, merely observing James. James knew this was some sort of weird power move, perhaps to make him feel uncomfortable, so he met Brown’s eyes evenly and kept his mouth shut.
Finally, Brown spoke. “Mr. Christian tells me you got into an altercation in his class.”
“Brock Richards started badgering me about yesterday and then made offhand remarks about my father,” James said evenly, not caring enough to try to make up a lie. “I retaliated by picking him up by the shirt. That’s all that happened.”
“Hm,” Brown said, surveying James through pursed lips. After a moment, he leaned forward and spoke. “I like you, James. You’re a bright student, and you show a lot of potential. But this recent string of events... constantly being late in the morning, the incident yesterday—”
“That wasn’t my fault!” James protested.
“Nonetheless, it cost the school a lot of money and public scrutiny, despite the Supers’ financial contributions. And now caught fighting in class—”
“It was barely even a fight.”
“It’s all too much!” Principal Brown finished forcefully, his voice hard. “I’m giving you detention for today, but listen to me when I say you’re on the last straw! Any more incidents like this and the punishment will be suspension. Or worse.”
James fell silent at that. He imagined his mom’s reaction to him coming home suspended from school. He didn’t think even Derek could save him from that amount of wrath.
“Do you understand me?” Principal Brown said.
“Yes,” James said stiffly. It would be no use to argue, not with someone as hard-nosed as Principal Brown.
“Good,” Brown said. “Now, back to class.”
“WHAT?” ROCKY SAID WITH outrage when James told him what happened.
“Yeah, he said next time it’s a suspension.” James bit into his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They were sitting in the cafeteria, which buzzed with the sound of two hundred students eating, talking, and flipping water bottles.
“You’d better be careful, man,” John Bradley said from next to Rocky. He was the backup quarterback on the football team. James really only knew him through Rocky. In fact, he had reflected once, most of the people he hung out with he only really knew through Rocky.
“Mr. Brown doesn’t mess around with punishments,” John continued. “Remember Zeke? Brown threatened to suspend him for the season if he got caught cheating again, but Zeke thought he was too good of a player to actually be punished.”
“Not that we needed him to win State,” Rocky said, flashing his rings again. He turned back to James, his face serious. “Brock is such a douche. He’s lucky Mr. Christian was there to stop you. I guarantee that kid has never been in a fight in his life.”
“He’d probably just get his dad to sue you,” John said.
“If you ever want to step up,” Rocky said, “you know I’ve got your back.”
“Woah there,” John said. “You’re starting next season, Rocky. Don’t go get suspended on us.”
“Connors is a good backup. He could step up,” Rocky said.
They glanced down the table, where a short, timid freshman sat. They burst into laughter.
“Anyways,” Rocky said, just as the bell rang. There was a stampede of feet as the students around them stood up, finished with their temporary reprieve from lectures and homework. “You good for finding a ride home? We’ve got a workout at three today.”
“Yeah, no worries.” James bumped fists with Rocky and John and headed off to finish his day with the dreaded triple-header of math, Spanish, and history.
James didn’t find a ride home, but he wasn’t worried about it. He could always ride the bus, even though it took about four times as long and it meant having to sit among mostly freshmen, since most of his classmates already had their licenses. But as he walked out of the building, enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun despite the slight chill of early spring, he stopped in his tracks.
Katie McLain’s Chevy was sitting in the pickup lane. As he watched, her blonde head popped out the window, followed by a waving arm. James glanced at the bus and seriously considered pretending he didn’t see her and getting on before she could stop him. But knowing he wouldn’t hear the end of it from Derek if he pulled a stunt like that, he sighed, hitched up his backpack, and walked to her car.
“Hi, James!” Katie said as he climbed into the passenger seat. The inside of her car was just as dingy and beat up as the outside. How it still drove, James didn’t know. “How was school?”
“What are you doing here?” he said, rather rudely.
“Oh, well, Derek has a bit of a surprise for you,” Katie said as she pulled out of the pickup lane and into the heavy traffic of students recklessly cutting each other off in the mad dash to escape the confines of the school.
“What is it?” James said.
“Well, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn’t it?” Katie said sweetly.
Ugh.
“Anyways, you didn’t tell me how school was,” Katie said.
“Fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Well,” James said, anger bubbling again in his stomach. “I got into a fight and then the principal threatened me with suspension. So yeah, I’d say it was just fine.”
“Oh.” Katie was silent for a moment as they finally pulled out of the school and onto the main road. “You probably shouldn’t be getting into fights, James.”
James closed his eyes. What he really wanted to do was go home and lie in bed for the rest of the day. Not that he could be mad at Derek for trying to surprise him. Nor at Katie. She was just doing
