The High School Experience

» a cup of tea and a cinnamon roll

· Chapter One ·

Mr Dilworth was glaring at us. Not just looking. Glaring. His grey eyes were burning a hole in our faces. I was pretty sure he brought us all into the assembly hall to kill us.

With his eyes.

After two, long minutes of deafening silence, he finally opened his mouth to speak. "Must I remind you, pupils, why you are here?" I grimaced in my seat. Rhetorical questions were always a sign when he was about to give us a lecture.

"Must I remind you why or how you are here, in my school, one of the best and prestigious schools within this town?" The principal's voice had now risen slightly, and I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one feeling uncomfortable. At least half of year's gazes were fixed on him, not one anywhere else. Even though we would never admit it, I think some of were just a little bit scared of him. With his thick glasses and twirled moustache, he may not have appeared intimidating. But when you actually heard him speak...

"You are all responsible eighteen-year-olds, responsible adults, yet some of you still decide to act like children." In my peripheral vision, I saw a hand tentatively rise up.

"Actually, Sir, some of us are still seventeen," someone said. Big mistake. Mr Dilworth's eyes snapped over to the unfortunate guy, while a few people giggled.

"Detention," he said, "for the rest of the week." If that didn't shut everybody up, I don't know what did.

The principal had now started to pace around at the front; he continued. "You see, that is exactly what I am talking about: mindless acts that have no meaning or value in your life. Yet you still decide to do them."

Beside me, Natalia shuffled in her seat. She brought a hand up to her face and badly stifled a yawn. Yeah, real subtle. Turning to me, she rolled her eyes as if to say 'just get to the point'. I ignored her. There was no way I was going to risk my life just for my best friend.

"So would anyone care to enlighten me on why the boys' gym locker room was destroyed?" A few snickers went off towards the back of the hall, where the real culprits were. The Sport Freaks. On Monday, the boys had thought it would be a good idea to TP their P.E. locker room for fun, which was quite ironic, seeing as sport was practically their whole life. So technically, half of the year didn't even have to be here, i.e. the girls.

Mr Dilworth was now shouting, which was something he rarely didn't do. "Why did you decide to do such a meaningless act, knowing full well there would be consequences?" Asking questions that didn't need to be answered, the word 'decide' and dishing out punishments were a few of his favourite things.

There were never not consequences. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the girls were getting the lecture with the suspects as a consequence, probably because we were in the same species as the boys, something Mr Dilworth wasn't when he got angry.

"There are only a few weeks of your senior year left. If I even hear so much as a bad word about any one of you again," here, he paused for added effect, "there will be consequences."

"We know," Natalia muttered under her breath, which was what every one of us was thinking. She was tapping impatiently on her armrest.

Then Mr Dilworth said the sentence we were all waiting to hear.

"You're dismissed."

+ + +

Natalia groaned as we pushed open the door to a popular cafe a few minutes' walk from our school. The bell jingled and few people glanced up from what they were doing. We walked to the back, where our usual seats were and plopped down gratefully.