by Breanna Carter
I'm Anastasia, and I sat apprehensively at lunch, surrounded by all my friends who were talking and giggling about something. The thing is, I had just made plans minutes before to ditch class with them and go somewhere. Normally, I wouldn't have been apprehensive about it, but Brianna wasn't going to go. She said something about being caught skipping too many times already, and she didn't want it to happen again. I had already agreed though, and if I backed out, well, I just couldn't back out now. Thus I sat feeling very apprehensive.
Patrice was talking about how she had a slip from the last time she checked out and she could just change the date on it and make it look like it was a slip from the office. She also said that she could put our names on the slip. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was just about to count myself out when the bell rang to end lunch. Brianna smiled and threw her plate away in the trashcan.
"See ya guys later!" she said, skipping off to class.
I figured I wouldn't look too suspicious since I was the only sophomore going. Of course, Patrice, Jayna, and Emily probably wouldn't look too suspicious either, since two were seniors, and the other was a junior. I really didn't want to look suspicious though, because if we got caught, I knew that Ashton would roast my bottom like it'd never been roasted before. He had something strong against skipping. I'm sure he actually did it once or twice, and I was pissed to think that he'd be so mad at me when he'd done it, too. But I couldn't guarantee that he had actually done it.
Anyway, so we were walking along unsuspiciously and went out to Patrice's car; we all got inside and drove off. It was as easy as that. We turned the music up loud and gave each other a high five, while Patrice filled the yellow slip in to make it look like today's date, December 9th, and like all of our names were on there. After she did that, we set off. She backed out of the parking lot and made her way to the exit, only to find that there was this huge gate there so nobody could skip. Lucky us.
"Relax," she muttered to me, seeing that I was very uneasy in the back corner of her car. "We have a pass, remember? The security guard will see it, assume that she missed a call, and let us off."
I nodded, still not relaxing.
We made a loop around the parking lot and came back around to where the school was, passing by the office and the security guard who flagged us down.
"Hello, Ms. Russell," Patrice said, putting on her best smile.
"Hello, ladies. Where are you going?"
"To eat lunch. We have a pass." She gave the yellow slip to the security guard and gave her enough time to glance at it before saying, "How are you today?"
"I'm doing just fine," she said, not looking up from the slip. "But it seems that this slip is an older one, especially since this secretary doesn't work here anymore. Maybe it's from February ninth?" She looked up at us. My heart stopped.
"No, ma'am. It's from today. We just went in there." I bit my lower lip.
"Well, maybe you girls should park your car and come inside with me, and once we get this cleared up, you can go have your lunch."
"But Ms. Russell, see, the thing is, we're meeting my older brother there, and I don't want to be late in meeting him."
"Well I assure you that it's better for us to clear this up than for you to leave and be written up for skipping. Don't you think?"
I looked at Jayna who sat next to me, her eyebrows raised, a look of worry on her face.
Patrice looked back. "I guess we'll just have to be late," she said. "I'm sure that he won't mind."
Ms. Russell smiled. "I'm sure he won't. Go ahead and park your car, and I'll meet you in a few minutes."
Patrice rolled her window and sighed heavily. "Fucking bitch," she muttered, turning her car around and going back to the parking place. "This is so messed up. I can't believe that this pass is no good."
"When IS the pass from, Patrice?" I asked.
"It's from February."
"Good job."
"Hey, shut the fuck up, okay? It always worked the other times."
I sighed and leaned back in my seat. This was not good.
The four of us got out of the car after Patrice parked back in her spot. I was glad that Bri hadn't come because she'd probably get spanked super badly by her older brother, Terrence, especially since she had been caught skipping before. Since I hadn't, maybe Ashton would go easy on me. Maybe he wouldn't spank me. Too bad Dad wasn't in town. He wouldn't do anything, just fuss at me for a bit and tell me to go to my room. I liked his punishments much better than Ashton's.
We met up with Ms. Russell and she escorted us into the office and greeted the secretaries, asking if the four of us had checked out. They all looked at us in utter confusion and finally said, "No..."
Ms. Russell gave us a look as if saying that she had won, then took us all to Mrs. Jamison's office.
"Great," I muttered. "I get to talk to this bitch again." I really didn't like Mrs. Jamison at all. She was a short fat lady with glasses that sat on the end of her nose and she always folded her hands and spoke in a voice like her nose was stuffy. Blech, I didn't like her at all.
Ms. Russell explained the situation to her as if the four of us weren't standing right there. Mrs. Jamison just nodded and began babbling about how skipping is against the school rules and we were in no way allowed to leave campus without permission from a parent or guardian. I just thought about the Harry Potter books and how there was that Professor Umbridge in the last book and how that's what Mrs. Jamison reminded me of. Then I realized that everyone was staring at me and Mrs. Jamison had asked a question.
I blinked, then decided not to ask what she had said, but instead answer. "No, ma'am," I murmured, hoping that was an appropriate answer for her question. You know, like if she asked something like why I did it, it wouldn't be a good answer. But if the question was if I had anything to say for myself, or if I wanted her to contact my brother, the answer was definitely no. Jayna smirked a bit, 'cause she knew I hadn't been listening. How could anyone actually listen to that lady?
I sighed and started thinking about how I wished we could have at least gotten off campus so I could have gotten a bite to eat because I was hungry and my stomach was about to growl, when she asked us another question. But this time, I heard the other three say no, so when it was my turn to answer, I smiled slightly, and said in my most southern polite voice, "No, ma'am." This was too easy.
It was too easy until she said, "Have a seat outside and I'm going to call each of your parents and let them know that you've been suspended for the day, and you still have five days of afternoon detention."
I blinked. Sometimes I could kick myself for not listening to her. Geeze, at least if I listened to the lady I'd have known what our punishment was, and I could have pleaded for her to at least not call our parents. But it was too late now, 'cause we were filing out of the room and I was plopping down next to the other three girls.
"Way to go, Ana," Jayna said.
"Huh?"
"It was so obvious you weren't listening. How do you do that? Know exactly what answer to say..."
"Oh, uh, I dunno. A lot of practice I guess," I said, cracking a grin.
"I can't believe the goddamn pass didn't work," Patrice said.
"Well, maybe next time it will," I said, staring into space.
I felt her glare at me, but I didn't really care. I wished that I didn't have an older brother at this time, that I was the oldest and since they couldn't call my parents, I could just drive myself home. But that wasn't the case. And I guess I didn't really wish I didn't have an older brother, 'cause Ashton really cared about me, but I didn't want to be in trouble. I hadn't even wanted to skip.
Ashton was the first to actually come into the office. It sucked because while all the other girls were having their parents, I was stuck with the boy who actually went to school with me and it took him like five minutes to come into the office. What was even more embarrassing, Patrice and Emily knew Ashton because they had classes with him and when he walked in, they smiled. Ugh. It was enough to make me sick.
He sat down across from me, thank God for Jayna, because otherwise, he would've sat next to me and started bitching about how skipping is bad and all this stuff. Mrs. Jamison opened her door. I swear, she probably has a camera somewhere in the hallway that tells her when someone's outside her room, because every time I'd been sent to the office, she seemed to automatically know when Ashton was there. She smiled that damn ugly smile and opened her door, mumbling something in her stuffy nosed voice that I didn't care to listen to.
We got inside her office and she closed the door, and both Ashton and I sat, and she began rambling again, and Ashton kept looking at me, and I just kept my gaze fixed on the screen saver on her computer. It was the kind with the little 3D shapes that keep changing shapes, and it was very intriguing. Finally, Ashton apologized, or something, nudged me, and I apologized and told her that I wouldn't do it again, and she smiled, shook Ashton's hand and told him that he'd turned into a very fine young man. He thanked her, put his hand on my back and led me out of the office. I grinned at the three girls who sat watching me then rolled my eyes 'cause they were so annoying. Why did I hang out with annoying people?
When we got outside, Ashton started in on lecturing me and I just stared at the ground, once again not listening. The difference between Mrs. Jamison and Ashton is that Ashton knows when I'm not paying attention because he smacked my bottom and said, "Listen to me, dammit!"
I blushed when he spanked me in public like that, but I looked around and thankfully nobody saw.
"Sorry," I murmured, really trying to actually listen this time.
"You can't go and skip school like that," he said, walking a little too quickly for me. He was a tall guy and had long legs so he could take large steps, and I was practically running 'cause I was so short. "I can't believe that you'd let Patrice talk you into it, and lie about it to the security guard."
"Yeah, it was pretty dumb," I agreed.
"VERY dumb."
"But come on, Ash, you've skipped before."
He stopped, almost causing me to run into him because I was behind him and when he stopped, I didn't. "Excuse me?" he said, looking down at me.
"I said, you've skipped before."
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