The Promise (Neighbor from Hell 10)

“I really can’t,” she finally admitted with a heartfelt sigh.

“That’s it, Jen? No excuses?” he asked, admittedly disappointed, because he’d expected a hell of a lot more from his favorite repeat offender.

“There’s really no excuse for what I did, Principal Bradford, is there?” she said, giving him a “What are you going to do,” look that had him rolling his eyes because he knew what was coming.

“I mean, I guess that I could blame it on my broken home, but that should really go without saying. Then, of course, there’s peer pressure,” she said, sighing heavily as if the weight of the world rested solely upon her small shoulders.

“You were alone,” he pointed out.

“Which only proves how detrimental peer pressure can be,” she said, reaching over and helping herself to the bowl of hard candy that he kept on his desk.

“I see,” he murmured, leaning back against his chair as he considered her. “And this is really the best that you can come up with?”

“With a public education?” she asked before nodding. “I’m afraid so.”

Reminding himself that smiling would only encourage her, he cleared his throat and tossed the pack of cigarettes on the desk and reached for her folder, noting that it was probably the thickest student file he’d ever come across. He thumbed through it, all while Jen sat there, humming to herself as she waited for him to decide on her punishment.

If it had been anyone else, he probably would have suspended her for a week, but he couldn’t do that with her, because Jen would view it as a vacation. He could have her volunteer to tutor elementary school children again, but he’d learned his lesson the last time. That left graffiti cleanup and detention. Since he remembered all too well what happened the last time she was on graffiti cleanup, he decided to save himself the trouble and settled on detention.

“Two weeks,” he said, tossing her folder back on the desk.

“Of suspension?” she asked, sounding hopeful.

“Detention.”

“Detention,” she murmured as though she was contemplating her choices.

There weren’t any and she knew it, but that wasn’t going to stop her from treating this like a negotiation. “How about one?”

“Two.”

“Now is that two consecutive weeks or can we break this thing down so that I don’t have to miss basketball practice?” she suggested with a hopeful smile that had him glaring at her.

“You’re not on the basketball team,” he pointed out, rubbing his hands down his face and wishing he’d picked a different week to give up caffeine.

“I could have been,” she murmured softly with a sad shake of her head. “I could have been.”

Cocking an eyebrow, he shifted his attention to his laptop and brought up the detention schedule. “You can start today,” he said, adding her name to the detention list.

“Who’s the teacher in charge this week?” she asked as she reached for another piece of candy.

“Mr. Owens,” he said, adding her name to next week’s list as well.

“And next week’s?”

Sighing, he scrolled back to the top and did his best to hide his grimace as he said, “Miss Dawson is on for the next two weeks.”

“Miss Dawson?” Jen asked, suddenly perking up. “Can I start next week instead?”

“No,” he said evenly, hitting Save and praying that this would be the only time that she was brought up today because he honestly wasn’t sure that he had the energy to deal with this today.

“It would make things easier,” Jen said, sounding hopeful.

“No.”

“But-”

“No,” he said firmly, absolutely refusing to do this.

“Fine,” Jen said, sighing heavily as she grabbed her backpack and stood up. “But just so you know, I’m probably not going to be able to learn my lesson in such an oppressive environment.”

“Then it should probably help that I plan on calling your mother and asking her to come in for another meeting,” he said, tossing the pack of cigarettes in the bottom left-hand drawer to join the rest of the contraband that he’d taken from students since the start of the year, most of it hers.

“Call my mom?” she said slowly, nodding. “Yeah, I’m not sure that would really help.”

He wasn’t either, but it was school policy.

“Do you have another suggestion?” he asked, open to suggestions at this point.

“Let me off with a warning?” she suggested with the brightest smile that she could manage.

“No. Anything else?” he asked, getting to his feet as he slid his cellphone into his back pocket and headed for the door.

“Fine. Then let me complete my detention with Miss Dawson?” she asked with a sigh as her smile disappeared.

“No,” he said firmly, opening his office door only to find Mrs. Jennings, the head of the English Department, standing in front of his door, wringing her hands together, and looking seconds away from another meltdown.

Since he already had a pretty good idea why she was here, he simply gestured for her to have a seat in his office. He stepped out of the way as Janice, his secretary, rushed into the room with a bottle of water, a box of tissues, and a small brown paper bag just in case she started hyperventilating again, and handed them all over to Mrs. Jennings, who went for the brown paper bag first.

Never a good sign, he thought, rubbing the back of his neck as he asked, “Where?” not bothering to waste any more time than necessary, but honestly, it wasn’t necessary.

“Upstairs back hall,” she gasped, placing the brown paper bag over her mouth as she began hyperventilating.

“Great,” he said, sighing as he left the office and gestured for Jen to return to class, but of course she ignored him and decided to tag along.

“So, what do you think happened?” she asked cheerfully as she did her best to keep up with him as he headed toward the back stairs.

“Get to class,” he said, trying not to think about all the possibilities that would have had Mrs. Jennings leaving her class to come see him.

“Do you think she dumped tea in the pool again?” Jen asked as he took the stairs two at a time.

“Or maybe she held another mock trial?” she asked and he barely had time to suppress a shiver of revulsion at the reminder of the last time she’d held a mock trial and the mock execution that had immediately followed, which had led to two weeks of paperwork, a meeting with the school board, and a special assembly that the DA and police department had been forced to put on for the school on lynch mobs.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” he said just as they reached the second-floor landing and was forced to jump out of the way when a group of students ran past them, releasing blood-curdling screams with their water guns raised high above their heads.

“Son of a bitch!” he snapped, just as Miss Dawson slowly pushed her walker decked out with the Lone Star flag and yelled as loud as her emphysemic lungs would allow, “Remember the Alamo!” which resulted in him standing there, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this one to the school board while the group of freshmen boys moved as one and yelled “YOLO” as they took down what appeared to be Mrs. Jennings’ abandoned A.P. literature class.

Chapter 2

At a university that is probably better left unnamed.

Philadelphia, PA

“Perhaps we could talk about this over coffee?” Joey suggested with a hopeful smile, really hoping that the man sitting across from her wasn’t seriously considering following through with any of the suggestions being screamed from the other side of the, hopefully locked, door.

“Joey…” Dean Anderson said, sighing her name heavily the same way that he had twelve years ago when she’d first been escorted to his office by security after the unfortunate incident that had occurred during freshmen orientation.

“Perhaps a muffin as well?” she suggested, somewhat desperately when it became painfully clear, mostly by the lo

ud shouts demanding her head on a platter that she was doing her best to ignore at the moment, that she may have gone too far this time.

Not that she’d done this on purpose, because she hadn’t, and as soon as Dr. Miller regained consciousness she fully planned on telling him that. Until then, she was going to have to rely on the man that had taken her under his wing and kept the rest of the faculty from killing her over the years, not to do anything rash like fire her. So, it was with that in mind that Joey kept that smile on her face even as she discreetly shifted her chair away from the door where half the Science Department was currently expressing their displeasure with the paper that she’d published with shouts, curses, and semi-disturbing threats of violence.