Santa's Daughter

4. Dad's New Girlfriend

"Are Laura and Neal on their way?" Principal Newman asks my father as we walk up the stairwell to the second floor of Charlie's school. This kid didn't listen to me and got caught again.

"No, I volunteered to go solo on this one. Well, somewhat. I brought his sister," Dad pointed to me.

"I can see that. And what is she gonna do?" She asks him.

I scoff, "A lot more than either of you." I walk up the stairs faster than them with Charlie's hand around mine. "What did I tell you about getting caught?" I whisper to him.

"Not to get caught and if you do, make up a believable lie," he recalls.

"And what did you do?"

"Get caught, and run away from the crime scene," he looks down.

"Which does what?"

"Prove I'm guilty."

"Exactly," I say as we come to where Charlie spray painted some lockers. It is a picture of Principal Newman saying 'trim a tree go to Jail'. "You know what? Why don't we put him in an art class?" I ask and Principal Newman looks at me. "It's proven that art helps kids express themselves and get out unreleased anger."

"I think that is a wonderful idea. After this semester he will be released from his study hall period and put into the art class," She smiles. Charlie looks at me with a 'what the heck are you doing?' face.

"You brought this on yourself. Plus you'll love the art teacher, he's so laid back you can have your phone in class and listen to music while painting," I whisper to him.

"You know what? Charlie, you promised you weren't gonna do this again. Now you've broken a promise," Dad tells him. "What's the matter with you? I'm gonna have to punish ya. I'll ground him for two months."

"I thought you were on my side!" Charlie yells.

They start speaking over each other and Principal Newman interrupts them, "I'll do you one better, Charlie. You're suspended."

I sigh, I knew this was coming. This is why you don't get caught or if you do be ready to face the outcomes. "But, Dad!"

"Hold on a second. I'm just as upset about this as you, but isn't there another way to punish him that doesn't mean taking him out of school?" Dad asks her.

"He is right. Taking kids out of school is proven to encourage bad behavior because they're behind enough that they feel there's no point to it anymore," I inform her. I've done this research just in case I ever got in trouble and needed a way out. I have had to use it a couple times while I was still in foster care. It got Leo and I out of some Jail time. Nothing too major just challenging teachers who were trying to take away our rights.

"What do you have in mind?" Principal Newman asks my dad.

"We could... community service?"

"Huh. That's not a bad idea. Okay, Charlie. I want you to start by cleaning up this wall. I want everything off of there by tonight. And then for the rest of the week you can clean off every mark off every locker in this hallway," She orders.

"Every one?"

"Do as she says, Charlie."

"But I have homework, tests to study for," He protests.

"Not my problem. I have a detention group on Saturday. So we will have a get together at the Sullvin rec center and scrape off the graffiti at 8:00 a.m. See you three there."

"You say the three of us? No, I'm very busy. I do a lot of other community service," Dad tells her.

"That's good. You just got yourself elected parent rep. And, Charlie, we'll talk about the suspension," she finishes and walks away. Charlie sighs and Dad starts walking back down the stairs.