Chapter 23

I OPENED MY eyes.

My legs were bound and my head ached. There was a dark moment of disorientation before the bad-dream fog abruptly lifted and I woke up all the way and rolled to smack the shrilling alarm. I was exactly where I fell asleep last night: on the bed, which was empty.

The duvet was wrapped around my legs. I disentangled myself and kicked the duvet away. I had a headache. It was a cold morning. I felt like dying.

I could hear voices outside my door, where the other girls seemed to be gathering. I buried my head beneath the pillow, willing myself ten-minutes more sleep and hangover recovery time. The wisp of a thought was drifting somewhere at the bottom of my mind, refusing to rise to the level of consciousness. Something I'd forgotten.

This was when a truly incredible snore resounded from someone sleeping on the floor.

I rolled out of bed so fast that I lost my balance and landed right on top of him, my full weight thumping against his impressive, bare chest. Marc wheezed, blue eyes popping open.

"What the fuck are you doing on the floor?" I hissed out as I climbed off him.

“I dunno. Must’ve rolled off.”

“Well your breath stinks.”

Marc's eyes went from half shut to enormous. The ruckus beyond my door was suddenly, horribly silent. I tensed as someone knocked on the door. Short, sharp knocks.

"Andrea Schaeffler?" Called a voice. "Please open the door."

My eyes met Marc's, both of us visibly tensed.

Sharper, more persistent knocks followed. "Andrea, its Principal Walters here with Mrs. Dawson, would you kindly open up?"

Principal and the head teacher outside my room? Well fuck. The CCTVs must be functional after all.

My eyes began racking the space of my room for a nook where I may store Marc. My eyes landed on the window and they paused there, genuinely. Marc seemed to be reading my mind.

"No I'm not jumping." He said with finality.

The doorknob rattled. "Andrea, we do have keys to the rooms. But I would prefer if you opened up on your own accord."

I entertained the horrible vision of both adults entering my room. Not only would they find a boy who didn't belong to this school, they'd also find evidence of alcohol possession - both of which were heavy crimes. I began panicking. I would get expelled.

The sound of jingling keys set my vocal chords in motion.

"Give me a second," I shouted to the adults beyond my door.

There was no reply. This is time I should be using to conceal the wine bottle and the hunk of a male in my living quarters. I only managed to fling the wine bottle out of my window before a click sounded, followed by the opening of my now unlocked door. I turned in time to see Marc roll under my bed. Definitely not a permanent solution, but it could work.

Principal Walters was already in her pantsuit and fancy chignon at 7 in the morning, with Mrs. Dawson, the disciplinary head in tow. An elderly male, the hostel custodian I assume, was tucking his ring of room keys away. Beyond the three adults, a congregation of females in sleepwear seemed to have gathered to see what the commotion was.

They twittered like bitchy sparrows, whispering into each others' ears.

"Sorry, I just woke up..."

The adults ignored me, walking straight into my room. Chelsea stepped out from behind her mother, smug smile on her face. She followed the adults into my room, sharp nose sniffing the air and taking note of my opened window.

"Why the, uh, visit?" I asked as politely as someone violated can ask.

"We received reports of a male presence in the female hostel, and the reports were backed by CCTV footages," Principal Walters sighed, almost as though she was tired. "Are you or are you not harboring a male?"

"No," I said levelly. If there was one thing I could do, it was lying.

Mrs. Dawson crossed her arms. "If you tell the truth, consequences would be less severe, Miss Schaeffler."

"Nope. I don't know what you're talking about." I said. Fake it till you make it.

At which point, Chelsea stooped down to pick an item of clothing from beside the bed. She was dangerously close to Marc, but her attention was focused on the shirt.

"Looks like a guy's shirt," Chelsea said. "Was the intruder wearing white?"

"Yes," Mrs. Dawson nodded. "Search the room."

I leaned helplessly against the peninsular as I watched people stepping in and out from my bathroom, opening and closing my cupboard. Wouldn't be long before they search under my bed.

Principal Walters did the honors, woman of her age bending down to examine the abyss beneath my bed. A sharp intake of her breath signalled Eureka.

"Get out from under the bed, boy." She commanded.

Marc didn't object like I thought he would. Perhaps he too realized the severity of the situation. I wondered what would happen if I jumped from my window right now. Eternity came and went before Marc emerged from the darkness beneath my bed. He had dust bunnies in his hair.

"Goodness me," Mrs. Dawson breathed.

"Identify yourself," Principal Walters said calmly. Too calmly.

Chelsea's presence engendered a kind of rage that was difficult to describe in words but I tried my best to maintain an amicable, polite disposition. Tried not to look at her either.

"I'm not from this school," Marc said nonchalantly. "I'm a friend of Andrea's."

Principal Walters began pinching the bridge of her nose as Mrs. Dawson made the sign of the cross. Girls were peeking into my room now. Word would soon get around, I know this. I gritted my teeth.

"Trespassing is taken very seriously here, I hope you're aware of that, young man." Principal Walters said, still calm. This was a 180 from the warm person who welcomed me into this institution.

Marc... rolled his eyes. "Listen to yourself."

My jaws gaped in mortification, on his behalf.

"I beg your pardon?"

It looked bad enough harboring a shirtless guy in boxers, what more trying to lie to conceal the fact. I prayed to all known deities that Marc would come to his senses and begin to display some semblance of politeness. It was my education at stake here. My parents would disown me if I get expelled: I was certain of this. Fuck.

"I need the both of you to come to my office," Principal Walters finally said. "After you put some clothes on. I'll give you five minutes."

I thankfully fell asleep in a shirt and sweatpants - I know things would have transpired quite differently if I were to be naked. I sighed. Both in relief and in regret.

The door closed behind all three adults, leaving Marc and myself alone once again.

"We're waiting outside." Mrs. Dawson's scraggly voice came.

I mouthed an expletive and flipped her off.

"What now?" I whispered to Marc.

"Do what rich people do."

I frowned. "My, uh, my parents won't bribe them for this. If I fuck up again they're going to disown me."

As Marc put on a shirt, I managed to brush my teeth and make my hair presentable. In less than five minutes, we found ourselves being escorted to the principal's office.  Marc had the foresight to take his overnight bag with him - both of us knew this would probably be the last time he was stepping into RPA.

It wasn't even 8am. I'd never had to do a walk of shame but this sure felt like it.

The students milling around campus, all of them stared curiously. I kept my eyes glued to the ground before me and prayed no one could recognize me. Because this was fucking embarrassing as if Chelsea marching like the smug cunt she was, wasn't enough punishment.

It wouldn't be my first time being in the Principal's office. Not for Marc either. In fact us and our group of friends were on first name basis with the principal from our previous school, Central High. My previous principal, Mrs. Anderson had definitely given up on me, but the woman was nice, she had a soft spot for me (I'd opened up to her once). Somehow, I knew that it would be different this time.

This was no public school with underpaid staff. It was Richmond Park Academy, most expensive private school in the country, marketed on its strict adherence to traditional values.

The principal's office was exactly how I pictured it. Cream walls with wide windows overlooking the courtyard, large centered desk, bookcase and qualifications hanging from the walls adjacent to the window.

Marc sat beside me on the two seater sofa, as Principal Walters took the single seater across us. It reminded me more of a therapist's office than a principal's one. My eyes landed on the contraption in her hands.

"This is an audio recorder," she informed, her eyes fixated on me. "It will be surrendered to your parents."

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath.

She dealt with Marc first. His session mainly concerned questions pertaining how he evaded security, who invited who and et cetera. All of which Marc had the gumption to reply in ways that made me look bad. I worked hard to suppress any expressions (both verbal and facial) of displeasure.

"No, she didn't invite me over. I entered myself, I wasn't stopped by anyone so I assumed it was allowed. I wanted to surprise her."

Principal Walters blinked. "You should know better than to trespass. You are not my student but any person with the gall to enter this school - "

"Like I said, I wasn't stopped. Look, I was from a public school, I have no idea how you private schools work. It was dark when I entered, there was no lighted sign saying I couldn't enter."

The principal inhaled and exhaled, eyes landing on me this time. "What of the bit where you decided to allow a male into your living quarters? This isn't this male's fault. I will personally see to a tightening of security," she said offhandedly, eyes briefly meeting Marc's.

Before I could answer, Marc stepped in.

"I begged her. She didn't allow me to stay at all. She told me to go home, in fact. Which is something I found unfair at that time because 1, I wasn't aware about the no trespassing rule. And 2, I came so far from Philadelphia, I'm sure you understand, ma'am."

She frowned at me. "You are still at fault, young lady. It is against school rules to harbor males in your room, or anywhere past the first floor of the female hostels. You could have surrendered him to the staff, we would have extended help."

"What's going to happen to me?" I asked, my voice shakier than intended.

"Well, Andrea, I'm afraid Richmond Park Academy has a certain standard to maintain. We have rules here, too. Rules that we expect every student to abide by. If other students can do it, why can't you? That sort of thing." Principal Walters said to me.

I began to fear the worst. It awoken this... this mechanism within me. A set of shadow functions that operated on a different wavelength than the person I usually am. I sat straighter, laced my fingers and cleared my throat.

[39. Why do you think school rules exist?

> To discipline ourselves and to instil responsibility > So adults can control us to maintain order]

"Principal Walters, am I going to get suspended? And are you going to tell my parents?"

"It's not per say a decision I can make. I merely exercise penalties written in the rule book."

"I hardly think it's fair to have me suspended nor to have my parents informed," I started. "Millions of girls stay over with the males. Furthermore these girls are students here who really should know better. And they do so to engage in coitus, which corresponds with page 286 of the rule book. If you want to be a fair person, you would have them dealt with too."

"These are heavy accusations, Andrea."

"There were rumors of a girl sleeping with Elias DuPont about 2 weeks ago. You can check the CCTV footages. I find it unfair how I get expelled but these other girls don't. All because they have friends in this school." I managed to summon tears.

"I have no friends in this school. Everyone hates me. That's why someone reported me. I was only helping my friend, Principal. He's not doing very well, financially. But he flew over here to be with me for an anniversary. Not our dating anniversary," I dramatically looked to the ground. "The death anniversary of my grandfather. He knew it was a difficult time for me. I wasn't informed about his visit. I came back from a study session to find him in the lobby, god knows how long he has been waiting."

"Is that so?" Principal Walters asked.

"Yes, you can review the CCTV footages. I know 'harboring' a male in my room can look bad but we are best friends, he is a brother to me. Assuming the reason why we are banned from sleeping in the same room with someone of the opposite gender is to prevent sexual activity, I can swear to you that nothing of that sort happened last night. In fact he slept on the floor. You will see a pillow on my floor if you check my room."

Principal Walters narrowed her eyes. "I don't think you realize the ramifications if I allow you to go off free. The students would first tell their parents, and then there goes the reputation of Richmond Park Academy. I could lose my job, Andrea."

"So you'd jeorpadize the life of a student to keep your job? Even though she did nothing wrong?" Marc spoke for the first time.

Principal Walters rubbed her temples. "Your friend isn't completely innocent, I'm afraid. There is a sign on every floor of the female hostel that strictly forbids students of opposite gender."

"To prevent sexual relations?"

"Yes."

"Clearly you have never encountered the concept of transgenders or lesbians and gays." Marc challenged her.

I placed a hand on Marc's, telling him to shut up in the nicest way possible. He understood me and thenceforth kept his mouth sealed.

I had been weighing an idea in my head for a few minutes now. If it worked, I could walk away from this mess without hurting anyone. But if it backfired, it could potentially make the situation worse by tenfold. I squeezed my eyes shut. Worst case scenario, I get disowned and end up in the service industry, right?

"Tell you what, Principal Walters," I said in a rational voice (it was nothing as such in my mind). "You surrender the audio recorder, I'll put one million dollars in your bank account. You leave your job and never look back."

She had the gall to laugh. "Andrea Schaeffler, is this a movie to you?"

"One point five million." I said without blinking.

She stopped laughing. "Andrea, I don't think you understand the severity of this situation..."

"Two million."

"Andrea, you do realize this isn't the first time a student has tried to bribe me? I suggest you stop this behavior before you end up in even more trouble."

"Five million."

Sharp intake of breath.

I watched as her hands rested on a button upon the audio recorder, to stop recording. She hesitated for several heartbeats, before finally surrendering the device over. Our eyes met, blue against light brown. Finally, I felt the cool metal of the audio recorder in my hands. I sighed. She sighed.

"Give me your account number, I’ll have the money transferred in small amounts over an elapsed amount of time so as not to raise red flags with the authorities. I give you permission to expose and expel me. If you try anything before midnight, or after receiving the money, you will regret, Principal Walters. My family's company has a larger market cap than Facebook just trust me you don't want to be on my bad side.

She nodded, her expression filled with uncertainty. But it was a nod.

It wasn't worth it. I felt disgusted with myself. Left this fucking unpleasant taste at the back of my throat. I loathed the person I became under pressure.

"Go home." I said to Marc.

He didn't need to be told twice.