Inside The House

XVIII

The atmosphere in Principal Robert Rell's office, to put it mildly, was as thick as milk soup. The principal was sitting with his hands folded on his desk and staring with his penetrating and commanding gaze at me, Rayan, Alex and Roxana. The news had spread through the students at school and everyone was already well aware of what had happened at last Monday's party at Roxana's house. Many myths and legends must have grown up around this story. I expect Aurelia to make me aware of what people are saying about this event as soon as I return to the Von Rostovs' house. Meanwhile, I've had time to look at Alex's injuries. It had been a week, so the bruises had faded considerably, but from what I could see I could easily determine that the kangaroo had received blows to at least half his face. It looked worse than me, much worse. The high school principal had to pay attention to this fact as well. On the one hand, his students had beaten each other up, leading to a dangerous situation. On the other hand, however, all this happened outside the school premises. At this point, it made me wonder how strong the powers of school principals in this country are. Can they administer punishments to students for their misbehavior outside of school? None of the four of us seemed to have thought about it except me. Roxana was sitting with one leg over the other, her lips pursed in an artificial smile that suggested she had no idea why she had been summoned to the principal's office. Alex was hunching over in his chair, staring at the floor wrinkling his nose. He was angry and unhappy - with the rest, as usual. Then there was Rayan with his arms folded across his chest, who was wandering with a bored look either at his watch or at the principal's desk. He was very calm and composed. He acted the way I thought he would act in a situation like this. He approached it on the principle of "do my job", listen to what the director had to say, leave and immediately forget about the whole situation. I was the only one who sat upright, without any unnecessary smiles or playing the idiot, without nervousness or indifference. I was just waiting for the director to finally say something.

Soon someone knocked on the door of the director's office. Robert Rell ordered the mysterious visitor inside the office. It turned out that our school band supervisor Lisa Arrow and physical education coach Patrick Robbel had arrived. Ms. Lisa looked like she was about to cry and the coach's face expressed bewilderment and uncertainty. They sat down at chairs set up next to the school principal facing us. It looked as if the school principal was the judge and the teachers to his right and left were his jurors.

- Do you realize that I can call the police? - Said the principal, to which the two boys immediately reacted by looking at the principal.

- Dear Mr. Principal. - Roxana started with her artificial sounding voice. - I don't understand why I was called to you. Have I done something wrong?

At the girl's words Rayan flinched. I guess he still couldn't get used to the fact that the teenage girl turned out to be a blunt idiot. I was just about to bang my head on the headmaster's desk top to show Roxana how stupid she was. On the other hand, pretending to be an idiot might have been her strategy for surviving this situation.

- Or even for hosting a party that included alcohol. As far as I know, you are not yet eighteen, are you? - Asked the principale a little to Roxana, a little to the guardian of our group. The latter just shook her head in a gesture suggesting that the director was not wrong.

- But Mr. Director, alcohol was only for people who wanted to drink it. Personally, I don't drink to maintain a shapely figure. Alcohol is very caloric. - Roxana uttered while sending the three educators a sweet smile.

To be honest, Roxana proverbially took advantage of the situation to throw herself a lifebelt and not to drown. However artificial it may look, at least she tried. I decided to do the same. But how?