The Day We Changed

Chapter Ten

"What could have possibly led you two to pull a stunt like that?" the Principal, who I have come to know as Miss Johnson, asks us.

She looks pissed as hell, and I'm starting to regret doing Magic for Alfred in the first place.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I was getting bullied?" I answer nervously, trying to meet her piercing, brown eyes, but I was failing miserably.

She sighs, obviously trying to calm herself down due to mine and Alfred's stupidity.

"Listen, I'll take care of Rikki, Dax, and Claire, believe me, I will," Miss Johnson promises, "but from now on, no more Magic, no more Spells, and certainly no more pranks, do you two understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," I nod in agreement while Alfred just smiles.

I can already tell that he's not going to obey her rules, but that's his grave he's digging, not mine.

"Good," she nods back. "Now, run along you two, and I mean what I said. If I see you so much as twitch a finger and cause any more trouble, there will be consequences."

We nod again before standing up and leaving her office, and I truly feel like the stupid idiot that I am.

Why can't I ever take a beating? I think to myself. It shouldn't be this hard. All I wanted to do was get away from all of this. Not experience it all over again.

"School rules, am I right?" Alfred laughs.

"Excuse me?" I glare at him. "If the school didn't have rules, this would have been a lot worse than it already was! I shouldn't have even agreed to do this at all. I should have just let it go, like I had told you that I was going to do yesterday."

"Hey, at least it was fun," Alfred grins.

"Whether it was fun is not the point!" I argue. "The point is, we shouldn't have done it all. That's what Miss Johnson was saying."

"Well, you can say that you did a prank, at least," he offers, and I just shake my head with a laugh.

He was really something, but...it was a good something.

Perhaps he's going to be a great friend after all, I think to myself as we part ways to our next class.

~~~~~~

"Hey, Arthur," Rikki starts off with an awkward smile, "we're really sorry for what we did to you during the past few days."

"Yeah, we didn't mean it, and you're actually a pretty cool guy," Dax agrees.

"Since we have a group project coming up, would you like to join our group?" Claire offers, a kind smile gracing her tanned face.

"Sounds tempting, and apology accepted," I smirk as I continue writing some notes down in my notebook from the board, "but no thank you. Alfred, Madeline, and I are already a group."

"Oh, well," Rikki giggles, "if you ever want to just hang out or something, feel free to ask us."

"I'll think about it, but I'll probably be too busy with other stuff," I tell them as they walk off, almost a little sad.

"They were just being nice," Alfred laughs.

"I know," I reply, "but I like hanging out with you more."

The bell for class rings, and our teacher walks into the room and immediately starts the lesson.

I didn't want to admit it to Alfred, or the others, but ever since I had lost touch with Francine, I've never wanted to do anything fun anymore.