Deadly Obsessions

Chapter 4: Murder

Chapter 4:

I walked into the office, still smiling. Mr. Banner, the principal, was sitting at his desk. I threw the note that Mrs. Patts had given me onto the desk. Sitting down, I tried my hardest not to burst out laughing again.

"And what's so funny, Miss Wavers?" asked the principal, eyeing me suspiciously.

I snorted. "Nothing."

Mr Banner read the note. "Well, I can see you haven't changed your ways over the holidays."

"Nope. Definitely not."

He wasn't fazed by my enthusiasm and cheekiness. He'd seen this a million times before. We stared at each other until I couldn't bear it any longer. I threw my head back and laughed. Mr. Banner's fist hit the table. I jumped, stopped laughing, and stared at him wide-eyed.

"Audrey!" he yelled. I'd never heard him yell before. All the times I'd been sent to Mr. Banner, he'd never yelled at me. "Again and again you are sent to my office. For talking in class, giving cheek to the teachers, going out of school grounds. And again and again you are punished. Why hasn't any of this gotten through to you?"

I shrugged. He normally just gave me a week's detention and sent me back to class. Mr. Banner continued with his lecture.

"Now I know that you haven't been in trouble for anything serious, but I have no choice but to suspend you." That caught my attention.

"What?!" I jumped out of my seat, grabbing hold of the desk to steady myself. "But all I did was talk in class!" I was shouting louder than I meant to, but that didn't matter. "Why can't you just give me detention?"

Mr. Banner stood up as well. "Because you don't seem to be learning from it. It's only for three days," he explained calmly. "Sit down and calm down."

I grumbled, but sat anyway. This was worse than I'd expected. What would my mum think? She was uses to me getting detention but I'd never been suspended before. I was going to be in so much trouble. I looked at the principal.

"Now go back to class. Come back at the end of the day," he instructed. "I'll give you a note to give to your mum."

I just nodded. As I walked through the door of the classroom, Nathan looked up. I sat down next to him. "What happened?" he asked. "Did you get detention?"

"No." I sighed. "I got suspended."

Nathan looked surprised. "Damn. Banner was pretty hard on you."

"Ha. You think?" I shook my head. "Who cares? It's only for a few days."

Nathan looked at Mrs. Patts. Luckily she hadn't heard us talking. "We should shut up before I get suspended too." He chuckled.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

I felt a bit better by the time the bell rang, and my head had cleared enough for me to remember what Nathan and I had been talking about before Mrs. Patts had so rudely interrupted (and gotten me suspended!).

I turned to Nathan. "So... do you want to finish telling me about you and Bianca?"

He looked away shyly. "Um. Well." He sighed. "We used to go out. Ages ago. My cousin knows her. I liked her at first but she was too full-on and clingy, so I broke up with her. She hasn't left me alone since."

I laughed. "So when you said 'I'm with Audrey now'..." I trailed off, looking up at him with big, round eyes.

Nathan's beautiful smile lit up his face. "I want to be with you Audrey. Do you want to be with me?"