Chapter 41 The punishment
Naomi
The next day at school during math lectures, Mr. James, one of the disciplinary directors, stood in front of our class door. He glanced around the room before stepping in. The math teacher met him at the door. They chatted for a few seconds before he turned to the entire class.
"Naomi Sorel Alistair." My brows furrowed at the mention of my name before I raised my hand.
It was only after the students started whispering behind me that I understood what this was all about.
"She had the nerve to slap Calix yesterday."
"She had always been the meek type. I wonder what got into her."
"She is going to be expelled for actually raising her hand against the daughter of the president, who is also the owner of the school."
"Follow me," he announced and started to walk away. I shut out the noise behind me and followed him.
The "meek" era had come and gone. They could say whatever they liked. I couldn't let her or anyone walk over me again. The only way I was going to survive in this school was by standing up for myself. From the look of things, no one was going to stand up for me. I had to do the work. And I was glad that I had started taking those fighting classes with Mr. Rex, although I had missed over three training classes because he suddenly vanished without a word.
We crossed the main campus and headed for the staff center, which was opposite the science building. Without knowing what I was looking for, I lifted my eyes to the third floor. The first person I saw was Julian.
He leaned against the balcony with some of his friends. He was deep in discussion with them until one of them tapped him on the shoulder and pointed a finger in my direction.
I should have looked away, but I kept staring. His face had no expression on it—not like I was expecting one. His face had always been like that. It was like there was a mask behind it, something he feared could come to light if he showed even a little emotion, whether sad or happy.
I averted my gaze. Soon, I stood in front of the disciplinary council. It was made up of fifty staff members, most of whose names I didn't know.
"Stand in the middle." A female teacher with a blonde wig and a mouth as red as though she had been drinking blood pointed at the center with a frown on her face. I did exactly as I was told, keeping my head down the entire time and refusing to look at them. I knew exactly what was going to happen; every one of them was going to speak in favor of Calix. Of course, they wouldn't want to lose their positions in this school.
"Calix here..." one of them pointed to the left side. Fortunately, I hadn't noticed she was there already. She stood among the teachers, her arms folded as if she belonged there.
"You slapped her during the night search. And this was after you denied working with the group you were paired with."
Honestly, laughter almost left my mouth, but I held it back. How wonderful of her to twist the entire story around.
"How true is that accusation?"
Okay. I was going to tell them everything exactly as it happened.
"She paired everyone into groups and then decided that it was okay for me to stand alone—to go out and search for those dangerous things all by myself..."
While some teachers were quiet, others were whispering. Then Calix thought it was okay to look me in the face and laugh, as if this entire ordeal was funny.
"Go ahead..." one of the teachers urged, and I continued.
"When I denied that and said I couldn't go on my own, she slapped me. I couldn't hold back, so I had to slap her too."
End of story. I had nothing more to say.
"She is your leader. You had no right to slap her. How are we even sure that your version is true?" the teacher with the blonde wig said, looking at the other teachers.
"How are you sure that her own version of the story is true?"
There was a collective gasp in the room as they all turned to look at me.
"We can deduce from this bad conduct that you indeed defied her. Hence, you will have a punishment."
I wasn't allowed to say anything else. They all believed what Calix had to say. I became the bad guy in their eyes and eventually got the punishment. I was supposed to wash the female toilets in a single day, and if I wasn't done by then, I would take up the male toilets. If I failed to do all that, I risked getting expelled for something I didn't start.
The next morning, I left home at 5:00 AM to start working before the students started coming to school.
Fifteen toilets. Five were down by 6:30 AM. Ten more to go. I was lucky that these toilets were always clean; otherwise, I would not be able to do it in a day.
I was at the seventh toilet, scrubbing the inside of the toilet bowl, when a knock came at the door.
"Use the other toilets. This one is occupied." Normally, if that person had any sense of reasoning, they would know someone was in here already just from the noise.
Surprisingly, the knock came again. I used the cup in my hand to take water from the tap and threw it under the door to give physical evidence to whoever was there.
"Come on, Naomi. Those other toilets are too clean for me to use."
The cup almost fell from my hand. Mr. Rex? How did he know I was here?
I opened the door to find him standing there in an all-black jean jacket and trousers, his hands tucked in his pockets. His dark hair with red edges was a little overgrown. The red was actually fading. He pushed his glasses up and smiled at me, his gap-tooth grin showing.
"Are you not going to say hello to me? It’s been a long time."
I fully stepped out and locked the door behind me. My eyes scanned the empty hallway. When I didn't see anyone, I gave my attention to him.
"You disappeared without a word. What happened to you?" Concern filled my voice. I shouldn't be sounding this way, but he was my teacher and trainer. It was only right for me to know what had been going on with him. He could be battling with something.
"I know that. I'm sorry." He took a step toward me, but I stepped back.
"You can't do that. Someone might come up here and get the wrong idea."
"The wrong idea doesn't matter if you are in it."
Huh? My eyes squinted.
"What happened to your hand? You have a burn mark on the back of your hand."
As if he were just noticing it, he moved his right hand behind his back, trying to hide it from me.
"Hmmm, got into some kind of petty fight with my brother and got it. Yeah. It's actually nothing," he quickly dismissed.
"I see. Get it treated."
"Sure. What are you doing here, by the way?" he asked, looking around.
If he came here, it meant he knew exactly what I was doing. How did he know? A question for another time.
"Washing the toilet. Got a punishment."
A smirk appeared on his face. He shook his head as if he knew exactly what had happened.
"Looks like we have to double up the training." He definitely knew.
"How did you know that?"
He straightened up. "There's nothing that happens around here that I have no idea about. Come on, let me help you."
He walked past me to enter the toilet I was cleaning.
"You can do anything else, but not this." Not only would it cause some kind of rumor, but I might get expelled. You don't let others do the work for you.
"Get inside, Naomi." He held my wrist and dragged me inside before shutting the door. "Don't worry. We will be done and out of this place before anyone comes here and finds us."
Was he being serious right now? It would be 7:30 AM soon and students would start flocking to school. Why was he insisting on helping me? This could get me into more trouble, and more trouble was the last thing I wanted. This was not the right thing for him to do.
"You don't have to do this. You are the teacher and I am the student here. The punishment was given to me. Let me do it myself." I did not want any more problems.
Acting like he did not hear what I said, he bent over and took the sponge and the cup.
"Get to the other side of the toilet. I will finish cleaning this one up and join you."
He went to work, completely ignoring what I was saying.