Islander

Chapter 13: Stranger

"Hey old friend." A voice said.

I was in the cafeteria seated alone, as always. Somebody just hollered at me from behind. The voice sounded familiar, a lot. Before I could turn to see who it was, he joined me on the two-man desk. Guess who it was...

"Ah. If it wasn't my old buddy Stupid." I said, sipping my coffee.

"Looks like you still prefer coffee to everything else on the menu." Stupid said with a wry smile forming around his lips.

"What do you want?" I asked, with the "can we please get this over with? I'm bored" face.

"Chill, what's the hurry?"

"You stink and are irritating. I'm trying to eat my lunch devoid of irritations. See where you don't come in?"

"You retained your sense of humour Adam." He said, eating his burger.

"And you are still stupid." I muttered.

"What did you just say?" Stupid asked, dropping his burger.

"I said, you are still stupid. Unless you changed your name?" I asked, looking him in the eye. He stared back, obviously boiling inside. "That's what I thought." I said, then went back to my sweet world of coffee sipping.

"Is he giving you trouble?" Another voice asked from behind me, again. This one, I recognized to be George's. He joined us, pulled a chair from a nearby desk and sat on an empty end.

"He was just leaving. Weren't you? Stupid?" I said, intending that he would probably die from excessive vexation.

"Well look what we have here. Tom and Jerry. The bully and the bullied. The..."

"Skip to the point already Stupid." George said.

"You're hanging with this jerk now?" Stupid said to George.

"Some jerk you didn't mind hanging with sometime ago."

"Yeah. Before I realised he was a jerk."

"You're the only jerk on this table."

"You both deserve yourselves."

"And you deserve to be my new Jerry." George said, rising with clenched fists.

"Heeey.. Chill." Stupid said, rising too with a retreating gesture. "I don't want any trouble alright?"

"So? Here's one thing. I don't care. Adam here doesn't care either. So it's not exactly up to you to decide whether you get trouble or not. Here's another thing. I don't mind giving you trouble."

"You two jerks both deserve yourselves." Stupid said, picking up his stuff and leaving. "Principal Effiong wants to see you." He added.

"Whew." I said, emptying my coffee mug.

"Well that took a lotta balls. Coming here to talk to you." George said.

"I know. I wonder what Principal Effiong wants now though. And why be chose to send Stupid the message."

"Does he not know y'all ain't pals no more?"

"I seriously doubt it"

"Well..." George started, biting his fries. "...ask him." He completed with a half-full mouth.

"I'm about to." I said as I stood up, picked my bag and threw it across my shoulder. Then I left the cafeteria.

                      *************

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Adam."

"Adam who?"

"Adam without Eve?"

"Come in." A coarse voice said from the Principal's office.

There was seated a man, on Principal's desk. He was huge, wore specs too (at this point I seriously wondered what it was with principals and specs). He had a grand belly, probably twice his body which rested above him as he lay back against the huge leather chair with his legs crossed across the table before him. He smoke a pipe too. I know, he had the worst manners. What was this weirdo doing in Principal Effiong's chair?
"Dude, you're a weirdo and you're standing in Principal Effiong's office. Great day for weirdos." Myself told me.
"Uhhhh. Hello?" I greeted.

"Hey! Adam!!" The man yelled excitedly, with smoke still in his mouth. He coughed slightly and drank from a gin can. This man was crazy.

"You know me?" I asked, astonished.

"Aren't I supposed to?" He chuckled. "Oh, pardon my manners. I'm David. Principal David." He said as he stood up, adjusted his belt on his super grand belly and extended his hand for a handshake.

"Adam, as you already know." I shook his hand.

"You must have a lot of questions." He said, grinning.

"Where is Principal Effiong?" I asked.

"He got transfered to another school. I got transfered here. You get the logic?"

"Yeah I get it. But why was I called here by him?"

"Oh. Haha. You weren't. That whole thing with that kid with the dumb name was all me." He let out a subtle laugh.

"Now we agree on something. His name's dumb." I muttered.

"So I called you here because, according  to Effiong's records, the room behind the gymnasium is meant to be the workspace of one Adam who is working on a project on the school's behalf." He said as he sat down, adjusted his specs and opened the file jacket before him, reading, or pretending to be reading something important.

"That is correct." I said.

"Excellent. So I walked down to the room to see this certain, "Adam", and the all important project he's been on. And guess what? The room is empty. No sign of Adam, no sign of projects. So here I am, smoking my pipe this warm, sweet afternoon. And here you are, confused."

"Sir. I can explain myself." I said.

"By all means, please do."

"I ran short of funds. I needed time to gather funds and materials to begin work since the school blatantly refused to offer me any assistance."

"Effiong seems like a smart man." Principal David said.

"To not fund my project was not smart enough. This competition is this summer, August, and I've not begun real work."

"Okay. Do you have a prototype?"

"Yes. I do. If you'd just search on YouTube..."

"Oh. The drone thingy."

"Yes. The flying car. I'm making a bigger version and it will cost me money and time."

"Okay, great. Well I have good news and bad news for you. Which do you like to hear first?" He grinned again.

"Bad?"

"The bad news is, we need the room behind the gym. You're going to have to forget the workspace."

"So where do I do my project?" I asked.

"Oh. You'll be fine, I was told you're smart. You'll figure something out. Now if you don't mind, excuse me so I can quietly resume my smoking." Principal David said.

At that point, I had no idea how to feel.