Page 21 of Mr. Principal

“She started it,” I yelled like an elementary schooler.

“What? Bitch. You hit my car!”

My mouth fell open and I pointed at her and then looked at Carter, “She said the B word.”

“Wow, you’re real mature.”

“Ladies, let’s go, inside. My office. Now.”

He didn’t wait for us to follow. He just turned around and marched toward the office. Feeling terrible, I sheepishly followed behind him.

The other parent wasn’t sheepish at all. She huffily stalked past me, hitting me in my shoulder as she followed behind Carter.

“Hey,” I said. “Watch it.”

“Watch it? From someone who bumped my car?”

“Bumped exactly. It was just a bump.”

She growled at me. Literally growled at me and I jumped back.

“Ladies, please. My office, stat,” Carter ordered as he opened the door and stood there waiting for us to walk past him.

The other mom went past me. And I sheepishly walked past Carter, but not before he shot me a little smile.

I guess I wasn’t in trouble, after all. Carter would protect me… if the other mom didn’t find a way to kill me first. Twenty minutes later, the other mom left the office in a better mood. Carter had really put on the charms and the other mom had not only apologized to me for calling me poor, but she had also been really patient while I looked for my insurance information.

“You know, you need to stop coming to my rescue.”

“Then stop getting in trouble.”

I looked around. “I’m in the principal’s office again. Apparently, I can’t stay out of trouble.”

“You’ve always had a penchant for getting into trouble. Remember that time you and Piper went streaking across campus and got locked out of your dorm?”

A startled laugh burst from my lips. “My nether regions were freezing.”

He smiled and said, “It was fifty degrees outside. You two were crazy.”

“Yep. We were.”

I wanted to stay there reminiscing about the old days, but I knew I had to go. “I guess I’ll leave. I know you have work to do.”

He nodded. “Plenty.”

“It’s weird seeing you look so official. I never pictured you as a principal.”

He laughed. “It isn’t what I pictured either, but I don’t know. It fits.”

“You look good behind there.”

“Thanks,” he said, standing up. “Try not to bump into anyone else, okay?”

I sighed. “I’ll do my best but I can’t make any promises.”

His administrative assistant knocked on his door and then poked her head in. “Your meeting with the board is in five minutes.” Just as quickly as she interrupted, she disappeared.

“Let me get out of your way.”