The Life of a Teenage Hero

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Monday, March 2nd, 3:32PM

Regent Academy

My heart drops into my stomach and it feels like I've been punched in the guts. Dad smiles at me while Mom glares at the side of Principal White's head.

"What's going on?" I ask. I sink into the chair in-between my parents and look at the folder sitting on Mrs. Meyers's desk that reads M. Lins.

Principal White sits behind Mrs. Meyers's desk while Mrs. Meyers stands behind her, her thin arms crossed over her sagging chest.

"I've called your parents in the discuss the matter of your attendance, or rather, lack thereof," Principal White says. "Mrs. Meyers informed me of your detention, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity for our discussion."

I wring my hands together, popping my knuckles in the process. My heart has found its way back into my chest and it's beating rapidly. How am I supposed to explain that the reason I'm always late or missing class is because I'm too busy fighting bad guys? Judging by the sweat on the back of Dad's bald head, he's wondering the same thing.

"It's quite alarming." Principal White opens the folder and a 3D holographic render of me pops up with several red numbers next to it. "Momoko has been tardy to class 23 times last semester across all her classes. And despite only being halfway through this semester, she's racked up 15 tardies." Principal White reads from the report. She tucks a lock of her auburn brown hair behind her ear before continuing. "She's also sporadically absent from class. For example, last Friday, you attended your first three classes, then miss your fourth class and came into fifth period twenty minutes late." She closes my file, making the numbers and my image disappear, and lays her hands over one another. "Which I guess leads to the question: Where did you go?"

I was downtown stopping an angry pyromaniac from burning down a McDonald's full of people.

I look down at my backpack and try to come up with a believable excuse.

"I believe this is a conversation we should have with our daughter at home," Mom intervenes. Her tone is crisp and hard, the same one she uses whenever I mess up a new fighting combination for the fifth time in training. She presses a hand to her chest, her eyes briefly closing.

"The reason I believe we should have this conversation together is because at this rate, Momoko is at risk of retention," Principal White replies. My gaze jerks up and all the air races from my lungs.

"Retention?" Dad snaps. "Her grades are good. So what if she skips class every now and then? When I was her age you would never find me at school."

"Her grades are average, yes," Principal White corrects. "But we still have an attendance policy." Her light brown eyes meet mine. "One that she is in violation of."

"What is the policy?" Mom asks.

"The student must be in class 90% of each semester. Momoko has been in class," she glances back down at my file and a red 83 appears, "83% of this semester. Last semester she was here 89%. Because of her grades we let her slide last semester, however, if she continues the way she's going now, we won't be able to overlook her absences."

"And what happens if she's retained?" Mom asks.

Principal White sits up straighter. "She will have two options. She can either make up the lost time during her summer break, catching her back up with her current class, and allowing her to graduate with her brother, or she will repeat all of her courses and graduate a year late."