No More What Ifs (DreamNotFound)

4. The Next Step

Tuesday morning passed by lazily. After a pretty mundane breakfast, I drove George and me to school while Cassie took her own car because she had a club today. We drudged out of the parking lot and into the school building, going to our respective homerooms and first periods. I later helped George finish his work in our free period, meaning he was now all caught up. When it was time for Science, we took our usual seats next to each other. Our desks each had an upside-down paper on them. I flipped mine over, assuming that it was the pop quiz we took yesterday.

As it turned out, it was, but to my dismay, on the top was a "0" written in red pen and the note "See me Tuesday at lunch." I rolled my eyes and looked at George, who nodded at his paper. He had the same things written at the top of his paper as well. There were no marks on the paper besides that - no incorrect answers, no corrections, nothing.

As Mrs. O'Perra started her idiotic lecture, I whispered to George, "Didn't she want to see us on Wednesday, though?"

He nodded, still looking at the front. "Yeah. Wonder why she changed it."

"Eh, whatever. Let's just get it over with as quickly as possible."

"Agreed."

The class itself wasn't that bad, though at the end, she called us up and made sure we knew about the change. She seemed a little jittery like she was nervous about it somehow. After confirming, she waved us away to go to our math classes.

George and I met up after Math again, dejectedly turning to go to the science classroom. The halls were empty, so our hands naturally slipped together to spite Mrs. O'Perra when we walked in. As we turned a corner, though, we nearly ran into the last person we'd want to bump into - Ms. Mansell. 

She was the most menacing teacher at our school, and she wasn't even an actual teacher - she was the vice principal. Unlike Mrs. Blaire, who got her respect by being a nice person, Ms. Mansell earned her respect like a military general. She was the fastest to hand out punishments. Granted, they were always valid, but even small infractions that other teachers would let slide with a warning would result in detention from her. The worst part was that you wouldn't expect this if you had just met her - she always had a smile on her face and was very sweet most of the time.

"Oh, hey Clay. Hey George." She beamed at us. George nervously shuffled behind me, though not completely.

I covered for him. "O-Oh. Hi, Ms. Mansell."

"Where are you two going? Isn't it lunchtime?" she asked dangerously.

Even though this was essentially a normal conversation, my heart was beating out of my chest. "Um, Mrs. O'Perra wanted to see us."

"Wasn't that meeting tomorrow?"

I wasn't lying at all, but it definitely felt like I was. "She changed it to today."

"Really? She didn't tell me. I'm supposed to be there, but I can't right now."

"Y-Yeah." I was a little confused. Why was she supposed to be there?

"Do you have any idea why?" She adjusted her grip on the binder she was holding.

"She just told us yesterday after the pop quiz and then wrote the changed date on the graded one," I answered.

"She hasn't told you? That's awfully rude. But you guys should go there. There might be another one tomorrow, for your information."

"Okay." I didn't want to argue with her, though it was really annoying that we'd be missing two lunches. She continued past us as George and I silently walked to Mrs. O'Perra's classroom.