Sweetheart

Secrets

Currently, I and four others were seated in a semicircle around a desk. The plaque on it read ‘Valerie  Grant’ in bold letters. At the bottom, in smaller print, read the letters ‘Principle.’ 

Ms. Valerie was in the lunchroom, assisting the volunteers, lunch ladies, and teachers cleaning up. Logan, Alec, Mo, Kay, and I were in her, may I say, very large, office. I was slightly nervous, seeing as the only time I’d ever been in here was when I was a new student during freshman year. Okay, that was an understatement. I was very nervous. Logan, on the other hand, looked like he couldn’t care less. Alec had his expressionless ‘mask’ on, which I hated because it was, well, expressionless. Mo and Kay weren’t worried at all, the former tapping her toes to a beat, and the latter once again, texting.  Why would they be worried? After all, they hadn’t done anything. I’d started it, dumping those drinks on the boys.

Logan glanced at me, and noticing my nervous toe tapping and the frequent deep breaths I was taking to calm myself (they didn’t work) he whispered, “Calm down, it’s not a big deal. Stuff worse than this happened at my old school.”

 Nevertheless to say, this didn’t really help my agitated brain. Apparently, it was obvious, so he reached over and clasped my hand. That definitely did not help. In fact, it sent my brain into overdrive. Sparks shot up my nervous system, completely shutting it down. My hand shook even more violently. This was not overlooked by Logan, who pursed his lips to keep from chuckling. A quiet, deep throated laugh escaped his lips before he could get it under par. 

Only Alec, the person on my left side heard this and turned his head. His eyes roved from my red face to Logan’s face. His eyes looked to mine in question, to which I just shrugged, not wanting him to know the reason Logan was trying not to laugh. Then, his line of sight moved down to our attached hands resting on my lap. At this, his eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something, but before he could utter a word, the door creaked open. My breathing stuttered and I hastily dropped his hand from my lap. He blinked and glanced at me, then returned his attention to the principle.

She stepped through the doorway and walked over to her desk, the heels clacking faintly on the carpeted floor. Surveying us, she ordered in a sharp voice, “Mohini and Kayla may leave. Please return to your sixth period class.”  Well, at least she knew that they weren’t to blame. Before they left, Mo gave me a reassuring glance and disappeared. Kay looked up from her phone, which I was surprised Ms. Grant hadn’t taken, and gave me a half smile. After they’d left and door had closed, she scrutinized each of us from head to toe. I shrank back into my seat under her piercing gaze. When her eyes had left Alec, she spoke. 

“Logan Black. I thought we had an agreement after the last school. Care to explain yourself?” Huh? He’d never told me why he’d moved. Oh well, I’d only know him for a day. When he didn’t answer, she restated, “Any of you?” I had no clue as to what she wanted me to say, so I kept my mouth zipped shut. Finally, after a moment had passed, she spoke again. 

“Two weeks of suspension. All of you, starting next week, will not be seen at school.”

“What! That’s too much! Just give us detention, please, please, please!” My stupid mouth had to open up on its own accord and blurt out unnecessary nonsense. A minute of silence passed after my outburst until she replied,

“State your reasons for the food fight. One minute, each of you. Logan, you first.” She nodded at him and he stood up.

“Ms. Grant, the food fight wasn’t Rhea’s fau-“

Before he could continue, she interrupted, saying, “I only want the reason you were involved in a food fight. Don’t tell me whose fault it was or wasn’t. You have fifty seconds. Proceed.” Whoa, this lady was strict! Logan though, didn’t seem fazed at all by it.

“Alec and I got into a staring contest for no reason. Rhea tried to stop it in case it led to more, but we wouldn’t. So, the only way she could think of was to pour drinks on us, which she did. When she did that, I shouted ‘food fight’ and a food fight began.” He flourished, a bit dramatically, if you ask me. Ms. Grant was not amused, to say in the least. I guess she was immune to his ‘boyish charm’ as Mo liked to put it. I called it plain weird. Anyway, back to the subject…

“Alec? Is this right?”

“Yes ma’am,” he replied.

“Miss Papadakis, what happened?” Oh, so she could call them by their first names, but not mine… why did I even care?  

“Same thing as Logan said.” I stated in reply.

“Why do you thing you shouldn’t be suspended?”

“Ms. Grant, first of all, I didn’t mean to start a food fight. Second, don't you think that's a bit extreme for something that only took fifteen minutes to clean up? And also, it was just a harmless prank, but if anybody should be suspended, it should be me. I started it."

Ms. Grant pursed her lips in contemplation, rubbing her hand under her chin. After a few moments, she replied, "Okay, since this is you and Alec's first offense, I'll let you off with a week of detention. Logan? Could you stay in here for a moment? I need to talk to you for a moment." She glanced at Alec and I, saying, "You two can leave I expect NO funny business. Get to class." 

As I walked to the door, I turned my head sideways to give Logan a questioning gaze, to which he just shrugged. Alec held the door open for me, then followed me out of the office. When I'd turned the corridor, I felt his stare burning holes in the back of my head. "Are you going to ask me something or just stand there?" I asked, without turning around.

"Uh." 

This time, I turned around to see what he wanted to ask me. "Yes?" My eyebrow raised up slightly in expectation.

"Never mind. See you later, kitten!" His face changed from a nervous expression to his signature smirk. "Bye!"

Why was he acting like this nowadays? I had my suspicions about him, and I wanted to find out what he was keeping from me. As he walked away, I shook my head and opened my locker. When I'd pulled out my Government textbook, I heard footsteps tapping down the linoleum floor, getting louder with each passing step. When I'd closed my locker, Logan appeared around the corner. Man, his footsteps were LOUD!

"Not at loud as yours," he shouted from the end of the hallway. Did I say that out loud? Again?

"Yes!" He shouted a bit more softly, since he was nearing me. Still, a teacher who had her door open shot him a glare, then closed her door. Logan just rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at the closed door.

"Wow, real mature," I stated,  sarcastically. "Anyways, what did Ms. Grant want?"

He turned his attention back to me. "Not much, she doesn't want me to get into trouble. I still have detention, same as you guys."

"But why didn't she tell all of us that?"

"Just..." I could tell he was debating on what to tell me. "Stuff happened at my old school. Stupid stuff. She just wanted to make sure it didn't happen" He clearly had just signaled for this conversation to end.

"Okay, if you say so. I'll see you later!" I turned and waved. But my mind was turning. He also had a secret? Well, unlike Alec, I'd only known him for a couple days, so I wouldn't press it... Yet.

Oooh, we've got secrets! Comment if you've ever been in a food fight!

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