Only Once

Chapter Sixteen: A meeting with the Principal

“Am I in trouble?” he finally blurted out.

“Oh no, not at all,” Principal Roderick laughed.

Spencer breathed out a sigh of relief.

“We just need to ask you a few questions.”

“What kind of questions?” Spencer demanded, getting suspicious all over again. 

Principal Roderick looked rather nervous, his bright blue eyes and thin moustache twitched.

“Stacey," he said, "I’ll let you handle the rest.”

Stacey, who was wearing brown lipstick, flashed the principal a reassuring smile before turning to Spencer.

“It’s about Jesse Schluter,” she began in her loud, obnoxious voice. “I have a feeling he’s up to no good.”

“What do you mean?” Spencer demanded with a frown. What had little Jesse been doing that had caught Stacey’s attention? Did Clay know about it?

Stacey paused for a moment. “Well, you see, he’s been hanging out with the Berg’s more often… Jesse Berg, in particular. And they’ve taken an empty locker, put a lock on it, and continuously meet up at it. I don’t know what they keep in there. I don’t know why they meet there. But pretty soon we’re going to have to break down the lock and see what’s up.” 

Stacey Moore moved her hands a lot as she spoke and her face was very animate. She reminded Spencer of those lazy, donut eating cops that made a big deal out of everything. 

“What?” he growled, infuriated as he tried to process it. “Jesse and Jesse are still friends?”

The Berg’s, who were two brothers, were well known troublemakers at their school. Jesse was the same age as Clay’s brother Jesse while Ian was nineteen and still in school. Back when Jesse Schluter had met Jesse Berg, they became friends immediately and started hanging out. Jesse Berg, however, looked up to his older brother and soon introduced Jesse Schluter to a world of skipping class, doing graffiti on bridges in the highway, detention and even doing the occasional soft drug.  

It wasn’t until they were caught shoplifting while under the influence that Clay and Spencer realized the friendship needed to be put to an end. With much difficulty and persuasion, they managed to get Jesse to stop hanging out with the other Jesse. Jesse Schluter then moved on to finding new friends and stopped getting detention and in trouble. Or so it seemed.

“Yup,” Stacey said as she nodded her head.

“I don’t believe it.” Spencer muttered.

“Anyways,” Stacey said in that loud, staid voice and crossed her arms across her large chest. “We called you down to see if you know anything about it. Because if this is what we think it is, then they’re all getting expelled.” 

Spencer shook his head. “No, sorry; I honestly don’t.”

Stacey and Principal Roderick exchanged a look.

“Okay,” Principal Roderick said.”Well if you do find out anything about it, please do come to us. It is vital that we put an end to this before it gets too serious.”

“Right,” Spencer muttered, wondering if it was really even that bad. Maybe they were hiding candy in there or something.

“All right then,” Principal Roderick said. “Well thanks for your time; you may go back to class.”

“Sure,” Spencer said, getting up and leaving.

As he walked down the halls, he couldn’t help but think how short the meeting had been. But then again, they had called him down to ask him questions about stuff he had no clue about.