"What!" I said, for the third time in a row.
"I said it was reported to me that you exposed yourself to a teacher earlier today."
"Sir, whatever you've been told, I didn't do it."
He slid his spinning chair away from the desk, so that he towered over me threateningly, and placed both hands on the table. His breath filled the gap between us. Not so good.
"Are you suggesting Miss Leveni is a liar?"
Oh.
"No, sir. This is merely a misunderstanding."
He chuckled- the kind of dry laugh you would do if your friend told a dry joke in public.It did nothing but heighten my exasperation.
"You mean you didn't pull up your shirt in her presence?"
I opened my mouth to respond but was greeted by impatience.
"With the office door shut?" Then he added, "Alone."
It was clear where this was going and I didn't like it.
"Sir, I was just trying to show her a few scars. I didn't think-"
"That's right, Mr Zuberi. You didn't think. Would you feel comfortable exposing your bare chest to me right now?"
He circled the desk, his dark orbs remaining trained on me relentlessly. The blinders of his office window cast shadow stripes over the desk. My eyes numbered each one as I counted them back and forth. Concentrating on these would allow me to keep my anger supressed, because this was genuinely beginning to get on my nerves. Way to ruin a perfectly successful murder-day, sir.
"No, sir."
"No, sir, what?" he commanded.
"No, sir. I would not feel comfortable lifting my shirt right now."
"Exactly," he declared, like a lawyer who was just about to win his first case. "Which means I have no choice but to believe that your earlier intent was of sexual nature."
"But sir..."
"If a girl were to lift her vest in front of a male teacher, especially in an enclosed area, would that be inappropriate?"
Sweat had begun to seep from my pores, meanwhile I struggled to keep myself from shivering with rage.
"I suppose it would be, sir."
"Then we cannot let this slide. Earlier this term you were given a warning for doing the same thing to Miss Zuberi."
I swallowed hard, but did not make a move to reply.
"We do not groom boys to be predators here, Leon. Understand that. Otherwise I will be forced to exert my authority and, like I mentioned before, expel you."
"I'm sorry, sir," I pleaded, as my hands balled into fists in my lap.
"Words are nothing but words, kid. I want to see a change in your attitude. We don't want to have a reason to decline you a position in our Advanced Level programme next year. Continue like this and you'll have to learn somewhere else in January. So, can I count on you to see a change?"
"Yes, sir."
"That's good, Mr Zuberi. Unfortunately, at this point I will still have to take disciplinary action."
A lump formed in my throat. If not expulsion, and not suspension, then there could only be one more thing to be done. Oh, zombies-in-graves. The principal opened the bottom drawer of his file cabinet and withdrew his dreaded weapons of discipline. He placed them in front of me, so that they lay perpendicular to the stripes of the blinders. They were rubber pipes, each about fifty centimetres long and the same colour as my clothes.
"Choose one," he said, hands sliding into his pockets in a sinister fashion.
They were identical. I pointed randomly. He picked up the one I had avoided and asked me to stand up.
YOU ARE READING
THE REST OF MY FOREVER
Mystery / ThrillerThere were lots of sirens on the morning of October the eighth, enough to unsettle the best of us; and definitely enough to bring the town of Santasport to life. Three cars were parked outside: one was a big white ambulance and the other smaller one...
