What About Loyalty

Chapter 9

I was sitting on a chair in the VP office waiting room. The longer you sit there, the more worried you are about what your punishment is gonna be. This isn't the first time I was in this office, but it wasn't for something bad. Or at least not as severe. Last year, I was about to fail some of my classes, and Mrs. Ludot kindly let me know that. If it wasn't for her, I'd still be a junior.

Now, I fear, she won't be as forgiving.

When I finally got summoned to her office, I got up and walked slightly slow. During the trek to her office, I kept thinking to myself, 'Please tell me she didn't hear the rumors.' When I came into her office, she told me to close the door and sit down.

"I'll just cut to the chase, Harvey," Mrs. Ludot said in a grave tone. "I've been hearing some very crazy stories about you and Hilary Hurston."

"What stories?" I queries out of fear.

"Let's just say you shoved her up against a locker yesterday and touched her in an inappropriate manner despite her pleas not to."

My eyes grew wide with distraught. I knew I had to tell her the truth, the real truth, not those bullshit lies she heard. "But... that never happened," I told Mrs. Ludot.

"You might say it didn't, but Hilary came to me and told me otherwise, as did Bruce Levi, Marvin Vicious, and Gloria Burn, who claimed they saw you," she replied.

"Don't assume that because numbers are power means I'm immediately guilty."

"But why would they lie, assuming that they did?"

"I'll tell you why; they don't want me joining the football team this year. That, and their general hatred for me."

"And you expect me to believe this?"

"Because it's the honest-to-God truth! I'll swear on a whole stack of bibles, or even my great-grandmother's grave!" That's when I saw Mrs. Ludot take out a small slip of paper and marking certain areas of it with a pen. I knew at that moment that she was never going to believe me.

"Harvey," Mrs. Ludot told me in a cold voice, "throughout your time here, I've known you to be a kind, honest gentleman, but if you can't act upon it now, then I don't know what else to do for you." She then handed me the slip of paper. It said that I was suspended from school for two weeks for s****l harassment and willful disregard of the school rules.

I was, of course, disheartened upon seeing it. "B-b-but," I tried to explain, "this is just unfair, you suspending me for something I didn't ev-"

"I don't want to hear anymore from you," Mrs. Ludot interrupted. "Once you leave this office, you are to go straight to your locker to get whatever you may need and go immediately home."

I knew there was no use arguing with a vice principal, so I hung my head dejectedly and replied with a simple, "Yes, ma'am,"

"You may go now," Mrs. Ludot said without looking at me. I did exactly what she told me to do. I left her office, got my bookbag from my chair in the waiting room, and walked down the hall to my locker. I packed whatever I could, then walked out of the building to start my hour-long trek back home on foot.