Stormy »zjm«

Chapter Seven

"Rain, don't worry, just come with me, alright?", Mrs Devon calmed me. She seemed to notice that I was really uneasy and uncomfortable.

We reached our destiny at the headmasters office and my nervousness couldn't be contained. My heart sunk like people on a free fall tower at carnivals. I never had to be called out of lesson to go to the headmaster.

"Hello, you must be Ms Appleby? Take a seat", he told me and pointed to a chair in front of his desk.

He didn't seem all that easy and calm. When I stepped further into the room I noticed Mr Malik standing in the corner of the room, brows furrowed, looking at the ground. Almost as if he was ashamed of something.

As Mr Johnson, the headmaster, stood up, Mr Malik raised his head and looked at me. Not smiling or anything he would've usually done. His jaw clenched and released after some seconds.

"I'll get straight to the point you two, there are pictures of you both going around via SMS and internet. The pictures are you, Ms Appleby, handing out money to Mr Malik, you two together at the grocery store et cetera. Just pictures of you're little get-together yesterday, I assume, in general."

I paniced. That's the only way to describe it. Panic.

"Now, there are several things wrong with this.", he carried on. "One, we have to find the person who took and spread this pictures because that definetely goes against law. Second, no matter what that money was for, there shouldn't be any private money exchange between teacher and student. It sure seems wrong at the first look. Third, I don't know if you two meet more often and slash or have a friendship going on, but that is something that seems extremly wrong, too. It's not my place to judge all this but it seems wrong and I don't want stuff like this going on in my school."

Now I felt sick. Really sick. Puking sick.

I rushed out of the room in the matter of a second to make my way to the toilet. When I reached my destiny I bent over and puked out all I had. My barley non-existing breakfast, my last evening's dinner, my stomach-juices. It was gross.

Gross. Everything engrossed me right now. But mostly I engrossed myself.

"Rain? Are you okay?" Mrs Devon must have ran after me.

Asking if I was okay? Really? *Okay*? No. Most assuredly not.

Was I over reacting? Or was I just surprised.

"Rain?", her voice echoed in the whole bathroom again.

"No, leave me alone please, I just need a minute.", I answered with a noticable little shake in my voice. My mouth felt dirty and I felt the urge to go home, wash out my mouth, brush my theeth and drop about tenthousand mints in my mouth.

"Rain, I can't leave you alone when you are bent over a toilet, puking. Come out and wash your mouth, I'll give you some bubblegum and then we can discuss things with Mr Johnson, alright?"

No no no. Not happening. Could everybody leave me just alone maybe?

"Rain, come out!"

I slammed open the door (yes, it is possible to slam open a door. I always do when I'm angry) and made my way over to the sinks to wash my whole face and mouth. I felt Mrs Devon's view on me but decided to ignore it.

"Here you go, a peppermint gum. Let's go back to the office." She handed me a gumstrip and led me out of the bathroom.

"I can't go back there."

"Rain, we all know there isn't something illegal between you and Mr Malik, you never appeared criminal or daring or anything in the past, it's just a little talk. No one wants something bad for you!", she tried to calm me. Without succes I might add.