unfazed (mileven au)

prologue

Ah, the principal's office.

A small, overly stuffy room tucked away in the main office that El spends more of her time in than any actual classroom. She could tell you the number of beat up tiles that make up the ceiling above her or even the number of succulents Mr. Jones currently has placed on his desk. It's sad really, but it's almost like a depressing version of her home away from home.

El taking up the space in that somewhat uncomfortable, wooden chair sat in front of the large desk is nothing but a regular part of the school week. All wouldn't be right in the world if she didn't make an appearance, which she tended to do quite often throughout the week.

Any other student would shit their pants at the thought of being sent to the office as many times as she had, but El could not care less.

Her parents didn't seem to give a shit about her rather unacceptable behavior, given the major marital problems that consumed all their worries these days. And every time the office would give them a call, they would purposely ignore it or answer it only to chew the kind staff out for disrupting their day. So, if dear old mom and dad didn't care, then why should she?

Most days she'd continuously smart off to Mr. Jones, finding his punishments to be rather pointless. Usually it was an afternoon in detention or a painfully boring lecture and then she'd be on her way.

You see, Mr. Jones was a crabby old man, who couldn't stand the sight of El. It wasn't hard to tell, with the grimaces he gave her in the halls or the exasperated sighs he'd release when she'd walk through his door. He was so tired of seeing her face that he'd often let her off easy, just so he didn't have to deal with her any longer than necessary.

The man truly hated El and her ending up right back in his office, this early on a Monday morning, did nothing to change to that.

Only this visit in particular was different than her typical ones. The crime she had supposedly committed was much more severe than cussing out a teacher or cheating on a Math test.

And as odd as it felt, she definitely did care.

"Miss Hopper, drugs aren't allowed on school grounds. This is going to get you three days suspension and I'm afraid I'm going to have to alert the authorities."

El sighed heavily, feeling like this whole conversation has just been one complete circle.

"I'm aware they're not allowed on school grounds, which brings me back to what I already told you, they're not mine!"

"They were in your locker." He stated, eyeing her doubtfully over the top of his thick lensed glasses.

El leaned back in the chair, defiantly crossing her arms over her chest. "Well then, someone must've put them there to get me in trouble."

"So what you're telling me is that someone planted those drugs there, knowing you'd get caught?"

"Yes, that's literally what I just said." El snapped, the old man irritating her more than usual today.

Mr. Jones choked out a heavy laughter, no doubt because of what she was claiming had happened.

She knew that was the same bullshit that druggies feed him with when they get caught. Unlike those druggies though, she's telling the truth. Those weren't her drugs.