Chapter 13

"Tony. How's your first day?"

"Good so far," I said with a smile. "Why? What have you heard?"

Mr. Reed sighed and sat down across from me. "Could you at least try to go a week without problems?"

I shrugged. "I can try."

"Why do I feel like I should have told Jason no and gone back to watching television?"

It was rhetorical, so I shrugged and kept quiet. I'd been sitting by myself in the library. I had calculus sixth period, not that I thought I would ever use it, but it kept my brain nimble. I'd kept up with the work during my suspension, and Mrs. Wayne was letting me cut so I could read over Tami's notes for debate.

"I was thinking about our talk," Mr. Reed said after a few seconds.

"Uh huh."

"I thought maybe I came down too hard, made you feel like you're on probation or something."

I held up my hand to stop him. "That's not how I took it. I figured you were just setting the ground rules. After all, you're new here, and I'm probably not the easiest student to keep in line."

"Probably?"

I grinned. "Okay, I'm a trouble-maker through and through. Blame Mom."

He nodded. "So we're good?"

"We're good. I don't want this to sound like I'm trying to butter you up, but I have a lot of respect for you. Mostly because you see your students as people. Par... uh, some administrators don't."

"Good save."

"I try."

"I did have a question, if you have a minute."

I looked at the clock. "About ten."

"There was a paper in your file I didn't understand. It was a recommendation for expulsion from last spring. But it was only about half filled out."

I laughed. "I have a feeling that Park... Mr. Parker forgot to remove it. Either that, or he was keeping it as a memento. What was the reason?"

"Defiance of authority."

"That's me."

"So what was it all about? And why didn't Par... Mr. Parker finish it? Marty?"

I grinned at his almost-slip. "No, surprisingly it was Mrs. Jeffries who convinced Parker that he couldn't win. Did you hear about the prom?"

"Only that it got canceled."

"Kinda."

"Kinda?"

"Kinda. I don't know if you heard about it, but last year we had some trouble with vandalism. Nothing major."

"I heard some of it."

"There were three incidents that I know of," I continued. "The first time was in March. Mr. Parker had left his car here overnight for some reason and somebody trashed it. Cut the tires, spray-painted the windows, that sort of thing. Not to sound too paranoid, but I was in Seattle when it happened, and I have witnesses to prove it."

Mr. Reed smiled and nodded. Not that I thought he'd suspect me, definitely not my style, but I'd been trying to make a joke. The joke fell flat and brought back memories. The day Parker's car got hit was the day that Zoe... that Zoe... that Zoe got promoted to the next dimension.

After a minute Mr. Reed said, "We can talk another time if it's..."

I smiled. "That's okay. Just a few memories."

"I understand."

"Anyway, about the middle of April we had another problem. Somebody broke into the school, trashed some classrooms, and painted some interesting biological suggestions on the door and inside the girl's locker room."

"Got an alibi for that one?"

I grinned. "Away game. I was in Wenatchee. Then the last weekend in April somebody really did a job on the statue. Tore the front legs and head off the horse, smashed up the General." The school had a statue of Robert E. Lee on horseback. Some alumnus who'd gotten rich investing in Microsoft at the start gave it to us since we were the Rebels.

"THAT I heard about."

"Anyway, the next week, Parker got everybody together in the gym and read us the riot act, which was cool. I don't like vandalism, especially untargeted vandalism. It's useless. Besides, I liked the General."

"I wish I'd brought my PDA," Reed said with a smile. "I'd make a note, you actually approve of one of Mr. Parker's actions."

"It definitely wasn't the start of a trend, 'cause next he canceled the prom. Which was stupid, 'cause the kind of people who were doing the deed probably weren't the kind to go to the prom anyway. But Parker canceled it saying that he's reinstate if the guilty parties turned themselves in. He totally ignored the fact that he was punishing over a hundred innocent people. People who had already spent money on dresses, tuxes, and stuff."

"You?"

"I was a sophomore, and I was going out with a sophomore. I wasn't planning to go. But Robbie was. I'd seen the dress. Keeping her from wearing it would have been a crime."

"So what happened?"

"I stood up and confessed."

"That must have made Charlie's day."

I grinned. "Nope, he told me to sit down. He knew the team had been in Tacoma for a tournament all weekend. But then a lot of other guys stood up and confessed. Instead of seeing it for what it was, people trying to save the prom, Parker decided that we were making a mockery of him and the school and said the prom was canceled forever."

Reed chuckled and I looked up at him. "I was just trying to remember if I heard anything about an angry mob storming the school board."