Survive 2

Chapter Three

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

November 8, 2022.

Andrey Butler's Point Of View.

"Hey, what's up?" I greet the school board girl and she greets me back.

"Hi Andrey. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. Uhm.. is the Principal here?" She agrees.

"Yes. He is."

"I'd like to talk to him. May I?"

"Sure, just let me see something first," she frowns a little and looks in the direction of his office, coming back close to me soon after. "You can go straight to his office," and I agree, going to do as she said.

I couldn't come yesterday because I spent the day with the boys and if I came here they would ask what I was going to do and I couldn't tell them the truth, so I thought it better to come at a time when I was alone, because I don't want to lie to them. So I took advantage of the fact that class is over and the boys are out and about and I came over.

"Andrey!" The Principal speaks my name receptively as soon as he sees me.

"Hello.." I sit down on one of the empty chairs.

"What can I do for you, Andrey?"

"I'd like to know why Alexander isn't coming to teach." I speak and he looks at me startled.

"He's having some problems, so I gave him a few days off," he says and you can see he's lying.

"Do these problems have anything to do with his attitudes?" I get right to the point and now he looks at me suspiciously.

"What attitudes are you talking about?" I give a dry laugh.

"As the school principal, you know that many students are uncomfortable with the nicknames he uses to address us and with some of his attitudes, I even complained about him to you, so maybe you decided to fire him so as not to ruin the good reputation of the school that you care so much about," I play a green and he looks at me strangely, as if he's trying to think of an excuse.

"No. I didn't fire him." He talks seriously and I understand what is happening.

He must have asked Alexander not to come to school. He hasn't taken any action, he just wants to make sure that Alexander doesn't get into any more trouble until things calm down.

I think about playing one more green, but I give up the idea because he is already suspicious and if I continue, he will realize that I know what happened.

"Okay then. I was just curious, because as you know, I don't like that teacher," I say getting up and he doesn't even disguise his sigh of relief.

"Oh yeah. Got it. Anything else?"

"No, no." I go to the door and open it.

"Andrey!" He calls me and I look at him. "I heard you and Madison are dating. Have you heard from her?"

"We're not dating anymore and I haven't heard from her." Unfortunately what I say is not a lie. 

"Okay then. Bye Andrey."

"Bye." I say and leave his office.

What a blatant liar.

I could even understand him not wanting to say anything, since it is a very personal thing of Mad's, but I would understand if he had taken some action. Now lying for lying's sake, just to cover up for the teacher is very revolting.

I leave the school and head for the parking lot, but as I'm getting into my car I feel a hand touching me, so I turn around and see Sarah.

"Hi?" I say seriously and she gives me a small smile.

"Hi Andrey. How are you?.. I'm sorry about your breakup," and I laugh at her fakeness.

"We both know you're not sorry," she gets embarrassed.

I know it may seem silly for me to be talking to her like this when I took her side in my fight with Madison, but I only took her side because I let my jealousy of Madison and the anger I was feeling towards Bryan speak louder.

"Do you have any news about her disappearance?" She says trying to change the subject and I start to get annoyed.

"Don't pretend you care."

"But I do care."

"You care to know so you can then spread it around the school," I say, going to try to get into my car again, and she holds me seriously.

"Why have you been treating me like this since that day? I was just trying to help."

"No. You wanted to break up my courtship. And congratulations, you succeeded!" I say and she looks at me sad.

"I like you, Andrey. I really like you."

"You say that you like me so much, but if you really liked me, you wouldn't do the things you do." I let go of her and get into my car, but when I go to close the door she holds it.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you Andrey."

"I excuse you. But that won't make her come back to me." She releases the door and I close it, leaving the parking lot a while later.

I am beginning to think that Sarah's problem is that she likes me.

...

"So you mean he's still covering for the teacher?" Mrs. Stone says as if she doesn't believe what I just told her and I angrily agree.

Mrs. Stone went to the school with Delegate Baker the same day Mad disappeared, but she didn't say anything about the harassment, she just played green asking Principal Williams how Mad was doing at school, if she gave any signs that she wasn't doing well, if anything happened to Mad that she didn't know about, but he lied, saying that all he knew was that she was sad that she lost someone close, which in this case was Anthony.

"Yes." She looks at the Delegate and sighs deeply, sitting down on the couch.

"Then I will think about it.. you have no clue where she might be, Christopher?" She asks wearily and I look at him intently, also waiting for an answer.

"We are doing everything we can. We can't track her cell phone, but we saw from the cameras in the condo and the street above your house that she took a bus going to the bus station, so we already know she's out of town and not at some friend's house like you believed," he speaks calmly.

"Then just look through the bus station cameras to see which other bus she took when she got there. That way, we will at least find out where she went." I state the obvious and he denies it.

"We've done that and we already know which bus she got on, but now we have to find out which bus stop she got off at and that takes some time, since those bus runs are usually long. But believe me, we are close to finding her and we will do our best," he assures us and I agree hopefully, already imagining the moment that I will see her again.

"I just want to find my daughter." Mrs. Stone says anguished and Christopher hugs her, making me feel like I'm leftover.

He has been coming here every day to inform us about Mad's disappearance and to support Mrs. Stone, but I don't think he is doing it just for this reason, because it is not possible for him to be so thoughtful as to go to the homes of people who have sought the work of his precinct every day because if he does that, he will be spending twenty-four hours a day working.