Becoming Hers

33

*GRACIE'S POV*
I'd just said goodbye to the group and started to make my way to the toilets. I was just going to touch up my makeup slightly and fix my hair into a ponytail. I made it to the door when my full name was called in a low voice from behind me.

I turned on my heels quickly because the voice had startled me. Stood in front of me was Principle Lancaster. He'd never once stopped me in the halls so I was nervous about what he was going to say.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" There was something about him that intimmidated me. It could have been because he stood at 6'5 and towered over me as he spoke. But I think it was because he was just another man in my life that told me what to do continuously and yelled if you were to do something wrong.

"Um, am I in t-trouble?" I stammered then mentally cursed because I had stuttered.

"It'll just be a second," he neither confirmed or denied it.

I followed behind him to his office which had a very formal layout. He stepped to the side and allowed me to enter first then followed after.

"Please take a seat," Principle Lancaster motioned to the three red-cushioned seats located side by side in front of his desk.

I wanted to ask him what the 'talk' was about but I was afraid of sounding rude so I stayed silent. He started off with a smile that he tried too hard to perfect. I smiled back at him but with less enthusiasm.

"I just wanted to ask you a few things," I nodded, "I've never had to talk to you before," He stated which made me nervous. I was clearly in some sort of trouble.

"Why are you allowing your brother and Lexi Jones to become bad influences towards you?" I was confused at his question to begin with, I guess my face showed it too because he reworded his sentence.

"Like I said earlier, I've never had to talk to you before Gracie,"

"I'm sorry," I apologised even though I wasn't entirely sure what he was getting at.

"You've missed a total of twenty two and a half hours of school,"

"Oh," was all I said.

"Your friends aren't exactly model students," Principle Lancaster stated, "especially Lexi," he then added.

I stayed silent and he took that as an excuse to mention why they aren't good exemplary students.

"Charlie shouting at a teacher and bad mouthing the school," He started. It seemed unfair that he was listing every example of a bad things they'd done. I wanted to tell him to stop but I didn't because I knew I'd have gotten into trouble myself.

"Blake never participates in the fortnightly physical education class," He grunted. I didn't point out that I also never participated.

"Caleb is certainly a bad example for you, he gets into fights frequently." He decided to put his glasses on the top of his head and look up at me. "Trouble your brother," He sighed and clicked his tongue.

"Oh and Lexi Jones," He said full of sarcasm, like it was a surprise, "Being excluded twice,"

I was fed up with his tone so I decided to step in.

"She was excluded for skipping school which meant she'd miss even more school," I exclaimed.

"Are you questioning my methods Heron?" He scolded.

"No sir, it's just every time someone miss behaves you punish them in the same way, surely there should be different punishments for different things," I honestly didn't know why I did that, normally I just stayed out of the way whenever I thought I'd get into trouble but being good my whole life hadn't been worth it so I decided I'd let loose a little.