Cruel Me

Chapter 22: How's It Gonna Be

"You're dismissed."

I sighed and got up from the chair.

"I hope this will be the last time I see you in here, Mister Lacy," said Principal Landon, eyeing me from behind his desk.

"But you'll miss me," I replied, daring to smile.

Of course he would. I kept his job interesting. Without me, he'd be bored as fuck being stuck here all day dealing with whatever shit he dealt with. I was actually doing him a favor.

He stared at me for second before he turned his focus on the papers in front of him. He raised a hand and gestured toward the exit.

"Close the door when you go."

Shrugging nonchalantly, I marched out of his office. I nodded to Mrs. Beanie, Principal Landon's secretary, on my way out. The old woman gave me a what-am-I-gonna-do-about-you look. I almost chuckled. She'd been giving me that look since freshman year. She also gave me hot cocos while I waited back then. Not much else she could do, to be honest.

I flashed her a grin, before walking out.

When I got to the hallway, I saw my friends waiting outside. They straightened up as I walked towards them. I nodded in greeting.

"What's the verdict?" asked Kurt.

"What else?" I snorted.

They waited, their eyes on me.

I smirked. "Innocent."

At that, they breathed out in relief, whooping under their breaths. Connie leaned back on the lockers as she hugged her books against her chest. Frisco ruffled his hair, panting as if he just ran a marathon. Alfie and Kurt grinned to each other, fist bumping.

"We gotta stay low key for a while, though," I told them firmly.

I glanced around the students nearby. Multiple eyes were on us, obviously already hearing about what happened yesterday. But none of them were really close enough to hear our conversation.

"I mean, weeks," I cleared up, looking back at the crew with a serious face. "We need to let this shit with Cameron die down."

Connie pursed her lips, while Frisco scratched the side of head.

Alfie nodded. "Got it."

I switched my eyes to Kurt.

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, man."

We all stayed silent for a moment, recalling the events from yesterday. Only Connie and Frisco bothered to go to the hospital. Not sure how Cameron's parents got informed, but I heard they arrived around mid-afternoon.

This morning, Principal Landon called for us in his office to ask a few questions. More like, interrogated. But as we expected, it couldn't be ruled out as anything but an accident.

Alfie's face split into a wide smug smile.

"But that plan was fucking brilliant, right?" he grinned.

"It was," I agreed, letting out a small laugh.

"I got to hand it to you, Alfie," started Connie, smiling crookedly, "I didn't think you'd come up with something like that."

Alfie bowed. "My pleasure."

"Don't you think we went overboard?" asked Frisco, with a worried frown.

"We didn't plan on it," I reminded him.

The original idea was to only sprain a body part. But that clearly shot out the window the moment he opened his piehole and yapped some stupid shit instead of keeping quiet like a good little boy he pretended to be.