"May I come in, sir?" Airi spoke up from outside of the door, and in response to it, the principal signaled her to go in and take a seat. Airi slowly walked up to him, and took a seat in front of him.
"Miss Arne, what is going on?" The Principal's words caught Airi off guard for a second. "Pardon, I didn't... get it."
"Well, you should. I hope you do know the words circulating around the entire school since this morning." By now she could understand exactly what he meant. So she nodded her head slightly. "Yes, I do."
"Excellent. Then I hope you realize that this is all thanks to you? Am I right, miss Arne?"
This time, Airi chose to remain silent. It might be a bit rash of her to talk about it that way to the entire school, but none of that was false. But there is no way she could start bickering with her principal.
The principal took the opportunity of her silence to proceed. "So, the accusation you are trying to put on Mr. Sinclair, do you have any proof or anything to justify your words?"
"I am not trying to accuse him or something, I just said whatever was the truth, and whatever he did," Airi snapped back at him all of a sudden.
"So, do you have anything to prove your words, miss president?" By now his voice dropped down by a few decibels, expressing the clear dissatisfaction and anger he might be feeling. And Airi had no choice but to nod her head sideways.
"Then do you know that accusing someone without any proof is an equal offense of harassment?
"But…"
"There is nothing to oppose here. You are a school representative, and people like you will lead our city, our country, then how can you act so inconsiderate and rash?" Airi had no answer for that, except lowering her head.
"Moreover, don't you think by the deed of yours, you made it way worse for your teacher?" This sudden question made Airi jolt in her position. "Way worse?"
"Of course. Think about it. Everyone in the school knows about this thanks to you. But as this is going nowhere, who do you think would be affected the most by it? Your very own teacher. She already failed by telling it to the police, now for you, everyone would know that she had been lying and falsely accusing someone like him."
Airi felt like her entire world crashed around her. She could clearly understand that the principal knows about it, but he is keeping quiet, and right now, he is trying to keep her quiet as well.
"So? Don't you think you made your teacher a bad person in the eyes of everyone? Things could've stayed within the walls, but…" the principal clicked his tongue, showing a sad expression. "Oh, I feel bad for Miss Clara now, she was such a good one."
Airi just stayed there, without any words. She was feeling angry and disgusted towards the person in front of her, but the feeling she was having the most right now was regret. A regret that she did something that backfired on her favorite person. There is no way things could get proved without anything in hand, and he was right about it. But she let her anger take over her understanding, and now everyone will badmouth her Miss Celestine. As the realization came down to her, she felt like she was equally at fault, for causing such a mess in her teacher's life. If Mr. Sinclair caused Clara discomfort, if the principal backed it up for him, if Sam fled away, not taking the responsibility for his fiancee, then Airi increased more problems for her teacher. And all of this realization made her lost in her words.
Seeing Airi silently sitting there, the principal again started talking, but this time he sounded way softer than before. "Look Airi, you are a student. All you have to do is now have ease with life and study diligently. Your parents sure do have a lot of expectations and dreams for you, so you need to work for that, right? You are studying in such a fine school, you have good marks too. And you are the student council president now. Such a fine little girl you are. Why do you have to entangle yourself in such a mess? Let adults take care of it, right?" Airi threw a bloodshot gaze at him, but he seemed to ignore that. "If you want to have a nice high school life, and don't want to lose both this position and the school, I suggest you keep quiet about this. I won't tell you to give an apology for this, but stay out of the matter, okay dear? You can go back to your classes now, study hard, and do your duty as you are given."
With that saying, the principal left his room to go somewhere, leaving Airi behind. And after a while, Airi left the room too.
Airi had tried countless times to contact Clara, but as usual, her number was unreachable. After meeting with the principal, and hearing his words, Airi was worried thinking that the student might be bothering her with weird words. But she was also feeling guilty because if that was happening, it was her fault all along. So she didn't try to call her again after that, out of embarrassment. She was scared that she might be ousted from the school if she gets further involved in this, and she didn't have anything strong to fight for either. So she kept quiet on this matter forever, only praying silently to get some news about Clara, news about her wellbeing.
But the news she hoped for never came. Instead, two days later, the entire school buzzed with the news of finding Clara Celestine's dead body under an abandoned building. There was a commotion regarding this, and after some time, it was said that she jumped off the building the night before, causing a head injury and bleeding to death. Airi was deeply shocked about it, but yet, she didn't say anything regarding her anymore to anyone. As long as she knew, Clara was a strong lady, who never faltered against something wrong. For someone like her to commit suicide, it was highly unlikely, at least to those who knew her. And Airi knew her, Airi knew she was strong enough to stay alive in the world, keeping her head up. Yet, Airi chose to keep silent, as if she had nothing to do with her favorite teacher dying, and people callng it suicide, just because she couldn't handle the words she had to face, and couldn't prove th false accusation she tried to put on someone as respected as Mr. Sinclair. In the end, days passed by as if nothing happened. Their homeroom teacher was changed to another one, but Airi felt like she could never get the same lively feeling here in this school.
------
"So, to save my ass, I just shut my mouth, as if I knew nothin' huh.." Airi wondered to herself, after hearing everything from Hazel.
"After that, your behavior drastically changed, as you were always found in an irritated mood. You started behaving rude to people, but not to all though. You didn't actually care about those who just quietly stayed in school. But to people like Maria, you became prickly. But the massive change in you was, you never smiled, ever again," Hazel became sad, recalling how lifeless Airi used to look in school for the last two years. She was surrounded by people, but it was clear to anyone that she didn't have anyone who she could call her friends. Hazel composed herself to talk more about her. "You showed a good result in your academics and as a student council president too, thanks to you, there wasn't any bullying or weird behavior from the seniors. And school became a lot more peaceful. But the only thing that wasn't peaceful was maybe your own life, and it was clear as a day. In exchange for your smile, the school was doing a lot better until…"
"That's for some other day, Hazel. Are you going to talk all about it in just one day? Let it rest for a while, hum?" Emma hurriedly interrupted Hazel, and Airi could understand that she might be worried about her getting sad or depressed once again. So she didn't probe into it more, as she thought that could wait to be known.
After a while, Airi started towards her home, bidding them bye for now. They exchanged their numbers once again, even exchanged mail addresses, and promised each other to talk more when they got home. Airi asked them if they knew anything about the whereabouts of Samuel, but they knew nothing about it. Resignation of Samuel just that moment was also way too strange for them, as they didn't know Samuel was connected with Clara someway. So she returned back, thinking about what she would do to find him. She wanted to talk to him, and also, she needed to apologize to him. Maybe he never got to know how much she had cursed him, but she should check up on him, also know what happened to him, causing his disappearance.
Airi had let her parents know beforehand that she might be late for lunch, so she was returning home quite relaxed, with a cola in her hands, occasionally giving a sip on it. It was already afternoon, but she felt like having a walk, so instead of taking a bus, she chose to walk home, despite the library being quite far away. Just then, she got a phone call from her home.
"Yes? I'm comin' right now, dontcha worry," Airi responded to the call, saying in an apologetic tone, without a break.
"Okay okay, calm down. Hurry back home, because we have a guest," Sara replied to her in a hushed voice.
"Who is it?" Airi mimicked her mother's hush tone mockingly.
"It's your savior. The one who found you unconscious that day. So come soon," with that saying, Sara ended the call, leaving Airi frozen in her steps.