Chapter 27: Punishment
“Expel him? What rules are you talking about anyway?” Principal Steele asks with her eyebrows raised.
I just stare at Neustadt in disbelief.
What is this fucker saying?
“Oh, so many, professor…” Neustadt says while being unable to hide the excitement from his voice.
“I caught this boy beating Johnny Bristow who is, you know, the son of Mr. William Bristow,” he tells her meaningfully.
“I did that to save Luke!” I say loudly.
“Shut up, liar!” Neustadt says even louder.
He waits and looks at principal Steele’s face, clearly expecting her to expel me instantly.
“Okay, violence. And the other rules he broke?” She asks simply, showing no particular reaction Neustadt was obviously expecting.
“O-Other rules? But professor, Mr. William is—”
“Please tell me the other rules he broke, professor,” Principal Steele says while cutting in between.
Neustadt looks a bit shocked by the principal taking what he probably expected his biggest weapon, lightly.
“Y-Yes, well, he threatened to kill Johnny as well! A-And he also beat up another student so badly that he fainted from it. From the looks of it, that boy got some serious injuries as well! I even had to send him to the infirmary,” he again tells her strongly.
This time, her expressions sharpen and she moves her upper body a bit forward on the chair. I can feel her gaze from the top to the bottom of my body. It feels as if she is doing my scanning or something.
Even Neustadt looks a bit happier to see the reaction he was expecting. But…
She just looks at me for a second more, before leaning back on her chair again.
“Anything else or is that all?” she simply asks.
Neustadt is looking greatly perplexed now. Well, I am greatly surprised as well, to be honest.
“B-But professor, that boy was really badly hurt. I even have witnesses against this one. A trustable source even told me that he was kicking his fainted body as well!” Neustadt says intensely.
Oh, so, your trustable source is pig, huh?
Asshole…
“I get it. You can leave the office now, professor Neustadt. I will talk to this boy here alone, ” She tells him solemnly.
“Talk to him? TALK TO HIM!?” He says loudly while turning a nasty shade of red.
The extremely menacing look on his face is telling me that he has finally lost it.
Well, with how happy and jubilant he was before, it must be a major blow to him that such a strict principal will only give me the “talk” after beating two people up.
Seriously, even though I am extremely confused, I feel like laughing now.
“This… This abusive, vulgar and violent bast— student deserved to be kicked out of the school! This is unjust! I am actually doing him a favor by not calling the police right now! I DEMAND HIS EXPULSION! NOW!” Neustadt yells angrily.
But Principal Steele’s expressions do not change in the slightest. It is almost like she is not even hearing Neustadt.
“Please maintain the decorum of the Principal’s office, Professor Neustadt. And I didn’t say that I won’t punish him. I just want to talk to him privately first before deciding what to do. So, leave him to me and please go attend to your class,” she says calmly.
“But… He…” Neustadt says moving his gaze from me to the principal and to me again.
I can tell that he really wants to see me get thrown out of the school live.
This bastard…
“Fine… But I hope you expulse him to set an example for the other troublemakers of the school.”
He says before giving me a last hateful glare and leaving the room while closing the door with a bang.
For a few seconds, I wait for Professor Steele to start asking me things but to my confusion, she doesn’t even look at me and just start doing something on the computer placed in front of her desk.
I continue to stand like this for a few minutes.
“Ehh… excuse me, professor?” I finally ask, growing impatient.
“Yes?” she looks up from the computer.
“Eh… Will I be expulsed or not?” I ask, trying to sound as polite as I can.
“Well, no,” she answers in a matter-of-factly tone.
Really?
A great relief spread inside me.
Sigh… but still.
I can already guess what my punishment is going to be then… Suspension.
Well, even though being suspended for a while is way better than expulsion, it will become a tough situation for me.
“How many weeks would will my suspension last, Professor?” I ask in a low voice.
“What suspension? I am not suspending you either…” she says.
No suspension?
“What? Then how are you going to punish me?” I ask in confusion.
Please don’t tell me that you are planning something worse than expulsion or suspension…
“You know, you are actually really unlucky,” she tells me.
Wait, where did that come from? What about my punishment?
“Umm… I am?” I say while looking at her in confusion.
“Yes, you are. I was just checking the security footage from the grounds just now to find out what actually happened down there, you see?” she says.
Security footage…
Damn! I totally forgot about the cameras around the school! It can be totally proven that Pig was the one beating Luke, not me.
You piece of shit, Neustadt. What will you do now?
“Yes! I told you that I didn’t do anything wrong! You can see for your—”
*Sigh*
The principal gives out a sigh making me stop in the middle of my triumphant declaration. She then gestures me to look on her computer screen.
Curiously, I move forward towards her desk and peek on the video playing there on the computer.
From the bunch of agitated students standing there, I can tell that this video of the ground before but to my shock, only a portion of the crowd which was there is visible.
What the fuck!?
The middle part of this circular crowd formation, where Pig and his bodyguards were beating Luke is not visible here at all.
Suddenly, from the corner of the screen, I come inside the school gate and stare at the direction of the crowd. The next moment, I start running towards the crowd and my body vanishes just before it jumps up in the air to deliver a flying kick to pig.
Damn it…
“I-Isn’t there any other cameras there? Can we see this from another angle?” I ask in frustration.
“There are other cameras but they don’t show this at all,” she answers.
What the actual fuck!?
“And this is why you are unlucky. Though in cases like these, I should listen to the teacher present there and give you punishment according to what he told me but… I am not blind to not see the truth myself,” she says.
“You can see? ” I ask, surprised.
“Yes. Remember when professor Neustadt told me that you had a “brawl” and that you had beaten up of two students in that, I looked at you closely?” she asks.
“Yes. What of it?”
“Well, I was looking for the signs of a fight on your body. Your clothes are perfectly clean, there is not even a single bruise or cut anywhere. And I am sorry to say this, but you don’t look like someone who could beat up two guys without even getting your clothes dirty,” She answers with a shrug.
“Y-Yes I didn’t fight anyone!” I say quickly.
Damn… I am actually really impressed that she was observing these things as well.
“I agree. But still, you will be receiving punishment…” She tells me in a grave tone.
…
“But why? You know I didn’t do anything!?” I ask loudly in disbelief.
“I know, but there is no proof of that. And a teacher just told me things against you. He even said there are witnesses and I don’t think that he is lying. Well, with that Bristow boy involved, I can see how things are working here,” she says.
Damn…
“You don’t need to worry much though, I will just have you serve an hour long detentions with me after school as your punishments. Though I will have to keep the punishment long enough to keep Professor Neustadt from making a fuss about it,” she says.
“Detention with you?”
“Yes, and for three months at that. You can consider them as private lessons with me if you want. I can talk to your mother if you want…”
“No need for that!” I say quickly.
Even mentioning this to my mother would be bad. And detention is far better than expulsion. It’s just an hour extra anyway.
And having private lessons with Professor Steele…
“I am fine with it,” I answer.
“Good. You can go now. But wait till the next lesson to go inside your classroom. Professor Neustadt will surely ask you about this and it is better if it is me who informs him,” she says.
“Yes, I know…”
——————-
“Really? You are getting punished for it?” Lily asks in shock.
Right now, it is the lunch break and I am sitting along with Lily in the cafeteria.
“Yeah. But I don’t think it will be that bad, you know? Principal Steele already knows that I am innocent. We will take it as private lessons,” I say.
“But you shouldn’t even get that!? This is just wrong, ” Lily says angrily.
“I know—”
“Caiden!”
I stop in the middle of speaking as a girl’s voice calls me from behind.
“A-Ava?” Turning back, I mutter in surprise.
From the entrance of the cafeteria, Ava is walking towards me with a really strange sort of smile pasted upon her face.
And I can already tell that she is planning something bad…