University of Wonderland

Chapter Twelve

In the nurse's office, I shivered under a cotton blanket and tried to coax my body temperature back up. As each second passed in the clock I grew more and more antsy, practically ripping the paper covering the exam table into shreds with my shifting. Principal Yoon came back about a half-hour later. Her wet pantsuit clung to her in a way that would never pass the school dress code. "You're not dry yet."

"We have that in common."

"Nothing gets you drier than a dry confession." She shook her finger at me. "You don't normally hang out behind the school." She said the words behind the school like they included a one-way ticket to detention. "And this is twice now you've been connected to school vandalism."

"I swear. Last time I was just trying to make flyers and -"

"I know you couldn't have stolen the paper because you were with me at the time."

I nodded. "And this time, I went out there because I heard the commotion and slipped on the mud." I made my eyes wide and innocent. "I was trying to help."

She pursed her lips. "Well, that does seem like something you would do." She balled her hands into fists. "That's it, I don't care how much energy it uses up, I'm turning the security cameras back on. We could have caught them by - never mind." She waved her hand away. "Did you see anything suspicious?"

A blast of air conditioning made me shiver. "Suspicious?"

"Anyone else out around the creek before you got there?" Principal Yoon undid her bun and wrung the water out of her short, brown hair. "Come to think of it, how did Sulli rescue you? Was she already there?"

"No, of course not," I said. Her question sounded like an accusation, and the last thing I needed was Sulli taking the fall for my mistake. "She came afterwards. Why?"

"The Language wing is flooded. We can't a hold a school day if the students need life vests to swim to their classes. And I don't believe it's the rain. Someone tried to get school canceled the other day with the vandalism. And I bet that same someone was fooling around with the dam today. Probably to get classes shut down."

"Nonsense. Have you checked the dam?"

"That's my next order of business." Mascara ran down her cheeks, making her look more like a sweaty circus clown than a school principal. "Well, this isn't your problem. Whoever did this will be punished. But I am keeping my eye on you."

My skin prickled. I could only hope the rain and the overflowing creek had washed away my backpack with my neatly-typed homework inside, the telltale evidence linking me to the crime.

. . . =^_^= . . . =^_^= . . .

A short update for today!

Updating tomorrow~