A little too late

Chapter 16

After my embarrassing encounter with Finn I went straight to math class. Today was going downhill and fast. I mean, yes, this morning was perfect and amazing but ever since then everything had been going wrong. It couldn’t get any worse... Or so I had thought.

A knock on the door to my math class came and Lauren, the girl from science class, popped her head through the door.

“Uhm, sorry to disturb your class Sir, but the principal wants to see Stella” She says to the teacher. He gave a slight nod and motioned for me to go. I get up and walk straight out. I could hear the students snickering as I walked out.

Nervously, I asked Lauren, “Do you know what it’s about?”

She gave me a nice smile, “Kinda. The principals my father so he sort of told me.”

I gave her a little ‘Oh’ but wait for her to continue.

“It’s about you and Jack wagging this morning” She says. My face goes bright red. Had someone saw us leave? Or worse, had someone seen us having sex.

I thanked Lauren quietly before she left me standing outside the building where the principals office was. Taking a deep breath, I walk straight in the building and into the foyer. I see Jack sitting on the couch. I walk straight up to him.

“Jack?” I ask. I had learnt from my mistakes, I was not going to mistake Finn for Jack again.

“Miss me?” He asked. I roll my eyes, that’s Jack alright.  

“You told me that nobody would notice we were gone! You lied to me. What if someone saw what we did?” I panic.

“Correction – I told you nobody would notice us leaving for one period. You were the one who was all up for park sex in second period. I never said anything about me being able to get away with wagging two periods. Oh and don’t worry, I don’t think they would’ve seen us having sex” He tells me.

I just bury my head in my hands. Things had definitely gotten worse.

“Will they call my parents?” I ask Jack.

“How am I meant to know that?” He asks me.

I shrug and say, “Hmm I don’t know, you seem to be wagging all the time so I’d assume you’d be a professional with the consequences”

“I don’t usually get caught.” He tells me. Oh great, exactly what I wanted to here.

“I’ve never had a detention before. And my parents are going to kill me if they find out I wagged.” I tell him. He moves his hand on to my knee to comfort me and I can feel the electricity grow between us.

“Look, when I get in, let me do the talking, okay?” He tells me. I’m about to disagree when the receptionist calls both of our names, motioning us to walk in.

He takes the lead and walks confidently into the principal’s office. Sitting on his chair is the principal, looking angry as hell. Oh shit.

Jack takes a seat and I do likewise.

Finally, the principal speaks, “where were you the first two periods?”

I open my mouth to speak but Jack beats me to it.

“I know it was wrong to skip class, but, I had to help her Sir. I just couldn’t leave her the way she was.”

I turn to Jack confused. What the fuck was he on about?

He continues, “Look, I know Stella doesn’t want heaps of people to know so I guess she’d respect your support Sir but...” He takes a deep breath and acts all concerned, “Stella got some bad news today”.

I roll my eyes, was he seriously going to tell the principal my boyfriend broke up with me. Is he delusional, that won’t get us out of wagging. What an idiot. But, having no other choice but tell the truth, I let him continue. The principal and I both wait patiently for Jack to talk.

“You see, you have to understand that this would be hard for her, cause Stella found out that she was pregnant this morning” He says.

“WHAT?” I say way too loud. He gives me a ‘go along with it’ look.

He continues on, “she was so upset and I couldn’t let the student body see her like that. It’s not good for her or the baby. She just needed a shoulder to cry on. I took her out for some ice cream and as you can see, she’s much better now.”

I look over from Jack to the principal. He’s expression is as shocked as mine.

This time, he speaks up, “Are you, uh, okay Stella?” He asks me awkwardly. I guess this is the first time he’s had to deal with this situation.

I can’t even talk so I just nod.

He sighs, “well, I guess I’ll just sign you up to see the school counsellor for a couple of sessions.” He then looks to Jack, “And what you did was very brave and courageous. To sacrifice your studies was very selfless Jack. You should be proud of yourself.”

I looked over at Jack and he gave a warm smile. Was he fucking serious?

The principal spoke up once again, “you guys are dismissed”.

“You’re not calling our parents?” I asked.

“Not if you don’t want me to. I’d presume you’d want to tell them yourself” He answered me. I gave him a slight nod before getting up and leaving the room.