It Just Sort of Happened (On Hold)

Chapter 7- It Just Sort of Happened

Mr. Murray didn’t even give us time to wash up. Once the fingers pointed towards us, he grabbed Harry and me by the arms and dragged us down to the office to see the headmaster. The smell of the sauce was getting unbearable and all I wanted to do now was shower, but of course we had to face our ‘punishment’ before we got the luxury of washing.

It was all Harry’s fault. He knew he was pushing my buttons today and how could he have just walked into me unknowingly?  It wasn’t just a mere coincidence.  

Mr. Murray sat us down in the headmaster’s office and waited with us in an awkward silence until Mr. Oliver, the headmaster, arrived. In general the man looked to have a cheerful disposition. He had short snowy white hair that was thinning at the roots and a matching mustache that hung under  his nose. He wasn’t a plump man but he also didn’t have the body composition of a twig. He looked to be somewhere in the middle, like a hefty log; he had a very rectangular shape. He had square framed glasses that went along with his figure and always seemed to wear the same lightly toned blue dress shirt every day.

But today the cheerful disposition he usually pastes across his face was nowhere to be found. His eyebrows were crossed as he sat down in his usual large leather chair. He stared at us both for a few seconds then finally cleared his throat.

“Now surely you both understand why you are here, correct?” We nodded, “That’s good. Well, your foolishness has scored you both after school detentions for the next three weeks, starting tomorrow since the both of you will be spending the rest of the day cleaning up the dining hall.”

I gasped, “Mr. Oliver, I can’t stay after today I had dance tonight. Surely there is another way I can make this up or something.”

He shook his head, “You should have thought of the consequences before you threw food at this boy’s head.”

“He was the one who started it!” I said accusingly gesturing my hand toward Harry.

“I do not care which one of you triggered the fight, the point is you both need to get past your issues and clean up that hall together. I don’t want to have to deal with more events like this in the future, so you two will have to learn to get along.” Mr. Oliver looked at us both strictly shaking his head.

I had to miss dance because of this curly-haired asshole, and I had to risk not getting my desired part in this year’s recital because he had to slam into me, he had to have the upper hand in this fight. He didn’t want to deal with the humiliation of me trampling over him again. Now I had to see Harry every day after school for the next three weeks. Just great, just perfect. Exactly what I needed right now, not.

Mr. Murray escorted us back to the dining hall and we still remained in silence. I could tell we both figuring what to say to each other when Mr. Murray finally left us alone to clean up the mess, so this silence surely wasn’t going to last much longer.

I didn’t realize how much of a mess we actually made until we walked back into the dining hall. There was salad dressings coating the walls and tipped over milk cartons dripping onto the floors, but the main mess was the pasta and meatballs stained onto every imaginable surface there. It was on the walls, floors, tables, seats, posters, and even a little bit on the ceiling. How did it get on the ceiling?

“You’re not allowed to leave until this room is spotless.” Urged Mr. Murray, shoving us both forward and closing the hall doors behind him. We both stared at each other for a second waiting for the other to say something so I spoke up.

“Way to go Styles, you’ve managed to score us a whole three weeks of detention and now we’re going to have to clean up this shit.” I threw my hands up in disgust and went to grab a mop that was standing up against the wall in a bucket.