When Summer Ends (56 page)

Will and I had been over and over this; we knew this might
happen once Erika cottoned on to the fact that we weren’t playing her game.
Deep down I was still hoping that there was a nice person inside of her
somewhere though; I guess I was wrong to hope after all. We had rehearsed what
I needed to say if this happened. I needed to stick to the plan that I was
dating Will’s brother and nothing more. This would all just be fine… if I could
only stop my hands from sweating.

“Yes, a very serious accusation regarding you and Mr
Morris.” Principal Sherman pursed his lips and sat back in his chair, watching
me intently.

“Me and Mr Morris? I don’t get it,” I lied, looking at Will
as if asking for clarification.

Will smiled at me sadly and looked to the balding little man
on the other side of the desk.

“Well, Chloe, another student is alleging that she witnessed
you and Mr Morris in a compromising situation last Thursday at the end of
school,” Principal Sherman continued. “She claims that she saw you two kissing
and touching, in Mr Morris’ classroom.”

I snorted and looked at Will with mock disgust. “As if! He’s
old!” I scoffed, turning my nose up at him.

Will burst out laughing and shook his head. “Thanks, Chloe,
that makes me feel so good,” he said, still chuckling.

I smiled. “Whatever.” I waved my hand dismissively. I looked
back to the Principal who looked like he was fighting a smile. “I’m dating
someone else anyway. It’s actually Mr Morris’ brother, Sam. We’ve been seeing
each other for about four months now, well, we did break up for a couple of
weeks but then I made him jealous by dating Oliver Hawk so we got back
together. But why would someone say I was kissing Will? That’s just…” I trailed
off, faking confusion and disgust, “gross,” I finished.

Principal Sherman leant forward in his chair, resting his
elbows on the desk, looking thoughtful. “I have a responsibility to my school
and my students to thoroughly investigate any claim or accusation that comes into
my office. I must admit I was a little shocked to have heard this earlier
today, I’ve not heard even the slightest rumours about this before that meeting
so I don’t quite know what to feel about it,” he said, nodding along as if he
was thinking about it as he spoke.

I frowned. “What to feel about what? I don’t get it. Am I in
some sort of trouble for dating Will’s brother?” I asked, playing along that I
just didn’t understand what was being accused.

The Principal shook his head. “No, Chloe. The allegation is
that you are carrying on with an illegal relationship with your teacher,” he
said, looking at me as if I was stupid. That was exactly what I wanted him to
think, I wanted him to think I was stupid and that I wasn’t actually clever enough
to have a secret relationship with Will, that I wasn’t smart enough to pull off
this plan with Sam. I wanted him to underestimate me.

I gasped and stood up, shaking my head. “That’s stupid! Me
and Will? I’m not being horrible but to be honest I wouldn’t even talk to him
if it wasn’t for Sam, I kind of
have
to talk to him because of being
with his brother. We don’t exactly have anything in common, I mean, he’s a math
nerd for goodness sake!” I ranted, pointing at Will. I heard him snort in
protest, but I didn’t react to it, I’d apologise after. I’d already called him
old so I figured I may as well go the whole hog and call him a nerd too.

“Sit down, Chloe. Like I said it’s my job to look into these
things. This is just an informal meeting to ascertain both sides of the story.
Neither of you are in trouble for anything at this time. There is no evidence
apart from one girl’s statement, and from what Mr Morris has already told me
about you and his brother, there doesn’t seem to be a problem. I just don’t
understand why a student would come and make up a serious accusation like this
if it was unfounded.” Principal Sherman pointed at the chair again, signalling
for me to sit.

I lowered myself into the chair and frowned. “Well this is
just stupid! Who was it that said it anyway? Why would someone make up
something like this? It’s sick! Maybe they just want to get me in trouble or
something,” I suggested, acting hurt and upset. It was times like this that I
wished I was an actress and could make myself cry on cue, that would be awesome
if I could just burst into tears and throw myself on the floor wailing about
how unfair it was that someone hated me enough to try and get me into trouble.

Principal Sherman shook his head slowly. “I’m not at liberty
to disclose the person who made the accusation.” He turned to Will and cocked
his head to the side. “What is your relationship with Chloe, outside of
school?”

Will shrugged nonchalantly. “She’s dating my brother; I’ve
seen her a few times outside of school, but only with Sam. I wasn’t aware that
was against the rules,” he stated, frowning. It looked like his tactic was the pissed
off approach, like he was annoyed to be being accused of doing something wrong.

“But you have never been alone with Chloe?” Principal Sherman
clarified.

Will’s frown deepened. “Well, I’ve been alone in the room
with her if that’s what you’re getting at, but not for any great length of
time. She’s my little brother’s girlfriend. If we’re at my parents at the same
time, or going to the same party then I’ve seen her out, but it’s not like we
hang out or anything. I don’t really socialise with my brother that much,” he
lied, shrugging. I couldn’t help but be impressed by him and his acting skills.
He was doing seriously well with this, he was obviously coping a lot better
under the pressure than I was. I discreetly wiped my sweaty palms on the leg of
my jeans and tried to keep my heartbeat steady.

Principal Sherman looked away from Will to me. “Tell me
about how you met Mr Morris’ brother, Chloe.”

I gulped.
Okay here’s where it could get a little tricky.
We had all agreed to stick to the story as much as possible so that details
wouldn’t get confused or lost over time, so basically everything that had
happened with Will I was pretending had happened with Sam instead. Which meant
I was about to get berated for sneaking into a club underage.

“Well, it was near the start of the summer, I snuck into a
club using a fake ID with-” I stopped and chose my words carefully not wanting
to get any of my girls in trouble too. “Some friends. I met Sam there and we
hit it off, and that was it. We dated for just over a month then he dumped me. I
was hurt so I started seeing this guy from school trying to make Sam jealous.
My plan worked, we got back together and have been together properly again for
the last eight weeks,” I rambled all of the words together, trying to sound
like an immature seventeen year old girl, hopefully it would just make me look
even dumber so that Principal Sherman would just dismiss me as being too stupid
to carry on with a teacher.

The Principal raised one eyebrow. “You snuck into a club?”
he questioned, not looking impressed.

I nodded. “Yeah, but it was in the summer and not on school
time, so you can’t give me a detention for that, can you?” I asked, trying to
look scared.

He shook his head. “No I can’t, but you shouldn’t do that,
Chloe. Dangerous things happen at places like that when you aren’t properly
supervised. There are rules there for a reason you know. I hope you won’t be
doing anything like that again,” he chastised, looking at me sternly.

I shook my head quickly. “No, Sam doesn’t like me going to
places like that anyway,” I lied.

He nodded, seeming satisfied with my response. “Okay good.
So, carrying on from there then, when was the first time you met Mr Morris?”

I rolled my lip into my mouth and chewed on it, pretending
to think. “I met him at a party that I went to with Sam a couple of weeks after
we got together,” I lied. Then I clicked my fingers and shook my head as if I
just remembered something and turned to look at Will. “Wait, I met you before
that too actually, at Kaitlin’s wedding. That was the following day after I met
Sam at the club. That was actually our first date; not a very good date to take
a girl on, a family wedding, but I still had fun. Sam is hilarious.” I sighed wistfully
as I thought about the wedding and dancing with Will all night. Principal
Sherman seemed to be writing down everything that was being said, scribbling
quickly on a notepad.

I was feeling more and more confident by the second.
Principal Sherman’s shoulders seemed to be relaxing and his posture wasn’t
quite as stiff and accusing as it was before, he was buying the lie completely.

“When was it that you first discovered that Mr Morris was
going to be your teacher?” he asked, rolling his neck on his shoulders,
probably trying to relieve some of the tension from them.

I shrugged. “Not until I saw him in class. We didn’t really
speak much before that so I didn’t realise that he was going to be teaching at
my school. It was kind of awkward at first, but it’s okay now though,” I said,
smiling at Will but just in a friendly way.

“Are there people that could witness your relationship with
Sam?” Principal Sherman asked, looking at me hopefully.

I frowned. “Sure. Amy’s met him. Um… he hasn’t met my
parents yet because my dad, well, he can get a little overprotective so I
didn’t want to scare him away from me or anything,” I stated, wincing. This was
where it got tricky, the proving it part, because none of my other friends had
met Sam at all or have even heard about him. “He came to pick me up the other
day from school, and spoke to Mr Young and Mr Bentley,” I added, pretending
that I didn’t think it was a big deal.

Principal Sherman seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when I
mentioned the teachers. My guess would be that just made everything easier to
prove for him and made his job easier. He definitely looked a lot happier about
it now. He smiled. “And what day was that?” he asked, scribbling on his pad
again.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Er, it was last week sometime.
What does it matter anyway?” I asked.
Oh my days, this is going freaking
awesomely! I need to buy Sam something as a thank you for this!

Principal Sherman smiled easily now. “It would just be handy
to know so that I can cross check with the other teachers.”

I frowned and nodded, pretending to think. “I can’t remember
what day it was. If you’re that desperate for it why don’t you just check the
visitors’ book, that’ll have the date on, won’t it?” I offered.

His mouth dropped open a little, another smile tugging at
the corners of his mouth. “Visitors’ book, he actually came into the school?”

I nodded. “Sure. We went to speak to Will about the
anniversary dinner for Sam’s parents on Saturday night, and then Miss Teller
came in while we were talking and then we left to go bowling,” I clarified, shrugging.

Principal Sherman looked at Will. “Miss Teller was a witness
too?” he asked, looking like a ten ton weight had just been lifted off of his
shoulders.

Will nodded. “Well yeah. I drive Caroline home every day
after school. She spoke to Sam and Chloe when she came to meet me,” he agreed casually.

I felt like doing a little happy dance in the middle of the
office, everything was working out perfectly. He was totally falling for it and
Will wasn’t going to get into trouble, I wasn’t going to get expelled, and
Erika was going to get a punch in her pretty face next time I saw her.
All is
right in the world! 

“I hope you two understand that I need to investigate this.
It’s my duty after all to ensure the welfare of all students within my school.
I’ll have to check out what you’ve said but if the stories match up then all I
can do is apologise for dragging you both in here,” Principal Sherman said,
looking uncomfortable.

I didn’t say anything, just tried to keep the smug happy
grin off of my face. Will sat forward in his chair. “I understand, Richard, I
know how it works. I just hope this won’t be on my record that we’ve had this
meeting. A false accusation of this magnitude could have a detrimental effect
on my teaching career,” Will said.

I felt my eyes widen in shock. I’d never heard Will speak
like that before, he was always so young sounding when he spoke, but when he
just made that speech with all of the long words, I was actually quite surprised
by how much he’d sounded like a calculus teacher.

Principal Sherman shook his head fiercely. “This is just a
friendly meeting to ascertain certain details, nothing is going on anyone’s
record you can rest assured of that. And if these accusations are proven to be
false, then the person making the accusation will be punished accordingly for
causing trouble,” he said sternly.

I felt my heart jump into my throat; Erika was going to get
into trouble for lying? I actually felt a little guilty about that, because
technically although she was a mega-bitch, she wasn’t just lying to get us into
trouble.

Will nodded and smiled gratefully. “That’s good.”

Well, based on his smile, he obviously doesn’t feel
guilty for getting that blackmailing witch in trouble!

Principal Sherman cleared his throat. “I can’t really say
that I’m too happy about this whole situation though. A student dating a
teacher’s brother is always going to leave space for things to go wrong. For
example,” he picked up a file that had my name on it, and thumbed through it,
“your grades have significantly improved in calculus this year, Chloe. One
could argue that Mr Morris was going easy on you because of you dating his
brother,” he suggested, raising one eyebrow and looking between me and Will.

I frowned angrily. I was extremely offended by his comment.
“No way. I worked hard to get that average up! Quite frankly I resent the
accusation that he’s giving me a free pass. I have a tutor; I study at least
twice a week with him. I deserve that grade, and I think that it’s mean for you
to suggest that he’s going easy on me because of Sam!” I cried, angrily.