The last time I was in Principal Darling’s office was back in the spring when Hunter, Zachary, and I made the TouchCast vid. Principal Darling sat with us on the floor in front of her desk and asked us questions about the unit on climate change we’d been working on in Ms. Wright’s class. When we finished, she let us sit in her chair and spin around as fast as we could.
No one was taking her chair for spins today.
I looked over at Diego. His head was down, so the blue-and-white eyes of his SpongeBob hat were looking back at me. Tiki sat beside him. She was no longer crying, but her chin still quivered. She wiped her tearstained cheeks with her shoulder sleeves. Avery was parked next to her. She had her elbow resting on her armrest and her head against her knuckles. She stared out the window.
I checked Principal Darling. She sat at her desk hunched over her laptop, emailing our parents. We needed to be picked up. We were being sent home.
“I thought you were getting in trouble,” Tiki whispered to Avery. “I couldn’t stand the sight—”
“Whatever, dude.” Avery’s eyes stayed on the window.
“This is all my fault. When I saw…”
“It’s okay,” Avery muttered.
But it wasn’t okay. That’s what I wanted to say to Tiki. None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t panicked.
“Disappointing,” Principal Darling said. She stood up, rolled her chair around her desk, and sat down next to Diego. “You involved Red?”
The words were aimed at me.
Red wasn’t with us. After we got caught, Red refused to leave the booth. He sat swaying back and forth with his hands behind his neck and his arms squeezing his head. He kept saying, “Stop, stop, stop.” Ms. Yvonne had to come get him and take him to her office.
“Red was only lookout,” I said.
“Lookout?” Principal Darling said. “What does that mean?”
“All he did was sit at the booth,” I said. “His job was to keep an eye out for teachers, but he really … Tiki was our real lookout.”
“Did Red think he was the lookout?”
“Yes.”
“Did he think he was involved?”
“Yes.”
“Then he was involved.” She shook her head. “So disappointing.”
If you ever get caught doing something stupid, I hope you have the good sense to admit it.
Mom’s words were on blast in my brain. I twisted a lock near my forehead at its root. I had to come clean. I had to admit …
“This was my idea,” Tiki blurted. “I was the one who came up with the plan.”
“We all agreed to it,” Diego said. “It was everyone’s idea.”
“No,” Tiki said. “I came up with it first. I was the one who wanted—”
Avery cut her off. “It was everyone’s idea.”
“Enough,” Principal Darling said, holding up a hand. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Tomorrow morning, we’re all going to meet here. All of you, all of your parents. Then we’ll get to the bottom of—”
Principal Darling didn’t finish the sentence. She stared at her phone and shook her head.
“This is ridiculous,” she said after a moment. “They have me out of the building every day this week. How do they expect me to be a principal if I’m never here?”
We weren’t supposed to answer the question.
“This is going to have to wait until Friday morning.” She looked at each of us. “All of you and all of your parents will be here Friday morning. Until then, you’re not permitted to set foot in that cafeteria. If you get grab-and-go, someone will bring you your breakfast. During lunch, you’ll be elsewhere. On Friday morning, there are going to be significant consequences.”