Stray

II

II

Cain

 “And ladies and gentlemen, this is the face of a guy who is about to lose a bet,” Ashton sang as Cain slumped down in his chair.

“I chose the right girl, didn’t I?” Mark grinned, the two high fiving each other proudly. “I’m sure Kade will want in as soon as he finds out the odds of you losing are so big.”

The replacement teacher arrived ten minutes late, placing the stack of papers on the desk, failing to notice that the window was wide open. She was one of those young, newly graduated teachers, probably around twenty three or so. Cain couldn’t help but laugh to himself as she fumbled around with the papers that continued drifting away from the pile.

She pulled her long brown hair back over her shoulders and straightened her shirt.

“Mhmm hmm,” she cleared her throat. “Would you please close the window?”

“Sure thing, Miss,” Mark smirked, swinging back on his chair to shut the window.

“Right. Thank you,” she smiled. “I am your replacement teacher for today, Miss Nelwich. Now, your teacher has left you with some worksheets to complete. He says that anything not completed will be homework, so I suggest you get on with it.”

Miss Nelwich walked up and down the aisles of desks, placing a worksheet on each table. As she passed by their row, Cain could swear he saw Ashton ogling her. While she made her way back to the front, he watched Ashton raise two fingers towards his mouth.

Within seconds, the wolf whistle had echoed throughout the room. Cain shook his head slowly, laughing. He raised a hand over his mouth to stop himself from cackling, but his attempt resulted in a snickering sound instead.

The teacher turned slowly, red in the face. She repeatedly straightened her skirt and shirt, flattening her palms out by her side. “Y-you,” she said unassertively.

“Me?” Cain asked in between a laugh.

“What’s your name?”

“Cain.”

“To the principal’s office. Now.”

Cain sighed, pushing his chair back, its legs scraping against the ground. He held his books by his sides, hitting Ashton in the back of his head, as he walked past. “You are so dead,” he mumbled. Ashton bit his lip, struggling not to laugh.

Ten minutes into a lesson was definitely a record, defeating his previous time of fifteen minutes. He wasn’t quite sure whether it was his face, but somehow, the teachers always pinned the crime to him over Ashton.

Ashton, that bastard, had caused him trouble like that countless times before, but being sent to the principal’s office for it was a first. Who the hell whistles at their replacement teacher!? Besides, she was too old anyway.

The bell jingled when he opened the door to student services, and the desk lady looked up. “Just wait a moment, Principal Kelly will be out in a few minutes.”

Why ask him to wait a moment if the principal would take a few minutes? It never made sense, really.  

“Cheers,” he replied.

At some point, the visits to the principal’s office had become so frequent that even without prompt, the desk lady knew what he was there for.

Three minutes and twenty two seconds exactly. The door to the principal’s door had opened and the man stepped out. His shirt was buttoned up, his belly slightly hanging out over his black trousers, his tie pulled up so tightly that Cain wasn’t quite sure how he was managing to breathe.

“Cain. Why am I not surprised to see you here first thing on a Monday morning?” The Principal asked.

“I’m not quite sure sir.”

Cain sat down on one of the chairs in front of the principal’s desk while the principal rummaged around in the filing cabinet. “There it is,” he muttered to himself, pulling out a cream coloured folder. He sat down on his chair – one of those luxurious leather spinny ones – and put the folder on the desk. “Do you know what this is?” He asked.

“No sir.”

“You can stop with the ‘sir’ now. Especially when you don’t mean it.”

“Yes,” Cain began. “Sir.” The little smirk had begun to tug at the corners of his mouth.

“This is your record, at this school alone.” Principal Kelly flicked through the multitude of pages. “We have one here for graffiti, just last week. Drawing crude pictures of a teacher. Swearing at a teacher. The list goes on. Would you care to tell me why you are here now?”

“I allegedly whistled at a replacement teacher.”

“And which teacher was that?”

“The young brunette?” Cain responded, not quite able to remember her name.

“Miss Nelwich. So, did you do it?”

“No sir.”

“You sure?”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright. You’ll be held out of class until first break. You’ll be staying in the office here. Also, ten hours of community service.” Principal Kelly scrawled the details down into Cain’s records and shut the folder. “Of course, community service includes contribution to the school.”

Principal Kelly reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a slip of paper. “The annual dance team competitions. Do it again this year. That’s ten hours.”

“Ten hours? But I didn’t do it!” Cain exclaimed.

“I know you didn’t,” the principal smiled. “Don’t forget, training starts at break one today. You may leave. Just stay in the office until first break.”

Oh, how dearly Cain wanted to wipe that smile off the principal’s face. With a clenched fist and tight jaw, he got up and left the office, leaving the door wide open behind him.

The two hours felt painstakingly like a year. Class was boring, but sitting in the office doing nothing was a whole new level of boring; the mind numbing kind of boring.

When the bell finally rang, it was like music to his ears, the equivalent of Beethoven’s symphonies – that is, to people who liked Beethoven. “See you later office lady,” he sang, leaving the office.

But damn. Training was break one.