When Summer Ends

by Isabelle Rae

  Please don’t let me screw this up!

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Chloe, have a seat,” Principal Sherman instructed, nodding at the empty seat next to Will.

  I put on a fake smile and nodded, sitting down. “Am I in some kind of trouble? Have I missed an assignment or something in calculus?” I asked, glancing at Will. Oh man, hold it together, Chloe!

  “I just want to ask you a few questions,” Principal Sherman said, smiling reassuringly but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. I gulped and tried to keep my expression neutral as I nodded, pretending like I had no clue why I was brought here in the first place. “Okay, so I had someone come and report something to me earlier today that is very concerning, and it’s my duty to investigate the accusation.”

  I frowned as my hand clenched in a tight fist on my leg. I seriously was going to punch Erika in the face next time I saw her. “Accusation? I don’t understand,” I replied, faking innocence.

  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 su
pervised. 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.

  Principal Sherman held up his hands innocently. “I’m not suggesting it, I’m merely proving what I just said about there being space for people to suggest certain things if you have a close relationship with a teacher. There is always going to be someone that suggests that there is favouritism going on. Just so I can prove that wrong before it is even suggested as an issue, who is your tutor?” he asked, looking at me, his pen poised over his notepad again ready to write it down.

  I crossed my arms over my chest, still offended. I worked damn hard on my calculus, and I’m not going to let some balding little man tell me that I’m getting off easy with it. “Nick Golding,” I growled.

  Principal Sherman wrote that down. He now had almost a full page of quotes and things that we’d said. He nodded. “I think that’s everything. The bell is about to ring in a few minutes. I’ll investigate this quickly because I don’t want anything hanging over our heads like this. As soon as I’ve finished speaking to the other teachers, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, if you could just try and keep your distance from each other while this is ongoing, I know that will be difficult with the nature of the relationship, but hopefully I’ll have this all sorted out by tomorrow,” he requested, smiling almost apologetically as he stood up, signalling the end of the meeting.

  Will stood and shook his hand and I grabbed my bag off of the floor. That was so much easier than I thought it would be. I’d actually been a pretty good liar; I was more than proud of both myself and Will. I stalked out of the door
, not waiting for Will; I couldn’t exactly wait around to talk to him after we’d just been instructed to stay away from each other.

  Instead of heading back to his class, I went to my locker, grabbing my books that I would need for tonight’s study session with Nick. Hmm, should I tell Nick about Will, just so we would have someone else to back up our story? I can ask Nick to lie and pretend that he’s met and heard of Sam too…. That’s actually a great idea. I loved Nick dearly and I knew that he would be annoyed about it at first but he would get over it and help me. He was adorable like that and I could always rely on him in a rough situation.

  Once I had my books I headed out to the school grounds for the last five minutes. I sat on one of the benches and pulled out my phone, deciding to text Sam and tell him what had happened. We exchanged a few texts; he sent me a couple of flirtatious ones and instructed me to leave them on my phone as extra evidence of our relationship. While I thought about it, I quickly deleted everything that Will had ever sent me. It was a little painful deleting all of the ‘I love you’ messages and stuff that he’d sent me, but I was pretty sure I would get a ton more once all this was over with and I’d left school.

  As soon as the bell rang Amy called me to see where I was. Less than a minute later she came streaking over to where I was, and engulfed me in a hug, talking so fast that I could barely understand what she said. “I’ve-been-so-worried-about-you! Tell-me-everything-what-happened-with-Principal-Sherman-did-you-get-into-trouble?” she said it all in one breath. I laughed at her as I pulled her down onto the benches and we spoke in hushed whispered about everything. She seemed to relax as I got half way through the story; she obviously thought we’d done well too.