A+

Principals lack principles

Adam shivered as he watched his mother's lifeless body being placed in a body bag, then away, never to be seen again. He couldn't stop his tears, but rather than sobbing, he found himself staring into the distance while tears slid down his cheeks. Too shocked to believe it, but part of him knew very well it was true.

An officer, one of the many who were standing in front of his house now, walked up to him, "Mr. Smith, I know this is a difficult time, but I'll need to ask some questions," she said, her voice gentle and calm.

Adam just nodded, she looked down at her notepad, "Was there anyone new around your house? Anyone you didn't know? Anyone sketchy-looking?" she asked.

Adam hesitated, before just shaking his head. The officer sighed quietly, "Then it might be a suicide.." she muttered, before walking off.

-

Nathan woke up to the sound of his alarm, loud and annoying, but not as annoying as his mother, who he could hear sobbing in her room. He furrowed his eyebrows and turned the alarm off, looking at the date and time. 7AM on Saturday, the 30th of September. He tiredly rubbed his eyes, the events of last night still replaying in his head, he'd had quite a good time.

Nathan took a deep breath, then he finally decided to swing his legs over the bed and stand up. He yawned, debating just remaining in bed for the day. But he couldn't.
It was the weekend, he had to show people that he could still have fun.

He went to look at himself in the mirror, running a hand through his messy and tangled hair and pouting. Now he'd have to leave the room to go shower, and interact with his mother.
Either way he would've left his room, but in one scenario he could've been all dressed and ready to leave, not even saying goodbye to her. But in the scenario he was in he'd still have to go shower, and she'd probably stop him to give him an awkwardly long hug or something.

Nathan walked to his door, already angry just at the scenarios he was imagining would happen. What he didn't expect, however, was a knock at his door.
It had actually caused Nathan to jump backwards in shock. He inhaled sharply before opening the door again.

His mother, looking slimey with tears.
"Honey, your principal wants to meet us to discuss your behavior recently."

Nathan looked quite disgusted at the thought of literally sitting down just to talk and nothing else.

His mother picked up on that, and sighed deeply, "It's important, we're meeting her at 10."

Nathan just nodded in response, what else could he do? He pointed to the bathroom door, causing his mother to step aside, then he went past her towards the bathroom.

There, he'd taken a shower, brushed and styled his hair, before leaving the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him.

He trotted over to his room and closed the door behind himself. Nathan suddenly huffed, he'd rather do anything than go there, and sit silently while he's once again, being called antisocial.

He ended up walking over to his bed, grabbing his phone off of his nightstand, and sitting on the edge of the bed.
He wasn't too focused on holding his towel properly, he was just aimlessly scrolling through Instagram.

Then, out of the blue, a post from his town's news account. He read through it, fake empathy once again.

'A 47 year old woman, wife, and mother, had been shot in her home at 9:30PM, Friday, September 29th.'