Back to the grind

There was plenty to think about in regards to Sarah’s decision but with her memory now reset, you weren’t going to get any answers from her. There was a temptation to see what she had recorded on your phone but you were a man of your word and didn’t want to ruin the surprise for whatever she had planned for herself.

So instead of mulling that over, you decided to follow in Sarah’s footsteps and act like it never happened. That obviously wasn’t easy after you had finished your test and had nothing else to do but think so you just tried to **** it out of your mind and come up with a new topic to think about every time it popped up.

That topic ended up being some additional party planning while you had the chance. Most of the details had been figured out after the multiple days worth of worrying you had done but it was still good for you to go over the details once again and with Emma volunteering to help you out and watch your back, you thought about some riskier opportunities that you might be able to go with while Emma could help do damage control or position people to be in the right place at the right time.

The time for the test was over before you completely ran out of ideas but you felt that you had made decent progress towards figuring out everything that you could.

Any more thinking at this point would probably end up with you overanalyzing things, if you hadn’t already been doing that, and there was a degree of going with the flow when certain situations popped up that you would never be able to prepare for.

You’d also already let Sarah and Emma know at lunch that you were planning on meeting up with Rebecca after school so you told them to go on ahead without you. Emma was able to text you that she was going to keep an eye on Sarah just to make sure there were no unintended effects after her memory loss so you could breathe a sigh of relief in that regard, trusting Emma to watch over your sister for you.

So with that worry off of your mind, you headed up the stairs once again to meet up with your teacher and once again you heard the principal talking, almost letting out an audible sign as you reflected on how bad your luck was currently. This time however, you recognised that she was talking to Rebecca and from her tone, it sounded like she was still feeling that surge of confidence from earlier that let her stick up for herself.

You weren’t quite ready to reveal yourself as you stayed hidden away around the corner, but you listened in with the intention of making yourself known if things went too off the rails. You knew you would try to never let any harm come to Rebecca but there was also a selfish part of you that also didn’t want to get involved with the principal more than you had too.

“... and I think there really needs to be more camera’s up in the office area. We cannot have students wandering around like…” the principal continued to ramble.

“Yes yes, you’ve already explained all of this before. Look. For all we know the students didn’t even know they couldn’t use that bathroom and it was a one-time mistake. Maybe they just left and entered when they saw their mistake and that was when they were seen” Rebecca added, cutting off her mother as if she had been on this topic too many times.

“You’re too gullible. They were up to something and I will not stand for this!” the principal shot back, not willing to even consider Rebecca’s arguments and completely ignoring that she had even brought them up.

“Well if you have made up your mind then I guess that’s that. Now if you’ll excuse me I really do need to get back to work and…” Rebecca replied, trying to end the conversation but getting caught in the middle of another rant.

This was starting to get painful to even you and that was with you only just listening from the sidelines, making you imagine how shitty Rebecca must be feeling given that she was the one getting the brunt of the verbal ****. You could excuse some shouting but the conversation just seemed to be going around and around, making you want to intervene now that Rebecca had clearly tried to end the conversation without much luck.

You ended up taking a textbook out of your backpack and holding it in your arms, rounding the corner and making your way towards the argument with some hope to end it.

Rebecca saw you at first from behind her mother and her eyes widened if but briefly at your presence, calming herself back down when she saw you wink back at her in response.

As much as you hated it, you moved to be in line of sight of both of them before making it look like you were backtracking, seeing the principal look harshly in your direction.

“A-ah sorry, I can come back later if you are busy Miss Ryan” you said, trying your best to add a little more quiver into your voice.

Not that it wasn’t hard to be slightly intimidated by the older woman in front of you.

“No it’s fine Max, I said I would help and we were nearly wrapped up. I was distracted but I’d like to get something prepared first if you don’t mind waiting? Are we done here?” Rebecca asked, first to you with a smile and then pointing the next question over to the principal, her tone changing to be less friendly.

Rebecca seemed emboldened by your presence and when an immediate answer didn’t come to her, she uttered a quick “good” before closing the door and heading back into her office.

That obviously halted the conversation but that left you with the principal who now had only you left as a target. You wanted to say this was going exactly as you had planned but you had hoped that either Rebecca would have pulled you into her office alongside her or your presence would have made the principal leave, getting you stuck in this weird middle ground where neither of those things had occurred.

She stared you down for longer than you felt like you could bear and after a painful few seconds, she finally opened her mouth.

“Have I seen you before?” she asked, her eyes squinting at you while trying to recognise you.

She had obviously spoken to you before, especially after Sarah had had her phone confiscated and she had shouted at you but the fact that she was struggling to remember made you think you weren’t the only student she had harassed recently, making you think you could get out of this situation with her being none the wiser.