Battle of the Captains

foul

The silence was killing me.

It had been almost five minutes in the Principal's office and no one was saying anything. Sitting across Principal Harrison and next to Austin was a familiar situation that I was not fond of. The smell of paper and files and the smell of you're-in-trouble scared the hell out of me.

The last time we were here, Austin was in the seat on the left and I was on the right. This time, we switched places. What happened last time was child's play compared to the racket that we caused in the cafeteria.

I stared down at my hands to avoid my urge to scream at Austin for putting us in this situation and for the sticky remainder of mashed potatoes on my face and on my the tips of the strands of my hair, which was more difficult to remove than the rest of it, because whenever I tried to wipe it off, my hair just stuck together to harden later on.

I didn't scream because the silence was precious and as long as no one spoke, that meant that no one was getting angry with me. Yet. If anyone was going to break the silence, I could promise it wasn't going to me. I didn't want to be in any more trouble than I was already in.

When Principal Harrison cleared his throat after giving us a moment to 'reflect on what had just happened', I looked up from my lap as he spoke.

"I've never been more disappointed in you two," he said. Great, make me feel guilty.

I opened my mouth to say something to my defense but he held up a hand to signal that he wasn't finished. I pursed my lips to keep any word from coming out of my mouth.

"I can't keep letting this go," he said sternly. "Last year, fine, you were kids and you had no responsibilities. But this year, you were given the opportunity to be captains of varsity teams. Being captains doesn't give any of you special privileges. You've gone too far this time. But you know what? You're supposed to be leaders. You're supposed to set a good example for the students in this school because they look up to you, not start pointless food fights."

"How did you know it was us?" Austin asked.

"How could I not know it was you two?" he said. "And you just confirmed it for me right now."

"But it wasn't my fault," I said. "He started it."

"I don't care about whose fault it is or who started it," Principal Harrison said.

"But, Sir­–"

"Lunch detentions for a week starting tomorrow and one after school detention today since none of you have practice and I believe you need to be there because there's a game coming up soon," he said. Okay, detention wasn't that bad. At least he was considerate about our practices.

"Okay," I said.

"Alright," Austin agreed. It was just a fair punishment.

"Also," There's more. "You have Chemistry, Literature and Gym class together this year, am I right?" Principal Harrison scanned two papers as he asked. I recognized one of them as my class schedule and the other one was most likely Austin's schedule.

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, I will be speaking with your teachers and I will request that you will be partnered up in any pair work in those subjects."

My eyes widened. "I'm going to fail." I didn't want to sound like a whiny brat or anything but it was probably true. We were going to fail because Austin and I would've probably spent more time arguing than actually getting any work done. There was no way I was going to maintain my grades now.

I was never actually sure what kind of student Austin was but since he was a professional school jock, I'd automatically assumed that he didn't do well in class. I was proven wrong in Chemistry and Literature class where I discovered that he actually got some tests scores higher than mine.