Him

Suspicions

I feel guilty for lying to Hazel about where Jake is, but honestly she doesn’t need to know. It’s his business, not hers. Plus it’ll be fine. He’ll be back and he will be better. I believe he can change.

“Principal Renner will see you now,” The secretary says.

I walk to the end of the office hallway. I knock and wait for him to respond. Even though she said he is ready to see me, I don’t want to just walk in.

“Come in,” He says.

I enter his office and take a seat in the chair. He is standing next to a filing cabinet. Once he finishes putting away a folder, he closes his office door and sits down.

“Um, you wanted to see me?” I ask.

“Yes I did. I wanted to talk to you about Jake Martin.”

Jake. What does he know about Jake? I hope he doesn’t know anything about him. Or what he did. That’s silly though. How would he know that?

“What about him?” I ask.                     

“Well he wasn’t at school yesterday. And I just received a phone call saying he won’t be at school the rest of the week.”

“Okay?”

“Well I’ve heard that you and he are pretty close. And I wanted to make sure you were okay,” He says concerned.

This is pretty weird. Why is he asking if I’m okay? I’m at school. Jake is the one that will be gone the rest of week, so he should be concerned about him. Maybe he knows where Jake went. That would make more sense. But I still don’t want him to know anything about my relationship.

“I’m fine?” Oops. That sounded more like a question than a statement.

“Listen Katie. Do you know why Jake was moved to this school?”

“Yeah. His dad was offered a better job,” At least that is what Jake told me. I don’t think he was lying to me. But maybe he was?

“He was actually expelled. He has an extremely bad temper. And I just want to make sure you are okay. I don’t want anything to happen to—“

“With all due respect Principal Renner. You do not have any right to know about my personal life. You also shouldn’t have told me about Jake’s past. That is personal to him and his family. And as for you caring about me, you can stop. I don’t need help from a high school womanizer. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have class,” I stand up and head to the door.

“Miss Holt,” Principal Renner snaps.

“What?”

“Obviously something is going on with you. You used to be so respectful and now you are…” He trails off. “You have detention today after school.”

“Fine.”

I storm out of his office. After getting my pass from the secretary I leave the office. I know I was rude to him, but seriously. ‘I don’t want anything to happen to you.’ Come on, that’s a bunch of bull crap and he knows it. He doesn’t care about me or anyone.

Why would he tell me about Jake’s past? That is supposed to be confidential, or at least I thought it was. I’m not even mad that Jake lied to me. Obviously he had his reasons. And Principal Renner just letting it all out there was completely wrong!

“Watch out!”

I collide into a body before I can stop myself.

“Are you okay?” Riley asks me.

“Just fine.”

“You liar, I can tell something’s wrong.”

I roll my eyes. I’m definitely not going to tell him about the meeting I just had. I don’t need any more suspicions going around.

“I just got detention.” I say.

“Dang that’s unexpected! What did you do?” He asks.

“I may have been disrespectful to Principal Renner.”

“May have?”

“Yeah.” I laugh.

I say bye to Riley and head to second period. Class has already started. Which is lame, because now everyone is going to stare at me like I murdered someone when I walk in there.

I hand my pass to Mr. Mitchell and take my seat. The girls are all staring at me. Too bad today is note taking day. We aren’t actually allowed to talk to each other. So they will have to wait until next period to interrogate me.

I cannot focus in class right now. And how can I? Today has been completely crazy. Principal Renner just. I can’t even think about him right now. He just makes me so mad.

I hope Jake is doing okay. I can’t believe he is going to be gone all week! What am I supposed to do? Well I guess I can hang out with my friends. Since the camping trip went well I can sit with everyone without feeling like I am betraying Jake.

“Since there are only five minutes left of class, you may stop and have some talk time,” Mr. Mitchell suddenly says.

Let the interrogation begin.

“Where were you?” Fiona asks.

“I told you she was in the office,” Hazel says.

“Yeah but why? Are you okay?” Emma asks.

“Yes I was in the office. Principal Renner needed to speak to me about, okay this is strange. He wanted to talk to me Jake. And he was telling me stuff that I’m pretty sure is confidential,” I explain.

“Wow. Really?” Emma says.

“Yeah.”

“Like what kind of things?” Fiona asks.

“A summed up version of why he moved to this school. Whatever. I feel like it was inappropriate for him to be telling me. Don’t you?”

“Of course! That is personal stuff,” Hazel agrees.

“What did you say?” Fiona asks.

“Oh, um. Well that’s what I needed to tell you. I won’t be able to go shop with you all after school. I got detention for being disrespectful.”

“Wow, little Miss Perfect got a detention?” Hazel teases.

“Yeah, maybe dating the bad boy has made you not such a good girl,” Fiona adds.

“Yes, you are both hilarious,” I say sarcastically.

--------------

“She really got detention?” Owen asks.

“Who got detention?” I but in as I sit next to Owen.

“You did!”

“Seriously Riley? Why don’t you broadcast it to the whole school?”

“Okay.” He stands up. “EVERYONE KATIE---“

Owen pulls Riley back down into his seat.

“You jerk,” I mutter.

“You told me to do it,” He states crossing his arms.

Lunch is almost over. I’m really not looking forward to going to detention. The teacher is mean! Well that is what I heard. This is actually going to be my first detention. Maybe everyone is right. Maybe I am changing because of Jake.

There’s the bell. Time for me to go experience my first detention.

“Hey, I’ll walk you to detention,” Owen offers.

“Okay.”

The walk there is silent for the most part. Things between us were okay, but just a bit awkward still. I really value our friendship but I know Jake is not going to be happy if he knows I’m alone with him. That is actually why I’m not going to tell him.

“So um. When Jake gets back, could you maybe not tell him about you walking me here?” I ask.

“Why? I thought we were cool?”

“You are. It’s just, I’d rather him not know about it, okay?”

Owen lets out a breath and rolls his eyes. “No. I’m not going to have to sneak around your boyfriend. We were friends before you even met him.”

“I just-“

“Are you really that afraid of him?” He asks.

“Why would you say that?”

“Come on Katie. Your friends might be fooled but I’m not buying it. Look at your arm!”

I must’ve forgotten to cover up my bruise. He doesn’t need to jump to conclusions though.

“What about it?”

“Did he hurt you?”

“Owen! Look I can’t have this conversation right now. I need to go.”

Quickly I enter the office to find out where detention is being held. I will gladly go to detention early so I don’t have to talk to Owen. He is the second person today that has been suspicious!

“Hi, can I help you?” the secretary asks.

“Yes. I’m Katie Holt. I was wondering where detention is being held.”

“Let me see. Oh Principal Renner’s office.”

“How is everyone going to fit in there?” I ask.

“You’re the only person who is on the detention list.”

I look down and sigh. I don’t want to be stuck in Principal Renner’s office with him! It’s for an hour too. I don’t think I can handle this.

“Can I request a different location?”

The secretary looks at me. Without answering she presses a button of the phone.

“Katie Holt is here for her detention.”

“Send her in.”

She looks at me once more and continues her typing.

“I guess not then,” I mutter as I head to Principal Renner’s office.

5...4...3...2...1, I enter his office and freeze. Principal Renner is in the middle of taking his shirt off. I can see his abs. He has a perfect six pack.

“Katie, oh I’m sorry! I spilled my coffee on my shirt and I was just changing it. I shouldn’t have had her send you in.” Principal Renner explains.

“I um, I’ll just. I’ll be outside your office.” I stutter leaving quickly and shutting the door.

Oh my gosh. I take a deep breath and lean against the wall next to his office door.