Immature Mistakes | mj.q✓

Eight

Chengxin read the message from Jiaqi on his phone as they stood in the car park at 15:30;

Jiaqi: hey dude, where are you? I'm going to sign up for Guidance and Counselling Club now.

Chengxin: sign up for me. I'm kind of helping Yaowen with a little something right now. Please and thank you.

'Did she ditch me?' Yaowen suddenly asked his friends as they saw no sign of Ava.

'Oh damn, plan messed up huh?' Zhenyuan asked him with fake pity. 'I guess that's that. Let's go home.'

'No wait there she is.' Yaowen said proudly.

Ava made her way out of the school building as walked over to the group. She couldn't wait to brag about this to her sister Evelyn, the fact that the group of bad boys had noticed her as one of the toughest students in 10th grade.

'What took you so long girlie?' Yaowen asked her once she had arrived in front of them.

'Personal commitments.' Ava answered in a bored tone, when in fact her classes had ended late.

'Whatever,' Yaowen rolled his eyes. 'Remember I said my friends and I are playing a sick joke on the principal?'

She nodded.

'We're spray painting his office with insults.' Yaowen removed his backpack from one shoulder and swung it towards the front. He opened it and revealed two cans of spray paint.

'You always walk around with that spray paint?' Junlin asked him curiously.

'No Junlin, my older brother gave it to me yesterday so that I keep it for him. But I guess we'll use it.'

'Spray paint the principal's office?' Ava asked nervously. She may have been a troublemaker and didn't care about the rules, but this little stunt seemed a bit too big and risky. Getting caught would probably mean expulsion, and she knew for sure her dad would kill her if she was ever expelled.

'Yeah,' Yaowen agreed. 'Oh wait, I understand. You won't be able to do it right? You're just a girl. I should have known.'

'Of course I'll be able to do it!' she immediately declared.

'Okay then, if you say so,' Yaowen shrugged. 'The principal usually leaves his office about 5 minutes from now, and returns 30 minutes later. He goes to pick up his pre-school kid. That's when we'll spray paint the office.'

She nodded slowly, but then much more quickly for a look of confidence. 'Okay.'

The principal left the school building and walked straight into his car, paying attention to nothing in particular.

'Okay that's our cue, let's go.' Yaowen advised Ava and his friends, and they returned into the school building. They walked over to the principal's office door, having nothing to worry about since the hallway was almost empty.

Yaowen tried to push the door open but it couldn't budge. 'Oh I should have known, it's locked!' he said in frustration.

'Leave that to me.' Ava removed the studded pin in her hair and started to pick the keyhole.

'Awesome,' Haoxiang commented.

After a little while of picking, the door opened.

'Voila. Let's go inside.' Ava told the boys proudly.

'No, we're not going in with you.' Yaowen said and took the spray paint cans out of his bag and handed them to her.

'What?' she widened her eyes in surprise.

'We'll stay outside here and keep watch. Don't worry, we have about 30 minutes. Go ahead.' he assured her. 'You're tougher than everyone here anyway.' he smiled.

Ava didn't know whether she should do this or not, but she took the spray cans from Yaowen anyway. She had to prove she was as tough as she proclaimed to be. She walked into the office slowly. 'You guys better keep good watch out there!' Ava reminded them.

'Yeah we will.' Yaowen answered outside.

Ava took a deep breath and started spraying "Fat Pig" on his wall.

'But the principal never takes 30 minutes. It's always less than that.' Chengxin told Yaowen.

'Exactly. We're doing this so that Ava will get caught and she'll get in trouble in place of us.' Yaowen told him. 'We're just standing here so that she doesn't leave early, and we'll keep watch but when we see him coming, we'll run.'

'Dude you're too evil.' Yaxuan laughed. 'What a great plan.'

Ava continued to spray paint for a while, thinking of every single insult she could think of. The nervousness had finally worn off, and now she was actually enjoying what she was doing.

'You guys out there!?' Ava asked periodically.

'Yeah!' they agreed.

About 10 minutes later, Zhenyuan spotted the principal's car stop in the parking lot from the window that faced the parking lot.

'He's coming.' Zhenyuan told his friends.

'Let's go.' Yaowen whispered to his friends, and the two of them ran off the scene.

Ava marveled at her creation before she started to spray paint another insult. She had no chance to finish it, because the door then opened and it was the principal standing in the doorway. He looked at her with eyes agape.

Ava turned to him nervously, then dropped the can on the floor. She didn't know what to say, neither did she know what to think. All she knew is she was in a massive amount of trouble.

'Ava!? What are you doing in here!?' The principal asked her angrily.

Ava assumed he had already captured the boys who were outside the door, not thinking they had played her and escaped.

Ava didn't answer, but the principal walked into the office and looked at the wall which had insults spray painted in pink. He furiously turned away from the wall and looked at Ava. 'You're in huge trouble Miss. Ava, huge trouble.'

She still didn't say anything. She had never seen the principal so furious that his eyes were red with anger. She knew this wouldn't end well.

He checked the time on his wristwatch then looked at her. 'Don't come back tomorrow unless you come here with a parent!'

Ava nodded painfully, if her father heard about it, she was going to be punished. She blamed everything on the boys who had not been able to see the principal in time.

'Leave my office right now! You know this is vandalism!?' The principal angrily sat himself on his chair and started organizing some papers on his desk.

Ava sighed and walked out, thinking she would find the boys outside the door equally worried. But when she did, they weren't there. She looked in the distance but there was no one to be seen. That's when it dawned on her; they had played her.

'Oh no,' she felt angry and embarrassed at the same time. She had tried to prove herself more clever and bad, but she only made herself seem stupid. If her father and sister heard of that, she would not rest.

She had to suck it up and pretend she did it on her own. At least then she would be more dignified.