Beyond the Office Doors

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 8]

It was later that same day. I had mostly recovered from having to speak in front of the class. Science with Mr. Jones was wrapping up, and I was looking forward to lunchtime and settling into the refuge of the computer lab.

I was mostly ignoring the lesson. Instead, I was building up the courage to tell Jakey about the story of the Knight and the Squire. Mrs. Carpenter had given us homework to come up with a scene including the main character that could be used to illustrate the conflict in our stories. I thought that talking about it with Jakey would be perfect for putting it together. After all, the characters were pretty much the both of us.

Mr. Tucker’s classroom phone got a call at the very end of class. He answered. “Tucker here. Yeah. I’ll tell him.” Across the classroom, I heard my name. “Mike. Could you head by the office before going off to lunch? Just a quick meeting, it seems.”

My heart stopped. I nodded at Mr. Tucker to make sure he knew I heard, but that was all I was able to do. Soon I was on my way to the front of the school. I wondered if it had to do with my story. Maybe they thought my story was going to be too violent for school. Maybe it was too good, and they thought it was stolen from somewhere. Maybe they thought my parents wrote it for me. I had heard of some parents doing their kids’ homework. That seemed pretty stupid. I don’t think my mom knew much about knights or squires either.

The door to the office was heavy. Inside it smelled like papers that had just been copied. There was also a flowery smell, like one of my mom’s candles or maybe some woman’s perfume. There was a woman behind the desk. She smiled at me.

“Are you Mike?”

“Yes,” I said. I was stuck deciding whether to keep standing or sit in one of the cushy seats.

“Perfect, right on time. Did Mr. Tucker tell you about where you were going?”

“No.”

“Alright, then. Well, Mr. Adams wanted to have a moment to talk with you. His room is right down the hall, number 5.”

“Okay.”

I had seen the office before, back when my sister Jess was a student here and I was just visiting with my mom. I had never gone that deep inside of it, down the gray hallway that seemed like the opposite of a place where a student was meant to be. I found the door number five open like it was waiting for me. It had the word ‘counselor’ beside it. The word made me instantly nervous.

The room was kind of an office, with a desk and a computer and messy folders full of papers and a file cabinet like my dad had. There was also a blocky couch that didn’t look very soft. It was bright, too, with most of the light coming through a wide window. Oh yeah, there was also a guy.

Mr. Adams had one of those haircuts where there wasn’t any hair on the top of his head. All his other hair was short, except for one of those goatee beard things around his mouth. He swung his spinning office chair around to face me. “Ah, there he is! Thank you for coming by, Mike. You may close the door behind you.”

I closed the door. I pushed it hard enough to close all the way, but not too hard like I was slamming it.

“Well, our first meeting,” he said. He drummed on his knees. He seemed excited, but I didn’t know what for. “Though I have met your mom and sister before. I’m Mr. Adams, as you might have heard. Sit, sit, put that stuff of yours down.”

I didn’t say anything as I put down my backpack and sat back on the couch. As I had guessed, it wasn’t soft. It was like it was forcing you to sit up straight. Sit up straight and listen.

“I’m sorry this ended up happening during your lunchtime. I just wanted to ask a question or two, so we should get you off to play. Oh, you’re free to pull out your lunch and eat here if you want. You bring a lunch?”

I nodded. I didn’t want to pull out my lunch. I wanted to eat without being looked at.

“Okay, then,” Mr. Adams said. “You know, my first name is Mike, too. Well, my mom always insisted I be called Michael. It was more proper. But to avoid any confusion, Mr. Adams is fine. Oh gosh, I’m just holding us up, though.”

He was beginning to do the thing my parents did. He was having a discussion with me, but not having me say anything.

“So, I just wanted to make sure of something. Just to make sure everything is going right with you. So, this Monday, seems you had an appointment or something. You left at lunchtime.”

I shook my head. It probably seemed like a no, but I wanted it to mean yes. “My mom… she said she signed me out. Up here at the office.”

Mr. Adams waved one of his hands lazily. “Oh no, that’s all fine. Everything was done by the book. Did you maybe forget about this appointment, though?”

“Yeah…” I said back. I tried to look at him in the eyes. My dad had said that was a sign of respect. My eyes just kept wandering to the posters and decorations on the walls. There was a little table-sized sandbox in the far corner, with a tiny rank for making lines in it.

“I get it,” Mr. Adams said with a chuckle. “Busy Jr. High schedule, homework, friends, girl’s numbers you have to remember. I guess your mom came up and had someone send out a call for you. No problem. The yard duties help out in the cafeteria during lunch, and make sure no food fights get started up. We had one, once. I’ll tell you, those get gross. And the custodians, they get all sorts of mad. So, anyways, we used our radios, those walkie-talkies, to call one of those yard duties and call your name there in the cafeteria.”

I remembered the yard duty women from the cafeteria from the one and only day I ate there. I nodded along with Mr. Adams and his words, pretending like I knew what he was going to say next.

“So anyways,” he continued, “seems like you weren’t there. It was right at the start of lunch, too. And like, the yard duties didn’t even seem to know much about you. So we used the loudspeaker that, you know, the whole school can hear. And that’s no problem, of course, that’s what it’s for. Might be a little embarrassing, having your name called for the whole school to hear. So, since you got signed out, you must have met up with your mom, I’m assuming, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It was for a dentist appointment.”

“Okay, good. So, no cavities?”

His hopeful look made me want to lie. “Yeah.”

Mr. Adams made two claps with his hands. “Good. So, really, the big deal— I guess not even a big deal— is that you just seem to be falling off the radar during lunchtime. You are eating lunch, right?”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Adams leaned on his knees. “Sometimes, you know, some kids have a hard time with school or other people. Lunch can feel super crazy to them. That cafeteria can seem so packed and noisy, I get it. So some kids hide out in the bathroom, in one of the stalls, to eat their lunch.”

The idea seemed kind of gross to me. “Why would they do that?” I asked.

“Maybe they just want to be away from everyone else. It also could be their way of avoiding a bully, too. There’s no bullies in your life?”

“No.”

“Good,” He sighed and nodded. “So, there must be another place you’re running off to for lunchtime, then?”

I felt the secret of the hideout wanting to escape from me. “You… won’t tell my mom about this, will you?”

Mr. Adams looked up at me through narrow eyes like he was going to do exactly that. He shrugged and sat back. “As long as whatever you’re doing is safe and reasonable, there’s no need for anyone beside the two of us to know.”

I took in a deep breath. “I go to the computer lab.”

Mr. Adams grinned. “Well, that is a problem, isn’t it?”

“What!” I said. I nearly fell out of my seat.

“It means that Mr. Tate doesn’t have his walkie-talkie on to listen for any calls, like the one we sent out to find you.”

I felt like a balloon deflating back into its limp, stretchy state. “Don’t get mad at Mr. Tate, either! He’s nice. I’ll… remind him to have it on.”

Mr. Adams laughed. “Sure thing, that would be great. No, the computer lab is a perfect place to get away from that noisy lunch room. There isn’t anything you’re avoiding by being there, right? Nobody wants to pick any fights with you?”

I shrugged. I just wanted to stop answering his questions and head off and play games. Mr. Adams probably saw it as something else. “Hey, Mike. If school feels like a scary place, or there is someone making it uncomfortable for you, you can always tell a teacher or another adult.”

“There is this Brett guy and his friend,” I spoke up after thinking for a bit. I kind of just wanted to give him an answer to make him feel better.

“Yeah, and what does Brett and his friend do?”

I realized I had said too much and couldn’t take it back. “Well, they show up in the computer lab too. Sometimes. They laughed at me and my friend Jakey and called us the Goblin King and Queen. It was just a stupid joke. But Mr. Tate told them to shut up.”

Mr. Adams nodded a whole lot. “Well, that’s one way to handle things, huh? Did they come by after that?”

I shrugged. “I see them sometimes. Sometimes they’re laughing in the background. I don’t know if it’s at us, though.”

“Well, at least Mr. Tate is there,” Mr. Adams said. “If it happens over and over, that’s when we here at the school start to call it bullying. But definitely talk to someone before it turns into that, okay, Mike?”

I nodded. I didn’t dare say anything else that would keep him talking.

“I’m glad I got to check in with you today, Mike.” Mr. Adams said, moving his desk chair back to the spot beside his computer stuff. “Would it be alright if I asked you to come back another time? Like in two weeks or something like that? Just to see if Brett and his friend are still being butt-heads.”

I almost laughed at his choice of words. I wanted to say no to his offer, but I felt bad if I didn’t. “Sure….” I said even though I wanted to answer the opposite.

“Great. Doesn’t have to be any particular day. I can just ask your 4th-period teacher again to send you here. It won’t even cut into your lunch that much. Oop, which is what I’m doing right now. And I need to eat my lunch, too.”

Mr. Adams finally stood up. He opened the door to the hall. I stood and slung my backpack over my shoulder. His hand pointed the direction back out. I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded at him and left.

“Hey, well, enjoy the rest of your day!”

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