All Four Of Me

Chapter 27

KENZIE

The familiar metallic sound of the school bell ringing echoes through the classroom with piercing finality. Generally, when that bell rings for the last time of the day everyone is filled with this collective surge of energy which borderlines both excitement and relief. Glancing around the room it is clear to see that everybody else is currently experiencing that glorious feeling, and why wouldn't they be? They get to go home and enjoy their lives like any other teenager does.

I on the other hand am not as lucky, and it's not just because I am still stuck on house arrest. I can deal with being grounded and only seeing Ben during school hours. What I can't be bothered with is the last-minute meeting the principal managed to arrange with Nathan and Will this afternoon to discuss my grades and reading difficulties.

As it turns out, ignoring Mr Greene yesterday afternoon as I left class had been a bad idea. Not only did I miss the chance to nip this meeting in the bud before it had a chance to come to fruition, but I also subjected myself to a half hour lecture from Will at the breakfast table about showing respect to my teachers. Apparently Mr Greene had emailed Nathan about my standoffish behaviour and naturally, because they don't hold any secrets from each other, the email was shared with Chris and Will as well.

Sure, I probably made the situation worse by replying with a sassy remark halfway through Will's lecture, but it's not entirely my fault. One moment the words were safely inside my head and the next they were tumbling out my mouth for the world to hear. I'm not even sure that the words were even mine, but in the end it doesn't even matter because that ill-timed remark combined with the unfortunate twitch of my middle finger in his direction was all it took for Will to decide that the week of house arrest that I'm currently serving out obviously hasn't done enough to fix my behaviour.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I ended up with another week added to my sentence. Luckily, he didn't say anything about my phone, so I am presuming that I will be getting that back at the end of the week as originally planned. Despite this, the outcome still isn't ideal, especially when Ben is under the impression that I will be free on Sunday to help him with his new recipe idea.

I spent just about all morning mentally kicking myself for challenging Will's patience, particularly when he is the main person in our household that has voiced his doubts about my continued placement in their care. Then when Ben showed up at recess time blabbering on about how excited he is to finally hang out again on the weekend, the mental beating only intensified, because how was I supposed to tell him that I was stupid and got myself grounded for a whole other week?

The answer is; I couldn't. Instead of manning up and confessing like a normal person would in this situation, I neglected to inform him of this morning's events and what it means for the plans we have created with thinly veiled excitement over the past few days. That goofy look of happiness that lights up his eyes when he gets excited about something stopped me from saying anything at all.

Now as a result, I am going to have to find a way to either convince Will that this morning was all just a horrible mistake and that I feel deeply remorseful for subjecting him to my sassy attitude in the hopes that he will be lenient and let me off the hook, or alternatively I will have no choice other than to disappoint my best friend by cancelling our plans altogether. Everything about this sucks eggs, but I am the only person who can be held responsible for my actions this morning and therefore I'm not entitled to be too upset by the consequences.

If I would have known when I fell asleep last night that today was going to pan out like this, I probably would have refused to get out of bed this morning. However, I didn't know what today had in store for me which leads me to where I am right now, slowly packing away my exercise book while silently wishing that the ground would open up and swallow me whole so I don't have to go to this stupid meeting.