Linger

E I G H T Y - O N E

"Principal Blakely, you know Mr. Hayden isn't dating any of us, right?" Kelsey twirled her pencil in her hand as she turned back to look at Principal Blakely.

"Wait, dude." The skater boy turned in his seat to face Principal Blakely.  "Is that why you're here?"

Daniel cleared this throat. "Mr. Sandoval--"

"Duuude," the skater boy continued, looking at us. "People actually do that?! I thought that was just some like--" 

"Mr. Sandoval--"

"Sorry." The skater boy coughed, turning back to his seat. 

"Look," Kelsey spoke up. "I know I said a lot of inappropriate things about Mr. Hayden. I'm sorry, okay? I would've never said them if I knew he'd get in trouble." 

Guilt began to rise in my chest. 

"I'm sorry too," Sophia raised her hand.  

"But it was all me!!" Kelsey said quickly. "He never did or said anything." 

"Except tell us to shut up," Sophia added, and they both giggled. 

"But we swear on our high school careers nothing happened." 

"Never." Sophia shook her head with wide eyes.

"We take full responsibility." 

Principal Blakely nodded. "Thank you, Miss Cruz and Miss Saylor for your honesty." 

I swallowed hard as I cast my gaze to my notes, my chest growing tighter and tighter.

"Alright." Daniel clasped his hands together. "Let's get those tests graded, shall we?" He went around passing out the tests to the person sitting at the front of each row. "Take one and pass it back. You know how it goes. If you get your own, please exchange it with someone nearby . . ."

"Ahem." Principal Blakely cleared his throat.

"Yes, Principal Blakely?" Daniel raised his eyebrows at him as he stopped at our row. 

"Is this the procedure you use to grade all the tests administered in your class?"

"I wish." One of the hockey players laughed from the front. 

"We never do this in History," Kelsey said. 

"Not often, no," Daniel told Principal Blakely. 

"Hm." Principal Blakely clicked his pen as he scribbled in his notebook. 

The skater boy glanced from Principal Blakely then to Daniel. "Whoa, dude. Are you, like, going to get in trouble for letting us grade these? 'Cause, like, we could totally not--"

"No, no." Principal Blakely shook his head. "Please proceed as if I'm not here." 

Sasha scoffed next to me. 

After everyone received a test to grade, Daniel began going over the answers. I did my best to follow, but it was hard to focus on anything but Principal Blakely sitting right behind me, watching my every move.