The Bad Side of the Office

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 20]

I knew the way to the office. I had my backpack on. I knew I was going to be sent home. Probably suspended or even expelled. My parents would probably be moving us again.

Smacking Kyle didn’t even feel good. It wasn’t going to bring back my lost gear from Rune Quest, either. I was sure that Mrs. Carpenter was calling the office right at that moment. Then the office would call my mom. My mom would call my dad, and then I would be grounded. Being grounded didn’t matter either way because there was no chance I could go back to Rune Quest.

The usually nice lady at the front desk of the office was on the phone. She looked at me with those squinted, not-quite-nice eyes. “He’s here,” I heard her say to the phone. “Yeah, he can stick around here for a bit.”

I sat as quietly as possible, my backpack at my feet, not daring to move. I didn’t want to look at anyone who came by. I wondered if I would meet with the principal. I didn’t know her name really, nor what she looked like. Principals can be really nice, but definitely can be scary when you do something wrong.

“Mike?” I heard a voice call my name.

I looked up and saw Mr. Adam’s kind of bald head. He was holding a coffee cup that didn’t have any coffee in it. I didn’t say anything to him.

“Feeling okay?” He asked. He looked me up and down. “Strange to see you here first thing in the morning, on a Monday no less.”

“I’m fine,” I answered shortly.

“Ah, just business, then? At least you’re not in trouble.”

“I am in trouble,” I said a little louder than I should have.

Mr. Adams looked a little confused. He turned back and looked at the lady at the desk. “What’s going on?”

“Kathy sent him up for shoving another student,” she said. “I think she was going to come down for her prep time.”

Mr. Adams tilted his head at me. “Mike Shepherd, striking another student? That’s not something I’d ever think I’d hear. There must be a reason. How about we talk about what happened.”

I found myself in the counselor’s room once again. Mr. Adams joined me with his mug steaming a little bit after I sat down.

“I was actually going to have you in again later this week, Mike,” he said, closing the door behind him. “But obviously something… out of the ordinary is going on.”

I smacked at the sides of the couch with my hands. “It was Kyle!”

Mr. Adams nodded. “I remember talking about him the last time we met. You felt like you couldn’t get along with him, right?”

“We had a sleepover this weekend,” I said.

“Is that so? So does that mean you were giving him a second chance?”

“My mom and his mom wanted it to happen. Well, mostly my mom. She says Kyle’s dad isn’t around. And his mom works a lot.”

Mr. Adams nodded. “So, you’re trying to be a good friend, still, and… keep Kyle from having just to hang out at home alone. We call kids like him a ‘latchkey kid.’”

“Isn’t that a bad thing?”

He shrugged. “It isn’t a bad thing, but having parents around is nice. For help with homework, for making snacks and other food. In case of an emergency, too.”

“My mom says she doesn’t understand my math homework anymore. So she can’t help out with it, really.”

“You’d be surprised how often I hear that about parents,” Mr. Adams concluded. “So what about Kyle? Something must have happened at this sleepover to turn you against him?”

I slumped my shoulders down. “We played Rune Quest, him, me, and Jakey.”

“Was Jakey at this sleepover, too? Is Rune Quest a board game or something?”

I shook my head. “No, Rune Quest is a game on the internet. Kyle watched over my shoulder while Jakey and I met up online.”

“Ah, right, the lunchtime computer club in the lab,” Mr. Adams said with a nod of his head. “Don’t tell me that this conflict is over winning or losing in some game, though.”

“That’s not how it works,” I said with a click of my tongue. That exact thing I was afraid of; that adults wouldn’t understand. “We’re all allies online. And we even beat this big boss, the Goblin King, all together. But it was really late after we got done, so we went to sleep after.”

“Okay…” The counselor said, nodding. I don’t think he understood all the way.

“After Kyle went home… I think he logged onto my character. He stole all the stuff I had. Everything I had made, and all the gold— money I had gathered.”

“And that’s something you have to work hard for, I guess?”

I nodded. “It’s all gone. But Kyle thinks it’s a joke! He’s a big fat liar and he won’t even fess up.”

“I see. And so that’s why you were upset with him this morning,” Mr. Adams nodded.

“It was just to push him out of his chair! And he was making fun of me, too!”

“Well, either way, that’s the kind of thing we want to avoid. First off, is all this worth it for just a game?”

I slapped at the sides of the couch harder. The tears returned. “I spent months playing to get all that stuff! And it’s all gone!”

“Maybe… was your name on any of the stuff that was stolen? Or a way to tell it was yours? Like to prove that it was Kyle who took it?”

“That’s not how it works!” I huffed as more tears ran down my face.

“You’re right, I guess I don’t get it,” Mr. Adams admitted. “Take some deep breaths with me. In… and out. In… and out. I think the next thing we can do is to get Kyle in here and hear his side of the story.”

“I don’t want to see his face ever again!” I said. Even with the deep breaths, I could barely speak.

“Well, then, maybe the best thing I can do is to have you sit outside while I get him in here by himself.”

I found myself again on one of the chairs in the front of the office. The bell rang for second period. I wondered if I was going to be marked absent. That would be another class where I would have to make up homework or something stupid.

The door suddenly opened. Kyle walked through, looking back and forth. Our eyes met. I sent him a scowl. He just blinked at me.

“Kyle?” The desk lady said, leaning up from her seat. “You can head down the hall and look for Mr. Adam’s room, his door should be open.”

“Okay,” he said.

Kyle went down to the counselor’s room. He definitely wasn’t in for as long as me. He was probably lying the whole time, too. Mr. Adams didn’t understand anything about Rune Quest, so it wouldn’t have been much to fool him. Kyle came back down the hall followed by Mr. Adams. He waved Kyle out the door, passing him a note.

“This will excuse you for being late to your second-period class,” he said as Kyle left. He then came up in front of me, his hands in his pockets. He sighed like he had bad news.

“This is obviously a big thing for you, Mike. Bullying and making fun is one thing. But if it’s out of school, and especially on something like the internet, on a computer game, that’s harder to look into.”

“What did Kyle say?” I asked, leaning forward.

“That’s between me and him,” Mr. Adams said. “But it comes down to your word versus his. And I don’t know where to start with this, these imaginary video game items that I can’t even see or touch. I do know that the internet is a big place, and plenty of people use it for all sorts of things. And there are plenty of strangers who are probably up to no good. So proving Kyle did something to your character… your account… we can’t really prove that.”

“I know it was him!” I said, rocking back and forth in the hard seat. “Saturday morning… when we woke up, he was on my character! I don’t know how he did it… but he was able to log in as me and…”

“Mike,” Mr. Adams said. “I believe you. And I believe that this is a big deal for you. But I can’t give another student a punishment based on something that happened in a video game. He could have been lying, too, yes. But again, your word versus his.”

“I’ll prove it to you!” I raised my voice.

“Mike, let’s save your energy for more important things. How about this; I’ll let you come in any time this week at lunch and we can talk through it. Normally you’d get a lunch detention for hitting someone else right in front of the teacher, but I’d say you sitting here all morning has been plenty of time to think about your actions. You’re a good kid, Mike. I know it was just a fluke. And I’ll make sure Mrs. Carpenter moves seats so you’re not stuck next to Kyle anymore.”

I nodded. I wasn’t satisfied, but I guessed I had no choice. “Okay.”

Mr. Adams nodded with me. “Good. I’ll get you a note so you can head off to second period and get caught up.”

<– Previous Chapter | Next Chapter –>