I feel nervous when I walk in college with my father by my side. I know I’m not in trouble and that my parents are on my side, I’m nervous for the headmaster. Father will be merciless for two reasons. One, they made him worry by not fully explaining what had happened. Second, Father should be working now and he’s losing precious time, and for that he’s really pissed.
The secretary greets us without really paying us any attention and says the headmaster will see us shortly.
“I have a job, as well, and it is very important that I go back as soon as possible,” Father notifies her. “Please, inform the headmaster that this issue needs to be handled immediately.”
I chuckle under my breath. Father sounds like he is in charge of some job of national security, when in fact he’s just a professor and researched at university. Well, I don’t know exactly what they are currently working on, maybe it is some national project and it is extremely important. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case.
The secretary looks surprised and taken aback, so she only nods and stands up to walk to the headmaster office. When she’s back she tells us we can go in and I can’t help the smile to show on my lips. I never knew Father could look so impressive and use his cold and collected voice to make people do what he wants.
Inside the office the headmaster greets us both with big smiles and shakes Father’s hand before he asks us to sit down.
“I’m very sorry you had to come but it was our duty to inform you of your daughter’s actions,” he speaks as if he were in pain with this situation. I only feel annoyance at his fake reaction.
“I understand there was a conflict and my daughter was involved. She already informed me of the events, but now I want to see the school report,” Father speaks and the headmaster blinks. The smile comes back to my lips.
“Pardon?” the headmaster asks, his expression falling with every second.
“The report. It’s part of the protocol that every time a situation like the one presented the day before happens, a report must be filled to present to the parents or guardians in charge of the students. I’m the parent of one of the students and I request to see the full report without the filter that accompanies the student’s version,” Father explains and I don’t even know if it’s like that, but the way he speaks doesn’t leave room for questioning and the headmaster looks tense.
“Mr Brown, you must understand that situations like this one happen too often. We can’t fill reports every day,” he tries to explain but I said it before, Father is merciless.
“The more reason to provide reports. If this is a recurrent event, then the school needs to take charge and do something. Suspending kids or calling their parents without even listening to their version of the events is disrespectful and lousy. I was called and the situation was poorly explained, hence my worry arose. You can imagine how anxious I was feeling until I could talk to my daughter and she explained to me what really happened. That should have been the school’s duty. She informed two students were suspended without even listening to their reasons, treated equally even if one was protecting a bullied kid. I am no psychologist but I am aware that bullying is a serious issue in today’s society. Is this your way to handle it? By just getting used to it and taking equal actions for both parties? Will you suspend also a bullied kid if he decides to stop the abuser?”
The smile doesn’t leave my lips as I see the headmaster’s face going pale and then red with embarrassment. I knew calling my parents was their mistake for they will always take the logical and right side.
“If these situations are recurrent, then that only shows the poor work you are doing to stop these things from happening. How is suspension going to solve the problem? Will the abuser stop the bullying once he comes back? Will the students see that standing up for someone else is taken into consideration instead of equally punished? Is the situation better after what you did?” Father insists and the headmaster is stuttering now. “My daughter was stopping one of the students from bullying an innocent girl at the edge of crying and breaking down. Did you ask her why she behaved that way? Did you know this?”
The headmaster shakes his head with shame and I want to laugh because he looks like a kid being scolded. I believe it’s actually like that. Go father, go! You teach him.
“I know my daughter and I know she would never get in a situation like that without a logical reason and she always has the best intentions. If something like this happens again, I’ll know it’s because you are still not doing anything about it,” Father states coldly and the headmaster nods. “And now that I’m involved I’ll be asking my daughter if the problem with bullying is being handled properly. The reports are necessary because if these events happen as often as you mention, then you need help as institution.”
“We are very sorry for calling you without taking the proper measures,” the headmaster finally apologises and then looks at me. “And we are sorry for not asking for the full story before taking action.”
I nod in acknowledgement and to hide the smile on my lips. Today I’m actually happy that they called my parents.
“I hope this situation does not happen like this again,” Father says with his head high. “And if you do not have a report to handle and have accepted your wrongdoings, then I would like to take my leave. We are carrying an important study and I’m needed in the laboratory,” he adds and the headmaster nods, rising to his feet.
“Of course, of course. Please, we don’t want to keep you here longer that necessary. We can see now that you are very responsible and concerned with your daughter. We are, once again, very sorry for this incomplete work. Please, accept our apologies.”
“Of course I’m concerned, Allison is my daughter and she will always be our first priority. Her mother and I will never allow anything to taint her future.” I’m actually touched with Father’s words and my smile is different this time, not satisfied but a happy one. In their way, they are only looking after me because they care. “And apologies accepted. Now if you excuse me, I’ll take my leave. Have a good day.”
They shake hands and I just get a nod before we walk away and Father urges me to go to my classes immediately. I wish Zeke’s parents had also come to make the headmaster apologise for his unfair actions. But if this has happened before maybe that’s why they don’t even bother to come anymore. I wonder what he is doing now. Maybe he’s volunteering at the orphanage or visiting the homeless people. For some reason I doubt he will stay at home, slacking like I imagine Butch is doing.
At the first break Sam comes running to me, her breathing heavy and I chuckle because she’s clearly not used to physical activity. I think if I had to run, I would also be out of breath.
“How… how did it go?” she asks with her hands on her side, trying to catch her breath. “For how long are you grounded? Did they give you community service?”
I chuckle. I’m not surprised she thinks things went terribly considering the things I’ve said about my parents. I mean, I was scared because I didn’t know how they would react, and I feel very ashamed that I thought they would be irrational and just punish me. I should’ve known better, but Sam has no reason to expect the real outcome of the situation. She was so worried that if she called or texted me last night things would get worse so we agreed to only talk about it today, just to be safe.
“Things went great,” I tell and she holds her breath and blinks, as if waiting for me to say it’s a joke. “Really. My parents totally listened to me and agreed that the way the headmaster handled the situation was wrong. They didn’t punish me or anything because they know I was just trying to do the right thing and I apologised for not choosing the best way to approach the issue.”
“Wow, that sounds so… rational. I mean, I really thought they would forbid you talk to any other human being and just study until you’re fifty. I’m glad!”
“It’s a perk of having just rational parents,” I chuckle. “They listen to the story, collect all the needed data before making a judgement. They were just worried because when the school called them the situation wasn’t really explained. Today Father got the headmaster to apologise!” I tell her and her eyes widen in surprise. “He demanded for a report and when the headmaster told him he didn’t have one because this is just too frequent, Father used all that against them! It was epic, Sam. You should’ve seen it.”
“I’d pay to see it! Wow, I’m really impressed with your father, Allie,” she conceded and I feel so proud of my parents right now.
“Father put in evidence the lousy job they are doing to deal with bullying and the headmaster was blushing, ashamed! I wish Zeke had seen that. The headmaster even apologised to me for not acting properly yesterday,” I continue.
“That’s incredible. Your father is scarily amazing, Allie. Please, remind me to not get in his bad side,” Sam laughs. “He would make me apologise for every wrongdoing I’ve done, even if it’s not my fault.”
“Maybe he would,” I laugh along. “I just wish the headmaster could un-suspend Zeke. He didn’t deserve the same punishment as Butch. That’s not fair. I mean, yeah, Zeke was wrong for punching Butch, but the situation was different for each of them, yet Zeke is also treated like a bully,” I lament and we both lose our smiles.
“I know, but they always do that. Zeke doesn’t even complain, as you saw,” Sam comments and it’s true. He didn’t even try to explain things yesterday, he just accepted the punishment even if it was unfair. “I wonder if now that your father humiliated the headmaster he’ll do something about it instead of just acting annoyed.”
“I hope so. My father said he would be paying attention and that seemed to scare him, so let’s hope for the best. I mean, I hope they actually fill reports and listen the full story before imparting punishments, you know?” Sam nods and I sigh. “I wonder how Zeke is doing. I’m really annoyed he was suspended the same amount of days as Butch!” I complain and Sam nods again.
“If the two were to be suspended, Butch should’ve got more days because he was the one who was bullying Dana and tried to bully you, too.”
Dana is the girl Butch was bullying yesterday. Thankfully she’s okay but Sam told me the poor girl always gets picked on, which is terrible because she’s done nothing wrong to deserve that. It’s so unfair.
“Why don’t you go visit Zeke after classes?” Sam suggests and my head snap. “Yeah!” she insists, more enthusiastic this time despite my surprise. “I’m sure he’d be happy to see you and you’d get to tell him what your father did. And don’t you have classes with him today? You can hand him the notes.”
Sam smiles because she knows that with her last argument she got me and at the idea of seeing Zeke today I feel my stomach tensing in that funny feeling.
“I’ll text him first to make sure it’s not inconvenient for him,” I think out loud and Sam chuckles.
“I’m sure he’ll be happy, don’t worry. I always thought he didn’t want to have people around, but now that I’ve talked to him and see him, I realise he actually likes people, he just likes the right people, not just anyone. He’ll appreciate a friend making sure he’s all right so don’t worry.”
I smile at her before the bell rings, reminding us it is time to go to our next class so we say goodbye for the time being. I leave to class with that tingly feeling still lingering in my guts.
-:-:-
Did you like it? I honestly love her parents, even if they are stric and whatnot. They are still powerful and I love powerful people.
Le tme know your thoughts!
Bel, xx