Accidentally on Purpose

Chapter Nine

Jonah and I were both seated right across Principal Collin; the only thing separating us from the red haired beautiful yet calmly stern woman was her desk that was filled with various papers. Principal Collin could just be Ms. Bishop's long lost twin sister—they had the same kind of icy blue eyes that just made you want to bury yourself into the ground when you look at them, and their voices were always calm yet you just knew that the last thing you should be when they talk to you was to be calm.

Those blue eyes behind the thick glasses shifted from Jonah and I, back and forth, and both of us fidgeted in our seats. Even Jonah Gibbs—the person who I'd always thought would always be the one to make other people squirm. But I guess even he was not immune to Principal Collin's spell, and now we were both stuck here in this considerably spacious yet stuffy room room, in complete stiff and unnerving silence, as we wait for the Principal to hand out our death sentence.

Thankfully, no matter how eerily uncanny the similarities between Principal Collin and Ms. Bishop were, there was one thing that made me feel, what do you say it, "safer" with her instead of the Chemistry teacher. She was way more forgiving, and she didn't hold grudges, unlike Ms. Bishop who would keep reminding you of your sin every single time she saw your face.

Principal Collins sighed. "You know how much Ms. Bishop hates disruptive behavior," she said. "So both of you should have known better before you decided to have a little... game."

My eyes bulged out of the sockets in disbelief. So that was what she thought Jonah and I were doing? Playing footsie?

From the corner of my eyes, I saw Jonah ran a hand down his face.

"With all due respect, Principal Collin, we actually weren't..." I tried, but faltered when the woman raised her eyebrows. "We are very sorry for our behavior." When Jonah stayed silent, I elbowed him and he winced.

"We really are sorry," he muttered.

Our principal sighed again, but before she could lecture us some more—she had been lecturing us for what felt like a century before she decided to torture us with silence—her cellphone vibrated on her desk, and she gave us a finger as if to say, "Hold on a second."

With the phone in her hand, she stood up and walked toward the corner of the room, near a tall bookshelf where she could have a private conversation with whoever she was on the phone with.

Meanwhile, the tension between Jonah and I grew now that there was only the two of us, and I swallowed, still feeling the same fatigue I had been feeling all day, doubled with nerve and fear of whatever kind of punishment from the principal that was about to come.

"What the hell did you do that for?" I hissed, keeping my voice down low. Jonah's head snapped toward me, his dark eyes meeting my own angry ones. "You got us both into the principal's office!"

He let out a dry laugh. "Well, sorry to want to keep you from falling asleep in Dorothy's class. You're very welcome," he hissed back.

My heart slightly jumped as I began to realize that, after all, he'd done what he did with good intention, and I felt a little touched by that—okay, maybe not a little. But the anger in me didn't back down, because look at us; we were still in the principal's office because of that. "You could've woken me up a little more gently!"

His eyes narrowed at me.

"Why did you even care if I fell asleep, anyway?" I bit back, both from annoyance and from curiosity. "You could've just let me sleep and I would be punished alone," I added in a quieter voice.

He was stunned in silence, as if he wasn't sure himself. I took it as a chance to push again.

"Now look what you've done. Ms. Bishop will never have the end of it and Principal Collin thinks we're... we're... playing footsie and my clean record will have a dirty mark on it, all thanks to you!"

He growled—he actually growled, like making the exact same noise from the back of his throat that sounded like my cousin Annie's dog when she accidentally stepped on its foot. "Oh, so it's all my fault, huh? Always blame it on the guy! It was totally my fault that you were falling asleep and I was being an actually good person by attempting to wake you up!"

I leaned toward him, shifting my body closer to him. "You. Didn't. Have. To. Step. On my. Foot!" I enunciated slowly, making sure that he understood what I was saying. I was being immature, but I didn't care because my foot still actually hurt because of his damn shoe.

To my surprise, he actually leaned forward too, so now our noses were only a few inches away from touching. He stated calmly, "Now you know how it feels when an irritating brat decides to be annoying and push all of your buttons just to get your attention."

I wasn't about to point out that he technically just called himself an irritating brat, but my jaw slackened before I fully blew out into a rant. "You could've done your stupid revenge on me for your stupid pen earlier today in Mr. Herberg's class or oh, I don't know, anywhere else when Ms. Bishop isn't in a five yard radius! Besides, you already dumped water on me and basically made me the source of those hormonal teenage guys' pleasure by showing my red bra through my wet blouse! Oh, yes, I'm still not over it, and not even your damn amazingly good latte and the cute little art on it could make me get over it!"

For a moment, Jonah's face was blank until a stupid smug smirk grew on it. "So you liked my latte, huh?"

Before I could launch projectiles of various cuss words, a sound of someone clearing their throat jerked us away from each other, and both of us stiffened when we realized that we had escalated from whispering to full on yelling in front of... our principal.

God help me.

To my surprise, Principal Collin didn't look at all angry at us. Sure, she looked annoyed by our noisy bickering, but something in her eyes told me that she was... amused by our antics.

"Are you done, Mr. Gibbs, Miss Taylors?"

We both muttered "yes" and "sorry" and the amusement grew clearer in her eyes.

"Since I have a feeling that the usual kind of detention won't do you both any good, I've decided not to give you one," she said simply, plopping into her seat. "However, there will still be a punishment for both of you, because what you both did in Ms. Bishop's class was not, by any chance, acceptable."

I swallowed thickly. "Um, what do we have to do?"

She lifted her right shoulder. "Since the last period of the day is about to start and I don't want to hold you up here any longer, I'll have to call you both in some time later to give you the punishment you both deserve, but for now you are free to go."

When we both stayed seated, Principal Collin raised both of her eyebrows.

"You may leave the room. Please make it quick, before I change my mind."

We didn't need to be told once more before we both scurried out of the room.

Jonah stopped me in my track before I could make my way toward gym. His body blocked my way in an abrupt motion that my face nearly crashed into his chest, so I took a step backward.

He leaned his face down so I could see his face clearly, including all of the wide range of emotions that swirled inside his blue-gray eyes.

"I don't like you, Hannah Taylors," he all but spat, and a little piece in my heart fell at the seriousness in his voice. "I don't like you at all."

My blank expression covered the fact that I was about to burst into tears—and the fact that I was tired physically and emotionally wasn't helping my state of mind—but then I cheered myself on by reminding myself that this was it. This was the reason why I had been doing what I had been doing—all the childish antics, my exposed bra, my dyed hair, his ruined white shirt. There was nothing I should be feeling sad about. There was nothing to regret because this was exactly the moment I had been waiting for; the moment when the great and invincible Jonah Gibbs started to develop an emotion toward me that was more than indifference.

So I held my chin up, and replied with the same amount of (fake) disdain I could muster, "The feeling is mutual, Jonah Gibbs."

With one last glare thrown toward my way, Jonah walked away just as the bell rang, leaving me with my own irritation as the hallway started to be filled with students.