Fateful beginning of vacations

Chapter 33: Family Council

Her heart was beating faster and louder. She had the feeling that it would stop beating at any moment. "It's not going to turn out like it did in the dream!" she literally screamed to herself in her head. "Now come downstairs and get inside already." Sarah slowly opened the door to the kitchen and scurried inside. There was no turning back now.

Her parents both looked at the door as she entered the kitchen.

"Hi Sarah." her father greeted her curtly.

"Hi dad." she said slightly confused. "I don't think I'm quite awake yet. I haven't been feeling too well. Must be the heat. I'm just going to get some coffee, then I'll be with you." she said, hoping her nervousness didn't show.

"Your mom already told me that last night must have been a little shorter. Are you sure it couldn't be because you slept all afternoon?" her father asked skeptically.

Sarah, in the meantime, had gone to find a coffee cup and was pouring her cup full. "Oh, it didn't get that late now. We were in bed at 4:00 and I got up around 11:00 or so. Seven hours of sleep really shouldn't be too little." She put the pot back in the machine and turned to face her parents. Her mother was sitting on the bench, her father on one of the chairs across from the bench. The bench made a far more inviting impression, in part because of her mother. Sarah walked over to the table. "I think I'll sit here, shall I? Should be better for a conversation, shouldn't it?" she replied to her father, gesturing for her mother to move further toward the corner so she could find a seat on the bench across from her father.

"How are you otherwise besides either the short nights or the heat?" her father asked when she was seated.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, same as always I'd say." she answered him. "How about you?" she asked back.

"Lots of work little sleep. So like always." he said with a tortured looking smile.

"You work too much, I've always told you that," her mother interjected.

"Maybe, but I'm not here to talk about my hours and length of work." he countered her with a look that seemed incensed for a short time, but that cleared right away. "Is there anything you might want to tell me Sarah?" he asked, addressing Sarah.

"You mean about the deal?" she asked uncertainly.

"That's exactly what I mean. What kind of a crackpot idea was that? You realize what the consequences are, I hope?" he asked forcefully.

"Yes, I am aware of that. If I'm guilty of anything else, I can probably pack my bags and forget about my Abi." she replied quietly.

"Then why would you come up with such a, in english, shitty idea?" he asked further.

"In the future, I won't do anything wrong, it's as simple as that," she replied as confidently as possible.

"That's what the student says who thinks it's necessary to sign a report with an average grade of 1.0 with a forged signature. How are you going to pull that off? After all, the last few years you've attracted trouble almost magically." He came in his briefcase he had brought with him. "Hmmm...where do I have it?" he asked quietly as he continued to search. "Ah here." He had pulled out of his pocket a brown binder like those typically found in filing cabinets. Sarah remembered her file at school looking similar on the outside. The fat one, also bore a scary resemblance to her file. "I looked at it all again." he continued while flipping through the file. "You only made it back two days before you had the agreement deleted, didn't you? Smoking on school grounds?" he asked.

"Yeah, it was a stupid thing to do, but it was no big deal." she replied.

"Yes still. But with the start of the new school year, no more." he explained.