Dead & Forgotten

Ch. 22

Although I succeeded in sneaking out of the Marshall Academy building earlier, I knew I would fail in returning back; everyone knew that I was missing, so there was no use being sneaky anymore. They were all onto me, and I knew that too. By the time we reached the front of the school, I saw that the time on my watch was 9:55 pm. I didn't know I'd been gone for that long, and of course everyone would be asleep at this time. We were never allowed out of the building after 9:00 pm. I used my keys to gain entrance into the building, and when I got in, I decided that I must check in with Headmistress Rogers first. I realized then that there were chances of Headmistress Rogers getting fired for unintentionally allowing a student to flee from a school building with no traces to be found. And I didn't want to risk that. Headmistress Rogers was the closest I've had as a true friend---strange as it sounded but true---and I didn't want her to lose her job or her good name. So I decided it was best to check in with her.

I went upstairs to her office and knocked on the door. She answered the door, and surprisingly, she wasn't asleep yet. Or more like, she was about to close up now. "Cassandra, what a surprise to see you back here at this moment!" She sounded slightly surprised, and she even seemed it too. "Where have you been? We've been calling and searching for you for hours, and you even missed supper!"

"I---I'm very sorry, Headmistress Rogers," I replied, realizing it was a weak and pathetic answer. Well, I had to apologize, didn't I? "If you want, I'll explain why I did what I did."

Suddenly, I saw something that I didn't really expect to see, and I never thought I'd witness something like it because it was just so unpleasant and uncomfortable to observe. Headmistress Rogers was glaring at me; she was furious! All the time when I'd been here at Marshall Academy and relied on her to help me out on my problems, I'd always pictured her to be such a sweet, soft-spoken woman who was even-tempered. I wasn't even attempting to take advantage of her soft, kind-hearted nature, and I would never do something so horrible as that. I would never try to kiss up to her or intentionally make her angry. Well, anger was a human emotion, and Headmistress Rogers was human, was she not? Was she not allowed to feel things anymore? I mean, I could never imagine her getting ticked off with me, and in this case I really couldn't blame her. I felt that I deserved it for being so stupid and foolish. And I wanted her to call me out on that....

"I am afraid that explanations would not be quite much of an excuse at this time, Miss Fuller," she said, sounding cross. She really was, and I was starting to get a little frightened and/or nervous on the inside. What did you do now? I told myself.

"Excuse me?" I found myself saying without actually intending to say those words.

"Cassandra Fuller, you will not be such a disgrace to anybody here in Marshall Academy at all, and not even to me!" she scolded. "Do you realize that what you've done was the most....irresponsible thing you could ever do? God forbid if something very terrible had happened to you during your absence." Too bad, a lot of somethings have already happened to me---that something being the drama back at the Springfields' house. "If something were to have happened to you, I would have been blamed for it."

Give me all you got, Flora Rogers. She continued, "Cassandra, I am 42 years old. I have had this job for a little over fifteen years, and I would dare not risk losing it over a poor choice of one of my students, which is you specifically. It is a good thing we've all had a search party and even sent the police to go search for you. I even called your parents, and thank God they've found you."

She was about to say something else until I cut her off. "Hold on. How did everyone here know I was missing?" I wanted to know. I was thinking about Rachel and how she probably decided to open up her big mouth even after I've told her a million times to just lay off.