Luke has been giving Art a hard time ever since the jersey incident. Wouldn't this be Art's chance for payback? "He's not going to talk," Luke said, seeing my reaction, "Art isn't going to go screaming to anyone. We have our differences, but we handle them directly." "Unlike your ex the snitch," Chad said, shaking his head, "You really know how to pick 'em." "Chad," Luke said, "If you make one more joke about Millie's ex-boyfriend, I'll show you how hard I can throw a basketball." "Luke!" I snapped, keeping my voice very low so that no one else could hear, "Can you not threaten anyone please? We're still in the Principal's office for the first time you tried that." Luke raised his hands in surrender. "Code red," Austin told us, staring over us with widening eyes as Cearra's mom walked to Chad's dad. I had completely forgotten about Austin's phone call. "What do we do?!" Cearra freaked out, flapping her hands while watching the adults approach each other. "Go over there," Austin told Luke, "You know I can't say anything." Luke and Chad didn't hesitate. They swept in between the parents and tried to intersect Cearra's mom. Chad went straight for his dad, drawing attention to his watch, "You're late, dad. Don't you need to be somewhere important?" And Luke appeared in front of Cearra's mom, "Sorry to ambush you like this, but I just wanted to say that you have a very kind daughter." "How sweet of you, Luke," Cearra's mom replied, stopping to talk to him, "I'm sure a dozen girls have said that to you before and I'm just not so sure how innocent you are." "I'm well intentioned," he replied, with a hint of a smirk. Cearra was holding onto me so tightly I thought my arm would break off. She leaned over, "I can't believe Luke Dawson is trying to cover up for me!" "He's a master at that, apparently," I muttered bitterly, still not over Luke's clean diversion of the bullying incident. We watched the conversation continue, until Cearra's mom loudly called out to Chad's dad, "Mr Chadwick, there are no hard feelings. You took good care of my daughter in Dubai, so I appreciate that." Luke rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at me. He was worried that this would be the moment everything unravelled for Austin and Cearra. There was not much we could do about it now. Chad was waving his rolex in his father's face, trying to convince him of some invisible appointment, but his father wasn't going to leave until the Principal cleared the situation. "You're welcome. They're a lively group of friends, but at least they have each other," Mr Chadwick answered, undoubtedly thinking of the time we destroyed his dinner in Dubai. "We live and we learn," Cearra's mom nodded and turned to collect Cece. Before she did, Chad's dad asked one more question, "By the way, what's your connection to Sweden? You mentioned it a couple times earlier and there was that Swedish present you gave me in Dubai." Cearra's mom turned back and smiled, "No connection at all. I come from Louisiana, but I heard you were Swedish and wanted to send a small token of gratitude." "Right, right," Chad's dad nodded, and then tilted his head, "I'm not Swedish though." "What do you mean?" Cearra's mom also tilted her head. Like two parrots mirroring each other. "I'm not Swedish," Chad's dad repeated, really rubbing it in now, "Not even a little bit." Cearra's mom paused for a moment and looked at him funny, "But when we spoke on the pho..." Her own words trickled out of her mouth as realization slowly crept in. Cearra raised her hands to cover her mouth. Game Over. We all knew it. And now her mother did too. Mrs Akil turned to her daughter with a look that filled us all with terror. She then looked at all of us; at Austin, at Chad, at Luke and at me. "There was something very wrong with that accent," she said heavily, pointing her finger at all of us, and raising her voice, "Which one of you irresponsible fools did I speak to?" We had identical looks on our faces: part stunned and part guilty. But then, the irresponsible fool himself stepped forward to accept the blame, "It was me, Mrs Akil." Austin's mom sighed from the sidelines, "Why am I not surprised?" Austin tried to explain, "We really wanted Cearra to come on the trip. She was safe the whole time and we did the cultural experiences we promised-" "Oh, I'm sure you did!" Cearra's mom snapped and honed in on her daughter, "You are in so much trouble you won't even know what day it is. Say goodbye to everyone here because the only time they'll see you in future is when you're handing in your homework in class." "Mom," Cearra complained, looking very embarrassed. "Are you really going to stand there and 'mom' me?!" Cearra's mom retorted, "I'm not just angry about this. I'm furious. And if you really did watch while that boy was being bullied, you deserve more than the punishment I'm going to give you." Cearra quickly grabbed her bag and muttered her goodbyes. She wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible, because her mom was not going to stop. "Bye," she mouthed sadly at Austin. "Sorry," he said back. Mrs Akil continued over them, "Just because the popular boys are doing something, it doesn't mean you lower your standards to follow them. I raised you better than that." Mrs Akil grabbed her daughter and left the office. And even after a few minutes we could still hear Cearra's mom yelling down the hallway. In the aftermath, Austin's mom spoke to her own son, "Do you know what you do to my blood pressure? Get your things, Austin. We'll discuss this at home." They left too and I wondered what the Principal would say when she realized everyone was heading out. I looked around and saw Roland Chadwick the II still standing in the same spot he had been speaking to Cearra's mom minutes earlier. He was looking confused by what had just happened. "Do I sound Swedish?" he asked. "No dad," Chad replied innocently, "People can be weird sometimes."