Straighter than Parallel Parking

≈ t h i r t y - n i n e ≈

{Chapter Thirty-Nine: Break the Fan Before the BS Hits it}

MACKENZIE'S PARENTS ARE EXACTLY HOW JANICE IMAGINED them to be. Polished, clean, and exactly how she imagines how portraits from the 1800's would feel like if they were dimensional.

Interestingly enough, the room feels far too large to house the number of people currently inside. Ms. Parker sits where Janice had been earlier (before all the shit had hit the fan), and the six chairs in front of her were otherwise occupied, with Mackenzie's parents to the right, near the door, and Janice's party closer to the window on the opposite wall. (Janice is standing, though. Flora decided to get a seat for herself).

Ms. Parker clears her throat. "So, now that everyone is here. Mrs. Diablo and Mr. Diablo, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery, I am sure you both know why you have been called into office today."

Janice fights to not roll her eyes when Mackenzie responds in everyone's stead. "Ma'am, with all due respect, it's no one's surprise why we're here in the first place. Janice..." —she side-eyes the redhead— "... has been far too much of a bully for me to tolerate any longer. It's been so difficult trying to keep it together but now that we are so close to graduating, I thought it was time to say enough is enough."

Is she reciting lines for a new drama? Janice thinks incredulously. Karlo pinches her thigh to keep her in place.

Mrs. Montgomery, a woman with pin-curls that fell to her shoulders, only cooed. "Oh, my poor Mackenzie. She's been through so much, you see. We would've hoped she felt comfortable enough going to someone of authority, but it's been decided where certain interests lie." She stares pointedly at Ms. Parker, who raises an eyebrow at the obvious daggers in her words.

"I assure you," her principal says, stiff, "that your daughter has not held herself back in any regards. She is very vocal about everything she feels."

At the sound of fingers hitting wood, Janice's eyes drag back to Mackenzie's father, who looks overly bored at the whole situation. "Yes, yes. She's vocal. Which is why we're here. Because clearly she feels there's some issue and we haven't really addressed that yet."

Ms. Parker leans forward, hands clasping together. She seems to think carefully about her words, aware that the entire circumstance seems to have already swayed in Mackenzie's favour. Power struggles in her office are never fun to break up, but they always had a tendency to escalate--especially when they involved their residence troublemaker and the tight-lipped bully under one roof.

"Janice," Ms. Parker says selectively, now specifically addressing Aunt Maria and Karlo, "has been asked to bring you both here because Ms. Montgomery has lodged a complaint with a few teachers, insisting that Janice has been unable to take up her responsibility to complete group work and instead relying on the help of Ms. Montgomery to complete it in her stead."

Ms. Montgomery scoffs. "'Relying on the help?' My daughter is doing all the work for them!"

"Ma'am," Ms. Parker admonishes. "Please let us calmly try to hear both sides of the story--"

"The story is simple. The plot starts with some busy-body child taking advantage of my smart girl and preying on her kindness to do all the work. She has grey hairs from this stress! Grey!"

"Fancy that. God forbid a teenage girl catch something has hideous as stress," mumbles Karlo under his breath. Janice is the only one who hears him, but it helps ease the bundle of nerves constricting in her chest somewhat.

"What I want to know is how some child can get away with bullying our beloved daughter."

"Miss," Karlo decides to enter the conversation uneasily. "I believe that Janice would not have decided to hurt your daughter unnecessarily. How about we ask Janice for her side of the story and then figure it out."