Meet Mr. Way

“So as you all can see the system given below had no solutions.” The still young teacher pointed at the board. “Yes Angelica?” She spoke to the brunette on the second row of desks, who had her hand up in the air.

“But if we exchanged the variable to a positive value, the system would have a solution.”

“Exactly.” The teacher smiled. Angelica had resumed to writing the teacher’s notes on her notebook when something hit her head lightly. A piece of paper fell to the floor. She rolled her eyes before turning around, already knowing that the two girls behind her would be laughing at her. One of them mouthed a not really convincing ‘sorry’ before Angelica could turn her head to the front again.

“If you ignored them, they would probably stop.” The blond girl sitting next to her spoke casually. “Showing that you’re bothered will only instigate them.”
That made Angelica roll her eyes again.

Perhaps she was right, perhaps ignoring the idiotic attempts to shove paper into her hair would be the best alternative. However, Angelica wasn’t exactly thinking about the options; she already had one in her mind. Another paper hit her in the head, followed by two more. When the last one collided with her dark hair, that was it. She had lost her temper.

Getting up from her seat, the brunette picked the lighter that she kept in her pencil case, not to smoke of course, but to light the candles when everyone inside the building was supposed to be asleep and the lights went out. It took her only a second to reach one of the girls, the lighter in her hand flicking and causing a small flame.

Everyone’s eyes were already on her, and Angelica could hear the faint shout of her teacher telling her to sit back down. However, her left hand had already grabbed a handful of hair from the girl and the right one had brought the lighter up to it, causing a bigger mess than she had imagined.

And yet, instead of guilt filling her insides, Angelica found herself feeling proud of standing up to herself. The other girl’s scream could be heard a thousand miles from the building, and everyone in the classroom was quiet and wide eyed, taking in every single second of what was happening. This was a first, without a doubt.

“Angelica!” Her teacher’s voice was a lot clearer now, and her mind was less foggy. “Principal’s office. Right this second!” She screeched.

Angelica’s heart could literally jump out of her chest if it wanted to. She had already told herself more than a hundred times that she shouldn’t have harmed those girls, but honestly they had it coming. Maybe now people would stop bothering her.

She glanced at the lady in front of her. She was probably in her late forties and that washed brown suit didn’t really compliment her, but she seemed nice as she would casually smile at her from time to time, while writing things down or taking phone calls. Now she waited for her order to see the principal. She’d been here in less than a month and she was already getting acquainted with the principal.

“Mr. Way will see you now.” The woman smiled, tilting her head toward the large dark door.

She swallowed hard before getting up, grabbing the doorknob after taking another deep breath, not knowing whether to knock on the door or step right in.
“You can go, he’s waiting for you.” The woman reassured her with another smile.

She just hopped that whoever was on the other side of the door would understand her situation, but that probably wouldn’t happen. She expected to see a strict nun, or a closed-minded, old, priest-like man, but when she opened the door her eyes weren’t ready for what she saw.

Sitting on the other side of a large mahogany desk was the man she had met just a couple of days ago. He gestured for her to take a seat, obviously not surprised to see her there.

The girl slid the backpack from her shoulder to the floor and sat in the grey armchair in front of him. She still couldn’t believe he was the principal. He simply didn’t fit. And worse, she had been rude to him. He probably already hated her.

“I don’t think I’ve introduced myself the last time we met.” His smile was one-sided and oddly sympathetic. “My name’s Gerard Way and I am the principal of St. Agnes School for girls.” He opened a thin, yellowish brow file case. “And you are Angelica Baker, right?”

Angelica felt the knot on her throat getting tighter. Now that she saw him at broad daylight, in the comfort of his office, he didn’t seem threatening. Peculiar maybe, and definitely cute.

The girl looked down at her legs as fast as she could. She couldn’t think of him as being cute, he was the principal. But there was something in his sly smile, like if they shared a secret of their own, that made her not want to look directly in his eyes.

He looked at the file case once more before closing it. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”

No she did not. But she knew he would make her. Just as she knew that he would probably call her father afterwards. She didn’t care, though. Her father had been the one to put her in here; he had been the one that had made her lose all the friends she had. Now he had to deal with her actions and that was only his fault.

“I’m just trying to understand why you did that. I’m not here to judge you, just to help you.” His hands touched the file case. “And if you talk to me maybe I won’t need to call your father.”

For the first time she looked at him directly in the eyes, considering his offer. He looked back at her, his hands still against the folder, waiting for her decision with the hint of a smile.

“Fine.” She proceeded to tell him how the girls used to hassle her, not just at that class, but at almost every class for the past two weeks and not only by hitting her with pieces of paper.

“I see.” He opened her file case and studied it for a while. Angelica could see a question form in his expression and she already knew what the question was.

“Yes,” she murmured after a while. “My mother is dead. She died almost five months ago.” She decided to be blunt. “That’s why I’m here Mr. Way.”

“You can call me Gerard.” He interrupted her. She thought about it for a while. Yeah… that was not going to work. “Do you want to talk about it?” He offered.

“I don’t need a shrink,” she replied.

“Trust me, I’m not a shrink.”

She looked down at her legs again. She had always loved her parents, but her relationship with her mother was a special one. They shared everything, so when her mother died because of an accident where her father was the driver, she felt like a part of her had died too.

She blamed her father for the accident and therefore for her mother’s death. Deep down she knew he blamed himself too, but instead of working on it, he just decided to send her to a boarding school.

Angelica picked her pencil case from her backpack. “My teacher said that I have to give this to you.” She didn’t look at him as she handed the lighter she had used to burn the girl’s hair.

“Why would you carry a lighter with you?” He asked, not reaching her hand to take it.

“Sometimes I like to read or draw after the lights go out, so I light up some candles.” She confessed, her hand still resting on his desk.

“Well, then you can keep it.” His hand lingered on hers as he pushed it from the desk. “As long as you promise me you won’t use it to burn anything else.”

She licked her lips before smiling. “I promise, Mr. Way.”

Notes

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