Imaginary Friend

Chapter 25 - Celia's Distress

The bell rang and it was the end of class. Just thinking about seeing Jack again got my heart racing. It's all so hard to process. We fought, we made up, we fought, and now we're sort of..dating? It's all a little too much for me to take, but I'm glad we share the same feelings for each other. Honestly, I've liked Jack for such a long time, and I was so scared about confessing my feelings to him. Him running away was the worst thing that could've happened to me. But I'm so glad we made up and...kissed! That was a surprise, even for me! A good surprise, of course. I looked up from my desk and saw Quinn, Cindy, and Elle eying me evilly from across the room. Their looks sent a shiver down my back. 

Jack said something about them humiliating me, didn't he? Were they discussing the first phase of their little plan? Whatever, I know that they don't have the IQ to come up with anything worse than insulting me with mean nicknames that, half the time, didn't even make sense. Then again, Jack said after they humiliated him, he was really distraught, and Jack's one of the toughest, most sarcastic people I know. What I mean by that is, it really takes a lot to humiliate him. Maybe I should be scared of these girls? Ack, what are you thinking, Celia!? Don't stoop to their level, don't become a coward. I quickly looked away from their glares and packed up my stuff in my backpack. I slung my backpack around my shoulder and started to make my way towards the door, ready to go to my newspaper committee meet. First I had to find Jack and invite him, then I'd attend the meet. Unfortunately, Quinn and the others decided to block the door. Great, I was trapped.

"May I help you?" I asked in a rather confused tone. Quinn smirked. "You're the author of the school column, "School News", right?" I nodded my head slowly, a little suspicious of their question. "And why are you so interested in this now? I've been writing for the newspaper ever since I was a freshman." Quinn smirked at Cindy and Elle and then turned back to me, crossing her arms. "Well, I think you ought to check out what you just recently posted." She smirked. What I recently posted? I didn't post anything. In fact, I was still working on my next story. What was going on? I looked at them, rather confused, but they just keep smirking at me. Quinn let out a little, "Hmph!" and a smirk and stopped blocking the door. I walked out of the door rather fast and went to go find Jack in the crowd of kids to tell him to join me when the newspaper committee met. I wonder what that was all about. Jack did say something about them trying to humiliate me..could that be true? I stopped and quickly glanced over at the newspaper department and looked inside the door. There was no one there. Shouldn't people be meeting by now? 

I was starting to get a little scared. Keep it cool, Celia, they're probably just empty words that those bullies always speak. Maybe they just canceled today's meet. I went to my locker and got all my books, papers, and everything out of my locker. As I did this, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I smiled to myself, a little blush spread across my cheeks. Jack must've found me before I could find him. I whipped my head around to greet him. "Hey Ja-" My sentence got cut off, because it wasn't jack. It was Mrs. Mills, my English teacher and the supervisor for the newspaper club. She didn't have a very happy look on her face so I know she wasn't coming to congratulate me on a popular post I had written. "Mrs. Mills. Is something wrong?" I asked, tilting my head. I gulped, a little scared. Quinn said something about a recent post I had made. But I haven't posted anything recent! Keep calm, Celia, keep calm. "Yes. Ms. Schwartz, I need to speak with you. Follow me to the principal's office." My eyes widened. I had never been sent to the principal's office for anything, unless I was delivering a paper or receiving some sort of award for good behavior or whatnot.  

I followed my teacher to the principal's office, not before seeing Jack walking up to me. He looked joyful and happy, waving at me. He stopped in his tracks and the smile was wiped from his face when he saw my terrified look. He knew something was up. I just hope he didn't think it was his fault. Judging by the look on his face, he already thought it was. I mouthed the words, "It's fine" before I disappeared from his sight. I gulped and looked down at the ground, until Mrs. Mills and I reached the big, brown door with the words "Principal's Office" inscribed into the door. We entered inside and saw the principal. He had a small beard, a big figure, and glasses. Sometimes, you couldn't even see his mouth because it was hiding behind his mustache. "Ms. Schwartz, have a seat." He spoke, his voice deep for an older man. I nodded and sat down in front of him. Mrs. Mills stood on the side. Yep, I was in trouble, I knew it. But..what had I done wrong?