Winchester High| 16+

Chapter 2: Jokes

Principal Cullens opens the door and goes, "Nicolo," in a similar voice to my impression, and gestures him to enter. He had the mannerisms of a supervillain, which I'm sure he thought was pretty intimidating. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and all I can imagine when I see him is him practicing it in the mirror beforehand.
"I'll get back to class.." I said, pushing myself out of the chair. I'd do anything not to sit in that room. It's uncomfortably tight and has tiny bronze statues everywhere. Cullens stops me and says, "You too, Ismael" Wonderful.

I desperately didn't want to be in here. I want to support Nico, of course, but I'm thinking about a lot of things that don't involve sitting in Principal Cunt's office.

"There's reason to believe that you're involved, given your history," Cullens goes on to point at me, then says, "This couldn't have been a collaborative project, could it?" We both sat down, and I tried not to look at any of the statues, or I'd have to start cracking jokes at them.
"It wasn't me." Nicolo pleaded.

"I get that Nicolo has history, but..." I shook my head. We sat in silence.

The bald figure standing in front of me isn't too suspicious of me because I don't pull pranks or anything. I make jokes, but I'm cautious and don't ever carry them out. I didn't speak to limit the chances of me telling a joke. There was this one frog statue that looked just like him, and if I looked just one more time, I'd be done.
I looked.

"I like your statues." I couldn't help myself.

Principal Cullens deflated and turned to me, tired of me before I even got to speak.

"Thank you-"

"That one in the back, the frog, it looks just like you." The words kept spilling out.

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Ismael." Nico tried to stop it, but nobody could, not even me.

"No, it's just a comparison." 

It fell silent again. I felt better now that I got that out of my system. Sometimes, I feel bad for people like Cullens. The people who are supposed to be taken seriously, but nobody does, even if you tried so hard to be taken seriously. Something about him just doesn't intimidate anyone. More than anything, though, it's the comical mannerisms. Cullens pierced his eyes at me. You can tell he hated me and everything about me. My jokes, everything. My voice was probably grating to him at this point. That might help us.

"I didn't do it." Nico shrugs. It truly pains me to see him this defeated. He probably thought this was the straw that would break the camel's back after all his previous offenses. I can imagine his very Italian parents pointing their fingers all up in his face.
"Okay. We'll see about that. I just wanted to see if you boys would fess up... before we check the security cameras." That empty threat lets me know they have no idea who did it, and besides this right here, this was their only intention of pinning this on Nicolo. I grabbed my backpack off the floor, flung it in front of me, and opened my sandwich. I stood and walked to the door.
"And where are you going?" Cullens said.
"Do you need us for anything else? You just wanted to see if we would confess, and since we didn't do it, we said we didn't do it. Nothing more to discuss. Please, Principal Cullens, let us return to class." I said, then took a bite of my sandwich. Nico looked shocked, secretly, I was too. Cullens didn't jump over the table, he just put his forehead on his hands, which signaled us to leave.

"Okay, see. It was fine, let's both take a deep breath and just go to class." I said, I was at the crust of my sandwich at this point, so I hurled it into the trash along with the plastic wrap. Nicolo just keeps rubbing his head.
"He told me if I had one more offense, I'd be done. Like, bye-bye," He put his hand down, "I wanted some of that sandwich. And thank you."
"Oh my bad..." I said with a mouth full of ham. It was just selfish anyway; I just couldn't stop thinking about the sandwich. Besides, I don't think I did much to help that situation, that could've ended a lot worse. Honestly, I'll just thank my ability to completely drain the energy out of people.

When Nicolo and I walked into class, all eyes were on us. The teacher scolded us for being late, and we were sentenced to sit in the middle of class, so the sounds of everybody gossiping were especially suffocating us. If I wasn't pretending to be completely invested in the shape of my pen, I would've looked up and seen a whole bunch of eyes. Nico was probably rubbing his head or something.
The door opens, and I look up. The sounds of the doors here are creating a trauma response in me or something. In comes some student, and he's probably new. I've gotta say, he's 10/10. I tried to rack my brain as to who to compare him to, but I just couldn't. I never look at boys this way. We were the same height, at least, standing up. He stood in front of the class and whispered to the teacher, and his hair was so curly and big. But he wasn't arrogant, just very attractive. I hate the arrogant, attractive type, but it was like he had no clue. The girls behind me were more whispery than usual.

He sat in the awkward, empty seat next to me, which was the worst seat in class, which explains its emptiness. I looked at Nico, who was being annoying, and fanning myself with his hand. We liked to make fun of people to compensate for our insecurities a lot. I would join in, but if I did, I'm sure he'd see me, and I gotta be careful. Class began as usual after the teacher hushed the class.

It was weird; I was trying to work, but it was like I could see him in my peripheral vision. Seriously. Like the tilt of his nose and a single curl. He has the type of visual makeup you'd be happy to see over and over. I gleaned at his paper, which was a little empty. He had me going. I glanced at him; it was just as good as the first time. I hated myself a little more. I probably looked weird, so I stopped.

When I'm in the hallway, I have this routine where I dodge my film studies teacher, Mr. Hopkins. He's a really long fella with a rectangle head. He's impressive and smart with film, but he keeps it quiet. However, now and then, when I ask for help, he overloads my brain with film smarts. I really like him. There are very few teachers at Winchester that I feel like enjoy their job, but Hopkins.
I have an assignment that is almost a month overdue, so that's why I'm not showing up to class. During that period, I hang out with my friend Val at the Library when she has her free period. She doesn't mind, and I can choose not to drain and annoy people if I so please. It's tempting to, but she is always so dedicated to working, so I'd feel bad. Then again, I should check up on Nico; we have to find out who's responsible before Nico gets blamed more than he already is.

I walked past the boys' bathroom and cringed at the giant sign on the back wall. It met my expectations. It was huge. And written in caveman-style bold black graffiti marker style writing. 'Principal Cullens is a Fat Cunt" This wasn't even prank handwriting, it felt like a vengeance. The janitor was scrubbing away at the writing and struggling. And I swear, as I was walking, everyone was staring. Guilty by association, I guess.

I finally got to my locker at the end of the hall to unload all the heavy ass books they made us carry. I swear they're the strongest objects in the world, only second to the Nokia.

As I turned back, I saw a familiar face down the hall. It was that fine shit I was wanting to stare at earlier, only now he was coming my way.