I walk in to the office, its empty, so I sit down and wait for the principal. What a drag, how could I have known that my teacher wouldn't find the humor in my first class practical joke of super-gluing my sleeping classmates hand to his own face. He deserved it. "This is your third offense this month, Mr. Aloysius" The principal said as she walked in and closed the office door behind her. Mrs. Hild is a short, round woman who runs this school with an iron fist. She's not bad if you are on her good side. Luckily, I have a natural gift for getting on people's bad sides. "Third time's the charm, Mrs. Hild, I thought I'd get away with this one for sure. Those cameras you installed sure do the trick" I said.
"Yes, they were quite the investment, if I do say so myself." She smirked. " I will make this meeting of ours short and sweet." She sat down in her office chair and leaned back. "You have been constantly disruptive at this institution and you haven't learned from our past disciplinary actions. Something harsher is required. For the rest of this week and all of next week, you will stay after school and help the janitor clean, for as long as he needs you. You will also write apology letters to the young man who you superglued, and your homeroom teacher."
"Neil deserved the gluing. He shouldn't have been asleep. I couldn't have him sleeping in my favorite class, the wonderful and exciting pre-calculus!" I laughed. As I said this, the one and only Neil Deryck walked by the office, his hand still stuck to his face. Thanks, Gorilla Glue. Neil sneered at me as he passed the window and I quickly mocked being asleep, propping my face on my hand and leaning forward on the desk like he had done before I got him. Neil passed the window and sulked into the nurse's office. He must not have been able to un-attach his hand from his face.
"Are we clear on your punishment, Mr. Aloysius?" asked Mrs. Hild.
"Crystal" I replied.
"Then get back to class, and I don't want to see you in here again. I'll be contacting your mother to let her know about the situation we have here"
"Aye aye cap." I said. I got out of my chair and walked out of the office. On my way back to class, the lunch bell rang. I waited by my bud's locker. His name is Kollins and we have been close since elementary school. When he arrived he said "Sup Ly, what's the verdict this time around?"
"Clean up duty with the janitor all of this and next week, and I gotta write apology letters to the teacher and Neil." I huffed.
"Well that's what you get for bein a delinquent." Kollins laughed.
"Whatever" I said "let's go get some food I'm starved."
The rest of the day went as usual. Boring. After school I met up with the janitor, who, halfway through cleaning the lunchroom pushed his mop and bucket to the wall and said he was going to leave to "relieve himself" and he told me to "finish cleaning up here". Ha. I knew he was probably gonna go out back and take a smoke. I decided it was prime time to check out the locations of the cameras that were set up around the school. Walking the halls alone after school is surprisingly relaxing. There is no where you have to be, and nothing you have to do. It's just you and the lockers. I was counting the cameras and keeping a mental note of their locations, one in each classroom and one at about every corner, each one covering the last one's blind spot. I turned around to go back to the lunchroom. I passed a window and saw the janitor. Sure enough he was leaned against the wall outside taking a smoke. I kept walking and turned the last corner to the lunch room when I saw them. Two people were standing in front of the double doors to the lunch room looking in. They both had cloaks on and their hoods were pulled over their faces. I don't know why, but as soon as I saw them, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. Probably because cloaks are not exactly in style. They are so 18th century. I ducked back around the corner and peeked out. They were still standing there, motionless. Then I thought to myself, why am I acting like this? They're just two regular people, right? But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was not normal about these two. I peeked out from behind my corner again, and the people were gone. What? I heard footsteps behind me and whirled around to see the two strangers, looking straight at me. They were about ten feet away. Their cloaked gaze was piercing and emotionless. I gulped and managed to spit out a shaky "Hi" Then one of the strangers approached me and said in a calm and assertive feminine voice, "Lyonel Aloysius, we have much to discuss."
